Elijah van der Giessen

I help nonprofits build community.

Tag: NetSquared

Moving On: Leaving My Role as TechSoup Connect Community Manager — March 28, 2023

Moving On: Leaving My Role as TechSoup Connect Community Manager

/Elijah van der Giessen/Leave a comment

I’ve been the TechSoup Connect (originally called NetSquared) community manager for 10 years and 10 months. I’ve volunteered as the host of the Vancouver chapter for 13 years and 9 months. That’s a long time, so it’s time to stretch my wings and build new skills. Starting on March first, I transitioned into a new role at TechSoup. I am the Community Manager for a new division focused on app for good developers. Web3 distributed apps will be my first project, so I want to talk if you’re working with Filecoin, web3 technologies, or the decentralized web! 

I’ve been blessed to stumble onto two callings in my career – jobs perfectly aligned with where I can bring the most value. First, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival introduced me to the power of volunteer-led community, and then the NetSquared/TechSoup Connect opportunity allowed me to help a community scale globally through the web. It has been a pleasure getting to know the 300+ volunteers who have worked so far to help nonprofits master technology.

Thank you for everything, and you inspire me daily with your commitment to growing a better nonprofit sector. Supporting your efforts has been a dream job,

Elijah van der Giessen

P.S. I’m still the co-host of TechSoup Connect Western Canada, so please join my chapter!

NetSquared December update — December 7, 2012

NetSquared December update

/Elijah van der Giessen/Leave a comment

Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last month in my gig as NetSquared Local Community Curator.

NetSquared snowglobe
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!

NetSquared organizers as bloggers

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! :-)

NetSquared: what have I done for the last two months? — July 26, 2012

NetSquared: what have I done for the last two months?

/Elijah van der Giessen/Leave a comment

It’s been two months since I joined Marc and Anka on the NetSquared community team. But what have I been up to? It’s time to report back.

I started off with a survey to the NetSquared Local organizers, which helped us focus our work initiated by the 100 Day Challenge.

Survey Results and Actions

What you said

You want to bring local organizers together.
connection chart

What we did

We launched the Regional Gathering Fund to fund NetSquared Camps that will bring local organizers together for face-to-face meetings.

What you said

You want event recipes and templates.
Recipe chart

What we did

We’ve been updating the Organizer’s Handbook, have tested the Social Media Surgery format (inspired by organizers in Manchester, Adelaide and Burlington) and will be publishing a new event format called a Tool Jam to the wiki for September 2012. The Tool Jam is a rapid introduction to the software tools used by members of the social benefit technology community, and is inspired by the Ignite and PechaKucha format.

In Progress

You asked for regional Google+ hangouts. We haven’t delivered on these yet, although the NetSquared team has been offering experimental office hours.
Regional hangout chart

Items of less interest

The survey showed that there was less interest in these areas. We’ll ignore them for now!

  • Peer mentorships
  • best practice webinars

What Else?

In addition to following up on the tasks identified in the survey, the NetSquared team has been hard at work on our ongoing project, which is to act as cheerleaders for the amazing work local organizers are doing in their communities. We’re doing that by highlighting NetSquared Local organizers in our monthly Digital Bites newsletter and by launching the new NetSquared platform, which will feature dedicated pages for each of our local groups and automatically import your meetup.com events into the site.

Complete Survey Data

Taking local to the next level

Taking Local to the Next Level

Strengthening your local group

Strenthening your local group

My first blog post as the NetSquared Local community curator! — May 29, 2012
Eli at the NTEN’s NTC conference — May 4, 2012
Net Tuesday meetup: Network organizations create better online campaigns — January 14, 2012

Net Tuesday meetup: Network organizations create better online campaigns

/Elijah van der Giessen/Leave a comment

Net Tuesday is proud to have Communicopia’s Jason Mogus presenting at our February 7 meetup. NOTE: We expect this event to be very popular, so registration is capped. Please RSVP to confirm your attendance.

RSVP on Meetup.com

There has been a sea change recently creating new models for how social change organizations (or start up businesses) structure themselves to accomplish a social good. Network organizations, typically those “born after the Internet”, are smaller, nimble, less hierarchical, highly collaborative and deeply social by nature. Their leadership, culture, structure, programs, and outcomes are often quite different from those of traditionally structured NGO’s.

As these structures are more aligned with the fundamental organizing principles of the web, done right this enables these organizations to punch far above their weight online. In this session we will discuss:

  • the differences between network orgs and more traditional NGO’s
  • why network orgs are an adaptation to the unique challenges and opportunities of our times
  • why traditional NGO’s struggle with managing digital innovation
  • why network orgs create better online campaigns – including many examples!
  • some fundamental principles of network centric campaigns

Jason Mogus photo

Come with your own examples and expect a fulsome discussion on the benefits and limitations of this controversial hypothesis.

RSVP on Meetup.com

LOCATION
W2 Media Cafe
111 W Hastings, Vancouver, BC

DATE AND TIME
Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Doors at 5:30 PM
Starts at 6:00 PM
Wraps at 7:30 PM

Jason Mogus is the principal strategist of Communicopia, a Gastown based firm that has been leading transformative digital projects for social change institutions since 1993. Jason has worked with some highly successful network orgs, including the TckTckTck climate coalition, Nothing But Nets campaign, and Web of Change, as well as for many large NGO’s, governments, and sustainable businesses both locally and globally. For a full bio: http://communicopia.com/company/jason-mogus

Suggested background reading:

RSVP on Meetup.com

Social sharing copy for NetSquared Camp Vancouver — July 19, 2010

Social sharing copy for NetSquared Camp Vancouver

/Elijah van der Giessen/Leave a comment

NetSquared logoAlready RSVPed for NetSquared Camp Vancouver? Hooray!

As of this evening 71 people have registered, but we’re got room for more! Please invite your friends to join us at NetSquared Camp. Feel free to use the copy below (or draft your own message.)

Social sharing copy

EMAIL

I’m going to a cool summer camp and I think you should too. NetSquared Camp is a free, one-day event where nonprofits meet geeks to develop practical skills in social media, marketing, communications, design and technology. You bring your questions and professional challenges. We’ll table them with your peers and some of Vancouver’s brightest to workshop actionable applications for social change. NetSquared Vancouver: by sharing knowledge, experience and best practices, we can all make exponential gains for social good. RSVP for your ticket to practical, positive change:http://netsquaredvancouver.eventbrite.com

FACEBOOK

I’m going to a cool summer camp and I think you should too. NetSquared Camp is a free, one-day event where nonprofits meet geeks to develop practical skills in social media, marketing, communications, design and technology.

http://netsquaredvancouver.eventbrite.com/

TWITTER (Our hashtag is )

meet geeks to make gains for social good. Camp is free and fabulous: http://bit.ly/a3YrBH

>17 characters remaining for reTweets

NetSquared Camp organizers meeting 2 — July 5, 2010