Action of Love

We are excited to announce the launch of a new blog, “Working Wikily,” which is now live at http://www.workingwikily.net/. For two years we’ve been exploring with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation how the social sector is adopting the new tools, strategies, and practices of networking—from collaborative Web 2.0 software, to network mapping, to forming coalitions, to engaging and mobilizing people.

We’ve learned that these trends lead to new forms of organizing based on greater openness, collaboration and flexibility—what we call “working wikily.” Our blog is an experiment in putting that principle into practice; our hope is that we will spark discussion and encourage social sector organizations to spread these practices.

We will generally blog in two ways: by tracking new developments and posting updates, and by occasionally reflecting on overall trends in short synthetic essays. We have also listed a number of resources we’ve uncovered in our research, and which we hope you’ll find helpful too.

If you find our posts informative, please pass them along to colleagues and friends. Please leave comments telling us what we got right, what we got wrong, and what we’re missing. We can start the conversation, but we’re relying on your experience, wisdom, and tough questions to push the dialogue forward.

• To get started, simply go to www.workingwikily.net and you’ll find our most recent postings, beginning with a discussion of how the Obama campaign broke new ground in leveraging these practices. Here are a few tips on how to use the site:To include posts in your social bookmarks on Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook or del.icio.us, click on “share with others.”
• To get new posts via email, send a message to Noah Flower (noah_flower@monitor.com) and you’ll be subscribed to the email list.
• To leave a comment, click “Respond.” Creating an account only takes a moment, and then you can write a short message that we will add to the page.
• If you’re curious about where we find our news and ideas, feel free to cruise through our list of “insightful voices” in the right-hand column.
• Please explore the “Resources” section, where we’ve posted Packard’s theory of change and a sizable collection of links.
• We’ve also included a library of our past essays, on topics such as “Technology-Enabled Activism in the Developing World.” These can be found at the bottom of the main page, or by typing “archive” into the search box.
• To get new posts with a news reader (such as Google Reader), copy the link marked “Subscribe using RSS” and add it as a newsfeed.

Please join us in exploring this exciting new area—and let us know what you think!

Best regards,
Heather McLeod Grant, Noah Flower, and the Monitor Institute team