Web Tools To Build Online Communities
One of the most useful aspects of the internet revolution has been the ability to build online communities. Over time is has become easier to collaborate using online
workspaces, forums, calendars, wikis and blogs. This new environment has proven very powerful for those organisations and groups that have embraced the technology successfully.
However there can be many challenges along the way - and many freely available solutions have limitations or expect a certain level of technical knowledge.
Mission Control has helped many volunteer organisations take advantage of the world of online opportunities for collaboration and communication, while avoiding many of
the common pitfalls.
Both in the for-profit and the not-for-profit arenas, a common challenge is retention of organisational knowledge. Often procedures, concepts, philosophies, specifications
and the day to day know-how required to keep everything moving forward is lost over time. This is particularly true in the case of volunteer groups, as they typically have
high turnover, and few members are motivated to do the less than exciting work of documenting this organisational knowledge.
Online collaboration tools such as wikis can help improve this situation, because everyone
in the organisation can contribute and take ownership in the process of sharing knowledge.