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.
