Here is the summary of this session prepared for the ARNOVA newsletter. An appropriate venue for discussion of these ideas would be the NONPROFIT email discussion group. Subscribe by sending email to nonprofit-request@rain.org with "subscribe" (no quotes) on the subject line (or see http://www.nonprofit-info.org/15/ for more information about this group).

The Varieties of Online Experience :: Plenary Session :: ARNOVA 1998

Moderator Putnam Barber, president of The Evergreen State Society -- http://www.tess.org -- recalled The Nerves of Government, by Karl W. Deutsch (1963). It presented organizations as networks of communication and feedback. Panelists were:
Deborah Smith-Cohen, Database & Technical Services Manager for the American Society of Association Executives -- http://www.asaenet.org/
Ed Schwartz, President of the Institute for the Study of Civic Values in Philadelphia -- http://www.iscv.org
Carter McNamara, developer of the Nonprofit Managers' Library -- http://www.mapnp.org/library/
Michael Gilbert, Director of the Internet Nonprofit Center -- http://www.nonprofits.org

In her opening, Deborah Smith-Cohen commented that email and chat room exchanges pose new challenges to leadership because they open discussion of associational issues much more broadly. New strength may come from hearing new voices, but techniques for dealing with dissent become newly important.

Ed Schwartz described important new assets available to activists in the low-cost, high-speed channels of world-wide communication. At both ends of the spectrum ñ international mobilization and neighborhood organizing ñ email can breathe new life into political work.

Carter McNamara reported on research and seminars he has conducted in the Twin Cities area. They have convinced him that the greatest barrier to more effective use of the Internet by nonprofit leaders is the overwhelming time commitments required in these jobs and the lack of aggressive promotion of the Internet to them.

And Michael Gilbert warned that nonprofits whose online presence is half-hearted risk damage to their programs. "Bolt on" websites, not integrated with other efforts, are obvious to visitors. Well-designed Internet projects can support both core missions and reaching new supporters without these risks and at much lower cost in the long run.

In a brainstorm following, participants generated notes on issues and ideas for understanding and researching nonprofits in a wired age:

	Adoption and adaptation by familiar organizations	Expansion of unfamiliar forms of organization
Organizational opportunities and issues	Changed power relationships; new forms of dissent New audiences Restructuring of information services Challenges in managing telecommuters Lack of controls; risks of incoherence	"Wired" neighborhoods "Virtual Volunteering" Discussion without face-to-face contact Emergence of wholly "cyber" organizations New associations building on widespread low-cost communication
Societal opportunities and issues	Mobilizing of broad constituencies ("action alerts") Online fundraising "Widely available" 990s and other information New etiquettes Strange and unmeasured new liabilities Questions about tax-exemption for online activities	Redefinition of "community" "Narrowcasting" of affiliations Increasing opportunities without clear understanding of risks and benefits Information overload Attention given to negative forces
Overlap between these two topic	Risk that we will only see ourselves as reflected in these new media Physical and psychic hazards ("carpal psychic syndrom") Anonymous and impersonal communications, including creation of fictional (and sometimes corrosive) online "personalities"

One further note from Deborah Smith-Cohen: In terms of general information, check out http://www.rffund.org/strategy to review the work of the National Strategy for Nonprofit Technology, a year-long effort of a diverse group of planning partners to address the many issues surrounding nonprofits and technology.

Nonprofits exploring adding email to their traditional ways of communicating with letters and by fax will want to look at ebase, a new tool for managing an integrated mailing list available -- free! -- from http://www.ebase.org

If you would like to be added to the list of people who are notified when a new "Bulletin" is posted at the NONPROFIT FAQ, please send email to email@tess.org and your email address will be added. This list is never used for any other purpose.

Posted November 16, 1998 -- PB