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Current News

Organizational Restructuring in the Age of Networks: February 22 & 29, 2008

As our much-delayed Journal of Networks and Civil Society finally wends its way to publication, we are happy to make another, very practical, network related announcement. We're offering a brand new, two part workshop on Organizational Restructuring in the Age of Networks on February 22 and 29, 2008. Some of the key topics include: how to cherry pick network opportunities for your organization, and the top changes networks bring to fundraising and volunteer management. I'll be covering both long lasting strategic methods and immediately applicable tactics. Like all our workshops, this one will be delivered online and is available in both live and on-demand formats. Posted: 1/16/08; 2:13:11 PM #

Attacking Noise in Chat: Banning Unoriginal Sentences as a Moderation Technique

Online community organizers are always asking: How do you maintain and improve the quality of online discussions? Typical strategies fall into four categories: strict entry requirements, moderators, peer rating, and splitting off new groups. All of these have merit, especially when implemented within a clear community building strategy. But I'm absolutely fascinated by an experiment going on at an IRC chat channel called #xkcd-signal (live conversation about a delightful web comic). Essentially, they are Attacking Noise in Chat by automatically banning unoriginal sentences! It's a little more sophisticated than that, so I encourage you to read the article. The results are surprisingly promising! Posted: 1/16/08; 1:55:19 PM #

Social Capital Measurement

The Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America has been doing some wonderful work. Some of the most interesting is on the topic of Social Capital Measurement. One of the sad things about social capital is that we have been trained to be blind to when we're destroying it, to overlook opportunities to build it, and to ignore it in our decisions (both as individuals and as organizations). Although I think our mental models are central to this sad problem, we can go a long way toward turning this around through the use of new metrics. Saguaro has developed a number of highly usable instruments and tools for this purpose, including: a short social capital survey form, a social capital toolkit (now in version 1.2), and a program evaluation guide specifically designed for nonprofits assessing their own work. Posted: 1/16/08; 1:42:46 PM #