Post-2009

变脸

In spring 2009, a new page of this research initiative was turned. During her sabbatical leave in Beijing, Professor Jing Wang, the founder and organizer of MIT Critical Policy Studies of China (CPSC), launched an NGO 2.0 Project (“Chinese NGOs in the Web 2.0 Environment”) in collaboration with Professor Zhou Rongting at the University of Science and Technology of China, Ogilvy & Mather in Beijing, and three Chinese NGOs (e.g., NGO Communication Net, Friends of Nature, and Center of Citizen and Social Development at Sun Yat-sen University). The previously named “MIT International Committee of Critical Policy Studies of China” was changed to New Media Action Lab (NMAL) to indicate this new research direction.

The NGO 2.0 Project (公益组织2.0) was funded by Ford Foundation Beijing and launched on May 25, 2009. It marked the beginning of NMAL’s engagement in integrating academic theories, social practice, and technological experiments. We prioritize practice over theory and are committed to serving social and educational communities in China through innovative ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

NGO 2.0 Project (“Chinese NGOs in the Web 2.0 Environment”): 2009-2011

Goals
The overall goal of the NGO project is to introduce Web 2.0 tools and at the same time improve the ICT literacy of NGOs in rural China. Second, this project will build a social networking platform through which a scalable communication infrastructure for NGOs in Western and central regions of China will be established. This platform can be eventually repurposed to serve other socially marginalized groups in the country. Simultaneously, Web 2.0 training workshops are held in four different sites in Western and central parts of China.

Why Web 2.0?
Why are digital media and Web 2.0 vital to the NGOs in underdeveloped regions of China? China's NGOs have developed rapidly in the past ten years across thematic fields. However, under the current political and socio-economic climate, small, mid-sized, and emerging NGOs encountered a bottleneck of growth for a number of reasons. First, Chinese government showed little interest in encouraging non-governmental led civic media participation. Second, most of those NGOs are not registered although the local government is aware of their existence. They are not illegal but are constrained in acquiring resources and in having their voices heard by the rest of Chinese society. They rely heavily on alternative media to recruit new members, organize their activities, and increase the social awareness of the cause they are promoting.

Driven by open source software and network effects, Web 2.0 can serve as a perfect alternative medium through which NGOs can reach out to old and potential new constituents at little cost. Our project is aimed at building the technological capacity of targeted NGOs. ICT and new media technology, particularly 2.0, constitutes the focus of this project.

Targets
During the first phase of this project, our targets are small and mid-sized NGOs in West China. During the second phase, our project will expand to include NGOs in central China.

Main Activities
This project is made up of three components.

  1. Four training workshops (150 grassroots NGOs will be trained by June 2010.)
  2. A SNS digital platform will be built, which will combine the strengths of Web 1.0 and 2.0 functionalities for communication capacity building of targeted NGOs. This platform will be introduced at each training workshop and given to Chinese NGOs for free. An NGO ranking system will also be integrated into the platform to enable us to evaluate the organizational accountability and communication capability of each organization. This ranking will be important for businesses interested in social giving. Toward that end, the Public Relations Department of Ogilvy Beijing (a transnational advertising agency) has agreed to work with the project directors to promote this platform to multinational clients and local Chinese clients who are committed to enhancing their corporate social responsibility program.
  3. Training materials will be developed with a focus on social media, specifically Web 2.0 culture and software tools. Those training materials will be tailored to satisfy other ICT needs of participating NGOs.

Innovation
To date, there are no social networking platforms for NGOs in China. Second, most NGO training workshops are focused on improving organizational efficiency of NGOs. The proposed workshops are focused on the training of communication technology, which is a missing angle for NGO activism in China. Third, there is extensive work addressing the phenomenon of the ‘digital divide’ in theoretical terms but problem-solving social practice alleviating the ‘divide’ is scarce. Fourth, this platform is scalable within China and can even serve as a model for NGO practitioners in other developing countries.

Workshop Locations
Guangzhou (the Institute of Citizen and Social Development, Sun Yat-sen University);
Kunming, Yunnan Province, NGO Communication Net;
Xi’an, Shaanxi Province;
Hefei, Anhui Province

Collaborators
Six partners are involved:

  1. MIT New Media Action Lab;
  2. Knowledge Management Institute of the University of Science and Technology of China;
  3. NGO发展交流网 (NGO Development & Communication Net) was founded in January 2005 and was registered as 昆明草根文化传播有限公司.
  4. 公民与社会发展研究中心(Institute of Citizen and Social Development) was founded in 2003 by the Dept. of Cultural Anthropology at Sun Yat-sen University;
  5. 自然之友, Friends of Nature was founded in 1994.
  6. Ogilvy & Mather, Beijing.

NGO 2.0 in China (Trainee grassroots marked)

News reports on NGO2.0 China project

http://www.ngocn.org/?uid-23142-action-viewspace-itemid-53760

http://hausercenter.org/chinanpo/2009/07/a-recent-survey-on-internet-usage-and-communication-needs-of-ngos-in-china/

http://hi.baidu.com/ooof

Guangzhou workshop (July 6-9, 2008)

前排左 彭微风（NGOCN）； 前排右 王瑾（MIT-NMAL）；
后排左一 朱健刚 （中山大学）； 左二 陆非 （NGOCN）；左三　草草（NGOCN）
November, 2008

前排左五 周荣庭 （教NGO2.0 项目合作人）； 左四 王瑾 （MIT-NMAL）
后排左二 谢栋 （NGO2.0 科技团队负责人）
March 17, 2009 at UTSC

Partner Institutions