Category: NTC

Ed Batista just spoke from the podium and while trying to demonstrate his connection to an activist of color in the audience he described as a “radical leftist,” Ed made a point of saying that he “has no consistent global philosophy.”

Now of course I am not going to criticize Ed for being whatever he wants. But I couldn’t help but feel how much power Ed had at the podium and how much power he had speaking his values (or lackthereof) from there.
This made me a little uncomfortable. Does this have larger implications? I really don’t think N-TEN should be value-neutral – then it would just be a professional association. This conference grew up from the circuit rider movement, which is/was explicitly progressive. What has happenned to those values?

Sitting in this session about Social & Political Action via Network Building – Boom or Bust? Are social networking strategies here to stay or just a passing fad? Lotsa good ideas. But how can we implement network-centric advocacy if we don’t understand this model and apply it in our own organziations? I have worked for a wide range of nonprofits, from 4 to 400 employees. Every single one has used a 75-90% ego-centric model. I didn’t know these terms a year ago, but this is the same problem that young people in nonprofits have been struggling with for years.

It’s easy to see how networks are organically growing up to be network-centric. But what about existing organizations?
How do we move the mountain?

I have to agree with Sonny who is feeling frustrated at the lack of technology being used to enable and enhance this technology conference. The Internet connection has been spotty at best – and I’m paying for it!

My first selection this afternoon was Social Software and Meetings Tools: Uses and Applications for Organizations and Campaigns. A nice session, no major new insights for me, but more confirmation of the emerging wisdom… people want to meet each other face-to-face. But also that in most cases, they still can’t do it without some structure. This is where our organizations come in: we can provide the tools, the skills people need to organize, the structure in which to do it.

Because someone asked me, here are some social networking resources:

• Network-Centric Advocacy
• Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs
• Social Software (industry blog)
• Tribe

This is just off the top of my head. Add your own by clicking rants below.

This morning I went to a session on Building Relationships Online: Designing a Comprehensive Strategy. It was pretty good. It may have been better titled “effective memership-based and membership-building communication.” Two speakers had some great ideas that I want to use, the others were OK, but it felt kind of repetitive and obvious.

The two points that I took away and want to take back to work are:

1. Test your messages. This is so damn obvious, but I’m sorry to say we hardly ever do it. We are usually either frantic, oh-my-god-the-senate-just-did-what? mode, or else we have invested so much in the material that we can’t afford to incorporate feedback anyway.
2. Know your list. This is something I talk about, but don’t do. Hearing the speakers talk about their memberships, “they are 80% female, affluent, college educated, pet owners, interested in…” I realized that although I have some assumpions, I really don’t know who is on the lists that I train people to message to!