A free resource by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

Online Culture, Civility & Communities

Realities & Benefits of Connecting Volunteers (& all humans) Online

Note: this page is no longer updated. The content has not been substantially updated in years, and this page no longer well-represents the realities of working and socializing online. The Internet has changed so drastically, and not for the better. Organized misinformation campaigns, the rise in nationalist media and personalities, and the downfall of locally-owned newspapers and locally owned radio has been to great for the Internet of old to withstand.

I'm leaving this page and section of my web site up because some of the information is still valid and also to show how the Internet used to be.


Page's original content (no longer updated). 

What is it like to work with people -- volunteers, donors, remote staff -- you seldom or never see onsite, face-to-face?

Can you build trust among a remote group online?

Can a person learn to work with others online successfully, or does one have to have an instinct for it?

Can you be a leader online?

Does the Internet take the human element out of volunteering and community?

Does online civil society exist?

Can online civility be taught?

Some people are instinctively terrific at working online with others via only the written word, or even via live video or audio conferencing tools; some people struggle not with the technology but with the whole concept of managing, or, simply talking to, others regularly, online. Why do some people flourish online while others flounder?

I have been researching and writing about this subject since 1996, and I have been immersed in "virtual culture" since even earlier than that. Many things have changed over the years regarding online culture and online community - but some things haven't at all. And for the aforementioned yes/no questions, I still give a resounding YES. It's just, just much harder now.

Mission-based organizations (not-for-profit organizations/NPOs, non-governmental organizations/NGOs, civil society and public sector agencies -- government departments and initiatives) have long been using the Internet to work with volunteers (including board members), staff, donors, the media and others. It's now expected by many potential volunteers and members of the public that these organizations engage in such online activities; many consider it the norm for operations, regardless of an organizations size, mission or history. The vast majority of this online work is still done via the written word (email, instant messaging, an online bulletin board/online forum, etc.), even alongside teleconferencing and video conferencing

Working with people remotely, and primarily via text only, presents many challenges. But while there are volumes on how to use online networking tools from a technology point-of-view, there's not an equal amount on using them from the human point of view.

This section of my site is meant to promote ideas and resources on how to work together online, mostly via the written word, and how to look at an email or IM address or an online profile as a person, not a line of characters and numbers or random photos or memes or Facebook rants. Being able to work online is becoming an essential and much-sought-after skill in the work place, including at mission-based organizations, and these pages are meant to help those who want to enhance their online skills.
 

These resources below are from 2000 and were developed originally for The Virtual Volunteering Project:


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Jayne Cravens
              & Coyote Communications, www.coyotecommunications.com

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The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2020
by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
(unless noted otherwise, or the art comes from a link to another web site).