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. In the
1990s, resources for these types of online communities was probably the
most common - but they have slowly disappeared as the Internet has moved
away from emphasizing civility and building understanding. The resources
you are reading now is meant to remedy that (at least somewhat).
If you have decided to try to launch such a community, regardless of
the platform you choose, this web page is meant to offer advice to make
that community meet your goals of:
You will hope that community members will follow the lead of moderators
and facilitators and post this kind of content themselves. You also want
community members to be helping to rehome dogs and cats, finding lost
pets, educating each other about scams, coordinating ride shares, talking
about the kindness of someone in line at a grocery store, etc. They will
do this the more they see others doing it.
You might also consider having a monthly photo contest to choose a
new cover photo for the community. or issuing challenges to the
community, such as describing their day in meme-form. On a day with a
lot of snow, ask people to share their snow photos. If there is a
beautiful sunset happening, ask people to go out and take photos and
share them.
Set Civility Rules Early &
Often
Rules should be communicated immediately, from day one that a person
begins to participate in your online community, and communicated often -
just once isn't enough.
Rules can evolve, and should, but you need to be dedicated to and
radiate civility from day one on your online community.
Microsoft's
Digital Civility initiative offers this Digital Civility Challenge
you may want to quote for your own community and use as a guide for both
your rules and the tone your moderators use on your community:
I embrace the challenge to be a leader in making the internet a
better and safer place. I commit to do my part every day by living up
to the four Digital Civility Challenge ideals
Live the golden rule
I will act with empathy, compassion and kindness in every
interaction, and treat everyone I connect with online with dignity and
respect.
I will appreciate cultural differences and honor diverse
perspectives. When I disagree, I will engage thoughtfully and avoid
name calling and personal attacks.
Respect differences
I will appreciate cultural differences and honor diverse
perspectives. When I disagree, I will engage thoughtfully and avoid
name calling and personal attacks.
Pause before replying
I will pause and think before responding to things I disagree with.
I will not post or send anything that could hurt someone else, damage
someone’s reputation, or threaten my safety or the safety of others.
Stand up for myself and others
I will tell someone if I feel unsafe, offer support to those who are
targets of online abuse or cruelty, report activity that threatens
anyone’s safety, and preserve evidence of inappropriate or unsafe
behavior.
As a leader in the movement to make the internet a better place, I
will share my experiences on social media using #challenge4civility or
#Im4digitalcivility and encourage others to join the Digital Civility
Challenge.
The Microsoft web site also includes best
practices for digital civility that call on companies
to "create purposeful online environments, institute codes of conduct
(and) offer remedies," calls on educators, school counsellors and school
officials to "teach 'citizenship,' promote social and emotional learning
(and) emphasize civility online and off," and calls on law enforcement
and policymakers to "promote legal approaches that deter exploitation,
grow public-private partnerships (and) support responsible industry
practices." The best practices call on everyone to:
- Work together to encourage and grow a culture of online civility
that respects and values different opinions. Making room for all
perspectives helps to break down echo-chambers, sparks insights and
improves cooperation. Embrace free expression, tolerance, and cultural
and social diversity.
- Develop and share educational resources that encourage individuals,
families and communities to proactively engage and prepare—at the
earliest ages and stages— for life online.
- Help build and support safe and trusted online environments where
individuals are encouraged and empowered to share, create, learn and
fully participate.
These are all good ideas for anyone to follow that is creating an
online community for neighbors, community members, students or others
not tied together by their professional work (and pretty good for
knowledge-based communities as well).
Remind your members frequently that they are all real people who are
neighbors within one neighborhood, one town, one building, one school,
etc. Remind your members frequently, regularly, that online community
members are real humans, not just a name on a computer: they are people
who will stand in line next to at the grocery, pass on the street, sit
next to at the movies or a school play, etc.
Other Content Rules
Fundraising
An online community focused on just one particular neighborhood or
town, or just those attending one school, will attract people who are
trying to fund raise for a cause, and the number of such posts can
quickly become out-of-control. People will want to post fundraisers
for local nonprofits, charities in other countries a local person
wants to support, a school trip, religious mission trips, medical
costs, funeral costs, veterinary costs, their dreams ("Send me around
the world!" or "Help me go to beauty school!").
If you are going to allow any and all information about fundraisers
to be posted to your group, create a thread every week specifically
for postings about these and require any fundraising discussions to
take place in the comments on that weekly fundraising thread.
Otherwise, your community will quickly be overwhelmed with these
requests for money.
You will want to post a disclaimer in your rules about fundraisers,
something like:
The owner and moderators of this community are not responsible
for vetting requests for funding that are posted to this community.
If you are considering posting to any cause you read about on this
community, we encourage you to ask questions about the person
posting the requests for funding to help you decide if you feel the
cause is credible or not. The owner and moderators of this community
cannot offer any assistance at your getting a refund of any money
you donate to a cause you learn about on this community.
Complaints
Complaints about local businesses and various neighbors can also
get out of hand. You can create rules regarding complaints, such as
forbidding details on the community but allowing people to link to
complaints they have written and published elsewhere, such as on Yelp
or Trip Advisor. Or require anyone wanting to complain about a
business to first detail how they tried to get the issue resolved with
the business before resorting to complaining on the community. Be
explicit about what is allowed:
Okay: So and so sold me a washing machine, it does not work,
and they said they will not repair or replace it.
Not okay: So and so is stupid and I hate them and no one
should shop there.
You may want to forbid complaints about individuals outright, at
least by name. For instance:
Mr. Brown, living at 1235 Anywhere Street, has my lawn mower and
won't return it
Would not be allowed.
Someone that lives on my street has my lawn mower and won't
return it, do you think I should call the police?
Would be allowed.
Moderators should also contact:
- police about conversations that criticize them, so they have a
chance to respond
- the government office that might be involved with whatever is
being criticized (for instance, people complaining about behavior in
city parks)
- a business or nonprofit being criticized, so they have a chance to
respond
Some other ideas for rules:
- No photos of children where the children are identifiable should
be published unless they are the children of the person posting the
photo (the person posting the photo is the parent)
- No multi-level marketing posts (or, create one post where everyone
selling something via MLM can post in the comments)
- No publicly shaming individuals - but posting a news article about
an active search for a suspect in a crime is okay
- Either ban advertising of things for sale or announcements of
garage sales or have a weekly thread where everyone's notices about
garage sales and other items for sales can go
- Freedom of speech does not apply to online community groups. The
moderators have every right to delete absolutely anything they wish
to, for any reason at all, and to ban any person from the community,
for any reason at all. There is no "right" to be a part of any
online community, nor any "right" to post anything to it.
Speculation & Rumors
Because people on your community will often know each other
offline as well, they will often feel very comfortable sharing
rumors and speculation. This is something moderators need to keep on
top of and be ready to stop, intervene, or even to delete messages.
Moderators need to make a commitment to
- encourage people who post any information that begins with "I
heard..." to link to a verifiable source
- screen capture any accusation of a crime or
potentially-slanderous or misleading meme before deleting it
- post regular reminders for community members to not post
speculation about police incidents, criminal investigations,
deaths, illnesses, etc.
Moderators should also contact:
- police about conversations happening about scams or fears of
crime, criticisms of police, etc.
- the government office that might be involved with whatever is
being speculated about
- a business or nonprofit that is the target of speculation, so they
have a chance to respond
What about politics and religion
What about politics? For certain political subjects, yes,
absolutely:
- Information on how to register to vote
- Reminders about the last day to register to vote before an
upcoming election, the dates of an upcoming election, etc.
- A list of candidate's running for a particular office
- Links to official candidate information (the candidate's
official Facebook page, web page, etc.)
- Links to official or non-partisan information about legislation
being considered by city, county or state governments
- Agenda list for city and county government meetings
- Announcements of town halls by local, county and state officials
that represent a particular community
- Dates of events by the League of Women Voters or other groups
that want to educate the community about an election or
legislation
Should you allow posts about how people feel about a certain
candidate, office holder or legislation? These can quickly devolve
into angry, insulting diatribes. Whatever you decide, you have to be
clear about what your rule is, quick to respond to violations of
that rule, and quick to guide rule-breakers on how to proceed.
Should religious content be allowed? Dates and times for events -
regular services, special services, concerts, plays, charitable
events, introductions to religious studies, etc. - are all a great
idea. Debates about religion or religious communities, criticisms of
religious views, etc. should probably be discouraged.
Use Tags on Content
Using keyword tags on posts will make posts easier to find. It
will also help community members quickly find information they are
looking for without having to scroll through a sea of messages.
Tags you can use, and encourage others to use, include:
#event
#government
#police
#volunteer
#fundraise
#politics
Grow Your Community
"If you build it, they will come" does not apply to anything
except magical baseball fields. Getting the word out about your
community should include:
- emailing your friends and colleagues directly asking them to
join and encouraging them to share information (and being explicit
about the kind of information you hope they will share)
- emailing civic groups (Rotary, Lion's Club, Optimist, etc.) and
asking them to join, also asking them to put a notice in their
membership newsletter about the group and how to join, and
encouraging them to share information (and being explicit about
the kind of information you hope they will share)
- emailing churches, temples and other religious communities and
asking them to join, also asking them to put a notice in their
membership newsletter about the group and how to join, and
encouraging them to share information (and being explicit about
the kind of information you hope they will share)
- emailing cultural centers and neighborhood groups and inviting
them to join and encouraging them to share information (and being
explicit about the kind of information you hope they will share)
- posting about your group to other online groups, as appropriate,
on Facebook, Reddit, NextDoor, etc.
- emailing each elementary school, middle school, high school and
private school in your area and asking that they share information
about your community with faculty and staff encouraging them to
share information (PTA meetings, teacher conference days,
deadlines for signing up to participate in sports, etc.)
- emailing various departments and offices at the nearest college
or university and asking that they share information about your
community with faculty and staff and encouraging them to share
information (and being explicit about the kind of information you
hope they will share)
- emailing the police state that serves your local area, as well
as the local fire station and other local government offices
(power & light, gas, garbage, water, etc.) and asking that
they share information about your community with their employees
and encouraging them to share information (and - yes, I'm saying
it again - being explicit about the kind of information you hope
they will share)
- emailing elected officials and inviting them to join your group
and to share information about their public meetings on the group
- sharing information about the new community on your own social
media accounts and encouraging others to do so
- looking on Twitter for accounts and keywords related to your own
neighborhood, town or immediate area and leverage those
accordingly (use the tags yourself, Tweet people directly, reply
to relevant Tweets, etc.)
- attend a city council meeting and, at the start of the meeting,
when public comment is allowed, use that time to announce your
group and invite participation
- post a flyer at the local library and on any public bulletin
boards that see a lot of traffic, like the local post office or
local grocery store
Once your group is up and running and at least somewhat rich in
content, you can also let your local newspaper know - if you still
have a local newspaper - and encourage them to do a story about your
community.
It's unlikely local elected officials or city or county workers
will join your community, unfortunately. Elected officials and
government employees, even volunteer members of government advisory
boards, committees & decision-making commissions, are regularly
discouraged from interacting with anyone on an online forum. If they
do join, they may observe silently and not share information, for
fear of getting a response they won't know how to handle.
Screening & Adding New
Members
A good way to screen out people who may not be appropriate for
your community is to have three questions you require every pending
community member to answer. You cannot guarantee that they are
answering truthfully, but having questions sets the tone right from
the start, letting you have grounds for removing a member later and
being able to point directly to your community rules as
justification for doing so. Examples of questions:
- In what zip code do you live?
- Why do you want to join this community?
- Have you read the rules for this community?
- Do you agree to abide by the rules of this community and do you
understand you can be removed at any time if a moderator decides
you have violated these rules?
- Do you understand that everything posted to this community could
become public at any time and can be shared by any community
member at any time?
- What does "online civility" mean to you?
Requests for membership in your community could be rejected if
the person doesn’t answer the questions, joined Facebook only
recently (if your community is on Facebook), has no obvious ties to
the community, or has a Facebook page or Instagram account filled
with especially volatile messages, such as tirades against various
religions or ethnic groups, insults against ex spouses or ex
employers, promotion of violence, etc.
You may not want to add a large number of new people to your
community all at once: imagine a room with a group of people inside,
getting along nicely for hours, and then suddenly twice as many
people rush in. That is what adding a large number of people to an
online community, all at once, can feel like. You may want to add
just a few people each day, or just a few people every other day, so
that new members can see how the group converses and so established
members can acclimate to new members.
Removing Members
If you follow all of the aforementioned advice, then it will be
relatively easy to identify who should be removed from the
community, and when you remove that person, you will be able to
say, clearly, exactly why.
Screen capture any post that is going to result in someone
being removed from the community and keep that on file in case it
is needed for later reference. When removing a member, contact
that person OFF list (email or direct message), say that you are
removing the person and why and include the screen capture,
include a link to your rules that detail the violation this person
has committed. Is there an appeal process - as in, can the person
go to the other moderators and say this is unfair and let the
other moderators weigh in? If so, say so. Can the person ask to
come back to the community after a three month cooling off period?
If so, say so, and say how that process can be undertaken. Screen
capture any replies from someone being removed that are insulting
or threatening. If a person threatens the safety of you, other
moderators, your families, etc., or expresses any desire for
violence ("Someone should just blow up your house!"), screen
capture those insults, print them out and report them to
police.
Will people who are removed from your group get angry and
express that anger to moderators and other members online? Yes,
that will sometimes happen. Will it spill over into the
face-to-face world? That could happen - you are in a neighborhood,
a town, a school, a building, etc. with everyone on this
community. You are neighbors. You will see each other in the
"real" world.
If you have trouble dealing with angry people or need more
guidance, please look online for the many free resources on how to
deal with angry customers.
Community Leadership
Your community may start off with just one founder who serves
as the one and only moderator and facilitator, but it will not
continue to grow and will not best serve the offline community it
was meant to serve if that person is the only one posting
information, approving new members, removing members, choosing
moderators, etc. Absolutely, there there needs to be one person
who is the ultimate leader of the community, the person who
decides who becomes a moderator, who gets moderator privileges,
and who serves as the final arbiter of online disputes. But online
community leadership must be shared for a community to stay
relevant and vibrant. You want different people who dedicate time
regularly to:
- finding relevant content to post to the community
- reviewing each person that wants to join the community
- reviewing each complaint from a community member about content
that should be deleted
- reading the community at given times (the morning, lunch
time, afternoon, evening) to ensure posts are appropriate
You want to encourage all moderators to:
- "like" every post in some way (if there is a "like" button, use
it; otherwise, comment with a positive emoji) - this shows the
community you care, like if you were in a room full of people and,
after any person rises and speaks, you say, "Thank you."
- ask for clarification on posts, as necessary (some people may
use an acronym not everyone understands, for instance)
- tag posts with keywords if the original poster has not done so
- screen capture posts before deleting and store these in a shared
space for later reference, as needed
Your Community Will Evolve
Your community will continually change. It may start off as vibrant
and active, with exactly the kind of information you want people to
share, and it might regularly devolve into a sea of insults, requiring
your moderators to frequently step in and remind members of the
community rules. Moderators may have a wonderful way of defusing
arguments - and then need to leave because they move, have a baby,
have a life-changing event that doesn't allow them the time to serve
as moderator any more, etc. New moderators may be more rigid. Any
group is going to have a tone that is influenced by the person or
people that lead that group.
How do you ensure your group evolves in the right ways and stays
vibrant and relevant? By:
- revisiting your community rules
- reminding community members of the rules
- regularly talking with moderators about the challenges they are
facing and advice they may have for each other or new moderators
replacing them
- demonstrating to community members that their concerns are being
heard and are influencing how moderators make decisions
- dismissing community members who regularly violate community rules
or egregiously violate a rule, and being transparent about such
dismissals
- regularly cultivating new moderators and facilitators, and giving
seasons moderators and facilitators time off
And it's important to remember that, some day, the person who
founded and championed this community and has served as the "final
say" on any disputes moderators don't handle by themselves will want
to leave. He or she will want to end that role of being in charge of
the community. No matter how hard you try to say the community belongs
to the members, that one person's personality, when withdrawn, will
leave a vacuum, and one of the moderators is going to have to become
that primary leader. I personally have never seen any kind of online
community flourish without ONE primary leader - and I have been a part
of more online communities than I can count.
I also have never seen any online community that did not, to a
degree, become a reflection of that one person - and that's okay.
That's not a bad thing. When there is a change in leadership,
acknowledge that things will change, to a degree. The leader that is
exiting needs to publicly express his or her support for the new
leadership. If that founder wants to be a moderator or facilitator,
rather than the primary leader, that's fine - but I suggest that
person take AT LEAST a nine-month break from the community as anything
except a lurker - moderating, not even posting, so that the new
leadership can become established quickly and can evolve.
Be Prepared For Member Confusion
People will read information about a police event on the community
and think someone from the police department posted it. A post will be
made about the dates and times of the next city council meeting and
people will respond with questions for the city council members,
unaware that no one from city council may ever read those questions.
Moderators will frequently have to remind members that the people
posting very often are not people affiliated with whatever group they
are posting about. Community members will think moderators and
faciitators are being paid for their work.
Be prepared for community members to ask the same questions and for
you to give the same answers over and over. It's frustrating but it's
the reality of working with people, online or face-to-face.
Platform Choices
This isn't the first step in creating your community, though many
spend an inordinate amount of time at the start deciding on which online
platform to use for an online community. Online platforms come and go,
so remember that what you choose now very likely may not be around in 10
years.
Your online platform needs to be:
- easy to use
- free to access for those you want to be a part of your online
community
- well established (it wasn't launched a few weeks or months ago; it's
going to be around for at least a few years)
- works on both a laptop or desktop and any Internet-enabled smart
phone
You also want the online community to allow you to
- easily add or remove moderators
- easily add or remove members
- turn off comments on certain threads or branches - or, perhaps,
altogether or several hours or days
You may also want a platform that allows you to review messages
before they are posted, so that each message can be reviewed by a
moderator and approve it for public viewing or delete it altogether,
depending on the rules of your community.
Facebook is a very popular platform for groups, but here are two
cautions about it:
- Not everyone wants to mix their social and family profile on
Facebook with their professional and/or civic life. If you create a
Facebook group, some group members will try to friend other group
members, and not everyone will accept such friend requests. Not
getting a friend request accepted can hurt the feelings of people
living near that person. If you launch your group on Facebook, remind
people, regularly, that not everyone will be accepting friend requests
and that needs to be respected.
- Facebook uses all of the information posted in any way to its
platform, whether in a group, in a status update or an instant
message, to give or sell to advertisers, so that online ads can target
users based on the words and phrases they use, pages they "like", etc.
Because of that, many people refuse to use Facebook - they don't want
a conversation in a group about the local senior center, for instance,
to lead to Facebook ads related to, say, bathroom issues. However, the
reality is that most of online platforms do the same. That's another
good thing to remind your community members.
Other options for your online community:
Example of a Region-Based
"Neighbors" Online Community:
In April of 2014, Ashley Roth, a resident of Forest Grove, Oregon,
population 24,000+, started a
moderated Facebook group for the community. She is neither an
employee with a government agency nor an office-holder in the city, and
she has no affiliation with any newspaper, nonprofit or civic group. Her
vision for this online community was similar to
those
early regionally-based online community efforts back in the 1990s:
to create an online discussion space, “a watering hole of sorts for the
community, a bulletin board, a place to share events and get involved
with volunteering and with the city in an uplifting manner. To
positively impact your immediate surroundings and to encourage others to
do so, leading by example with what you would like to see from everyone
else."
I
profiled her Forest Grove Facebook Community on my blog
because I think it’s a great example of the kind of online community
those Silicon Valley government leaders envisioned back in the 1990s,
and I think the way Ashley administers the group provides a terrific
model for any municipality that might dare to buck the current
fear-based approach to social media and decide to use it, instead, to
engage with their constituency.
ALSO SEE:
- 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.
- Handling Online Criticism
Online criticism of a nonprofit 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.
- The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using
Reddit
As of July 2019, Reddit ranked as the No. 5 most visited website in
the USA and No. 13 in the world. Reddit is a community of communities,
and its communities are called subreddits. A subreddit can have a
focus on a geographic area, a book, a celebrity, a particular time in
history, a specific hobby - anything. Statistics suggest that 74% of
Reddit users are male. Users tend to be significantly younger than
other online communities like Facebook with less than 1% of users
being 65 or over. If you want to reach a younger demographic regarding
your volunteering opportunities, your awareness messages, your data
that shows your value to the community and more, you need to build
posts to Reddit into your marketing strategy, no matter what your
nonprofit's size or focus. This resource tells you how to do it.
- Daily, Mandatory, Minimal
Tasks for Nonprofits on Facebook & Twitter
There are a lot of nonprofits using Facebook and Twitter just to
post to press releases. And if that's how your nonprofit, NGO or
government agency is using social media, then your organization is
missing out on most of the benefits you could gain from such.
Facebook, Twitter and other social media are all about engagement.
Social media is NOT one-way communication; you want people and
organizations to read your information, but you also want them to
respond to it. And they want YOU to respond to what THEY are saying.
I broke these must-do tasks down into the most simple, basic list as
possible - these tasks take minutes, not hours, a day
- Easy, Effective Ways to
Publicize an Event or Activity in Forest Grove, Cornelius, Gales
Creek & Gaston, Oregon - especially for nonprofit
organizations, government agencies & communities of faith
I think the title says it all.
- The dynamics of online
culture & community
Working with people online means building trust and communicating
clearly and regularly. The suggestions here talk mainly about working
with volunteers online but these practices can be applied to a variety
of settings, not just volunteer management.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A history of the Smart
Valley initiative
In 1994, perhaps earlier, an initiative called Smart
Valley was launched in California. Smart Valley was a 501(c)(6)
nonprofit organization focused on creating an "information
infrastructure" in Silicon Valley, California - Palo Alto, Mountain
View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San José, Santa Clara and the surrounding
area, creating projects to enhance the quality of life in Silicon
Valley. Smart Valley's projected included SmartSchools NetDay and PC
Day, Smart Voter, to help people learn about upcoming elections,
Connect 96: The Global Summit on Building Electronic Communities, the
Public Access Network (PAN), a Telecommuting Initiative, and the Smart
Valley Webmasters Group. Smart Valley was also affiliated with the
nonprofit organization Plugged In, one of the first digital divide
efforts, working to bring "the tremendous technological resources
available in the Silicon Valley to youth in low-income communities" in
East Palo Alto and SV-PAL, the Silicon Valley Public Access Link.
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