85 Broads is a chapter at Tufts of the larger global network. It focuses on trying to get more women involved in areas like finance, business, non-profits, etc where we don't usually see as many women.
1.Can you tell me a little bit about the work you do in Somerville?
As a chapter, we don't do any work, per say, in the area of Somerville, but we do work with women at Tufts to try to get them more involved in areas like finance and business. However, the larger global network of 85 Broads focuses on the entire world and therefore, would include women from the area of Somerville.
2.How is your organization dealing with the economic downturn? Is it affecting your organization? What about the population that your organization serves?
The economic downturn is clearly affecting everyone. It has not directly affected our organization in the ways things are run, but it has affected what we are able to do with the outside community in terms of events. The economic downturn has not affected the population that we serve, since we are a Tufts organization.
3.In your opinion, what is the main economic need in Somerville?
Like any other area, Somerville needs good leadership and tight finances in order to survive the economic recession.
4.We're trying to understand how people and organizations in Somerville are connected. What are the three most important partnerships you have -- OR -- the organizations you work most closely with?
a) 85 Broads Global Network
b) Career Services
c) other finance/economic related groups on campus
Monday, December 14, 2009
Blink: Chi Omega
1.Can you tell me a little bit about the work you do in Somerville?
* The Chi Alpha Chapter of Chi Omega participates in campus-wide philanthropy events that interact with the Medford & Somerville communities
o Read by the River
o Kids' Day
o Halloween on the Hill
o Relay for Life
2.How is your organization dealing with the economic downturn? Is it affecting your organization? What about the population that your organization serves?
* Our Executive Board has made a more "lean" budget, and has been sticking to it
* Instead of hiring a chef to cook dinner at Chi Omega 4 nights per week, we switched to catered dinner twice per week
3.In your opinion, what is the main economic need in Somerville?
* Addressing the needs of elementary, middle, and high-school students
o Encouragement to apply to private high schools
o Bridging the gap between the socioeconomic status at Tufts and the status of the Somerville community
4.We're trying to understand how people and organizations in Somerville are connected. What are the three most important partnerships you have -- OR -- the organizations you work most closely with?
* Strong ties with the Leonard Carmichael Society (one of our juinors is the Vice President) - she encourages all sisters to participate in events
* Sisters who are Child Development majors intern at the Pearson School (i.e. the daycare), and become more involved with community outreach with the children of somerville
* The Chi Alpha Chapter of Chi Omega participates in campus-wide philanthropy events that interact with the Medford & Somerville communities
o Read by the River
o Kids' Day
o Halloween on the Hill
o Relay for Life
2.How is your organization dealing with the economic downturn? Is it affecting your organization? What about the population that your organization serves?
* Our Executive Board has made a more "lean" budget, and has been sticking to it
* Instead of hiring a chef to cook dinner at Chi Omega 4 nights per week, we switched to catered dinner twice per week
3.In your opinion, what is the main economic need in Somerville?
* Addressing the needs of elementary, middle, and high-school students
o Encouragement to apply to private high schools
o Bridging the gap between the socioeconomic status at Tufts and the status of the Somerville community
4.We're trying to understand how people and organizations in Somerville are connected. What are the three most important partnerships you have -- OR -- the organizations you work most closely with?
* Strong ties with the Leonard Carmichael Society (one of our juinors is the Vice President) - she encourages all sisters to participate in events
* Sisters who are Child Development majors intern at the Pearson School (i.e. the daycare), and become more involved with community outreach with the children of somerville
MyBLink
From browsing around the new website and adding nodes I've found a few issues (apologies in advance if anyone else has already said these). First, the subheading under Opportunities says "Add an opportunities" so this needs to be changed to either "Add opportunities" or "Add an opportunity." Additionally, I think it would be really clean if under both Opportunities and Dashboard there was both a View and an Add option. This would make it a little more organized and symmetrical. In terms of my profile, I think more of a form style editing tool would be helpful, like on facebook. I imagine this is in the works anyway.
In terms of adding my actual nodes, I found it difficult to click "save" as this didn't actually seem to be a button, but just text at the bottom of the page. It did ultimately work, though. Also, there was nowhere for me to add email and phone number, but once I submitted it those fields were blank. I like the way that the "issues" section was set up, though, it was very easy to just click on the different topics for each node.
In terms of adding my actual nodes, I found it difficult to click "save" as this didn't actually seem to be a button, but just text at the bottom of the page. It did ultimately work, though. Also, there was nowhere for me to add email and phone number, but once I submitted it those fields were blank. I like the way that the "issues" section was set up, though, it was very easy to just click on the different topics for each node.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
new blinks
Today, I added a variety of nodes because I wanted to see what problems I might encounter. I added Somerville Public Library, Senator Kerry, MASSPIRG student chapters, and Charlestown High School, and learned a couple things. The mechanics of the website worked well for me, but I found that the tags weren't cutting it for me. Unfortunately, although topics like homelessness work well for organizations like MASSPIRG when trying to tag individuals like Senator Kerry it can be kind of tough. A tag for politics or political figures might be helpful. Also, I came across an ethical dilemma while creating the nodes. For some of them, I just copied and pasted information off their websites. I can't decide whether this is a good idea or a bad idea. Ideally, it would be best if all the nodes created were done by the individual/organizations who they are about, but realistically, if we want the site to grow this would be hard. Consequently, it seems likely the description these organizations wouldn't mind being posted without their consent is what they already have posted up on their websites, so I decided to just copy and paste some of their mission statements. However, after I did this I began to have some doubts about totally taking their words. This also prompted me to think about more questions about consent. As a result, I am posing the following questions to the group, in regards to not only my new nodes but also the future nodes that will inevitably end up on blink. How much information is it OK to post about an organization without their consent? Is it OK to use other websites material? I don't think there is a clear answer to either of these two questions so I would love to get everyone's opinion.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Social Networking More Popular Than Email
I was browsing around the internet and found some interesting stats from an article that was posted in March 2009 that showed that social networking was more popular than email in 2008:
New stats from Nielsen Online show that by the end of 2008, social networking had overtaken email in terms of worldwide reach. According to the study, 66.8% of Internet users across the globe accessed “member communities” last year, compared to 65.1% for email. The most popular online activities remain search and Web portals (with around 85% reach) and the websites of software manufacturers.
The far-reaching study also explored a number of other trends within the social networking space. In 2008, users spent 63% more time on member communities than they did in the previous year.
New stats from Nielsen Online show that by the end of 2008, social networking had overtaken email in terms of worldwide reach. According to the study, 66.8% of Internet users across the globe accessed “member communities” last year, compared to 65.1% for email. The most popular online activities remain search and Web portals (with around 85% reach) and the websites of software manufacturers.
The far-reaching study also explored a number of other trends within the social networking space. In 2008, users spent 63% more time on member communities than they did in the previous year.
new BLinks on BLinks.org
I posted two new blinks today and created my account on the site. youthvoteMA is a site that I started my junior year of high school, and I think has potential to make connections in the Tufts community. "The site was created as a resource for students and anyone of voting age to get information and resources for registering to vote. It was created as a part of a Girl Scout Gold Award Project in Westborough, MA. The project is focused on providing the youth of Massachusetts with the information, resources and opportunity to register to vote. By developing this website, holding local voter registration drives, and encouraging others to do the same, the project will work to open the door for many prospective voters." I linked it to "education and literacy" and "CIRCLE," because CIRCLE provided me with much of the information I used to create the site.
The second BLink I created was for the Somerville Journal, a local newspaper in Somerville. I discovered that its parent company is the same as my hometown paper and many in MA. I thought that having the Somerville Journal on the site would be a great stepping stone to have them publish information about the site in the paper.
I plan to doing some clean-up of nodes later this weekend.
Experiencing with Blink
I browsed around the website. I tried to create my own profile using the same username for the other blog that we had (with myopenid). I am not certain if I successfully create my profile because it seemed like it didn't go through. I also couldn't upload my profile picture. It showed up to an error page. So, I think we need to fix on that.
One more thing that I am concern while using the website is that the page of making the profile is just not that great for me. I don't really like it. I think it's easier if there are indications of what to put in a profile, such as network, locations, interests, activities, contact info, education, etc. and at the end perhaps a little box of "about yourself" or "about organization." I hope you guys can picture what I'm trying to say here. But the indications can vary between organizations and individuals.
I know that we mention this in class already, but I think we should add a calender to the website somewhere. A calender that indications what is happening during this month. What are the opportunities or big events - show publicly because sometimes people are just lazy to physically browse or search what they need to do. Yes, I know that eventually there will be so many events happening at the same time - we can fix/change that after the website has gone live for a few months or so. OR we should have a calender of each person and each organization. I think it will be more efficient and organized.
One last thing, what is the actual home page? We can incorporate the calender in the home page - perhaps for new users to have a sense of what the website is all about.
One more thing that I am concern while using the website is that the page of making the profile is just not that great for me. I don't really like it. I think it's easier if there are indications of what to put in a profile, such as network, locations, interests, activities, contact info, education, etc. and at the end perhaps a little box of "about yourself" or "about organization." I hope you guys can picture what I'm trying to say here. But the indications can vary between organizations and individuals.
I know that we mention this in class already, but I think we should add a calender to the website somewhere. A calender that indications what is happening during this month. What are the opportunities or big events - show publicly because sometimes people are just lazy to physically browse or search what they need to do. Yes, I know that eventually there will be so many events happening at the same time - we can fix/change that after the website has gone live for a few months or so. OR we should have a calender of each person and each organization. I think it will be more efficient and organized.
One last thing, what is the actual home page? We can incorporate the calender in the home page - perhaps for new users to have a sense of what the website is all about.
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