Online Community Building
& e-Activism
WELCOME!
Presenters• David Keyes, Seattle Department of Infomration
Technology- Community Technology Program • Phillip Duggan, Pinehurst Community Council &
City of Seattle technology advisory board• Joe Szilagyi, Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights
Community Council & West Seattle Transit Coalition• Vicky Yuki , Seattle Department of Infomration
Technology- Community Technology Program• Host: Lindsey Greene, PACE Intern, Seattle
Department of Neighborhoods
When do we join in – offline or online?
Communication takes a lot of work!
• See scale on seattle.gov/CommunitiesOnline
MultichannelUp-to-dateInteractive
Diverse participation
OutdatedBrochure
AdoptionLow TechLow Engagement
Low TechHigh Engagement
High TechLow Engagement
High TechHigh Engagement
Online participants may be…
1. Visitors: Occasionally view content2. Followers: Subscribe to watch announcements regularly (via RSS, listserv, tweet, friending)3. Participators: Contribute content - comments, votes, ask questions4. Engagement leaders: Authors initial content, leads and encourages participation by others5. Managers: Responsible for overseeing a site that produces and distributes content or engagement (eg neighborhood blog manager)
Tools: expanding or exploding
Wordpress is one of the easiest to get started and build on.
See Rainer Valley Greenways for an example
Creating Community Solutions Nat’l Dialogue on Mental Health
http://www.creatingcommunitysolutions.org/resources
INNOVTIONS
The Conundrum!
• Post it where? How often?• Email• Facebook• Twitter• Website• Street kiosk• Newspaper• Etc etc etc
What’s working for us?
http://www.pinehurstseattle.org (update coming soon)
Email List (~400 people)
F A C E B O O K
What We’reNot Embracing
(yet)
What Next For Pinehurst?• More involvement – We’ve got 400-600 people in a
9600 person neighborhood on our various lists.– A small fraction of that participate regularly.
• More diversity of participation:– Race, income, renters– Group 001200-3 has a median income of $26,786 and is
Whites:65.5%, Hispanics:5.1%, Blacks:12.8%, Asians:12.9%, Others:8.8%
– Group 000600-6 has a median income of $75,750 and is Whites:59.6%, Hispanics:7.1%, Blacks:9.4%, Asians:21.6%, Others:9.4%
• Other tools?
What’s working for us?
wwrhah.wordpress.com
How we used the Internet for two West Seattle groups
WWRHAH Group: Mostly documentation
Facebook is our main meeting spaceWe use Facebook polling heavily
WSTC Group:Mostly to establish our presence
To advertise our meetings
"Power resides where men believe it resides; it's a trick, a shadow on the wall, and a very small man can cast a very large shadow."
What we do with the
West Seattle Transportation Coalition
(WSTC)
How the WSTC did it
in our first six months
from September 2013 to now
Small discussion
• What’s working for us?• What’s not?• What would we like to do?
• 89% have cell phones • 58% have smart phones• More laptops (72%) & mobile (smartphone &
tablets, 66%) than desktops (55%). • Higher education: more likely to use and own
computer, smartphone or tablet.• Those with more than one internet device tend
to be younger, male, and have more income.
Results of Seattle Tech Survey
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Smart phone Laptop Tablet
38
50
14
6676
44
7684
68
PERCENT
Technology Ownership - Mobile Internet DevicesUnder-represented groups compared to phone and online survey
respondents
Under-representedGroups
Phone survey
Online survey
35
• Skills & uses show more gaps than access
• Education & income show greatest differences• Age & ethnicity too
• About ¼ not comfortable using attachments.
• Trust & privacy barriers remain
Adoption
Social media use by age
• 53% participate in community group• ¾ want to share opinion electronically• Email preferred• Facebook mentioned more by least educated in
phone survey
37Engagement
Disabilities Latino Vietnamese Ethiopian Somali Af-American Chinese0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
4543
3329
2523
21
5
How many want to give opinion via Facebook From focus groups . Note that Chinese community uses QQ, a similar site in Chinese
Conclusions
–Plan to combine on and offline–Let people know what’s coming and
how–Don’t assume they know it–Build in skills training
Campaign Planning
• Online & offline activities• What leads people to online• What leads people to offline• How to use tech at events• Use something well…A small crowded room
The most popular social media sites
Planning & Expanding your toolkit
Which one is most useful?
Tools Available on Seattle.govBlogs & Social Media Sites of Seattle Officials & Departments seattle.gov/html/citizen/socialmedia.htm
Neighborhoods on the Net seattle.gov/communitiesonline/neighborhoods.htm
Tools Available on Seattle.govPublic Internet: seattle.gov/tech/publicInternet
Event Calendar:seattle.gov/calendar
Strategy exercise
• Pick a topic and plan activities on and offline over 4 months.
Tips for multilingual
• Bing/Google translate can be embedded• Don’t rely on them• Short abstract can be enough to identify
interest• Better deep than wide• Consider using video shorts • Translation teams needed
Online Community Building & e-Activism
Thanks! Feedback?Next?
Other good e-civic resources
• Matt Leighninger: Deliberative Democracy Coalition– Using
Online Tools to Engage – and be Engaged by –The Public
• America Speaks
• Non-profit tech resources: Idealware.org & Techsoup.org
Taproot Foundation
Tweet a message from their web site when you sign up to volunteer.
• Where to look up whether a web site address (url or domain name) are taken: http://www.internic.net/whois.html
• Fundraising: • PBS article on crowdfunding tools (alt to
Kickstarter fees)