Directed at nonprofit organizations which Allison Fine terms Activist Organizations this book explores a shift in the way information is managed, owned, and shared in the age of social media online. It is well thought out, although already dated due to the rapidity with which this communication vehicle is developing. Everyone making recommendations to nonprofit leaders these days talks about how the new generation of donors wants to participate in a conversation with the organizations they decide to fund. Rarely do you find advice about the paradigm shift that must happen within organizations to make this work. Fine juxtaposes the paradigm that views information and networks as proprietary with one that views connectivity as an open network. She explains such things as blogs and wikkis, telling the uninitiated among us how they can benefit companies and organizations. The she poses five self-diagnostic questions for nonprofit boards to ask themselves, their staff and their volunteers:
- "How are people inside and outside the organization participating in decision making?
- Who are our network members and how are we interacting with them to achieve our mutual goals?
- Are we making as much information as we can openly and freely available to our network members?
- What conversations are we having, with whom, and for what purpose?
- What are we learning and how can we apply these lessons to our work?" (p. 136)
She also introduces "95 Theses" posted at http://www.cluetrain.com/. Read through the petition at the bottom of the home page to expose yourself and your organization to the ideas that characterize the Connected Age thinkers.
Fine, Allison H., Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age. c. 2006. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
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