The web is a network of computers wired up to create a big library of information, accessed via a phone line. To use email you need to connect to the web.
If you want to do more than simply send and receive emails or do web research, you should consider buying or borrowing a computer. This will be necessary if you want to design and manage a website for your campaign.
Investing in a computer You can put a notice on your local notice board on Action Network to find someone who has a computer or computer skills to offer.
Or you could invest in your own computer. An internet computer costs around £400, or less if you buy it second-hand. The base rate for accessing the web from home costs about £10 per month. Phone calls dialling up to the web are charged at the local call rate. Alternatively you could pay a flat fee for unlimited access at certain times.
You can use the web to find resources, people, relevant organisations or useful data.
You can find information on the web by:
Using a search engine: The more specific the search, the more useful the results. Always read the search tips for each search engine, or use the ‘advanced search’ option. Good search engines include: Google, AltaVista and All the web
. For advice about searching on Google, you may wish to check out the Google Guide.
Using a web directory: Good directories include:Dmoz, Yahoo and Mediauk
.
Using good reference sites with extensive ‘links’ pages. Your local council may have listings of campaigns and community groups in your area.
How reliable is the information you have found? It is essential to con organization the origin of information, statistics or quotes. You can phone, email or write to the organisation or individual hosting a website to con organization a quote, conclusions or statistics. Be wary of websites that do not offer an address or telephone number.
An abbreviation for the type of organisation responsible for a site often appears near the end of the website address. The most common are:
.com - commercial .co.uk - UK commercial .org – organisation (often non-commercial) .org.uk – UK organisation
But anyone or any group can use these abbreviations. The only genuinely reliable organisation abbreviations are:
.gov.uk – UK government .ac.uk – UK university .edu – US university .ltd.uk – UK registered limited organization .plc.uk – UK registered public organization
The internet is an invaluable tool for reaching existing and potential supporters and related interest groups. When it works properly the web is quick, relatively cheap and easy to use.
Email For many people and organisations electronic mail has replaced traditional paper correspondence and even the telephone.
Advantages:
Cheap
Immediate
Easy to store
Easy to organise
Time–saving
Disadvantages:
Impersonal
When using an email account you may be bombarded with unwanted advertising
Your account and the size of your mailbox may be limited, so you may have to monitor the amount of information you store there
Email groups Most email accounts have a facility to organise your email address book into useful sub-groups. Your campaign will benefit from measured and efficient use of email- nobody likes to be overloaded by information. You can build separate email groups for general campaign administrators, organisers of an event, or peripheral campaign supporters who only want occasional contact from your campaign.
Mailing lists They are more sophisticated email groups created by like-minded individuals to discuss concerns and share knowledge. You have to join a list to be able to view its content online, or to receive the discussion emails into your email inbox.
How do you join? Some lists are exclusive and you must be invited to join, but usually there is a free registration procedure where you need to give a few basic details.
Once registered, you will start to receive messages sent by members of that mailing list and you can contribute your own comments too. Keep a note of the procedure for unsubscribing in case you decide the list is no longer useful to you.
How do you set up your own list? This can take just a few minutes and is often free. Websites which help you to do this include: Yahoo groups, Mailbase and GreenNet.
You need to think of a title for the group (e.g. “Smithdown Community Chat”) and a description of what the group hopes to discuss (e.g. “An email list of people who live in Smithdown discussing key issues concerning residents”). You can choose whether the list is open to anyone, whether people need your approval to join, or whether people need to be personally invited by you. You can also moderate messages and store files, photos and links at your mailing list’s website.
Newsgroups Sometimes known as Usenet, newsgroups are publicly-accessible online discussion groups for posting messages. They are a great way of finding experts on a particular aspect of your campaign or people who have had similar experiences, even if they live on the other side of the world.
There are currently about 30,000 different subject areas covered by newsgroups, organised in hierarchies. Often they are available for all to contribute.
How do you use them? Usually you just send an email to the group and it appears on the message board for all to see. You can either join in an existing discussion – called a “thread”- or you can start a new line of debate. The ibiblio website has a guide to using Usenet newsgroups.
Using Action Network to reach people Action Network also has a number of tools to help you find other people who might agree with you or be useful in your campaign.
Local noticeboard: When you type in your postcode on the Action Network homepage, you are taken to your local noticeboard for your area. You can then read notices posted by other Action Network users - and post your own.
This allows you to reach other people in your area, and if they see your notice, they can send you a message on Action Network. This is a great way of helping you get people together on a particular issue.
The types of local notice on Action Network are:
Suggest an idea to see if you've got support
Publicise a meeting
Find help
Offer help
To start using the local noticeboard, go to the Take Action part of the site or type in your postcode on the homepage.
Campaign page: If you know what your campaign goals are, you can also create a campaign page on Action Network.
By setting up your campaign on Action Network and attaching it to a location and to relevant issues, anyone who searches the site from your area or who browses the issues you’re interested in will come across your campaign. The Action Network website has a facility for sending messages so you can get in touch with other campaigners and the supporters of your campaign. Go to the part of the site to start a campaign.
Websites can be as simple or complicated as your budget or skills will allow. Creating your own website can be a cost-effective, widely-accessible information and communication tool for your group.
Before you go about creating a website, you need to decide:
What you want your website to do
Who your website is aimed at
How your information will be organised
How you want your website to look
The easiest way to create a site is to find someone who knows how to create one already. You could look for someone with skills to offer on Action Network, find local college students seeking work experience, or ask a project/program for computer assistance as sponsorship-in-kind.
If you want to learn how to create a website yourself, your local library or online learning centre might offer website design workshops. Or you can follow one of the many web guides on creating websites:
www.4creatingawebsite.com is one of the easiest to follow step-by-step guides to creating a website.
The brave new world of the internet comes with its own set of standards, known as netiquette. Remember you don’t know who is looking at what you put on the internet and, like any other publishing medium, you must still obey the law. Read the Action Network guide on How to avoid libel and defamation.
Be professional Don’t be tempted to be abusive about your opponents or to encourage illegal activities in your users. And don’t use other sites’ material – including images – without permission, or pretend to be another individual or organisation.
Treat an email as you would a letter and adapt your tone according to who you’re writing to. Always check your spelling and grammar and make sure your emails are going to who you want them to go to.
Your identity How much you reveal about yourself and your group online is up to you. If you have created a website, it is easy to control your campaign’s public-facing image and information. In newsgroups or on message boards, your campaign can be represented by single campaign members in a way that not all supporters agree with.
It is a good idea to set up one central email account to deal with your newsgroup or mailing list queries. This is useful for housekeeping and to preserve some anonymity if your campaign is particularly sensitive.
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