salt 200909 3 - singapore management universityd publication: salt, p 8 - 11 date: september -...

d Publication: SALT, p 8 - 11 Date: September - October 2009 Headline: Not just a social space

Entry into the 2417 universe of Web2.0 with all its bells and whistles can be almost immediate. Users throw in their two-cents worth to "join"

social groups with community platforms, satisfying a feeling of belongins and a sense of ownership towards ideas and causes. ANGELE LEE browses

the exciting - and still uncharted - universe of Web2.O social causes.

ether or not you consider yourself part of the Internet Generation, w

chances are you logged onto the World Wide Web recently. The Infocomm Devel- opment Authority (IDA) revealed in 2008 that 80% of households in Singapore own at least one personal computer at home, and 76% of us have intemet access. More than just a piece of equipment, the home computer is a portal to a whole new world in cyberspace.

But this is no parallel universe that netizens are delving into. Instead, doors are opening to communities right here in

Singapore, as the burgeoning online social network scene brings Iikerninded people together. Just a decade ago, it was often a chore trying to identify others with similar interests in very specific areas, but in an astonishingly short time, the Internet is now connecting individuals and organisations in a very personal way

Take WkoLiYesNmY~~.com, a local initiative at building better community relations. For whatever reasons (%u haw been in your neighbowhood for the past five years and you don't h o w who your neighbours are", or, 'You want to know

the girl who waits at the same bus-stop as

you"), you have a good chance of dism- wing, and linking up with someone living close to your home.

If it sounds a little far-fetched that people can be so easily connected, you only have to remember that S ingape is one of the most wired countries in the world. The use of the Internet for cornrnu- nication cuts across all demographics. Even if, as q e c t e d , the 15-24 age p u p tops the internet user ht, an impressive 40% of 50-59 year olds are also trawling the net. This presents an -ordinary

Publication: SALT, p 8 - 11 Date: September - October 2009 Headline: Not just a social space

opportunity to capture the attention of a sizeable portion of the population.

BUZZING HOT WE82.0 In this net-happy environment,

non-profits and charities are shaping their individl~al niches. Awake to the idea that they are able to publish ideas and causes

to an extremely large audience at a low cost, more are dicking onto the wired bandwidth.

Many charities and Institutions of Public Character (IPCs) such as the Assisi Hospice and the Movement for the IntellectualIy Disabled of Singapore (MINDS), and organisations Iike the Muhammadip Welfare Home and The Salvation Army, haw long staked their own place in cyberspace. Typically the web pages present static, one-way information which allow passive viewing but do not integrate the visitor.

Enter Web2 .O - the evolution of the World Wide Web as a platform character- ised by user-centred design, apparently porous soft and hardware borders, and collaboration. The essentiaUy interactive nature of this second-generation interface has led to the proliferation of web-bad communities, especially social networking sites and web logs (blogs). The different applications available complement each other to enable the internet-say to reach a nation-wide audience and others well beyond,

Charities recognise the need to adopt this new technology. Venturing into the Web2.0 domain are established organisations such as the Society for the Preven- tion of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the President's Challenge.

Now into its 10th year, the Pmi- dent's Challenge recently joined Face- book to tap the media's popularity and raise awareness for its programmes. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has found its online presence "an ovenvhelmingly good tool for reaching the public".

"Ninety per cent of our volunteers used our website to access the sign-up form," noted SPCA's Executive Director Ms Deirdre Moss. Besides its comprehen- sive website, SPCA aIso boasts a Face- book following exceeding 3,200. It also encourages bioggers to download banners

linking to its site, atending its reach and strengthening its online presence.

Both the SPCA and the President's Challenge make use of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) OnLine Donation Portal (OLDP) in appealing for funds. The OLDP itself is about to be reinvented as SG Gives, under the auspices of the National Volunteer 8r Philanthropy Centre. Originally established by the NCSS in 2002, the OLDP has facilitated mote than $6 million in donations in seven years, with over 140 charities benefiting from the online site in the last 12 months aIone.

The SG Gives portal will continue to serve the socia1 senice sector but will also deveIop the next phase for the portal by serving donors of diverse interests across the arts, education and sports for example.

POST AND "BELOW": FORUM BOARDS

Proof of the popularity of Web2.0 lies in the extraordinary variety of sites springing up in the last few years. Some are started by individuals with a spec& platform or interest. Shaun Chng, a Cambridge University undergraduate, has become the go-to guy for all things to do with running, races around the world, and the minute concerns of the running community He describes himself on his bbg ShuunChxag.com as a self-taught web developer, sportsman, artist, inventor and avid community heIper. He posts his own tutorials on subjects as diverse =,hard drive assembly and clay modelling.

Chng has been on the web scene more or less since its inception, creating his k t

web pages when he was only 10. His blog now commands an international following with around 80,000 hits per day, which means his efforts at raising public awareness for various social causes, such as the Run for Hope, get a good airing. W n g on the popularity of his blogp the Foundations he supports keep him regularly updated with press releases and other content.

"I do get quite a lot of requests, personal, non-commercia1, commercial - you name it - but I wid generally feature the philanthropic and nonprofit s d e - ties," Chng said.

Some blogs champion particuIar causes, such as I w m r s b E e t n r , dedi-

cated to a no-kill philosophy for stray or abandoned dogs and helping to re-home rescued dogs. Others such as food blog htishtiw serve up racommendations and reviews. The latter attracts about 10,000 hits daily from around 5,000 unique visitors, and boasts a swelling Face- b k membership of over 2,900, add to that another thousand more on its forum and a growing Twitter following.

The food blog's creator, Dr Leslie Tay, leveraged its popularity to hold the successful ieat 2nd Anniversary Charity Makan Session a year ago, and regularIy features other causes on his site, particu- larly food-related charity events.

Social networks, besides the ubiqui- tous Facebook, also develop into forums. Support p u p s include those for mothers, such as Moms4Mm; expatriate groups, such as exptsingapore.m, and cancer survivors CawHOPE. The modem equivalent of neighbourhwd gossip, forums have proven fast and effective when it comes to fundraising and publicity.

When counselIor Dr Chia Kwok Ymg decided to shave her head for the ChiI- dren's Cancer Foundation's Hairfw Hupe campaign, she appealed for spnsorship money the old-fashioned way - by writing letters. However, she used Facebook to stay accountable to her sponsors, and eventually uploaded photographs of "the shave" and fundraising results onto video- sharing site Youtube as well. "It was the most convenient and effective way to show my many friends and sponsors that the deed was -done!" she said.

Other information-sharing platforms include Internet groups such as Yahoo Groups. One party also using this stage is Social Elz- SG, a network of over 1 10 individuals and organisations active in the social enterprise scene.

CRESTING THE WEB WAVE Non-profits are riding high on the

Web2.0 wave, typically independent groups rallying around a lobby cause such as environmental group wiIdsingupm to dog lovers portal doggiesib.com and Animal b v e m hagwe. They bank on the technological abiIity to engage visitors with their specific platforms such as doggiesite's stand on sterilisation and adoption over breeding and buying pets. The high


user-generated content makes for a vibrant setting and adds value to the sites.

kgshht ion into these groups is as fast and easy as typing a friendly (or critical) comment. For users, being able to throw in their two-cents worth adds to the feeling of beIonging, and a sense of ownership towards the cause. For the non-profits, the trick is to take advantage of all the bells and whistles available from the Web2.0 platform to draw out casual or reluctant visitors and engage them in a more active capacity. The hope is that contributions will then flow from the virtual into the real world, whether in terms of time or money.

Take dmicethings.org, an online socia l

volunterism community portal integrated with Facebook Connect. Started by a pair of Junior College friends, the site connects project organisers, volunteers and sponsors. Helmed by a team of mainly 19-2 1 y e a d d national senicemen, doPe&ings. wg views Web2.0 as the most exciting cultural phenomenon of its time. Even the taghe, "Community Service 2.0'; reflects the members' belief in the power of the web to engage support for social causes.

'It's not that hard to get the attention of people online if you have a pod enough subject to focus on," said Mr Pig Cheng W, a founder m e m k of &[email protected]. Now a Singapore Management University undergraduate, he noted how "social causes, specially those involving children, are one of the easiest to market on social media."

The volunteering group beIiwes a competitive environment will lead to greater efficiency and add value to charitable organisations. It is shifting its focus towards fostering a higher Iwel of engage- ment with non-profits and charities online, by building a Facebmk presence for some non-pr&ts using the social network's expanded features.

To complement other online volunteer p o d s such as the nation-wide volunteer data base Singapore Cares (SG Cares) featured in the March-April issue of SALT, h i c e t h i ~ g s . q is Iooking to grow and evolve its campaign for volunteering along with the dynamic social media landscape.

ONE mSIY PRlNCEsS AND HER WE8

Clear proof of the viral speed and adoption of web-based causes is the aston-

ishing and heartening story of bbgspt.com, the detailed account of four- year-old Singaporean Charmaine Limys painful 6ght against neufoblastoma and her single mother's agony.

Charmaine's godmother Jolene Loh, created the weblog in February this year as a pkitfonn for people to share their stories

and experiences with the cancer, hoping to encourage mother and child. Initially made known only to Ms Loh's friends, the bfog received a stunning 800 views barely 24 hours after being set up.

Aasimitation into forum groups is as fast and easy as typing a friendly (or critical) comment.

It has since raken on a life of its

own, achieving thousands of hits daily with Google Followers, a huge Farebook and Twitter base, videos on Youtube, and links in other biogs. Charrnaine's story has travelled the world, and she has supporters from Europe to India, in countries as varied as Qatar, Turkey, Brazil and Japan, as well as America and South-east M a .

In Ma5 Charmahe's mother Cynthia, was given the option of taking her daughter to New York for treatment, at an initial cost of US$350,000. She wrote on the blog: "Rationally speaking, I know fully well that half a million Singapore doIIars can be better spent on saving thousands of malnourished kids in Africa than on Char- maine, who only has a 40-50s chance of suwal even with the antibody. But Char maine is my daughter. ..I would never be able to forgive myself for not trying."

That entry set off a massive online movement that would be picked up by h e media, Ieading to a huge outpouring of support. Among Charrnaine's champions were Singapore's Malaysia Cup dream team

in a celebrity fundraising soccer match, 14 top Iocal bands in a twoday rock concert, high-pmMe bloggers like Mr Brown, many who organised countIess events and auctions, and the blogshop community who adopted Charmaine and her mother.

The response was SO overwhelming, Feisty team member Charlene Wong said, 'We don't really know where it all started."

It took barely two months to raise the

target sum. W l e o u ~ ~ ~ ' use of Web2.O

to rally funds may be emulated, its success

is unlikely to be replicated. 'The concept of raising %500,000

for a single individual is unsustainable," Mr Ng of dmicethiprgs.mg Meves. "But o u - r n proved the direct correk- tion between effort and impact, and Char- rnaine's cause is the perfect case study for any non-profit looking to meacreate a mean- inf l presence," he noted.

It might also be argued that our@+@ncessi pro6le would not have been as high had traditional media not been involved since newspaper coverage was extensive and worked together with the internet buzz.

CREOIBIlJlY & M E "CAPRICIOUS" WEB

The Web2.O platform is not without its drawbacks. The interactive nature leaves blogs open to attack, and forums are not spared verbal sparring and occa- sionallp defamation andor libel suits. It i s still a grey area for many, and for the novices, a universe littered with

landmines. During its initial outing,

oerrfe+ncess encountered a few scep- tics who questioned the site's credibility. While the backlash stung, the Feisty team was advised that in the blogo- sphere, deleting posts "is the equivalent to admitting guilt", so the "flames" were left in. However, the We comments setting has been changed to an open identification format which forbids anonymous posts. Generally on forums, moderators reserve the right to delete any unsavoury posts and to bar users from the site at their discretion.

Indeed, credibility is an issue in the free-ford web, and the onus is on users to verify the authenticity of the cause they may feel compelled to donate towards. On the other side of the virtual fence, while the lack of regulation allows charitable sites much creative licence, they run the risk of reducing their cause to mere marketing stunts - and can miss engaging the community at a deeper leveI.

A further downside? Non-profits without the luxury of a web s a y , creative


team M 'develop an ~t tmthesik , tan find themselves d o o M altogether.

The WJ2.0 platform is qmfciam. Frequent &ensions and ch- in &tfs~ontCsabk feat- m e n there is-a need to reguwy overhaul either site, txpnisation os both, h order to take hl a$*- of the media. It: has becoma imperative fur organktions to $by a b m t aft* arrd updates in the WrId Wide Wb, or risk W i thefr user b e . Tht is part and parcel of staying acmntable ta supporters.

PLS running &thusiast Shbun ChTlp, painted aut, ''nobody W a dead biog".

1 hlie4re s o d media will be the g a t f d m , where monary rwmces (*h m.m d m - m gra!%mb&

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charities k k ) won't be a prquisite for a succcsSfu1 aamp@,* Ng of '?daw&s. .m stad. %sentid$ what we ape ddpg wIth&&dth*w~pphc-M p r a c ~ * h w e a r e ~ ~ t h , to the mlrn d n m y d t s . Sarial media is also an m d y fluid and wbIe plat- &rm, and the r n b m Y k t & and *np b apt M a u s as m m b m of -em- tion-5" he e d M .

Sbaun C h g imagines tbe future for anline Bocial wwQrk9 could inch& a network britlgiqg &e currentiy segmenmlsaEiaI neeworks, lmwsing r@ms and languages. Samething like a SO& ll&WOrk for SOCbl ~ h v o p k

That c m ody be good (network) m. *

salt 200909 3 - singapore management universityd publication: salt, p 8 - 11 date: september -...

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