Reflections on FOJNP Conference

The Future of the Jewish Nonprofit summit a few weeks ago featured a dazzling array of smart people with extensive experience in a wide variety of “new media” campaigns.  Organizer Dave Weinberg did a terrific job of avoiding the usual suspects and engendering conversation amongst people ranging from rapper Kosha Dillz to the Manager of Corporate Communications for Jet Blue.

A few themes and ideas emerged that have stuck with me:

1) Michael Bassik noted that we are all “slacktivists.”

Who among us hasn’t liked a Facebook page or signed an email petition or retweeted an ask because a friend or colleague asked us to, with no intention of doing anything more for that cause?  The tools have so lowered the barriers to the easiest forms of participation, that we should rethink how we consider those on our engagement ladders and how we discern activists from amongst the slacktivists.

2) Allison Fine uttered a phrase I’ve since repeated often: “There is no online engagement without on land engagement.” Too often, organizations and campaigns are using online tools to bypass true organizing, and she’s right that it rarely works.  There’s got to be something real out here in meatspace to weave into and back up all those bytes.

3) Peter LaMotte suggested that “relative virality” is the key idea we should focus on when we think about how campaign ideas might spread. It was a reminder to focus on key audiences, instead of everyone.  If 5,000 people who can’t do anything to help your cause see your online video, that’s less useful than if only 500 people see it if those are the people who can help.

Kudos to Dave for a great event.  I look forward to the next one.

-Shayna