Share what you do -- share it online!
07:14, 20 November 2008
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt.. Link
Laurie Moy, an esteemed colleague and good friend, and Alanna Wong, are Master’s students at American University in Washington, DC. For their final project presentation for their Children in International Development course in the School of International Service, they did a web site, rather than a slide presentation. This means that their project, "The Invisible Population: Refugees with Disabilities in Jordan," is shared with everyone, not just classmates and the professor, and will live long after this class is over. It didn't create more work for Laurie and Alanna -- rather, it created a different way of working.
Whether you are working on a school or university-based project or a work-based project, consider sharing your work or project development online. Unless there's a concrete confidentiality issue that requires the activity to be secret from the public, there is no reason not to. You can write about it in your blog or an online social networking site, create a section of a web site to talk about the activity, or even create a web site or blog devoted solely to talking about the project.
Why share your work and project development online? You will network with other people working on similar projects, which can help you more quickly connect with helpful resources and can help your project be even more thorough. It also helps build awareness for and raises the profile of your organization and for YOU. You don't have to go entirely public if, for some reason, you feel that's inappropriate: you can keep the updates internal, available only via an Intranet (this can be as simple as a private YahooGroup of your volunteers). It's marketing and reputation-building through sharing and openness with a larger community. It's not more work; it's a different way of working.
A few years ago, I shared my Master's Degree research and resources regarding theater as a tool for development (specifically, the factors for success in such). No one told me to do it. But putting information about my project and my progress online brought me in contact with all sorts of people and resources that helped me with my project. It saved a huge amount of time for me, and helped further build a brand for myself regarding my work in development. And for a while, it was the number one resource on Google if you searched for: Theater for Development (now it's third or fourth). I never tried to make it prominent resource, but by merely putting up a basic web site, I attracted a lot of excellent resources and contacts.
Jayne Cravens
