Online Culture, Civility & Communities

What is it like to work with people -- volunteers, donors, remote staff -- you seldom or never see onsite, face-to-face?

Can you build trust among a remote group online?

Can a person learn to work with others online successfully, or does one have to have an instinct for it?

Can you be a leader online?

Does the Internet take the human element out of volunteering and community?

Does online civil society exist?

Can online civility be taught?

Some people are instinctively terrific at working online with others via only the written word, or even via live video or audio conferencing tools; some people struggle not with the technology but with the whole concept of managing, or, simply talking to, others regularly, online. Why do some people flourish online while others flounder?

I have been researching and writing about this subject since 1996, and I have been immersed in "virtual culture" since even earlier than that. Many things have changed over the years regarding online culture and online community - but some things haven't at all. And for the aforementioned yes/no questions, I still give a resounding YES. It's just, just much harder now.

Mission-based organizations (not-for-profit organizations/NPOs, non-governmental organizations/NGOs, civil society and public sector agencies -- government departments and initiatives) have long been using the Internet to work with volunteers (including board members), staff, donors, the media and others. It's now expected by many potential volunteers and members of the public that these organizations engage in such online activities; many consider it the norm for operations, regardless of an organizations size, mission or history. The vast majority of this online work is still done via the written word (email, instant messaging, an online bulletin board/online forum, etc.), even alongside teleconferencing and video conferencing

Working with people remotely, and primarily via text only, presents many challenges. But while there are volumes on how to use online networking tools from a technology point-of-view, there's not an equal amount on using them from the human point of view.

This section of my site is meant to promote ideas and resources on how to work together online, mostly via the written word, and how to look at an email or IM address or an online profile as a person, not a line of characters and numbers or random photos or memes or Facebook rants. Being able to work online is becoming an essential and much-sought-after skill in the work place, including at mission-based organizations, and these pages are meant to help those who want to enhance their online skills.
 

• The dynamics of online culture & community
  Working with people online means building trust and communicating clearly and regularly.
  
 

• The Difference in Email, Social Media & Online Communities: A Graphic Explanation.
  It can be difficult for people to understand the difference in email, in social media and in online communities, especially since email can be used to create an online community, or social media can be used to create an online community (Facebook Groups, for instance). And they all are people sending messages to people - so what, really, is the difference? This is my attempt to graphically show the difference, but I'll still have to use words to more fully explain what I mean. All three of these avenues for online communication can intersect. But one online avenue of online communication may be a better avenue for a communication goal than another - this resource examines that as well.
  
  
• Building a team culture among remote workers
  Coming together face-to-face, in the same room, does not automatically create team cohesion and a strong sense of team. Yet, many people think having online meetings automatically means it’s difficult for staff to have a strong sense of team. When thinking about creating a sense of team online, try to get away from that aforementioned belief. People feel a part of a team if they feel heard and included, whether online or off. And they will attend meetings and pay attention to those meetings if they feel the meeting is relevant to their work - on or offline. This resource offers ideas for live events, asynchronous events & activities that can build a sense of team among remote workers.  

• Leading in a virtual world
  There is a plethora of information about leading a team online, but not much about online leadership-on engaging in activities that influence others online, that create a profile for a person as someone that provides credible, important, even vital information about a particular subject. What does it take to be a leader online? This web page explores that.
  

• Launching & Maintaining a Successful Online Community for a Neighborhood, Town, City or County
  There are lots of resources for how to start and maintain an online community, but they are focused on online communities for customers of a company, or people all working in a particular career field (knowledge communities), or people all engaged in a similar activity, or people all suffering from the same condition (support communities). But the resources for helping people launch and maintain a successful online community for people living or working in neighborhood, town, city or county, a community that's meant to help neighbors get to know each other and to build offline community are hard to find. This resource is meant to help with those that are moderating online communities to build a sense of community offline focus on people living or working in particular neighborhoods or towns, parents of students at a particular school or all of the residents of a building or compound. These online communities are meant to promote civility, respect and thoughtfulness among members offline, and this resource is meant to help moderators and facilitators reach those goals.
   
  

• What a Small Town Online Campaign Against Misinformation Can Look Like
  A case study of how one small town in Oregon handled an attempt at a misinformation campaign. This also shows that ANY online community, in ANY country, is vulnerable to such myth-spreading.
   
  

• How folklore, rumors, urban myths and organized misinformation campaigns interfere with development and aid/relief efforts, and government initiatives, and how to prevent and address such. This was almost my Master's Degree thesis in 2005. I decided the data I had gathered initially was too helpful not to publish, despite not using it for my degree, so I put it up on my web site. Since then, I've continued to research this topic and update this resource. Now, with fake news sites set up specifically to mislead people, as well as crowdsourced efforts by professional online provocateurs and automated troll bots pumping out thousands of comments, countering misinformation efforts has to be a priority for aid and development organizations, as well as government agencies.
   
  

• Cultivating Online Civility
  When I began writing about online culture, back in the late 1990s, misinformation was at a minimum and easy to identify, and hateful trolls were oh-so-quickly banned from online communities. Now, hate and misinformation rage online, and not just among strangers - neighbors are raging against each other on local online communities. Can online civility be restored? Is it possible to challenge misinformation and destructive speech in the strongest, most deliberate of terms without being accused of hate speech yourself? This page links to efforts focused on online civility - most of these efforts are not by me, BTW.
   
  

• Handling Online Criticism
  Online criticism of a nonprofit organization, non-governmental organization (NGO) or other mission-based organization, even by its own supporters, is inevitable. It may be about an organization's new logo or new mission statement, the lack of parking, or that the volunteer orientation being too long. It may be substantial questions regarding an organization's business practices and perceived lack of transparency. How a nonprofit organization handles online criticism speaks volumes about that organization, for weeks, months, and maybe even years to come. There's no way to avoid it, but there are ways to address criticism that can help an organization to be perceived as even more trustworthy and worth supporting.
   
  

• Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action
  Hundreds of "friends" on an online social networking site. Thousands of subscribers to an email newsletter. Dozens of attendees to a virtual event. Those are impressive numbers on the surface, but if they don't translate into more volunteers, repeat volunteers, new donors, repeat donors, more clients, repeat clients, legislation, or public pressure, they are just that: numbers. For online activities to translate into something tangible, online action must create and support offline action. What could this look like? This resource can help organizations plan strategically about online activities so that they lead to something tangible - not just numbers.
   
  

• Recommendations for UN & UNDP in Ukraine to use Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Other Social Media to Promote Reconciliation, Social Inclusion, & Peace-Building in Ukraine (PDF). This is a draft document I submitted to UNDP Ukraine just before I left Kyiv in October 2014, having completed my term there as a "Surge" Communications Advisor. This draft document offers considerations and recommendations for social media messaging that promotes reconciliation, social inclusion, and peace-building in Ukraine. It provides ideas for messaging related to promoting tolerance, respect and reconciliation in the country, and messaging to counter bigotry, prejudice, inequality, misperceptions and misconceptions about a particular group of people or different people among Ukrainians as a whole.
   
  

• Women's Access to Public Internet Access, a resource I developed through research & experience to support the development of women-only Internet centers/technology centers/etc., or women-only hours at such public Internet access points, in developing and transitional countries.
   
  

• Virtue & reputation in the developing world - In some countries, a woman’s reputation regarding her virtue is every bit as important as food and health care, in terms of prosperity, let alone survival. This blog offers details that should serve as a caution to humanitarian and development workers wanting NGOs and government agencies to engage more on social media; you need to provide guidance for the women who would be expected to manage online activities on how to stay safe and protect their personal reputations.
   
  

• Virtual Volunteering Research
  A compilation of publicly-available research and evaluation reports regarding online volunteering, online activists, online civic engagement, online civil society, and online mentoring (not PR pieces but, rather, reviews and research that more than mention these subjects); AND a list of various research documents and articles relating to telecommuting/cloud-commuting, virtual teams and Internet culture.
   
  

• Internet discussion groups for volunteers
  Many agencies use email-based or web-based discussion groups, bulletin boards or online social networking to communicate regularly with their volunteers. This resource chronicles the benefits of such groups, and offers tips for set up, management and growth.
   
  

• How To Successfully Move an Online Discussion Group
  Thinking of moving your online discussion group / online community from one platform to another? Maybe the platform you have used for years has become too expensive. Or maybe that platform is going away altogether because the company has decided to discontinue it (like what happened to YahooGroups). Maybe the upgrade to the platform you have been using is not at all to your liking. Or maybe you have decided there is a better platform that will provide you and your community with the features it needs. There are upsides and downsides to moving an online community. How can you move a community in a way that reduces the number of community members you lose and so that you don't lose valuable content from your community - knowledge acquired over years that you want to continue to be readily available? This guide can help. This is advice for content managers / community managers (facilitators and moderators), from a techy point of view but from a how-to-guide-your-IT-department point-of-view. 
  

• Using Real-Time Communications With Volunteers
  Many organizations are using real-time communications -- including video conferencing, online phone calls, chats and instant messaging -- to hold online meetings with volunteers, to allow volunteers to interact with staff, clients, or each other, or to involve volunteers in a live, online, real-time event. This resource provides more information on real-time communications with volunteers -- what the various tools are, how agencies are using them to interact with volunteers, and tips to encourage and maintain participation in synchronous communications.
   
  

• Tips for staying in contact with remote staff in developing countries / conflict zones
  Many factors stand in the way of trying to stay in contact with field staff at projects in rural or conflicted areas in developing countries. I review all of the various challenges faced by people in a main office in getting data from field staff working in humanitarian / development / aid initiatives, and how to address those challenges.
   
  

• Using Video to Support Online Volunteers/Remote Volunteers
  Video is a great way to further support volunteers, and your computer probably already has all of the tools you need to make a video, or to engage in a live video conversation with others. Video isn't something to use only with online volunteers or remote volunteers (those providing onsite service at a different location than yours). It's also a tool you can use with new and current volunteers. In addition to an organization producing videos for volunteers, it can also work the other way around: volunteers can produce videos for organizations. This resource provides information on your options, and links to my own short video on the subject.
   
  

• Being an Online Mentor: A Real Relationship, A Real Commitment
  (What I've Learned as an Online Mentor)
  In addition to researching and compiling information online mentoring for many years, and helping to create online mentor programs, I have also had the pleasure of serving as an online volunteer mentor on several occasions. Mentoring someone online takes real time and commitment. The work required for online mentoring doesn't happen only at the most convenient time for the volunteer. I have learned a lot by being a part of these online mentoring programs and share my experiences and advice for online mentoring here.
   
  

• Outreach Via the Internet for Mission-Based Organizations
  It's more than just putting up a Web site; it involves finding and posting to appropriate Internet discussion groups, sending emails to current and potential customers, perhaps even starting your own online community.... it's proactive, interactive and ongoing. It needs to be nurtured and fully supported, just as with all your public interactions. Online outreach and online service delivery should accurately reflect your agency's mission and culture.
   
  

• Nonprofits & governments programs rejecting staff per social media activities
  In 2006 and 2008, there was a thread on the TechSoup Community forum that I think is worth saving. It took a while to find on archive.org, but I did! The original subject for this discussion was rejecting a volunteer per online activity/online profile, but it grew into talking about employees and candidates for employment as well. Here's most of the thread.
  
   
  
• Resources regarding online harassment, defamation & libel - if you are a manager of social media, if you use online tools at all as a part of your work, this is a must read. And if your organization employs or engages a social media manager, as a paid worker or as a volunteer, this is also a must read (and a prompt for you to check on on that person's work - they may be being harassed and be reluctant to tell you).