Supercharging Communities of Practice

This blog post is one of series exploring various aspects of the Feb. 15-17 Tech Soup Global Contributors' Summit. Find a subjective report from Daniel Ben-Horin about the Summit here. A tagged, searchable report on all the projects planned coming out of the Summit will be posted with a target date of mid-April.

Summit Topic: Supercharging Communities of Practice

The ideas that are percolating between TechSoup Global and PdF particularly excite me. Our NetSquared Local model, currently operating in 80 cities around the world, can leverage the content produced by the vital community that has grown up around open data and we.gov issues, a community to which PdF has great access.

I think everyone is aware that there is a delicate blend of online and offline that leads to effective communities of practice and action. It is exciting for many of us at the TechSoup Global Network to actively consider what we can bring to this emerging arena of social action. Central and Eastern Europe is a particular focus for our Network, with the Fundacja TechSoup office in Warsaw able to supply a high level of infrastructural support. We are also fortunate to have The C.S. Mott Foundation, at our side, as a funder and advisor, and we welcomed Vera Dakova from Mott's Civil Society Program, based in London, to the Summit. In this context, it was great to see on the to-do list of Timothy Pylate of the Eurasia Foundation's items like

• Continue my discussions with TechSoup in Poland on establishing the program here in Ukraine.
• Open a discussion with YOU re cooperation in Belarus and Moldova.
• Follow up with David Moore from the Participatory Politics Foundation regarding the possibility of having them create a platform for us on tracking the activities of local elected officials in Ukraine.
• Follow up with Ben Berkowitz from SeeClickFix to discuss how we might use a similar platform for our e-governance programs in Ukraine.

Likewise, in terms of our emerging work in CEE, the Summit allowed us to better know Alexander Spiegelfeld of the Erste Foundation in Vienna and Nathan Koeshall of the Balkan Trust in Belgrade and continue discussions on how some of the tools we are learning how to use can support the communities of practice they prioritize.

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Ben Berkowitz of SeeClickFix definitely has some new dance partners; He'll be talking to IREX about their media training groups, and also their library program in Romania, and with Chris Worman about the TechSoup program there. Then it's just a short hop to India, where Bill Unger of Samasource board has some ideas about how the two organizations can collaborate there. Meanwhile Bill Strathmann at Network for Good has designs on SCF too…. After weakly begging off for the a.m. of Day 1 (Valentine's Day? Don't make me go all revolutionary guards on you, Billy), Strathmann sprang off of his red eye from DC in a relaxed, collaborative mood. Re SCF he wrote, "Network for Good is increasing its training to nonprofits on tech tools that help engage their communities and drive donations. We're reaching over 150,000 nonprofit professionals today. SeeClickFix is a great community tool that has a latent role for small nonprofits (imagine the Anacostia Watershed Society adopting the region it cares about on SeeClickFix and accessing/engaging citizens who care about the same issues in the same geographic area – trash in the Anacostia River), but SeeClickFix does not have access to small nonprofits (nonprofits don't know it exists or how they could use it)."

In our history, TSG has always talked about "nonprofits." When we started working globally, we talked about "nonprofits and NGOs." There are good reasons to focus on these organizations and a significant part of our Global Data Services program is to help them become visible — to funders, and to collaborators and the public. But, fundamentally, it is a cul-de-sac to argue about whether nonprofits, or social entrepreneurs, or other civil society actors, or the private sector, or government is going to drive inclusion and change. They all are or it won't happen. And I am convinced that ultimately communities of practice, composed of stakeholders from all these sectors, will be pivotal. How can we help the most meaningful ones succeed?