Web 2.0 – Hip, Hype, and Happening
Author: Meridian Napoli

Maybe you’ve heard about or even explored MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or Second Life, all examples of Web 2.0 platforms.  Maybe you know about wikis or have contributed to one of the 11 million articles now available on Wikipedia.  But what exactly are these tools, and how can we use them as grants managers to further our foundations’ missions?  Here are a few definitions and examples of ways these vehicles are impacting the work we do as grant managers.

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org), which, by the way, is the largest nonprofit website and one of the top five most visited web properties in the world, offers up the following definitions:

Web 2.0: “…describe[es] changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, collaboration, and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and … hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”

Social Networking: “…focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.  Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact.”

Second Life: “…[an] Internet-based 3D virtual world…[that] enables its users, called ‘Residents’, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse.  Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade items (virtual property) and services with one another.” (www.secondlife.com)

Wiki: “[A] page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content. …Wikis are used in business to provide intranets and Knowledge Management systems.”

Facebook: “A social networking website…users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people.  People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves.” (www.facebook.com)  Similar sites: Myspace (www.myspace.com) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com).

Twitter: “A free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.  Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them…via the Twitter website, …email or through an application….” (www.twitter.com)  Twitter is one of the hot examples of a blog or very upscale instant messaging.

Now that we have some definitions, how can we use Web 2.0 to make a difference in our work?  The power of Web 2.0 and its platforms is dependent on how much it is used.  The Grants Managers Network’s GIGI, a wiki of sorts, is a great example of how Web 2.0 may already be an active part of your world.  Through this social network, grants managers can connect with other grants managers, learn how they are dealing with issues, and share documents such as award letters and policies.  But Web 2.0 has evolved to a point where this interaction can be even more personalized and immediate.

Through wikis, grants managers can post a document to a group of people residing anywhere in the world for edits or comments.  The Grants Managers Network (GMN) is again leading the way in this by delivering our new best practices manual, GM Guide: The Collective Knowledge of the Grants Managers Network, online as a wiki.  Subscribers will be able to review, comment on, and edit or add to its content in an iterative fashion, resulting in continually updated content.  Changes, such as the IRS elimination of the advance ruling process, for example, will now be available as soon as the news comes out and is updated on the wiki.  Now we will be able to access the most up-to-date information electronically, on demand, when we need it.  Cool, huh?

Ready for more coolness?  Many of you may have participated in online meetings or webinars, where you go to a website and view slides and listen to a speaker presenting. Although this is already being used as an important tool to overcome geographic and other constraints, imagine the possibilities of attending an online meeting in a virtual, three-dimensional world!  I (or my avatar, the virtual character version of me I have created, blue hair and all) can walk into a conference room, sit down in a chair next to other avatars and participate in a lecture or a training session much like in real life, all the while interacting with electronic documents, viewing videos or real-time streams, and/or listening to audio, etc.  This facilitates a different type of interactive learning that, compared to the webinar format, allows for a more personal and intimate experience.

The MacArthur Foundation has begun hosting a series of philanthropic and nonprofit dialogues within Second Life.  GMN’s own Kyle Reis has hosted several GMN conversations at the organization’s virtual office in the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life.  The Nonprofit Commons, hosted by San Francisco nonprofit TechSoup, now houses more than eighty nonprofits from around the world and hosts a weekly “in-world” meeting every Friday.  To date, only a handful of members have participated in the GMN meetings, but attendance is sure to grow as it meetings become more routine and topical. Perhaps this will motivate GMN members to join the next GMN virtual meeting, held the first Friday of every month at 4pm ET.  In addition to the great learning and networking opportunities, it is just plain fun to be able to fly, a feature available in Second Life.

The above are examples of “pull” medias where you go to places to find information.  But Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and their ilk can also be “push” mechanisms – meaning users can get self-selected information sent to them.  As a regular user of LinkedIn, I am a member of some very useful social network communities: Volunteer Management Group – Corporate, GMN, Nonprofit Professionals Forum, and Philanthropic Advisors Network.  Whenever something happens in one of those communities, members are alerted and can opt to engage in the dialogue.  Twitter delivers regular, quick emails (think instant messaging) posted by a member to its self-selected membership providing real time information.  Foundations can learn what their grantees may be saying about them much faster than by traditional methods.  This information can improve relationships and grantmaking (think Project Streamline).

Web 2.0 could change the grantmaking process itself.  Proposal reviews might take place in Second Life, for instance, with an applicant, a group of potential funders, and subject matter experts providing external opinion for all in attendance.  The grantseeker could give a presentation for all current and prospective funders to attend to try and build collaborative support among interested groups.  A nonprofit could host literacy training in Second Life, held at a virtual library, with the avatar instructor wearing a t-shirt sporting his or her organization’s logo.  Grant recipients can use Facebook to post information about the successes of the funded initiatives or areas where they need help for quick distribution and response.  And, for kids who enjoy video games, mediums like Second Life can offer innovative ways to promote learning and life skills.  For example, my own organization, Comcast Foundation, funded a literacy program through a local library.  The library brought students into the bricks and mortar library to use its computers to enter the virtual library it created in Second Life.  Within the virtual library it held literacy training for the students.  It was a great hit with the kids.  The library plans to continue the literacy training in their Second Life library with kids using library computers or accessing it from their own homes.