Allison Fine on Civic Social Networking

April 11th, 2008 at 03:38pm guestblogger Permalink

by Allison Fine

I find it very interesting how often people believe that social networking sites simply take off on their own, unaided and without any nurturing. I met with an advocacy group that is creating their own social networking site (of course, we all need our own sites since no other social networking sites exist!) They were so very concerned about the functionality of the site - do the buttons work right, is the navigation good, etc. Great, I said, so why exactly do busy people need more friends and if they do, why do they need to be on your site to have them?

I had just read Britt Bravo’s excellent piece on questions groups should ask themselves about building online communities. I think the questions apply whether one is working within an organization or just with a bunch of friends. The questions are easy and clear, although it’s always astonishing to me how seldom groups actually ask themselves things like, “why would our users/members/participants/donors want or need this new tool?” and “how will we engage people?”

If we want people to come together and build relationships around issues, it’s critically important that we designate people to be what Valdes Krebs calls, “network weavers.” The weavers have to give the network purpose, they have to connect people, stoke conversations, share information and organize on land meetings when necessary (and as
much as I hate them, they are actually necessary!) Too often, we think that these functions are simply going to happen, organizers have to make sure they happen. Communities rarely form themselves, they have to be nurtured. As Seth Godin points out here, online organizing is a crucial, poorly understood, but critical position. If I were counseling a young person interested in a career in social change, I would strongly suggest they train and practice being an online organizer since it includes all of the organizing, listening, facilitating, communicating and connecting skills that will make them successful in whatever else they do.

Allison Fine is a Senior Fellow at Demos: A Network of Ideas and Action.

Entry Filed under: practitioners and scholars, social networking