Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Haiti Earthquake: Orphans, Crisis Mapping, and Tech Volunteers

Earthquake Aftermath in Jacmel
Photos by Andrew Bigosinski, Director of Ciné Lekol.

I've had some posts in pipeline following up on social media metrics and the Chase Community Giving Contest second phase, but wanted to share these two stories from Haiti from on the ground and a bird's eye view.  The story has shifted from how technology is disrupting the amazing success of text giving campaigns  to the role social media is playing in the relief efforts.

An Orphanage Destroyed, Children Still Alive

Cine Institute, an organization that provides Haitian youth with film education, is located a block from an orphanage built by Luke Montgomery, co-founder of WeCanBuildanOrphanage.com, an interactive charity building a home, clinic and school for AIDS orphans in Haiti. He's passionate about helping children and obsessed with leveraging the power of "good ideas for good causes."

Luke is a colleague of several social media colleagues, including Justin Perkins from Care

Justin passed this message along on Thursday:

Still no word from our orphanage. Our town of Jakmel (also spelled Jacmel if you want to Google it) has been largely destroyed and our AIDS orphanage is constructed out of cement... not good. Most of these types of buildings in our town have crumbled. Best case: Our kids are safe but all the care staff will be dealing with their own families, destroyed and dead family members and all water and food will now be even more scarce. Worst case: The orphanage collapsed like all other concrete buildings in town and the locals might hesitate to dig out HIV infected bloody kids. I haven't been able to sleep. Crying.

I'm going back to Haiti in the next few days and need help to give hands-on help to our kids and the townspeople.

You can help. Give money or pass this donation link around:  http://tinyurl.com/ykt74rg

 love,

Luke

This morning Justin passed along some good news that the staff and kids are all alive at the orphanage in Haiti, but the building was completely destroyed.  Justin also passed a long a message from his friend Luke, the founder of the orphanage,

Our children have all survived. Somehow amidst all the death around them, these 13 orphans made it out of the rubble alive. They are now living on the street surrounded by rubble with no food, water, blankets or medicine. Many of them are HIV+. Two are handicapped and can not walk. We are rushing an emergency team to them to care for, feed and protect them. I'm leaving and will be on the ground in Haiti for as long as it takes to rebuild." Please spread this emergency link: EarthquakeOrphans.com 

Crisis Mapping

My colleagues at Ushahidi have been working around the clock and around the globe mapping crisis information from Haiti. (Disclaimer: I'm on the board).  For those you who are not familiar with Ushahidi, they have a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or time line. Their goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. Here's more about their haiti platform.

I received an update from Ushahidi, co-founder Ory Okolloh:

We have received tremendous support from the crisis mapping community through the Crisis Mapping Network, the developer community, collaborating organizations like UN OCHA Columbia, INSTEDD, Haitianquake, Digital Democracy, FrontlineSMS, Google and others, and dozens of volunteers who’ve helped with everything from data entry, to translations, to data filtering.

Since the site went live, the team has been working round the clock to make improvements to the instance, fix problems (our server has crashed several times already and our alert system went beserk!), coordinate efforts with volunteers, share information with partners, and collaborate with other tech-based efforts e.g. the people finder at Haitianquake (since merged with Google’s). The fact that we have a global team means that we have been able to offer round the clock support, with the Africa-based team taking over when the US-based team goes to sleep and vice versa.

Ory describes their current challenges, including:

Close the feedback loop: that is, ensure that agencies trying to figure out where help is needed are tracking our reports and following up on requests for help that are coming in. We are currently doing this via the Crisis Mappers network, Sahana, and Internews and INSTEDD teams who have just landed in Haiti, but a lot more needs to be done.

She has called on us to help get the word out about Ushahidi, she seeking contacts with local or diaspora Haitian media or NGOs, and connections with larger humanitarian organizations to share information.

Last night Rachel Weidinger started to organize nptech ties to help colleague, Wendy Harman - and now they're also connecting with Ushahidi.

Crisis Camps

Jake Brewer over at Sunlight Foundation let me know about Civic Hackers Haiti going on this weekend in Silicon Valley as well as in other locations.

Crisis Mapping in Haiti from Ushahidi, Donate by Texting

My colleagues at Ushahidi have already swung into action and are mapping crisis information from Haiti. (Disclaimer: I'm on the board).  For those you who arenot familiar with Ushahidi, they have a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Their goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response.

They also have a list of charitable organizations/ngos doing work in Haiti that need donations - like Partners in Health. If you want donate, make sure you keep your scam filter active ... You can also text to give to the American Red Cross: Text HAITI to 90999 donate $10 to the Red Cross for Haiti efforts. You can donate $10 up to three times, and 100% of the donations will reach the Red Cross Foundation. This effort is run by Mobile Accord. $3 million has already been donated.

MobileActive has an aggregated list of places to donate or find additional information.

Can Social Network Analysis Help You Improve Your Social Media Strategy?

2009 - Connected Action - Marc Smith - Social Media Network Analysis

View more presentations from Marc Smith.

In  our book, The Networked Nonprofit, co-authored with Allison Fine, we provide an overview of mapping your social network in Twitter and other sites using some of the social network analysis tools available.  

As someone who loves to play with analytics, visuals, maps, and other geekery, I've been wanting to explore in more depth the how-to and the techniques.   To take my learning deeper on  social network analysis and mapping techniques and how they can be applied them to a social media strategy, I took a workshop with Marc Smith.  He is a self-described "Internet Sociologist" and developer of NodeXL. The workshop was organized by colleague, Tatyana Kanzavelli

This FREE software works as an add-on template in Excel, allows you import data from Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Email and create social network analysis maps.  It doesn't require that you know a programming language, although you need to understand the basic vocabularly of social network analysis and how to translate this to your social media strategy.   After all, data is only as good as it is actionable!   Otherwise, you waste a lot of time creating meaningless, but cool maps.

What I liked best about this workshop and the instructor is that it wasn't on the software features. He gave context of social network analysis, explained the value proposition for using it to help you make social media strategy improvements, and walked us through some examples in the software.  I learned a lot but need to spend more time with the tool and terminology - and apply it to a real world situation.

What I'd love to see is a cheat sheet that maps out the technical social analysis terms with strategy tactics so you knew which analysis run to make what decisions.  Or, a guide to before/after maps so you could see how visualizing your network helped you improve strategy.  

I loved getting context in workshops and Marc didn't disappoint.  For example, I learned that the first ever social networking analysis map was created by Jacob Moreno. It looked at the relationships between players on a football team. Who liked each other, who didn't.  Apparently this team chemistry is important to winning.

My notes:

• People are using social media for social interaction and leaving what Eugene Eric Kim called "ant trails."  Social networking analysis can track those interactions (replies, commenting, like, etc) and help you make decisions with your strategy.

• Without social networking analysis, it's like a weatherman trying to predict a snowstorm without seeing a whole weather map.   It gives you a 10,000 view of your ecosystem.   Without this visualization, it's like three blind men touching the elephant.  There's too much unstructured data (comments, replies, likes, etc) - you need to see a picture or map.

• When you map your network, it tells you a story.  Who is connected to whom?  How are they interacting?  Where are the clusters?   Who are the influencers? Who are the bridge builders between clusters? Who is in the edges?  Who isn't connected? Who should I spend my time responding to and cultivating?   The analysis looks at frequency of interaction, relationship structure (two-way, one-way), and helps reveal structural similarities.

• An individual's online social behavior and connections can be looked at against social networking analysis characteristics and different profiles or roles are then created.  He showed an example of this in an online community SNA and pointed out the lurkers, conversation starters, trolls, based on particular patterns in the map. 

• He covered social network analysis 101 and key metrics including  centrality, cohesion, density, and betweeness.   That last one, "betweeness" describes how long the path is between people. There is great power and responsibility in the people have high betweeness.   To illustrate this, he showed a social network analysis based on voting record of senators.  Not surprisingly, it clusters into two groups, plus there a few senators who ranked high in "betweeness."  Can you guess who they are?

• Social network analysis help you figure out who, where, how much, and how people in your network are connected.   Seeing these relationships in aggregate helps you make decisions.

How are you using social network analysis concepts to help guide your decisions in social media strategy for external communications?   Have some examples? Share them in the comments.

Network + Self-Organizing + Location + Data Visualization = 2010

I've been playing in a sand box to explore online collaboration/social media tools and how they support network weaving.  The big ah ha for me during our reflection that was that effective online collaboration tools for working in a networked way can't have top-down control interaction design.  This gets in the way of everyone being able to do a little bit of work.  It isn't just about tool features, you have to understand how working in a networked way is embedded in the interaction design of the tool. 

I think it is more than just having self-organizing values embedded in the way the tool works.  I think these are four qualities to look for:

• Network:  This is a collection of people and organizations that linked together.  It's your professional social network or a network of organizations or typically both.
• Self-Organizing:  The ability for people to work together without a centralized or top down coordinator.  It means letting go of control and letting others help you.
• Location:   We are no longer tethered to our desktops or offices, but with mobile phones, GPS, and other "where" technology, location is important.
• Data Visualization:  Given the volume of information and our ability to connect with more people, in order to manage our work visualization is now critical.   This comes in the form of maps or other creative ways to see our networks.

It's funny how you discover an insight and then apply that lens to what you're seeing and patterns emerge.   I've come across three different tools that embed these principles.  These ideas are going to have an impact on the way nonprofits use the Web in 2010 and into the next couple of years.

Lucy Bernholz tipped me off to Groundcrew is a web/mobile software that organizes groups of people in real time in real life to work on projects and allows for complex coordination of tasks and communities.   As the name implies, it is a way to turn the crowd into a crew.   Network members can see who is available to help at any moment and can quickly communicate assignments to help people work together.  This is a synthesis of real time tracking with real time coordination. 

Stowe Boyd did a video interview and analysis and comments on the "participation design"

I am particularly impressed by the self-organizing qualities of Groundcrew, around 'participation design', where the volunteers are handed more control about how their involvement should be applied in some project or activity, instead of just being told what to do.

I haven't played with it because the tool isn't free (after 30 day trial).   I don't want to fall into the "if you build they will come" trap.   This tool might work best for organizations that have already built a network on Twitter or Facebook - and could import their friends into the system or have a way to identify people in a geographic area who have an interest in their project or work.  

This tools like a good match for organizations that have the networked mindeset - value self-organizing and open participation.  I'm thinking about organizations such as 350 or Moms Rising.  For more traditional institutions that have worked in a particular way, embracing this tool might require addressing some cultural/change management issues first.

My Plancast for SXSW Session:  Crowdsourcing Social Change

I recently came across a tool called "Plan Cast" which incorporates these concepts but in a different way.  It is a social network where you share your future plans with your friends.  You can also follow other people's plans.  It easily allows you to share that information with your networks on Facebook or Twitter.   It is a little bit more flexible than the social travel applications like TripIt because you enter any type of event.  I've been noticing that in the comments a little bit of self-organizing on going.

Christine Egger shared an interesting presentation tool called Prezi that allows you to bust out of the linear powerpoint trap and present in a more flexible way. This might be a useful application if you're doing a session where you want to avoid talking at people, but want to integrate some visuals. Or, if you're presenting complex ideas - to be able to provide a macro, micro view.

How do you see the ideas of network, self-organizing, location, and data visualization impacting your nonprofit's work?  What tools have you been using that incorporate these concepts?

Real-Time Web Social Action Events: Blurring the Offline/Online Distinction?

Two weeks ago, I wrote up my prediction for fundraising trends for 2009.   My guess is as we enter 2010, might we see the invention of Real Time Web fundraising events  As more nonprofit explore the possibilities of location-based social networks and fundraising, the distinctions between online/offline fundraising will melt away.  It's real time and location based social networks are also impacting advocacy.

Joe Solomon has a post over at Netsquared called "Social Media Powered Hope" and reports:

Yesterday, the first ever hashtag made it into the center of the UN climate negotiations, #WeStandwithTuvalu (a Pacific island nation) -- an action that was coordinated by SMS inside the conference in Copenhagen. The 350.org Facebook community has thrown their weight behind the Maldives President by leaving comments on his Facebook page. This wasn't just an online petition, it was a new form of solidarity. Last week, a young climate leader inspired real people to light real candles of hope through a YouTube video.

Joe wants us all to show world leaders that the wired world means one that is more educated, connected, and actionable.   The call to action:

Will you spread this Facebook postcard by clicking here -- and then click "Share."

Then click here to start a Vigil this weekend -- and add it to the global map of thousands (<- there may already be one!)

A Consumer's Guide To Low-Cost Data Visualization Tools from Idealware

View MacBookPro Travelogue in a larger map

This map show the route that a new MacBook Pro made from a factory in China to Arizona.  Colleague Alan Levine customized a google map.   Each push pin (that looks like a MacBook Pro) is a page from a travel diary written by his new laptop.   It's worth a few minutes to get a good laugh. 

I can just imagine Alan tracking his new computer's journey using the UPS Tracker feature.   Think about how having a visual representation of the trip, rather than a stream of time/date stamps and zip codes makes it easier to understand.  What's even better is that the software, google maps is free.

It got me thinking again about low-cost data visualization tools.   What's out that?  What can the tools do?  And, in a nutshell, what are some visual information tips?

I didn't have to look any further than the Idealware site and a recent report, "A Consumer's Guide To Low-Cost Data Visualization Tools" to get the answers.  The report includes a summary of design principles, some common visual formats, as well as a review and comparison of free/low cost tools.   This report is one of many free reports on nonprofit software that Idealware has published over the years.

Idealware has recently launched a fundraising campaign for its Research Fund to cover part of the costs of producing similar reports.  I donated with the hope that down the road the next version of data visualization tools report will include low cost or free social networking analysis tools.

Guest Post by Steve Waddell: Systems Mapping for Non-Profits - Part 1

See larger image here:

Map from:  Waddell, Steve. 2005.  A Learning History of the CARE LAC - Institute for Strategic Clarity Guatemala Poverty Project.  Institute for Strategic Clarity, March 15

Note from Beth:  As visiting scholar at the Packard Foundation, I'm connecting with other people who are studying and learning about how networks work.  A lot of the ideas resonate with using online social networks and social media effectively for nonprofits, especially in the larger frame of movement building.   This week at the Packard Foundation,  I had the opportunity to meet Steve Waddell whose research focuses on Global Action Networks.

One of the tools for better understanding networks are visual diagnostics and mapping techniques.  This another area of Steve's interest and expertise.   He co-authored a paper called "Visual Diagnostics and Mapping for Scaling Change" and we had an opportunity to discuss it.  He agreed to write a four-part primer on a visual diagnostics, mapping, and social networking analysis primer and how nonprofits might use these tools for social change.

We can easily be overwhelmed by the complexity of our work.  Every non-profit works with “systems” – internal ones relating to how work gets done, issue systems relating to the topic that the NGO is working to address, and mental model systems about strategy.  Clearly “seeing” those systems is important for success.  There are new forms of “mapping”, including social network analysis, which can vastly enhance and speed understanding of the systems.  They are diagrams of arrows and nodes that can communicate tremendous amounts of information visually much more easily than volumes of text.  

Within a system are stakeholders that can include individuals, organizations, networks of organizations, the range of their actions, their ways of thinking vis-à-vis the issue, and the natural and man-created environmental factors that influence the system. Stakeholders may or may not identify themselves as participants in the system.  One of the challenges of developing an issue system is to build participants’ identity with it;  this is critical to creating effective action to realize opportunities, address needs and respond to challenges. 


A core concept in systems mapping is “purpose”.  Generally there are three types of purposes that are priorities for non-profits to understand. 

1. Production System: The purpose here is the non-profit’s itself, and the maps describe relationships and roles in realizing the purpose;  this commonly models how the organization does its work. 
2. Issue System:  This system is where the non-profit is one of many entities that are working to address an issue such as health care, deforestation, peace, and community development.
3. Mental Models: These visuals describe how people (individuals, groups) think the world works, such as theories of change, power structures, and cause-effect models in general.

Each type of mapping has specific benefits.  The production system maps aid an organization to understand how work actually gets done, in comparison to formal org charts.  This analysis can assist in bringing greater alignment between the two, which in turn reduces conflict and enhances productivity.

Issue mapping allows a non-profit to understand key leverage points in the bigger system it is trying to influence.  These are points that, when focused upon, have a large ratio of amount-of-effort to desired-change.  The focus can involve application of resources, or actually reducing resources.

The mental model mapping can uncover conflict, make it discussable, and enhance effectiveness.  People can understand why someone else is doing what they are doing.  Often this helps people understand that their mental model may be important, but incomplete vis-à-vis the change goal – and therefore help people’s respective efforts connect much more effectively. 


These maps can include literally hundreds of nodes and arrows, or very few.  Experience working with people around the world proves that even relatively complex systems with even a couple of hundred nodes can be understood by people with very limited education.  Key is a participatory development process.  The map illustrating this post was  developed by a couple of dozen people in Guatemala from their mental models, to support CARE to vastly enhance its impact.  An evaluation a year later showed that the process was transformational from two perspectives:  people had significantly changed their relationships (who they were working with), and they had significantly changed how they understood their work vis-à-vis others’.  

This is part 1 of a series of social networking analysis techniques.  The next installment will explain two types of social networking analysis techniques, web crawling and inter-personal/inter-organizational ties.

What are your questions about system mapping and how you might use this in organization's strategy for movement building?

As Principal of Networking Action, Steve Waddell applies his 20+ years of experience in multi-stakeholder network development to address complex issues regionally and globally.

My Interview on WBZ about Live Mapping Your Vacation

Click to Play

A few weeks back, I twittered that I was typing for the b-roll.  This was for an interview on WBZ-TV about how people are using online mapping applications to share their vacation experiences.   

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall: Practice With Google Maps Street View

My Flickr Stream

 

Pretty cool new feature from Google Maps - street view.  You click on street view and you can see 360 photo of the street.  I'm reminded about what Jerry from Electronic Sheep said at the 2006 Games for Change Conference about virtual worlds as a platform.  He something along the lines that the next web platform will be walking through google maps in 3D.

Cool Mashup of GoogleMaps for Advocacy via Global s

I couldn't attend the Global s Summit this year in person, but did it via IRC ever so briefly.   I'm kept up to date by traditional means too - like this Wired article.  Check out the Tunisian Prison Map.

Tunisian exile Sami Ben Gharbia is the creator of the Tunisian Prison Map -- an idea inspired by a New York Times interactive map charting murder locations in New York City. Gharbia turned the concept on its head: Instead of showing government figures on crime, he'd display where his former government was behaving criminally, imprisoning political dissidents for daring to speak out.

What visual representations of geographic data can help tell your organization's or cause's story? What are some ways that this could be used to enhance a nonprofit's program delivery?

When you click on a place-mark on Gharbia's Google Maps mashup, a pop-up reveals details, stories and videos of prisoners and their families. The map is compelling and provocative, and it's one more reason Gharbia, who now lives in the Hague, says he can't go home.

Best Nonprofit Use of Google Maps and Flickr Mashup

I have to point you over to Steve Bridger's post about the Full Stop Campaign.  The Flickr Mashup is pretty cool too.  What level of technical skills does it take to do something like that?  How did they measure their success?

Flickr Has Integrated Geotagging!

Flickr has added a new feature to its organizer - the ability to add geotags to your photos.  And best of all it is done visually.   There is now a map tab where you can navigate to a location and then automatically add the geotags to that location to a flickr photo or batch of photos.   The feature also includes privacy controls so you can make the geotag private independently of the friends/family privacy codes.

But it gets better:  flickr is now using screencasts!

Here's the how-to information in the FAQ
Here's the screencast: Geotags

Next thing I did was geotag some of the photos from our vacation.  So for example, if you were looking at my photo set of Lucy of the Elephant and clicked on the map you will see where the photo was taken!

You can also use the geotags and the map in flickr to explore photos. Here's a screencast that explains how. This has some wonderful potential for educational projects, think 4th grade geography.

Our Vacation on Flickr and Wayfaring Map

So, while I'm waiting for my 2800 plus email messages to download and organizing almost as many flickr photos, I discovered a wonderful new FREE mapping program called Wayfaring. You can plot your route, describe it, use tags, have other people track you, blog it, and oh so cool.  So, I plotted our vacation where we logged almost as many miles as I have email messages and linked to flickr photo sets.

Pretty cool? 

Here's how a nonprofit has used this combination of tools for the Drive Beyond Oil.  How else could a nonprofit use flickr and wayfaring to promote a cause or fundraising event.  I can see how Relay for Life or LLS/Team in Training might use it.  What others?

Great Visual: Why Before What or How

It's here.  I'd love to make one like this for tagging.

Technorati Tags: nptag

UK Riders Frappr Map

This is the map from the UK Riders Frappr group.  (I have no idea why the widget script didn't work, so took a screen capture and edited in Photoshop).    Teresa Crawford mentioned that the eriders site would be migrating to frappr.   (BTW, the eriders site has lots great content!)

Warning: Don't Read This If You Are On Deadline ...

Nancy White told me about Microsoft's new mapping service called Windows Local Live.   The bird's eye views gives you a photo of the location.   I put in my home address -- the photos are at least 2-3 years old because we put a roof on the deck and the photo shows it before we put the roof on the deck.  You can also blog it, but your MSN spaces blog.