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Join our Community of Practice group on NTEN.org
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NTEN Community | group directory
The CommBuild Community of Practice is focused on building and sustaining online and offline communities for nonprofits, charities, and o…0
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There’s a tweetchat every Tuesday at 1:00pm EST using the hashtag #CommBuild
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Today’s participants
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#commbuild: I’m a community building consultant and organizer of commbuild group. Also *really* pregnant and about to go MIA for a bit! -
Hi everyone! Name’s Christina. Active Job Seeker. Passionate about communities and user experience. #commbuild -
@CommBuild Glad to be here with @lijah @LNorvig @ClaireSale @ChristinaFBrown. Nice to see new and old faces. #CommBuild -
I’m @elijah I like to support communities to do fun things together. My title is often “volunteer manager” #commbuild -
Q1. What offline communities are you a part of? Which ones do you value the most?
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@CommBuild Easy! It’s the #501TechBOS – Boston’s 501 Tech Club, sponsored by @ntenorg. Also my pottery community, Mudflat :) #commbuild
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A.1. The offline community I’ve loved the most is the 2,000 volunteer crew of the @edmfolkfest #commbuild
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Edmonton Folk Music FestivalDear Friends, The family of Don Snider would like to thank everyone who has sent expressions of sympathy over our overwhelming loss. Many…0
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Q1 @CommBuild Oh yes, our minyan (Jewish) community, like a synagogue, and the kids’ school #commbuild
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A1: @NYTM and @NYTechWomen when I can. I value the connections I make when I meet people face 2 face. #commbuild
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NY Tech Women
New York, NY
916 NYTechWomen
Make Meaningful Connections
It’s uncomfortable being the outsider. We’ve all been there: walking into a room where everybody else seems to know each other and nobody gives you…NY Tech Women0
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@CommBuild I’m part of #geekfestjed and my local compound in Saudi. Trying to help with online/offline organizing with both. #commbuild
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Q1 Value for both is the personal collusion of friendships (new/old), knowledge-sharing, professional growth (2/2) #commbuild
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Q2. WHY did you join your offline community? Why do you think others joined?
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@CommBuild I think ppl join offline comms for belonging, sharing interests/learnings, and to move forward on particular projects. #commbuild
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A2. I am attracted to joining offline communities because of THE PEOPLE. The purpose of the group quickly becomes secondary. #commbuild
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Q2. I’m a bit on the cynical side: they join for personal gain. Larger time commitment to offline events = tough decisions #commbuild
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A2: Hi @mbhahn! I think I joined my offline comms b/c I wanted (& still do) to get my foot in the NY tech scene. #commbuild
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Q3. Do you lead an offline community right now? What is the group?
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A3. I’ve been leading Vancouver’s Net Tuesday @NetSquared group for 3.5 years. The most fun volunteer gig I’ve ever had. #Commbuild
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Net Tuesday Vancouver – Remixing the web for social change
What types of stories best engage your audience? How can you best move your supporters to action? Why do people give to your organization…0
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@askdebra What’s your role in the Minyan group? #commbuild -
@CommBuild Just as a member, but I feel part of the community, since it is lay-lead, and we all take on roles each quarter #commbuild
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@elijah You’ve been such a rockstar leading Vancouver @Netsquared. When I lived in #Cambridge I had a great time leading Net2. #commbuild
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What is NetSquared Local? | NetSquared
NetSquared Local groups hold monthly offline events for anyone interested in the connection of technology and social impact. These gather…0
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Q4. Are your offline and online communities connected? How?
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@CommBuild It’s funny… there often seems to be a disconnect. Offline people don’t always transfer online and vice versa. #commbuild
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A4: They are connected. Their social media pages post the latest monthly meetups and ways people can get involved. #commbuild
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@ChristinaFBrown Yes! This is an awesome way to connect the two. ^discoverability and ^information sharing #commbuild
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@ChristinaFBrown are there other ways you’re connecting the two (online/offline)? #commbuild
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@ClaireSale Every month, there is pre @NYTechWomen meetup and then we head across the street to the @NYTM. Instant connections. #commbuild
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Here at @Gravy for #NYtechwomen meetup0
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A4. @NetTuesday ‘s online and offline presences are largely connected one-way. Online recruits for offline meetings. #commbuild
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Q5. What online tools do you use to manage and support your offline community?
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@CommBuild I’ve used tons! meetup, eventbrite, trello, facebook groups/pages/events, linkedin events, twitter….. #commbuild
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Claire’s favorite online tools for community building
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Do something, Learn something, Share something, Change something – Meetup
Helps groups of people with shared interests plan meetings and form offline clubs in local communities around the world0
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Online Event Registration – Sell Tickets Online with Eventbrite
Eventbrite gives you all the online tools you need to bring people together for an event and sell tickets.0
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Facebook Groups | Facebook
Have things you only want to share with a small group of people? Just create a group, add friends, and start sharing. Once you have you…0
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TrelloOrganize anything, together. Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, know what’s being wo…0
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Email is still a go-to tool
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Q5b. What tools are most effective in building community? Personally I still find an email listserv or google group to work best. #commbuild
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@CommBuild 1 to google groups and listserves, I’m also finding closed facebook groups to be amazingly active. #commbuild
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Meetup vs Eventbrite
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A5. @meetup is an amazingly powerful recruitment tool to find people who are interested in face-to-face gatherings. #Commbuild
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@elijah I like meetup too, but I wish it had functionality for online-only events (like tweetchats!) #commbuild
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@ClaireSale I’ve found @Eventbrite to be a fabulous replacement for @meetup for virtual events. But less good at recruiting. #commbuild
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@CommBuild Truth. Problem with eventbrite is it serves the event not so much building the community #commbuild
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@CommBuild @Eventbrite is great to find offline events in ur niche but there isn’t a “community building” component like @meetup. #commbuild
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@ChristinaFBrown @ClaireSale – so right… I’m a “meetup member” but not an “eventbrite member”. #commbuild
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Q6. Who is doing online -> offline community building right? What’s a model organization?
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@CommBuild US-based politicians! They’ve got the online->offline organizing down pretty well. #commbuild
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@ClaireSale – SMART! The Obama get-out-the-vote team are masters at engaging online and getting to offline action. #commbuild
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@ClaireSale Agreed. I think the Obama for America (biased lol) was an excellent online & offline political grassroots network. #commbuild
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@ClaireSale If you think about it, @barackobama is continuing the @OFA framework by bringing his ideas to real Americans now. #commbuild
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A6. @350 and @engagejoe are doing the online to offline transition beautifully. A vibrant online community that SHOWS UP #commbuild
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350.org
350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass publi…0
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Other groups holding regular offline meetings
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Q6b. But the politicians are doing a one-off transaction (vote). Who is getting people to move online to offline consistently? #commbuild
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@CommBuild 1 on 350. Also: NTEN 501 tech clubs, NetSquared groups, WiserEarth, Yes!, and Social Media Surgery… #commbuild
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Wiser.org: The Social Network for Sustainability
Wiser helps the global movement of people and organizations working toward social justice, indigenous rights, and environmental … Wit…0
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Join an NTEN 501 Tech Club | NTEN
NTEN 501 Tech Clubs are informal local groups that meet regularly to get to know their colleagues, develop a professional support netwo…0
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Churches get people to show up on a weekly basis! Who can top that? #commbuild
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A6. Other non-#nptech examples are weekly running/jogging groups, book clubs and knitting circles. #commbuild
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@CommBuild oh the knitters. Always the knitters! #commbuild
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I’m a little late for #tbt but I’ll post these anyways @sabrinaserani #knittingcircle0
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@ClaireSale and our knitter friends also create soft snuggly things to wear. Not just ideas. THEY ARE THE BEST! #commbuild
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Q7. What’s your #1 tip for a community organizer that wants to organize a lasting online?
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PERSISTENCE! “Q7. What’s your #1 tip for a community organizer that wants to organize a lasting online gathering?” #commbuild
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@stevieflow talks about “zero expectations organizing” as the key to success. bit.ly/IVITdq #commbuild
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The Zero Expectations Thing0
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@CommBuild My tip: keep the barrier to entry low and the quality of content high #commbuild
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UP NEXT: Tuesday, December 18.
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Next week: join @askdebra for “The benefit of Twitter chats, & how they build community.” bit.ly/Uxy53S #commbuild
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A topic idea for the future….
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@ChristinaFBrown ah… totally a topic for another day! “Cross-pollination across local or related groups” #commbuild
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Get involved
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Want to lead a #CommBuild chat? Want to help manage the community? Reach out to @ClaireSale
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#commbuild: Just want to quickly announce we’re looking for vols to take leadership roles with the #commbuild group. bit.ly/S5fjqg
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#commbuild: I’m a community building consultant and organizer of commbuild group. Also *really* pregnant and about to go MIA for a bit!
Month: December 2012
Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last month in my gig as NetSquared Local Community Curator.
It’s December, which means we’re on the last page of our calendar. Team NetSquared is working hard to wrap-up some this year’s projects. We’ve now completed all seven of our NetSquared Camps and have just one more Global Leadership Council meeting left. But just because some things are coming to an end there’s no reason for tears – rather let’s reflect back on what we’ve learned over the year and share the gift of knowledge on the Washington DC group’s quora page.
The future of NetSquared
The recent reorganization of NetSquared sees the emergence of a unified content and community team for both the NetSquared and TechSoup brands. Sheetal Singh is our new TechSoup champion, taking over from Billy Bicket who is going to take on platform work.
What does that all mean to NetSquared organizers? I’ll be able to share more by mid-December when Sheetal sends her community update, but in the short-term you’ll start to see a regular stream of new content on the NetSquared community blog.
NetSquared Camps
This fall’s major initiative was the NetSquared Camps, which were seven regional unconferences and workshops produced by our local organizer network. The camps were an amazing opportunity to expand the NetSquared local experience from a brief daytime or evening event into an all-day extravaganza. It was also a great excuse for us to get local organizers together for face-to-face meetings, since the big lesson from the Global Leadership Council experiment this year was that we can kickstart inter-organizer relationships by getting people together in the same room. Which, honestly, shouldn’t have been too much of a shock since that’s the key insight that keeps all of us local organizers doing our meetups from month to month.
Each of the camp organizers has written a blog post sharing their insights, photos and video. There are lots of great ideas to steal for your own events!
Platform
The tenth release of the NetSquared platform is now live. Many of the changes were beneath the hood, but you’ll definitely notice the improvements to the community blog. We’re now randomly featuring bloggers from the local network. You may see your face next time you go to http://www.NetSquared.org/blog!
Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest
The Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest invites both new and seasoned developers to create an app for “social good” – and you could win cash prizes to help fuel your dream and keep it going!
There are already five entries in the contest. Check out their project pages and use the social share buttons on the one you think is coolest.
Note: the contest is only open to residents of the USA. But anyone can vote and share!
December events
A quick scan shows ten events happening across the NetSquared local network. That’s a big drop from the 21 in November… Curse those holidays! :-)
- Houston, TX: December Holiday Social
- Vancouver, BC: Prove it! A/B testing for Nonprofits
- San Francisco, CA: Holiday Party
- Washington, DC: Dec. 18: NetSquared DC Happy Hour – Tech: The Gift that keeps on Giving
- Honolulu, HI: We’re all heading to Hon*celerator!
- Boston, MA: Be the Media! Mini-Conference
- Philadelphia, PA: Tools and Analytics for Understanding Usage of Your Website
- Toronto, ON: Donate & Learn – Social Media Workshop
- Morrisville, NC: NCTech4Good December Social
- Baltimore, MD: December Tech & Social Change Baltimore Meetup
Elijah van der Giessen 
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