NGO2.0

NGO 2.0 project is designed to enhance the digital and social media literacy of grassroots NGOs in the underdeveloped regions of China. The Project was launched by Prof Jing Wang, founder of MIT New Media Action Lab,^[1] in collaboration with the University of Science and Technology of China, NGO Communication Net, Friends of Nature, Sun Yat-sen University, and Ogilvy & Mather Beijing and Shanghai. In 2011, Tsinghua University's Future Media Center joined the partnership. Secondary partners include MilwardBrown, CreditEast Co., and China Development Brief.

The project is funded by Ford Foundation in Beijing. The project delivers an open mapping platform and an open NGO community complete with Creative Commons licensed Web 2.0 training courses and a Chinese field guide to best practices and software of social media for nonprofits.^[2]

Three Major Components

• Web 2.0 training workshops

 The workshop has a two-fold task: first, to train those grassroots that already had 
 websites to start using Web 2.0 tools and to rethink their digital communication 
 strategy; secondly, to convince those that don’t have websites that they can bypass 
 the labor-intensive and expensive 1.0 architecture to leapfrog into Web 2.0 practices.

 Those NGOs straddle across six issue areas: environment, health, women & children，  
 community development/poverty alleviation, education, information NGOs.  

• An open mapping platform built on Ushahidi to connect the corporate CSR programs

 and the nonprofit sector. The grassroots NGOs use this map to post their project 
 and organizational needs. At the same time, the platform displays resources made 
 available by CSR programs (resources such as opportunities for project collaboration, 
 funds, give-away equipments, organized corporate volunteer help).

• An NGO ranking system to assess the organizational transparency and communication

 capability of grassroots NGOs.  This system will allow potential corporate donors to 
 better leverage the Web/Web 2.0 as a means of enhancing their social responsibility 
 programs.

References

1. ^ New Media Action Lab, MIT http://web.mit.edu/newmediaactionlab/www/
2. ^ Jing Wang, "NGO2.0: When Social Action Meets Social Media""

External links

• NGO 2.0 Project in China [1]
• KunMing Workshop [2]
• New Media Action Lab of MIT [3]
• Google Mapping of NGO2.0 China [4]
• Wikimedia Foundation Appoints Jing Wang and Mimi Ito to its Advisory Board [5]