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NICA ONLINE: Vision Scope (Introduction)
Objective: Enhance Virtual Community of NW Communitarians
Objective: Increase NW IC Web Site Traffic
Objective: Improve NW IC Exposure
Objective: Increase NICA Membership
Conclusion
Project Ideas
Board of Advisors
Program Manager
NICA ONLINE is a year-long project to increase NICA’s effectiveness using internet technologies. On the highest level, NICA's Mission is to connect people interested in Intentional Community (IC) across the Northwest. NICA's existing internet presence (web site and email activity) is one way that NICA supports this mission, but its history of ad hoc efforts has resulted in a cobbled together site with little strategy or focus. This project will define the NICA strategy for using online communications to support its mission.
This Vision Scope is intended to start the dialog among interested parties, including potential members of the Board of Advisors, potential NW IC web site partners, and potential service providers (both paid and free). This revision of the document includes input from a workshop on this project at the 2005 NICA Summer Gathering, considerable engagement with the NICA board, and input from several communitarians. The primary changes from version 1.0 are increased Regional focus (less National) and a shift from online traffic building to increased use of participatory technologies by communitarians and others with IC interest. At the upcoming Project Kick-Off, the project will be more broadly shared with others in the IC movement - both on a National and Regional levels.
NICA is a living organism that's part of the Northwest IC ecosystem. Some NW ICs have direct connections with the National IC Organizations, largely through the FIC and Cohousing.org directories. NICA has built real-world relationships and connections with people interested in ICs through bi-annual community gatherings, monthly board meetings, a variety of ad hoc, face-to-face meetings, and some large events. NICA's bi-annual community gatherings have been held at different communities across the NW since 1994 and has resulted in particularly close relationships among some communitarians. To date, NICA has not invested much in electronic communications, but does have a web site, and maintains an electronic mailing list of 200+ subscribers.
The diagram below shows the current status of relationships between NICA and other IC organizations. NICA has strong ties (shown in green) to the FIC (Fellowship for Intentional Communities) - which, for example, hosts the NICA website and these project pages. It also has some relationship with the Cohousing Association of the United States (yellow). The only engagement, if any, with the Canadian Cohousing Network, the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, and the Ecovillage Network of the Americas (red) has been indirect, through NW ICs who are members of these organizations.
As with the National IC organizations, NICA has different depths of relationship with the many NW ICs. According to the FIC online directory, there are about 120 ICs across British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Since NICA's inception, it has constantly learned of new NW ICs and has seen many come and go. NICA has strong ties (shown in green) to an estimated 20 ICs, some relationship with about 30, and minimal, if any, engagement with the remaining 70 NW ICs (70, however, does include groups which were once entered into the FIC directory, but do not currently exist).
Over the years, NICA has sent both paper mail and emails to the available contacts for known ICs, inviting them to gatherings, sending newsletters, etc. NICA membership has never been a criteria for distribution of newsletters or invitations from NICA.
NICA ONLINE will increase NICA's connections with NW ICs by offering community members new ways to connect with NICA, other Community Organizations, and other NW ICs. Once implemented, these communication channels will be far easier and less expensive than attending gatherings and meetings - for both NICA staff and Community members. This is expected to deepen the relationships with a large number of NW ICs - in the above diagram, moving some NW ICs to the left.
NICA ONLINE will increase NICA's ability to draw more people toward life in community. To help them move down the funnel...
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NICA ONLINE targets people in the Northwest who are Interested in and Connected to Intentional Communities (Groups 3 and 4). Those who are interested will be encouraged to take the next step by making online and/or offline (real-world) connections with members of existing and forming communities. The use of currently available participatory internet technologies will give those with interest the opportunity to directly engage with people who are In Community (Group 5) and others who passionately aspire to a life in community (i.e., forming communities).
Connected people (Group 4) will be further drawn into community. They will be aware of and welcomed to community events, both those sponsored by IC organizations, like NICA, FIC, etc and those hosted by NW ICs themselves. They will be offered online chances to interact with others who both want and have community in their lives. This will help existing and forming NW ICs to connect with new, prospective community members. Deepening connections will also facilitate the formation of new NW ICs by helping like-minded people find each other.
As suggested above, in the discussion of NICA relationships with NW ICs, this project will drive both increased online and offline collaboration between key individuals living in the NW who are currently in community (Group 5). It will create a virtual, online community of NW communitarians, some of which will also further build relationship through meetings, gatherings, and other forms of social opportunities. This community is expected to grow out of the NICA ONLINE Board of Advisors.
NICA ONLINE will also have some, but little, impact on helping people unfamiliar with ICs to become familiar (the transition from Group 1-to-2, above) or helping the familiar become interested (2-to-3). These are core roles for National IC Organizations. To the degree that NICA ONLINE supports these transitions, it will be through links to other online resources, primarily the web sites of National IC Organizations.
In general, NICA ONLINE will avoid redundant work - it will heavily leverage what is currently available, building on the good work of other communitarians, whether in other community organizations or communities themselves. NICA ONLINE is expected to generate and provide system requirements to organizations which offer relevant IC resources to help them better support IC growth on a regional level, but the project will not build new versions of services which are already available. Specifically, NICA ONLINE will not create structured IC databases for public consumption, Classified ad or Notice systems, Online Bookstores, Print Publications, etc.
NICA ONLINE will provide those who are In Community (Group 5), along with those who are Interested and Connected to ICs (Groups 3 & 4) with access to participatory technologies that are dedicated to support for NW ICs. This portion of the project requiries considerable research and analysis prior to determining the requirements for this effort.
This project will also optimize the NICA web site's current presentation of passive information. The Community Resources section of this site has a large body of IC-relevant content which is largely undiscoverable - as currently configured, we are leaving "web site traffic on the table." The content and structure of the NICA web site will be redesigned to grow NW IC traffic and improve NW IC exposure.
Another project objective is to increase NICA Membership. This work will support the work of the NICA Board, which is currently developing a new NICA Membership strategy and model.
Overall, NICA ONLINE will serve as a model of the methods, and possibly source materials, which can be used by other regional and national IC organizations. Members of the NICA ONLINE Board of Advisors are on the FIC Regional Networking Committee and this work will be coordinated with the work of this committee.
A technology-savvy Board of Advisors is currently being created. These advisors are expected to provide ongoing feedback and input. Once the project enters the implementation phase, some advisors may help implement technologies - on a volunteer or paid basis. This project will be collaborative - using appropriate participatory technologies, e.g., blogs, wikis, electronic mailing lists. The success of the participatory portion of this project will depend on the active engagement of the advisory board.
As the Board of Advisors starts to comes together, a deep analysis will begin (to be completed by 1/15/05), including the creation of a detailed project plan with an implementation schedule and budget. This plan will then be submitted for evaluation by the NICA Board, with a request for full project funding. If funded, implementation will proceed with project completion schedule for 8/10/06.
Throughout this project, work will be documented online for potential use by other Intentional Communities and Intentional Community organizations. This page (http://www.ic.org/nica/onlineproject.htm) will be maintained as the project's primary entry point, though project content will also exist elsewhere.
Program Manager: Craig Ragland
Project Term: Aug 10, 2005 to Aug 10, 2006
Project Schedule
Phase 1 (Project Vision, Analysis, Plan, and Budget): 8/10/05 to 1/15/06: Approved and Funded by NICA Board
Phase 2 (Implementation and Testing) - 1/15/06 to 8/10/06: Project Plan to be evaluated by NICA Board prior to approval/fundingMilestones Achieved
8/17/05: Vision Scope, v1.0 completed and distributed
8/20/05: NICA ONLINE workshop at 2005 Summer NICA Gathering
8/25/05: Input from workshop and meetings with communitarians incorporated into Vision Scope, v1.1
9/1/05: Vision revised based NICA Board processing of communitarian input
9/10/05: Project Kick-Off - distribution of this document
9/19-10/6/05: Craig Ragland on-site at Sandhill Farm, headquarters of the FIC
10/7-10/9/05: Attended the Ozark Area Community Conference, oldest bioregional congress
11/2-11/7/05: Attended FIC Organizational Meetings at LA Ecovillage
11/25-11/28/05: Visited Raines Cohen at Berkeley Cohousing and Swan Market Cohousing
11/25-11/28/05: Attended and presented at East Bay Cohousing meeting
11/29-11/30/05: Visited Chant and Susanah at Trillium Farm
12/2/05: Attended NICA presentation of Beyond Sustainability at Songaia Cohousing
12/5/05: Delivered first draft of NW Communities Event planning document
Objective: Enhance Virtual Community of NW Communitarians
- NW-specific IC information sharing
- Foster NW Communitarian one-to-one connections (on and off-line)
- Support more effective NW Communitarian one-to-many connections (on and off-line)
Objective: Increase NW IC Web site Traffic
- Grow Traffic to NICA Web Site
- Move Traffic to Where it is Most Valuable
- Create a Virtual Network of NW IC Web Sites
Objective: Improve NW IC Exposure
- Share IC Movement-generated Content
- Associate ICs with related Core Competencies
Objective: Increase NICA membership
- Expose More People to NICA
- Develop Effective Membership Strategies
- Improve Online Support for Membership
Conclusion: Final take-aways and additional benefits
Project Ideas: Concepts of interest that have not been incorporated into the vision scope
Board of Advisors: Interested in getting involved?
Program Manager: Craig Ragland
Contact: Craig Ragland
Updated: 12/7/05