Global Voices shows how nonprofits can "do something" online
Posted by:
Jordan Viator on
April 8, 2008 at
1:19AM EST
The University of Texas held its annual International Symposium on Online Journalism this past Friday and Saturday to discuss and dissect some of the most relevant issues in the field of journalism today. Though the symposium was directed specifically to journalists, many if not most of the topics presented were relevant to any communicator – or nonprofit- searching for ways to effectively expand their voice and presence online.
The highlight of Friday for me was listening to Georgia Popplewell, Managing Director of Global Voices Online, speak on how her organization is using social and citizen media to further its mission of aggregating and amplifying global conversations online. Following a long line of mainstream journalist speakers, Georgia offered a different perspective to the audience from what many of the other journalists had presented: using online citizen media to cover what the mainstream media might be missing - or ignoring.
Through embracing social and citizen media such as blogs, podcasts, photo sharing and vlogs, Global Voices’ contributors are given a voice to “guide the global blogosphere.” In short, contributors from around the globe are able to cover stories and issues that don’t receive major press coverage or attention.
As Georgia spoke of the nonprofit’s success to a room full of professionals in search of a definitive direction for their online communication strategies, I thought of something Nicci Noble said to me at this year’s NTC when I asked for her advice on how nonprofits can get started using the Internet and Web 2.0 tools.
Her response -“Do something. Just something.”
So while your nonprofit may never achieve a top 100 ranking on Technorati like Global Voices, you can find success in using social and citizen media to “do something.” Even the smallest efforts can lead to big results. When in doubt, look at successful examples like that of Global Voices as proof of what success nonprofits can achieve by embracing social and citizen media and giving a voice to constituents. If you're lucky, they just might do the talking for you.
(1) Comments
|
Posted by: Beth Kanter on April 8, 2008 2:03PM EST
Georgia rocks! I had the pleasure of writing for Global Voices in the early days - 2005 - covering Cambodia and learned a lot. Their outreach and advocacy materials are also excellent.
|
