Web of Change

During the Peer-to-peer breakout sessions (aka “Workshopping your Issue”) a group of us created an ad hoc session focusing on the web site design and development issues faced by the Council of Canadians, a progressive national organization with 70 local chapters scattered across the country.

The Council’s challenge is to create a unified yet flexible web presence for the largely autonomous chapters, while still keeping control of branding and much of the messaging.

Problem Statement (Council of Canadians)

The Council’s requirements and constraints include:

with Roz Lemieux (New Organizing Institute), Liz Butler (ForestEthics) and Michael Silberman (EchoDitto)

notes by Roz Lemieux 

Examples of Online Campaigns Yielding Offline Action

• Forest Ethics: Victoria’s Secret campaign
o Goal: Day of action → bring independent actions that happened yearly already together under one umbrella campaign
o Success: 350 actions → campaign win in the pipeline now
o Elements of success:

with Leda Dederich (dotOrganize) and Liz Butler (ForestEthics)

Notes by Phillip Djwa

We need to be thinking about the experience of working with organizations that lack a strategic focus and merge traditional organizing and think about better processes for that.

Talk was about the process for campaign strategy, look at Forest Ethics as a case study, and look at the main questions we have about integrating technology into campaigns.

A lot of times organizations don't have a strategy and/or don't know how to integrate technologies , but as "technologists" (i.e. web people) we are asked to create a website to support them.

However, actually sometimes it is campaign strategy that is needed. Also, technologists that want to help organizations need to know about the campaign to assist in terms of speaking their language.

with Philip King, Artez Interactive and Tom Williams, GiveMeaning

notes by Katherine Dodds

Framing Question:
Is it more important to concentrate on Fundraising? Or message?

Key is Finding affinity networks.

Philip King, Artez Interactive

Who am I , who is Artez – based in TO Ontario
Build tools for charities -- we provide a simple solution

- Fundraising with techies – blend
We have Canadian clients US Clients
- GetActive - provide our technology through GetActive
- Fundraising solutions

Came from United Way, I’m interested in Social Network Fundraising – not the Rich folks asking rich folks … tired of that model
Pledge based special events, Breast Cancer Run – at the end of the day – its an individual – and that individual would be a fundraiser”

Tom Williams, GiveMeaning

Questions and discussion with Jodie Tonita

Notes by Steve Andersen

There is not a culture of list building in Canada
* Canada looks to the US for ideas on this
* Canada doesn't have access to the voter file like US folks do

Popcorn Questions

What are the ways that we build lists?
** we lie and coerce to get people to give up their name when all we really want to do is ask them for money
** we get obsessed about it and are concerned about size of list

This session was organized talk-show style, with the ever-charismatic host Philip Smith, from Community Bandwidth. Philip welcomed the studio audience (it was being podcast) and introduced the panel: Michelle Hoar, from BC's political online publication, The Tyee; Dean Ericksen, from the environmental online daily, Grist; and Audrey Watson, from Yes!, a quarterly magazine dedicated to social justice issues.

Philip lobbed a number of broad questions, which panelists caught with aplomb, offering interesting commentary from their particular perspectives. Dean kept things lively by peppering the conversation with cheeky one-liners.