ARTICLE & DISCUSSION: online communities

[Victoria Vrana]

Victoria Bernal at the Benton Foundation has written a fantastic piece on
nonprofits building online communities.  From her extensive experience
managing the community at Benton's Open Studio project (which helps artists
and art organizations get online and use the Internet effectively,) Victoria
gives practical advice for anyone running or thinking about starting an
online community.  Take a look!

<p>COMMUNICATE ONLINE:

** Keeping with this week's theme of online communities,  "Building Online
Communities: Transforming Assumptions Into Success," a new article by Benton
staff member Victoria Bernal, outlines four common assumptions that
nonprofits make when building online communities.  Using examples from the
nonprofit sector, Victoria explains these common pitfalls and provides
questions that can help nonprofits avoid falling prey to these assumptions.

<p>Common Assumptions include:

* Assumption #1: Goals and expectations: who needs them?
* Assumption #2: Everyone in the world will want to participate in our
online discussion.
* Assumption #3: Building and maintaining an online community doesn't take
much time or staffing.
* Assumption #4: We don't need a promotional strategy for our online
community; it's already online.

The article includes online resources that provide more in-depth information
about defining an online community's purpose, moderating a discussion, and
finding free discussion software.
<http://www.benton.org/Practice/Community/assumptions.html>

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ONLINE FORUMS
<http://www.helping.org/nonprofit/forums>

** On October 23-27 we'll host a discussion on building and managing online
communities with guest moderator Nancy White. Nancy will be available all
week to answer questions and talk about strategies for building, managing
and promoting online communities. During the discussion, Nancy will also be
talking with people who are planning to set up an online community for their
nonprofit. Over the five days she'll work with those
organizations as case studies. In the end they will have the foundation for
a great online community plan. Join us at <http://www.helping.org/nonprofit>
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Victoria Vrana
Morino Institute
vvrana at morino.org
http://www.youthlearn.org

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