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Thursday May 22, 2008
First thoughts on Google Friend Connect
Once upon a time, about five or six years ago years ago, Google was just my search engine. It allowed me to find things previously hidden on the vast and ever expanding world wide web. Then my friends discovered Googlewhacking – searching for a two word phrase that returned just one search result – and all the amusement that could be gained from entering a first name or a message board username into Googlism.
But, up until now at least, Google has not been my social network. Then, on Monday, Google announced a new service: Google Friend Connect.
The press release from Google states:
"With Google Friend Connect... any website owner can add a snippet of code to his or her site and get social features up and running immediately without programming - picking and choosing from built-in functionality like user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and reviews, as well as third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.Sounds good doesn't it. Sounds like a way to increase word-of-mouth promotion of your site, as members invite friends to join them on your website, as their actions – such as posting comments – are added to their social networking profiles. And there are advantages to users as well: a single log-in for any website which uses the Google FriendConnect service, for example, means no more remembering so many different passwords.
Visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more."
I can see this working on some websites. Google gives an example of a website about guacamole where users can rate recipes and give comments. I wouldn't care if my friends on Facebook knew what I thought about adding chillies to the dip.
However, on other sites, perhaps I'd rather be anonymous. I was thinking about TheSite.org this morning, and about how it's a great way for young people to find the information they need in a totally anonymous environment. Now say, I was to 'join' a website similar to TheSite.org using Friend Connect. When you set up a user profile, Google Friend Connect gives you the option of choosing a nickname to use on that particular website, and to nominate which social networks you'd like to broadcast your activity on. Say, I join the hypothetical website wanting to make a comment about a travel article – something I don't mind my friends knowing about, so I use my real name as a nickname and choose to link my activity on the site to Facebook. Then later I come back to the site and log-in. There's a 'settings' link where I could change my nickname and my social networking options, but I'm not automatically reminded about it. And say, I (being a hypothetical 'I' as well) then make a comment on an article about mental health or drugs – and suddenly this appears on my social networks: and then my friends know, and family members know, and colleagues know, and the whole benefit of the anonymous internet has been lost.
I was a member of MyBlogLog for a couple of weeks last year, before I started feeling uncomfortable about my icon appearing on the blogs I visited. While I thought it was unlikely that other users would want to follow my avatar through the blogosphere, building up a picture of my browsing history, there was always that chance...
When it comes down to it, I guess I'd like to keep my website browsing and my social networking separate. That's a personal choice and it's one that, as Google FriendConnect spreads, more and more of us might have to make. But installing the FriendConnect code on a website in the first place is also a choice, and one that is, despite the obvious marketing advantages it may bring to an organisation, worthy of further contemplation.
If you've got thoughts on any of this, feel free to leave a comment below.
(You don't have to use your real name).
Posted by Natasha Judd ( 4:45 PM ) Link to this post Comments[3]
Tuesday May 20, 2008
Farewell to Lesley
The last few months have seen a few changes at YouthNet. First of all we had the departure of Dom, our Digital Interactive Services Director – you can read about his memories of seeing Mickey Mouse naked here. Next week sees another YouthNet ol' timer move on to pastures new. This time it's Lesley Bourne, our Partnerships Director.
Read on to find out what Routemaster buses have got to do with volunteering, and remember if you've got any questions for Lesley before she goes, please add them as comments at the end.
In your time at YouthNet you must have seen do-it.org.uk grow enormously. Can you give us a picture of what do-it.org.uk and YouthNet was like when you first arrived?
I was the second member of staff to be added to the do-it team. I discovered that even though we had about 300 partners located all over the place from Northumberland to Cornwall, very few of them had really bought into the project, lots of them were terrified of using the PC equipment we'd issued them with and none of them really knew how to operate the database we'd developed. They were all also very sceptical about this new fangled internet thing as a method of recruitment. So we embarked upon a programme of "loving them into submission" by travelling the length and breadth of the country to start to talk do-it up and do some training.
And our office was situated right over the air vent of the Pizza Hut below – we'd all get hungry at about 11 when they started cooking. You couldn't open the window in the summer either as the air coming in was warmer than the air inside – and more garlic scented...
And how about the volunteering sector as a whole?
Well it's more convinced of the power of the web now! People are still a bit uncertain about how much help to give volunteers who apply via the web and I think we've got more work to do in helping volunteers and partners get a positive and efficient experience via online brokerage. However, stats speak for themselves – web audience for volunteering is very diverse.
I think that the sector as a whole has become more "professional" in that there is now a growing recognition that volunteer managers need better support and training. There is a fine line though in creating a great environment for volunteers to flourish and developing a culture of bureaucracy - I think the sector is terribly risk averse these days which is a shame.
Young people's volunteering is also currently the focus of government attention which has been a mixed bag for YouthNet – it would be good to see funders and particularly the government taking a more holistic view of the sector and thinking about how to encourage all parts of the infrastructure to work collaboratively together and in a sustainable way.
Keeping more than 400 partner organisations happy must be a bit of a challenge – especially when they all have differing requirements. Have you got any tips on how to how to manage that?
Benign dictatorship! It is hard sometimes but can also be very enlightening – there are a surprising amount of similarities and needs across the various parts of the sector. Technically, it has been a very difficult project to keep all parties happy as people are in such different pleases with IT capability, kit etc. I'd say that a key part of our success has been in consulting widely and being as transparent as possible about what you do next and why. We have had to be tough sometimes, but reminding people of the end goal (i.e. volunteers needs) rather than their own organisations has also helped.
What's your best memory of working for YouthNet?
It's always heartening to see great feedback from partners and users when you get it right. I saw a quote from one of our Volunteer Centre partners recently that said that we had revolutionised the way they work and that we were indispensable.
And your worst/most frustrating?
I have the reputation of being the office Eyore, so I'm surprised you've allowed me room for this one – now where to begin.....
A perennial frustration is finding out that organisations are still saying "If only we had one place on the Internet where we could list/find out about volunteering". A nice big fat Marketing budget could help solve that one.
My favourite worst memory is probably also my funniest – YouthNet had a brief dalliance with an "e-bus" with the idea that we'd have this sleek, mobile PC offering. In reality, it was a temperamental old Routemaster bus that broke down with alarming regularity. We took it to an event in Manchester– it died at Warrington services before it had even got there, and we spent the rest of the day performing death defying feats in the blazing sun to keep the satellite dish running and fending off the local little darlings who spent their whole time surfing porn. The day ended with an AA man jump starting the bus and then us having to guide it offsite in the dark as the headlights had gone –happy days.
Where do you see volunteering heading in the next five to ten years?
I think volunteering still needs to get comfortable with the way that society has changed – no one has a job for life so it's unrealistic to expect a volunteer for life. We need to focus more on giving people a great experience so that they keep coming back rather than worrying that they might leave. Volunteering still needs to find a way to measure outputs and outcomes better so that we can steer funders away from the "bums on seats" funding formula. I also think that the education sector could still be a great place to engage young people in volunteering – even at a primary school age – I'd love to see some developments around this as part of the new interest in young volunteers.
If you had a blank slate (and unlimited funding!), what would you do with do-it.org.uk?
Banks of techies beavering away on V-Base so we could meet all our partners needs, huge investment into the do-it website with a radically different application system, personalisation, enhanced searching, overseas opportunities etc etc. Obviously we'd need a whole new wing for the massive partnerships team so they can offer enhanced account management, develop e-training, offer consultation etc. And the massive marketing budget to get us under the noses of the nation.
What will you be up to after you leave?
Moving the family to the hills of Wales where I will be indulging my self sufficiency passions with gardening, chickens, permaculture and bees. And finally getting a dog with a bit of luck – our cats are going to love it........
If you could sum up your time at YouthNet in three words, what would they be?
Change, change, change
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 8:48 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Monday May 19, 2008
Why we need to champion volunteer youth leaders
The recent spate of teenage killings in London and the subsequent election of Boris Johnson as the capital’s mayor has brought the issue of providing out-of-school opportunities for young people to the forefront. Mayor Boris has already said he’s going to invest in weekend activities for young people in an effort to crush the blight of gangs and gang-culture.
It’s all very good offering money, but many of these activities are already provided by the voluntary sector. Indeed one of the standard cries of certain commentators in both the media and political arenas is “why aren’t they taking part in after school clubs?” before reeling off a long-list of activities they had access to when they were young.
The response, if you ask any of the charities who run these activities, is that they simply don’t have the number of adults willing to run these projects, especially outside of leafy-surburbs and market towns and villages. My own experience of running a youth group based in Handsworth, a struggling part of Birmingham, was that within weeks of realising there was something fun and engaging to do I had a weekly stream of new young people wanting to get involved. Yet with just me and one other adult volunteer we couldn’t reasonably take more than 15 of them.
I hated the fact I had to turn young people away; but the brutal truth was I couldn’t be expected to cater for all of them. I hated the fact that when I discovered one of them was only 9, I had to stop him coming because our minimum age was 10 (and why should I allow him in when there were 10 and 11 year olds who we were turning away?). I knew he’d be wandering the streets whilst his older brother was benefitting from the group.
Sat in the pub on Friday night, the group I was with got on to discussing being involved in youth groups. Of the six around the table, 4 or 5 had been involved in one group or another at some point whilst growing up; and pretty much all of them had had positive experiences.
What, however, was more interesting was the attitude towards the leaders who helped out. The nudge-nudge, wink-wink attitude about leaders, especially males, and them volunteering to work with young people. The inference being that anyone who took on these sorts of roles must have some sort of ulterior or underhand motive.
And yet, ask any of these organisations and they’ll tell you that engaged, motivated and high-calibre youth leaders (male and female) are like gold-dust. They are crying out for leaders not just to expand their services, but to keep them running at their current level. They are not just a fantastic asset for the organisation but brilliant role-models for the young people involved.
But we’re never going to make volunteering with young people attractive if those that do, even in the confides of pub banter, are being labelled in an extremely negative way. We make huge demands on volunteers who work with young people, we shouldn’t be adding to that by expecting them to defend themselves against those kinds of lurid accusations, even if they are said in jest.
The sector needs to do more to tackle this negative portrayal and present volunteering with young people in a positive way. Because not only is it becoming increasingly difficult to recruit into these roles, but more volunteer leaders are simply going to decide it’s more hassle than it’s worth.
And then eventually the only people left willing to volunteer to work with young people will be exactly the sort of people who probably shouldn’t.
Posted by Olly Benson ( 10:42 AM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Friday May 02, 2008
People to people fundraising and web 2.0 - what does it mean for fundraisers?
I went to two conferences this week, both of with featured sessions on social networking and fundraising. The first was "Communicating Success" on Wednesday, which attracted a mixed bag of fundraisers and comms people, and the second took place yesterday afternoon and was purely focussed on "people to people" fundraising, social networking and web2.0.
Ted Hart, the US-based online fundraising guru was at both, and the yesterday's seminar was also the launch of his new book "People to People Fundraising – social networking and web 2.0 for charities".
Both were really useful, and helped to shed some light on what can sometimes seem like a bit of a rudderless mess down here in the fundraising world.
To grossly paraphrase the key points from both seminars (and I hope I'm not stealing anyone's thunder here):
- People to people fundraising online is just the same as offline – it's all about relationships and it's what fundraisers have been doing since the cows came home;
- The goal is "less fundraising, more inspiring";
- As things stand, charities aren't raising significant money from Facebook. There's a stack of data to back this up – Clint O'Brien from Care2 had some really interesting stats about the amounts most non-profits are generating from Facebook (eg. average donation per supporter on Facebook is $1.24). Having said that, Allan Benamer has some interesting stats on the Causes application – which has processed around $2 million in one year;
- Charities (and fundraisers) need to be better at "getting out of the way". Increasingly, donors want to share experiences with the charities they support – the more authentic, the better;
- This also presents huge challenges in terms of reporting impact. Look at www.kiva.org – a site that's extremely effective at putting you in contact with the people you're supporting;
- Organisational models need to change. Silo working won't work in this multi-disciplinary world, you need input from Marketing, Comms, Fundraising and Web teams.
For me, some of the key challenges facing fundraisers are:
- How do we build a business case for investing time and money in fundraising from social networks, especially when we know it's not a quick win financially (check out Frog Loop's Social ROI calculator for one take on this);
- Where does this sit within the organisation? If we work in silos, fundraising from social networks will never reach it's true potential;
- How can we make an individual's interaction with our charity as authentic as possible? And how can we "get out the way" when we really need to?
- How do we avoid (or at least remain mindful of) potentially asking our beneficiaries for money, given that they inhabit this web 2.0 world as well?
This final point is particularly pertinent for us here at YouthNet. As a purely online charity, separating the audience that needs and benefits from our content from those that can and want to support us is a challenge. The last thing we want to do is make anyone feel like they have to support us in return for finding the information they need on our sites – whether it's www.do-it.org.uk or www.TheSite.org.
Plenty of challenges there then. Anyone have any thoughts?
P.S. In answer to Peter Deitz's question "Is People to People fundraising dead, or just getting started?" – my two pennies worth is that we're just working it out. For me, the exciting thing is we're just working out what does and doesn't work, and where to focus our energies. So, it's a time for experimentation, openness and willingness to make some mistakes.
The question has opened up some interesting debate – check out the Justgiving blog for their view.Posted by Sam Thomas ( 9:04 AM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
