The Social Web, Web 2.0…whatever you want to call it, it is a dream come true for every community-based organization (nonprofit or not) IF they can use it right. It’s also one big “I told you so” for the NPOs, activists and punk-rawkers who have been singing the same ‘power-to-the-people’ tune for decades. It turns out that the best ideas really do win in the end…but I digress.
I don’t think it matters if you run a gym, a church or Starbucks; if your focus is on “people first, the coffee second” you will always be looking for better ways to rally people to your flag and, at the same time, listen to their needs so you can serve them better. So how can today’s community-based orgs utilize the all-you-can-eat buffet that is the Internet?
I won’t go into detail about the definition of Web 2.0 and nor will try to list the infinite number of social web tools that are available (mainly because a quick google or wiki search will take care of that but also because I might reveal very quickly the reasons why I am not getting paid for this). What I will do is take the next few entries to give a few of my own, short opinions on how community groups might be able to make use of some of the tools available on the interwebs.
Lets call it an experiment to see what is out there and how people are using it. Send me your links, ideas, suggestions and dreams and we’ll see what happens…
(twitter: @bcrab)
Brad Crabtree 