Interact with the Agenda: Engagement Deep Dive
Agenda Anchor Sam Dorman developed an innovative agenda for WOC11, grounded in conversations about the big themes in our space. Read the entire agenda outline here.
In the community spirit of Web of Change, we want to start having these conversations now, before the event begins, and with members of our community who can't make it to Hollyhock this year.
This week's topic: Engagement. Here's what the Fellows had to say:
Grassroots and Online Organizing, Unite!
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There's still a huge disconnect between digital organizing and grassroots organizing. We need a conversation about what a deep engagement ladder looks like. — Mike Norman, SoChange, WOC 2011 Fellow |
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I've seen great anecdotal evidence that people on email lists want more connection, want to feel a deeper part of a community. I have tremendous hope for what can be cultivated. But we have to be so much more honest about what it takes. — Jessy Tolkan, Citizen Engagement Lab, WOC 2011 Fellow |
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It's people who have the experience of being traditional organizers, who understand how technology and the internet tactically integrate into the strategy of a campaign, in terms of delivering a certain outcome. — Joaquin Guerra, Campaign for Community Change, WOC 2011 Fellow |
Re-imagining Relationships
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It's about re-imagining the relationships your organization has with people. What would it look like if you partnered with people outside your organization in a new networked way - you know, like the way Twitter partners with its users to build its social network? — Gideon Rosenblatt, Alchemy of Change, WOC 2011 Fellow |
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We reach a lot of young people. So how does that 20-something become the ambassador who reaches the teen, parent, or grandparent in their communities? — Monica Novoa, Applied Research Center, WOC 2011 Fellow |
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What kind of opportunities are you offering to provide more authority and responsibility to people you care about? What does a two-way relationship look like for the people you're trying to bring in? — Karen Uffelman, Groundwire, WOC 2011 Fellow |
Keeping It Real and Ideal
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I’m interested in creating really true, authentic ways of engaging people online. — Laurie Ignacio, Presente.org, WOC 2011 Fellow |
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With our audience, we need to speak to them in a way that's not poll tested and focus grouped. In a way that reflects real theories of change. — Joaquin Guerra, Campaign for Community Change, WOC 2011 Fellow |
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I’m deeply embedded in dreaming up what the ideal, fully matured online community of people looks like. That's how my mind works. I dream about what it looks like when we've succeeded, then try to walk backwards from there. — Jessy Tolkan, Citizen Engagement Lab, WOC 2011 Fellow |
Now your turn: what do you think? How are we, as a sector, building good relationships? How could we do better? What's rockin' and what's missing?
Add your voice in the comments (and ponder on Storytelling, too):
“I’ve worked plenty of places where mentorship was built in in one way or another, but I’ve never felt it as genuinely as I felt it at Web of Change. It was a gift I was not expecting to receive.”
