Possibilities for Collaboration
From NCCS Wiki
One would hope that nonprofit researchers and practitioners would be leaders in collaborating (volunteering) to create knowledge as a public good accessible by anybody with access to the internet.
Although many of us also must make our livings in the nonprofit sector, most of us are also accustomed to working hard to align our private needs with our understanding of the public good. Putting our knowledge and information in the public domain has its perils: For many of us, it represents our valuable intellectual capital and is not to be given away lightly. That said, there are good reasons to take some risks:
- The general knowledge that could be provided on the web often requires expertise to implement in specific organizations or communities.
- We can make a substantial contribution to improving the nonprofit sector and civil society. In short, I'd like to think that it is the right thing to do!
How else could we work together to strengthen the nonprofit sector? Here are a few thoughts:
- Systematically work to improve the quality of information on nonprofit-related matters on Wikipedia.
- Work with NCCS and GuideStar to improve the classification of activities of nonprofit organizations so that researchers and practitioners can better understand the sector at both a local and a national level. (NCCS is in the process of creating tools that let any registered user edit NTEE codes for individual organizations. GuideStar permits organizations that register with it to add their own classification codes.)
- Expand and collaborate on the range of free tools for outcome measurement available from a variety of different sources.
- Expand on the online libraries of foundation-sponsored reports (e.g., Foundation Center, Indiana University) to permit users to add summaries and comments.
- Build on available syllabi to create new resources for students at all levels of education ranging from middle school to graduate studies.
- Other ideas?
- Tom Pollak 08:10, 9 July 2007 (MDT)
