NGO 2.0

Following the success of two previous workshops, the NGO 2.0 China Project has announced two more upcoming internet training workshops for grassroots NGOs:

• Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, June 17 to June 20
• Hefei, Anhui Province, July 15 to July 18

For further news, see the project blog.

Recently-released results of a survey on internet usage among Chinese nonprofit organizations reveal the vital role that information and communication technology (ICT) plays in the day-to-day work of many nonprofits. The results suggest that tech-savvy organizations see the internet as an important way of promoting their mission.

Although the findings should not be considered representative of Chinese NGOs in general, since the survey itself was conducted online, the 401 questionnaire responses indicate a vibrant cross-section of nonprofit sector that is comfortable with using the internet. 90% of respondents had high-speed internet connections, 94% used instant messaging (QQ, MSN, etc), and 97% rated websites as an "important" or "very important" source of information.

Almost 80% of the respondents considered establishing and maintaining an organizational website to be "important" or "very important", although not all of them (only about 60%) had registered a domain name at the time of the survey. The internet presence of these organizations is not limited to merely static websites, though, with 56% maintaining their own blog, and 49% running online forums.

The report shows a promising trend for nonprofit technology in China. Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence suggests that there are still many organizations that lack computer and internet skills, and the authors of this report express a wish to expand their scope of research in the future to encompass more of these organizations too.

For more information or to download the full report in Chinese, please see the announcement on NGOCN (link in Chinese).

The survey was a joint project of the MIT Net Media Action Lab, the Knowledge Management Institute at the University of Science and Technology of China, the Institute for Civil Society at the Sun Yat-sen University, NGOCN and Friends of Nature.

From January 7 to 10, the NGO 2.0 China Project ran a training workshop in Kunming, attended by representatives from 35 grassroots NGOs. The workshop's themes were "Openness, Sharing, (Mass) Participation, (Fun) Experience, Innovation". Its goal was to introduce a range of Web 2.0 concepts and tools, which have the potential to improve the ways nonprofits communicate, collaborate, and organize.

Slides from the training sessions are now available for download (link in Chinese). Topics covered include Google Groups, Skype, RSS, wikis, Google Maps, video sharing, social networking, search engine optimization, and more.

This is the second in a series of workshops organized by the NGO 2.0 China Project; the first was held in Guangzhou in July 2009. The NGO 2.0 China Project was launched last year by Professor Jing Wang of MIT, with support from partner organizations in China.

In a recent article, the NGO 2.0 Project has announced the release of a social networking website aimed specifically at Chinese nonprofits:

In mid October, the NGO 2.0 Project rolled out the beta version of its social networking platform. Both the NGOs and the communities they serve can sign up on this platform for free. By creating, reusing and sharing all kinds of new media content on the platform, grassroots NGOs can strengthen their organizational capacity, share media-based skills, design innovative events and nurture civic participation and engagement.

The website, ngo20.org, provides a homepage for each NGO, accessible as a subdomain such as minqin.ngo20.org (for the Rescue Minqin organization). Users registered on the website, including NGO staff, constituents, and the general public, can join one or more of these NGO "networks", so as to keep up-to-date on the NGO's activities or take part in discussion.

The NGO 2.0 Project was also featured in a report (link in Chinese) by Voice of America.

Edited to add: Please note that the NGO 2.0 website is still in beta testing, and not yet officially open to the public. A public release is planned for the first half of next year.

The NGO 2.0 project is asking Chinese NGOs to complete an online survey regarding their use of the internet and their communication strategy. As well as being released to the public, findings from the survey will inform the future strategy of the NGO 2.0 project.

We encourage NGOs to take part in this survey, which can be found here (link in Chinese). The survey runs until November 19, and organizations that complete the survey will go into the running to win one of 10 prizes, as well as having the opportunity to attend a training event on Internet technology to be help in Kunming in January 2010.

This survey is the second to be conducted as part of the NGO 2.0 project. Findings of the first survey, held this time last year, can be downloaded here (RAR archive; document in Chinese).

The NGO 2.0 project is a collaboration between the MIT New Media Action Lab (NMAL), the University of Science and Technology of China, Ogilvy & Mather, NGOCN, Friends of Nature, and the Center of Citizen and Social Development at Sun Yat-sen University. Its goal is to improve the ICT literacy of NGOs in rural China, and in particular to introduce Web 2.0 tools. News about the project can be found on its blog (link in Chinese).