Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

An Interview with Jessica Rauch about The Generation Project: Passionate about Teaching Young People

A few days ago, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine, Duke University and the virtual network of HASTAC, announced its second annual open-call competition that will provide $2 million in awards to innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning.   This year the awards have a category to solicit ideas from young people, age 18-25.  This got me curious about the young people blogging about education or doing projects.   That lead me to Jennifer Rauch, the co-founder of The Generation Project.

1.  Tell me about you

Education is my passion.  Since I was a first year college student at UC Berkeley, I have been working with students and schools in low-income communities and have grown increasingly aware of how educational disparities keep children from reaching their potential.  I taught in the Bronx for two years through Teach For America while working toward my M.A. in General Childhood Education at Bank Street College of Education.  I left the classroom in 2007 to join Teach For America staff where I pioneered graduate school recruitment for the organization through May of this year.  I am currently launching The Generation Project full-time.

2.  Tell me about your project, The Generation Project

The Generation Project is a new charity that seeks to revolutionize educational philanthropy by giving donors creative control over their gifts to kids in low-income communities.  Instead of just opening their checkbooks for a cause, donors are able to create opportunities for high-need kids based on their own passions and priorities.   The form these donations can take is limited only by donors' imaginations: For example:

- A musician might donate a set of instruments to a high school band
- A military veteran might sponsor an essay contest on freedom
- A runner might donate running shoes to a middle school running club
- A cancer survivor might sponsor a hospital internship for students interested in pursuing medicine
The Generation Project recruits donors and facilitates gift implementation providing complete transparency at all stages of the process.  The long-term goal is to facilitate meaningful connections so as donors progress in their careers they can expand their impact in ways that are responsive to the needs of individuals in low-income communities.

3.  How did you come up with the idea for connecting philanthropists with students in this way

It was really a combination of things.  When I was a fourth-grade teacher through Teach For America, I had kids who were extremely bright and had a variety of passions but the reality was that they simply didn't have access to the same formative experiences as children in wealthier areas.  Eli Savit, the other co-founder, recognized the same thing during his time teaching eighth-grade social studies.  With this in mind, we wanted to find a way to expand the breadth of opportunities for our students and others like them.  As I and many of my friends left the classroom, we wanted to find ways to continue to give back that were meaningful and based on what we believed would make a significant and lasting impact in the lives of kids growing up in low-income communities. 

Eli and I talked about this often and then decided we should just start our own organization that could give donors creative control over their donation dollars while providing kids with access to more opportunities.  We also realized that this could significantly impact the way people give back in the short and long term.  Young professionals engaging in giving through The Generation Project will not only make an immediate impact in the lives of students but will hopefully lead to the building of relationships between professionals and low-income communities that will encourage donors to give back in increasing ways as they progress in their careers.  Today's philanthropists--and potential philanthropists--want to do more than simply open their checkbook for a cause.  You no longer have to be Richard Branson or Bill Gates to give back in ways that are most meaningful to you.  Anyone can now become an educational philanthropist through The Generation Project and use their own passions and priorities to determine the most significant ways to expand opportunities for high-need students.

4.  Why are you passionate about teaching young people?

Education is supposed to be the great equalizer.  In our nation's schools, great disparities exist and we cannot simply sit on the sideline while this injustice persists.  If we work to ensure that children are given access to the educational opportunities they deserve, our nation will be stronger and our future more secure.  It is for the good of the individual and the nation that we must solve the achievement gap.

5.   How will you social media as part of your implementation strategy?

The Generation Project will be initially aimed at young professionals, many of whom use and engage in social media regularly.  One aim of The Generation Project is to bring donors together to engage in the giving process so they can collaborate on ways to make the biggest impact.  Social media will be vital to this success because it is an efficient way to spread the word about the exciting opportunity while providing ways for people to connect.


The Generation Project's website will also offer the opportunity for donors to form a community focused on educational philanthropy.  Donors will be able to discuss gifts and interactively engage with one another. Through thegenerationproject.org, donors can maximize their impact by collaborating on projects.  For example, a former college swimmer who wants to start an inner-city swim team might convince other swimming aficionados to fund teams in the same city, thus establishing a full-fledged league.  More experienced donors could also help new donors design a gift so that it maximizes its impact, and donors who want to move onto new projects could recruit new donors to take over funding responsibility for their old commitments.  Thus, The Generation Project hopes to develop a larger community of donors who are actively engaged in educational philanthropy and feel personally connected to low-income students and schools.

6.   What are some of the best blogs written by young people who are passionate about education for youth?  Where can you find these people on the social web?


Ideablob.com of course!  The website is such a great way to connect with entrepreneurs.  We received some really great advice and encouragement and met a lot of people who want to help us develop our idea.

Glassbooth.org blog.  This is an awesome site popular with young people

Perspectives from young educators:
http://purposedriven.teachfor.us/2008/09/
http://theulot.wordpress.com/about/
http://mindthegap.teachfor.us/category/teach-for-america/

Are there other Gen Y's blogging about education and digital media?   Who are they?  I'm compiling a list so please leave a comment with a link to your blog.

Is Social Media Just for Young Folks?

Source: Karl Kapp presentation

Do you think that people on social networking and media are just teens and college students?

There is the well-known YouTube user, Geriatic 1927 who creates videos as a memoir of his WW2 days and has over 45,000 subscribers and 2 million views.  And there are a number of bloggers in their 80's, but perhaps the best and most well-known is Millie Garfield.   And, if they aren't blogging, they're reading, take for example the AARP Pet Pals Blog and the others identified in the comments here.

Saga, a social networking site for over 50 crowd launched last month according to this Guardian Article.

The site, which has been running in trial mode for four months, has more than 13,000 users so far - and the company hopes this will increase dramatically now it is officially open. "Older people aren't shy of using the internet - they have a verve for life that applies online as well as offline," said Paul Green, a Saga spokesman. "Thirteen thousand is just a drop in the ocean - in theory the membership is practically limitless. Social networking isn't going to be for everyone, but the feedback so far has knocked our socks off." 

One wonders if this site will catch on or go the way of Eons which is struggling.

Yes, the social networking site demographics are aging, but maybe as fast as pace as other segments.

The Pros/Cons of Social Web for NGOs from Kabissa

Kabissa, an organization that supports African civil society organizations so they can put information and communication technologies to work for the benefit of the people they serve, has recently published a terrific overview of the promises and and pitfalls of Web2.0 for African Civil Society.

I think some of the points are universal, others not.  Take for example this pitfall to watch out for:

What to do when you’re away from the Internet?

People that spend alot of time online begin to take it for granted - this was already the case before Web 2.0, but now new Web 2.0 services are encouraging you to do more online than ever. What do you do when you’re not near your Yahoo mailbox, your blog, your flickr account? Please be very strategic and don’t fall into the trap of being in a life threatening situation without critical information that is only available on Yahoo and you are 200 miles from the nearest cybercafe.

Those of us large metro areas in the US are never far away from a coffee shop with wi-fi or high speed Internet access.  But that isn't the case for an ngo working a developing country or extremely rural area.  I remember this from my time in Cambodia where I was an hour's drive from the nearest Internet cafe while teaching ESL in the Roteang Village School english program.  I usually left my laptop back in the hotel and packed all my paper resources.  But, when I go on an assignment here in the US, I can always pull down what I've forgotten from the Web.

Anyway, this brief summary is well worth a read if you're thinking about Web2.0, Social Media, and Nonprofits.

Katya's Five Minute Guide to Social Networking

The above powerpoint is from 1999 and excerpted from day-long workshops I used to lead when I worked at NYFA and design and ran a program called "KIT: Knowledge in Technology - Technology Planning for Arts Organizations."   

Before we jumped into the technology tools, I always covered technostress.  It is really about how  individuals within the organization could be more comfortable with adopting technology tools.   It got at the human barriers around technology adoption in the early days:  stress, fear, anxiety, frustration.  What happens when you don't have the time to experiment or play so you feel comfortable?   

Since the participants were from arts organizations, we made them draw pictures of what techno stress look like.  I would scan the pictures and embed into my presentations to do the debriefing - and overtime would have user-generated content in the curriculum!   One of my favorite drawings was the metaphor of being in a foreign country and not being able to speak the language.

I went searching my harddrive for that visual after reading Katya Andresen's Five Minute Social Network Guide where she used the analogy of travel in a foreign country to explore social networking tools.

"to most of us (including me), social networking—using the web’s latest and greatest ways of connecting to people—feels akin to being a stranger in a strange land.  People have their own customs online, they act differently, and it can be hard to find your way around.  It seems so foreign and intimidating.  At least it did to me, until I figured out I should simply apply the same skills of assimilation I’d apply anywhere else outside my experience."

She goes on to introduce her travel analogy and link it to exploring social networking tools.

I've been reading Henry Jenkin's book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide" - I ordered after I heard him speak at the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning briefing (Nancy Schwartz recently wrote about it here) and read his white paper on participatory culture.   He defines participatory culture as a culture:

1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is
passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they
care what other people think about what they have created)

Our conversations here in the blogosphere are participatory, although it would be nice to have multimedia conversations.   After listening to both Katya's and Michael's comments about fundraising widgets, it made me realize that they enable a participatory culture ...

Somehow that's connected to what Nancy is talking about in Second Wave Adoption and what Michelle from the Bamboo Project refers to do in her recent post about technology adoption and nonprofits.

Continuous Partial Attention or Rapid Attention Shifting

via Nancy White I found a pointer to Linda Stone's Wiki on Continuous Partial Attention.  Most of what is in there is the material from the corporate or business perspective.  I recently attention a press briefing for the MacArthur Foundation in Second Life on digital learning and media.  The issue of CPA was brought up - and I learned a new word for it "Rapid Attention Shifting."  I also learned that there is research going on in the education sector about how young people are using it to consume media.  Now, I must track down the source over here.  Can anyone help?

Is it time for a Social Reporter?

What does the Internet look like?

I've been trying to organize and clean up I don't know how many gigs of information, some dating back to 1992, the year I started working online full-time.    My first online community builder/facilitator job was with Arts Wire, an online network for artists, that used a unix-based, text-based online discussion software.  I facilitated online forums, provided technical support the 500 members, and training.   

Arts Wire, a project of NYFA, was originally intended to be a place for artists from all over the country to meet, exchange ideas, and talk about their work via the Internet.   As the Internet changed dramatically with the launch of the Web, the content of my work did too -- although the themes and concepts remained the same.   While in the early early 1990's I was helping people figure out which dipswitches on their modem to push or  write and send email using PINE, this later morphed into helping people learn how to build web pages or develop web literacy skills.  And, now mid-2000 this has changed again  ... into gaining web social (networking) skills.

The drawing is from one of the many, many technology training workshops I did in those early web1.0 and web .0 days ....  somewhere around 1996 or 1997.   I always started with a creative icebreaker activity -- this one was "What does the Internet look like?"  While many of the drawings were abstract, the showing connected people presages the social web. 

What sent me on a trip down memory lane was this excellent post by David Wilcox describing a new role for an online facilitator using social networking and media tools. 

It occurs to me that I should try calling myself a social reporter; it feels more comfortable for this purpose than knowledge activist or technology steward.

I like the role/label and think David is spot on.   I'm having a little bit of trouble with the word "reporter" - perhaps a play on citizen journalism?   Is an online facilitator of people using social networkings  -- are they a passive observer or an instigator?   Is "reporter" the right role?

I used to think a lot of what my role and use different labels.   Here's a few I played with from 1992-2002 during my time working with NYFA/Arts Wire.

• Electronic Bulletin Board Sysop
• Onlne Facilitator
• Online Community Builder
• Telecommuter
• Gophermaster
• Webmaster
• Webmistress
• Webster
• Web Manager
• Web Goddess
• Digital Creative Thinker
• Information designer
• Cybrarian
• Electronic Preservationist
• Telecollaborator
• Situated Trainer & Learner
• Nonprofit Technologist

As I found this list, I realized I'm adding something to the label Nonprofit Technologist.  I'm not sure quite what.  It goes beyond blogger and tagger.   Citizen instructional mediamaker?  Social media coach?   Who knows ...

Now matter what we call it - social reporter or something else, what are the skills and competencies to be one?  How are they different from web1.0 online facilitator?  And just as I write that sentence, I check David's blog and find that being GMT, he's already evolved his thinking along with other colleagues.  Let's catch up ..

 

David is thinking about this role in the context of using wikis, blogs, flickr and other tools for capturing knowledge for conferences, a thread we obsessed on collectively last month.  The Perfect Path blog muses about the social reporter role and rich records:

We have agreement that it's a "good thing" or at least a "nice thing" to have a richer record of a days proceedings and that blogs and wikis are a good way of producing that. What I agree we haven't done yet is get to the point where we're able to weave everything together to make it useful enough to participants that they want to do more than view the record.

But maybe that's not our responsibility...yet. I see a risk that we're pushing people too fast along a learning curve that we've taken a while to go along ourselves .... Maybe we should just let this aspect sink in for a little bit - if they want to interact as well, then that's fantastic and we should be ready for it when it happens, but in the meantime, perhaps we could be honing our reporting skills in this new environment.

Especially if we are also introducing more social aspects to the event, breaking down the distinction between presenter and audience - novelty fatigue might set in - I have to remember that not everyone gets bored as easily as I do!

Here's David response:

If the ethos of the social reporter is to promote collaboration by standing on the side of the  user/reader/viewer and helping them to contribute, we have to take this very seriously. Evangelising - come on in, it's wonderful - doesn't work any better than warnings - you'll be left behind if you don't.

Part of the answer is being clear about the purpose ... what real benefit will tech-supported collaboration bring - and aware of the prevailing culture which may not be receptive. I think it is also about respecting people's preferences. That's partly about personality, and partly about offering a choice of audio, video, text and so on.

All that means that social reporting, to be successful, requires a pretty full set of skills and tools.  As Lloyd says, instead of pushing too hard we could be honing our reporting skills in this new environment. If we can't get the gigs, maybe we need some simulated rehearsing ... a sort of emerging social reporting conference, where we all practise on some willing non-tech participants. Any sponsors up for that?

Hmm .. yes, the tools are easy, but skills probably take some time to develop and hone.   One skill is the ability to think through your fingers quickly - the ability to listen, photograph, record, and process it in a way that isn't simply the vacuum approach.   And, you have a high degree of comfort with the tools .. so you don't even have to think about it as you are capturing.

Last week or the weekend before I was at a conference, with wireless and live blogging and vlogging.  I've noticed now that I'm using the digital camera, the microphone, and text all together -- like a drum set.  And that has taken some time to master -- just practicing.