Innovating Your Program: Case Studies from the Field#NTC11FIELD

Sue Clement, ASPCAKami Griffiths, Community Technology NetworkLark Dunham, Rare

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Placeholder for Sue Clement, ASPCA

Creating a Community Driven Resource Library

Community Technology Network

Overview

• Created a taxonomy to tag resources useful for people who manage computer centers

• Used Delicious social bookmarking site

• Created a feed from Delicious to any Drupal site

• New resources tagged in Delicious are automatically added to website

The Team

• Seattle: David Keyes, Karen Manuel, Ramona Black, Vicky Yuki

• Austin: Dale Thompson, Gene Crick

• Cincinnati: Angela Siefer

• Chicago: Michael Miranda

• San Francisco: Kami Griffiths

The Need: A Central Repository

• There was no central location for resources specifically for computer centers– Lesson plans/tutorials

– Tracking/evaluation

– Management resources

• CTCnet folded in 2009

• Time spent searching for current material

• Reinventing the wheel

• Working in silos

The Solution: A Central Repository

• Develop a central repository of resources and material used by computer center managers

• Created by community technology leaders across the country

• Searchable and community driven

Display Resources on Many Sites

• Many groups will want these resources displayed on their websites

• Decided to use Delicious to quickly and easily tag websites

• Create a feed to allow them to be displayed within Drupal websites

• New resources tagged in Delicious and automatically fed into Drupal

Trouble with Tagging

• Inconsistent use of tags

– Lesson plan, Lesson Plan, lesson plan

• Same tag, different meaning

– Programming: developing a program

– Programming: computer programming

• The Solution: create a standardized taxonomy that would reflect all the needs and the resources

Creating a Taxonomy

• Year long process

• Many iterations

• Seattle provided intern with taxonomy experience

• Had committee review throughout the process

Testing and Perfecting

• First iteration: had people add resource to a spreadsheet and one person add to Delicious– Through this process we understood what was

missing or didn’t work

• Second iteration: changed taxonomy, updated spreadsheet, defined tags

• Third iteration: invited key players to tag directly using Delicious, provided training

Training and Quality Control

• Define: what the tags mean

• Debate: what should be tagged

• Discuss: what makes for a good resource

• Walk through process of tagging, providing access to the Delicious account

• Double check that the resources are tagged correctly

• Delicious doesn’t allow duplicates

Sustainability

• Will Delicious go away?

• Broken links

• Adding new resources

Room for Improvement

• Develop system for submitting new resources

• Better user interface on ctnbayarea.org

• Rating system

• Adding comments

• Create feeds to Word Press and Joomla

Questions?

Contact Information:

Kami Griffiths, kami@ctnbayarea.org

www.ctnbayarea.org/resources

http://delicious.com/CTNBayArea

Lark Dunham

Vice President

Rare

rare’s global network

Campaign Manager in

Guam uploads a video and

an updated threat ranking

for her site.

Donor in New York gathers

her young children around

the computer to watch the

video of a puppet show from

the Guam project.

Senior Rare staffer in England

provides feedback on the

Guam threat ranking.

rareplanet visionAccelerate the creation of conservation

constituencies by leveraging digital

media and the power of networks.

conservation

barriers

Lack of information

Isolation and distance

Inability to scale

" Once one person solves the problem once,

the problem stays solved for everybody..” -Clay Shirky, 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference

rareplanet solution

Real-time information

Information improves quality

Platform makes distance irrelevant

Network facilitates scale

rareplanet today

200+ campaigns

2200 members

100+ groups

10K visits / 50K pageviews monthly

rareplanet audience

community

manager

Mechanism for managing campaign

Vehicle for campaign storytelling

Platform for collaboration and feedback

Resume/portfolio to present work for

follow-on funding opportunities

rareplanet is the

rareplanet audience

rare staff

Virtual feedback and support

Management oversight

Portfolio reporting views from site to cohort

to region

rareplanet means

rareplanet audience

donors and

partners

Transparency

Real time, real world experiences

Opportunities to connect with practitioners

in the field

rareplanet means

lessons learnedEase of use is critical to adoption

Dedicated resources Technical oversight

Community management

scenario of

the futureEngage and energize the network

Strategically build the community

Integration of mobile capabilities

Network facilitates growth in capacity

conservation impact amplified

rareplanet becomes a catalyst for scaling conservation efforts

risks &

challenges

Adoption

Fear of disclosure

Retreat from transparency

Internet access

" Tools don't get socially interesting until they

get technologically boring." -Clay Shirky, 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference