A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a webinar hosted by Darim Online on the strategic use of Facebook (FB) for non-profits. We were invited by Caren Levine, who is a part of our Kehilliyot Community of Practice. Darim Online specializes in internet strategies for Jewish organizations and their communities, and the webinar was part of the organization’s “Social Media Boot Camp.” The host, technology maven Avi Kaplan (on twitter @meshugavi), provided valuable insights into using FB’s tools. Besides laying out the great strategic use of FB groups, analytics, pages, and friend lists, Avi also talked about using FB for “causes,” something he knows a lot about from his deep work with the 3-year old nonprofit, Epic Change.

Intrigued by Epic Change’s mission to “amplify the voices and impact of grassroots change-makers and social entrepreneurs,” we set up a web meeting with him the following week via WebEx . What we discovered was the organization’s innovative use of technology and social media to create and spread change through the powerful combination of social media tools and age-old storytelling.

Epic Change has been focusing on a project in Arusha, Tanzania—the support of the Shepherds Junior School. Co-founders of Epic Change, Sanjay Patel and Stacey Monk, an IT project manager and a management consultant respectively, created the nonprofit organization after a life-changing trip volunteering in Africa in 2007. The project supports the work of the school’s founder, Mama Lucy Kamptoni, who they describe as a “savvy and passionate local woman.” Epic Change made initial loans to the school and then helped them find creative ways to pay back the loan, such as a school performance and selling hand-made crafts.

In addition, the organization has facilitated finding partners to raise money for the school, such as the May 2009 $10,000 grant from Ideablob, which funded the school’s first technology lab. In October 2009, the fifth graders became the first #TwitterKids of Tanzania when they partnered with LacProject, part of a social media curriculum. The story of one of the local students whose life has been impacted can be found here. One particularly successful partnership was with Silicon Valley Tweet Up, where they raised over $2,000. You can read more about their success in getting this community’s story out there through blogging themselves, forming partnerships, and empowering the locals with the technology to give voice to their own perspective (and “tweet” their thanks) by visiting Epic Change’s news page.

We at Knowledge Communities were honored to talk with Epic Change and learn about their extraordinary work. This organization is a leading example in building community around an important cause and using the tools of storytelling and social media to raise funds to support grassroots change-makers that are in need of resources in order to continue their work.  We are also thankful to our Kehilliyot Community of Practice and the sharing and generosity that members show towards one another, thereby allowing us all to gain more insight into good work and how it is getting done around the globe.

We invite you to try a new approach to Torah study, community building, and perhaps even sermon writing in your congregation, The Social Sermon,  an idea comes from acknowledging three things:

1) That many people can’t get to the synagogue for a lunch or evening Torah study class, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested;
2) That people want the social experience of learning, not just passive reading or listening to a lecture, and that connection through learning enriches a local community; and
3) Social technologies can be a wonderful tool to enrich and augment Torah learning in local communities.

Imagine a Saturday morning sermon that’s the work of not only your rabbi, but you as well. Let’s take it a step further: what if it weren’t just you and your rabbi, but also your fellow congregants, young and old, those new to the community and the stalwarts of your city?  By the time your rabbi delivers his Shabbat remarks, he or she could be drawing inspiration from, or even representing the discussion of, hundreds of his congregants!

What does The Social Sermon look like? At the beginning of the week a Rabbi posts a question on his or her blog, or on Twitter with a particular hashtag (e.g. #CBSSS for Congregation Beth Shalom Social Sermon), or as a Facebook post on the congregation’s Page.   The first post would describe a theme of the parasha, or link to some text, and at the end, pose a question.

As comments and responses start to be posted, the Rabbi then facilitates an ongoing conversation through the week — responding regularly with insight, text, links, answers to questions, and more questions to guide the discussion.

By the end of the week, several things will have happened:

• New people are engaged in Torah study.  Likely a portion of the online participants are a demographic that doesn’t often come to mid-day or evenig adult education classes. (On-site classes – adult and youth – can also participate);
• Participants will have formed new relationships through the online discussion, perhaps following each other on Twitter, friending each other on Facebook, etc. which leads to ambient awareness, thus strengthening your community;
• The Rabbi will have a better understand of what aspects of the parasha resonate with the community, and be able to design a Shabbat sermon that is the most relevant for the congregation, and will have ideas, quotes, context to make the sermon even more rich; and
• More people may show up for Shabbat services, feeling more educated, connected and like they have some ownership over the sermon that week.

And for those that missed the service, they could read it the next day when the rabbi posts the sermon back on the blog or web site, with a link on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Interested?  Use the SocialSermon tag on this blog to find posts about the Social Sermon, and for case studies and guest posts from Rabbis and educators who are doing it.  Follow #socialsermon on Twitter for updates, links to these blog posts, and to connect with others who are doing it.  Join us on Facebook to be connected others who are doing Social Sermons and get important news.

Feel free to adapt the concept — a confirmation class could do this throughout the week between class meetings, a youth group could do it with their adviser or a parent facilitator.  Please report back and let us know how it’s going, and what you’re doing.  Please let us know if we can help you at any stage – leave a comment here, or any other space mentioned above.

Want more “hand holding”?  Darim offers hourly consulting, and we are working with interested Social Sermoners to find funding from a donor or Federation small grants program to work with a group of Rabbis in your local community.  Holler if you’d like more information.

Ready, Set…. Social Sermon!

My life-cycle rabbi is in Columbus, Ohio.

My education rabbi is in Los Angeles.

My close friends are in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, St. Louis and Charlotte.

I am enrolled in a Jewish professional graduate school in Boston, my family is in the Southeast, and I intern at a Jewish non-profit headquartered in Charlottesville, Va.

That’s why I need a network that works where I work—a place I like to call “Charstonashingtonatloges.”

(Remember this AT&T ad?)

This is how my community works:

I study Jewish texts with my rabbi on the phone.

I keep in touch with my friends through constant texting, playing in a fantasy football league, talking on the phone while driving, reading Gmail and Twitter status updates and viewing new pictures as they are posted on Facebook or Google’s Picasa.

For work, I use a VOIP (voice over IP) phone with a Charlottesville area code to take calls, and a combination of Google Docs, Wikispaces, Ning, Jing, Skype, Delicious and other Web 2.0 tools to coordinate my work with my colleagues.

When one of my friends gets married, I am there in suit and tie, and our rabbi whom we know from college flies in to be with us for the weekend to officiate, dance, talk and reconnect.

I am extremely lucky. My community is amazing. The community I feel closest to only exists in its connections among its members. While we face serious geographical challenges, physical space or proximity is just not as important as the right people or the best connections.

This is a trend that Jewish communal leaders need to understand exists and is very real for many in my generation. We are becoming increasingly globally oriented and are no longer willing to compromise quality of friendships or experiences just because we may be far away.

We are in constant pursuit of personal meaning, and where we find it is where we will be.  Social media not only allows me to create community when we’re not physically together, it empowers me to continue to add to it nationally and globally.

Many of the newest and most innovative Jewish start-up organizations are prospering, having transcended the idea of physical space. JDub Records creates a Jewish space on your car’s stereo, Storahtelling takes the tradition of Jewish storytelling into nightclubs and Reboot helps launch Jewish-themed creative projects into the public sphere.

Moishe House, a start-up creating physical places for young Jews to gather and create community, recognizes the need for a physical space but creates it by leasing living rooms, rather than building all-out community centers.

The Jewish community having long ago moved into the suburbs to build beautiful synagogues and create long-standing institutions, however, is very invested in physical space. And for good reason. In these spaces is where much of the Jewish activities, traditions and culture exist. But these building-centered Jewish organizations might benefit by dipping their toes into the water by creating new spaces outside the synagogue building.

For example, the Riverway Project at Temple Israel of Boston brings synagogue activities into the homes of young Jews and into other spaces in the community.

Shabbat Connections at Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville, VA, funded by the Legacy Heritage Innovation Grant, creates small havurot within a Charlottesville congregation, and encourages groups of families to meet in one another’s homes once a month for Shabbat experiences.

As we happen upon Sukkot, a holiday that reminds us of our wandering ways and encourages us to build temporary houses, it is important to remember that the most important place for Judaism is the one place that we take with us wherever we go: our neshama, the place inside us all.

With all the new technologies flying around us, we should take a step back to see how they help each of us connect with our communities—both physical and virtual—and with ourselves. The communication revolution is here, and it’s transforming not only the way we talk, but the way we relate to everything around us.

To some, social media means loss of face-to-face connection. To me, social media is the saving grace of my life in “Charstonashingtonatloges,” the virtual, and in Boston, the physical. It is the tool that enriches my connections and makes my face-to-face time all the more meaningful.

Do you have examples of programs in your community that are redefining traditional space boundaries? Please share them in the comments section.

Flickr photo credit: Pixel Drip

I’ve been thinking a lot about engagement lately.

We talk about engaging our community membership. But what exactly do we mean by “engagement?” What is a community member’s motivation for participation? What trajectories might this participation take?

Tony Burgess is the co-author of CompanyCommand, a book about peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and online communities. He recently posted reflections based on his personal experiences on the com-prac discussion list about what motivates volunteers in communities to move from peripheral participation to more active engagement and leadership roles.

Tony writes:

The experience is meaningful to me (an active member) along three dimensions:

(1) Connection: As a result of this experience I am becoming connected to like-hearted leaders who I value. This is about relationship.

(2) Contribution: I am able to give back and make a difference—to contribute my unique experience and talent to something greater than self. I am making a positive difference for people and a collective that I value.

(3) Personal Development: As a result of this experience, I am personally developing and becoming more effective as a leader and a [person] than I would otherwise be. I am being exposed to people and experiences that change me. I’m learning.

Given this understanding, a follow-up question follows: “What can we as a community of practice do to be a catalyst for the meaningful experience of members?”

Nancy White comments on Tony’s post and builds on it – she asks, “When we are trying to design, support, create conditions for collaboration, how do we best suss out motivation to increase the chance of actual engagement? What are your ‘sussing’ strategies?”

What does collaboration look like in your organization: lay, professional, lay-professional? What keeps your members and staff engaged? How do you use online tools to build and sustain your communities? How do you measure success? How do your members journey at various points from peripheral participation to leadership roles? What keeps them – and you – motivated and engaged?

“Why should we do things online when we all live in the same place, and meet up at the synagogue (or JCC or havurah or Hillel, etc.) in person? Online can never replace the face-to-face experience!”

I hear this often, and spend a lot of my time explaining that an online experience is a complement, not a replacement, to face-to-face experiences. In our rapidly evolving world, two things are happening simultaneously which I believe are critical for the Jewish communal world to understand.

1. The reality is, Jews are using these online tools to shape an increasing amount of their day-to-day experiences. If the Jewish community does not offer the same convenience for initial and ongoing engagement that our members take for granted in other aspects of their lives, they may never walk through our doors to experience the power, importance, and value of the face-to-face experience our community can offer. We simply cannot afford to not be in the game. Furthermore, we need to learn how to use these tools as effective gateways – one of many points of access – for engaging and connecting people in a community.
2. Culturally, our use of new technologies is evolving into more social experiences. Human needs, emotions, patterns of socializing, innate cues, etc. are essential to the universal human experience. Recent trends in technology — the “web 2.0″ phenomenon (aka social media) — can be summarized as making the web more social and people-centered: friendly, casual, accessible, democratic. And not only are the technologies evolving, but the ways in which we use them are changing as well.

Clive Thompson recently wrote an article in the New York Times, “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy,” about the evolution and success of Facebook and other social tools like Twitter. Thompson discusses the birth of the Facebook newsfeed,

a single page that — like a social gazette from the 18th century — delivered a long list of up-to-the-minute gossip about their friends, around the clock, all in one place. ‘A stream of everything that’s going on in their lives,’ as [Facebook founder, Mark] Zuckerberg put it.

While users were initially uncomfortable with details of their private lives being broadcast, they quickly learned the value of it, and adapted accordingly. Thompson provides a larger context for these types of short-hand communications:

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye.

Though each Facebook status update or Twitter post (”tweet”) may seem insignificant, Thompson suggests that “taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting.”

In an age where people are very busy, with both parents in a family working, it is hard to squeeze in time for engagement with the Jewish community. Often it is not that we don’t want to, it’s just that it is not always convenient enough to rise to the top of the priority list. This is critical for the Jewish community to understand. Developing online relationships is not about watering down or distilling. It’s about widening the doorways and strengthening ties.

“[T]he ultimate effect of the new awareness,” Thompson writes, is that “[i]t brings back the dynamics of small-town life.” What more do we want in our local Jewish communities? It is not enough to see a person in the single context of a study group or a synagogue service. Rather, we need to recognize the whole person, and be seen as a whole person, in order to form the tight bonds of community we crave. Facebook, Twitter and other technologies are tools that can be used in support of this.

Through these tools I keep up with friends from Pardes and Livnot U’lehibanot who are all over the world, youth group and camp friends from the congregation where I grew up, Rabbis I admire, and friends who I will see at next week’s tot Shabbat. And when I see them, we’ll pick up the conversation as though it had been hours since we last spoke, not weeks.

Curious? Sign up for Facebook and search for 10 friends from various areas of your past and present lives. Get a taste of Twitter – if you need someone to follow, I’m lisacolton (be warned: this is my personal life, not strictly professional, but I invite you nonetheless – you’ll be more ambiently aware of me!). And be sure to read Clive Thompson’s article in the New York Times article for more.

Postcript – Social Media in Action
This blog post was written on a Friday afternoon based on an article in the New York Times that was already available online but which was not accessible in print until delivery of the Sunday magazine section. The sequence of events that led to this blog post were as follows: the New York Times publishes the article online, budtheteacher “tweets” about it on Twitter, Caren Levine, Director of Darim’s Learning Networks, sees the tweet, reads the online article , and updates her Facebook status referencing the article, with a nod to bud’s tweet. I notice Caren’s status update, and as I know her recommendations are always home runs, I read the article, gears turn, and I compose this blog post, which you’re now reading. The information is valuable, but it’s made possible through the connection of the people.

Welcome to Web 2.0.