Twitter Ye Not

I can’t deny it, I am a bit of a geek when it comes to technology. To give you an example I was, rather sadly now I think about it, sat at my computer at 1am on the 17th June eagerly awaiting the much hyped release of the new iPhone software OS 3.0 which was due for download that day - although it failed to materialise until 6pm so muggings here was chained to the desk all day. Although I’m not a fully fledged nerd – you have to go to conventions and be able to talk in binary code to achieve that status - I am what the industry calls an ‘early adopter’. I do love a gadget. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the first version of the Psion Organiser, quickly followed by the wonderful Palm Pilot, I was using smart phones as far back as 2002 (remember the Sony Ericsson P800 anyone?) and was pretty near the front of the queue for the first generation of iPods and its evolved cousin the iPhone.

My geekiness is not just confined to my personal life. I’ve been rubbing my hands with glee over technological advancements for the cause of volunteering since I joined the sector. Back in 1997, when the internet was still seen by many volunteering organisations as a passing fad, I proudly claimed the title of ‘First Volunteer Bureau To Have a Website’, sharing ‘VOIS’, the voluntary organisations internet server, with the likes of NCVO and the former National Centre for Volunteering. The following year I piloted a ‘virtual volunteer centre’, making our opportunities available to the general public 24/7 and so it was not a big surprise that I ended up working with Youthnet, then the country’s only charity that was successfully exploiting new media, to set up do-it.org.uk and learn all about online marketing plus have much fun into the bargain.

So where am I going with this nostalgic ramble? Well here we are, a full ten years after the proto type of do-it and life on the web is still evolving at a right old pace. One of the biggest developments has been the rise of the social network, from amateur tinkerings in the bedrooms of teenagers to the world wide phenomena that is Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, to name but a few. With the sheer numbers of people that engage with these networks on a daily basis – and we’re talking millions across the world - chances are that you or someone you know has a profile on at least one of them.

Unless you work in the volunteering sector that is. Last year Red Foundation consulted hundreds of volunteer managers and leaders of volunteer projects across the country, through the Modernising Volunteering project of which we are a partner. It's part of our workstream to explore new ways to support volunteering professionals and given our passion for new media we wanted to suss out how volunteering organisations were utilising social networks. I was genuinely surprised, and a tad disappointed, to find out that overall social networks seem to have passed most volunteering organisations by.

Understandably for many volunteer managers the reason for this is a lack of knowhow on how to use them. If you’ve got a million and one things to do every day, making time to keep up to date with new technology just isn’t a priority and I totally get that. I was disheartened though to hear how some volunteering organisations viewed these networks with outright suspicion and just couldn’t see how they could be of relevance to their work. This reminded me of when we first launched do-it where there was much initial resistance from the volunteer centre network, many of whom worried it would put them out of business, but which has since become an integral recruiting tool for nearly all of them. The same issue applies here, we need to show these agencies why working with social networks can be good for their business.

Of course there are some organisations that already use these networks with success – check out Make A Difference (in Milton Keynes), National Trust, RSPB and Whizz Kids on Facebook and you’ll get an idea of what I’m on about. And there are clearly some volunteer managers that really get and embrace the web for peer support. The UKVPM Yahoo Group is still thriving many years after it was set up by Volunteering England’s Rob Jackson, and the Association of Volunteer Managers have recently re-launched their website to include a ‘wiki’ of good practice compiled by their members – check it out at www.volunteermanagers.org.uk.

But if you’re not a geek like me then keeping up with technical developments can be a chore – if you’ve only really just got to grips with V-Base then working out what the hell Twitter is all about can be daunting. But social networks and social network approaches to communications are here to stay, of that there is no doubt. Social newtorks offer huge potential to volunteering organisations to reach out to and support each other and to engage with their volunteers in new ways. Our sister charity, the Red Trust, is piloting a new bespoke social network for volunteering called i-volunteer (www.i-volunteer.org) – it’ll be launching in the autumn but you can get in early and become a beta tester, just register your details on the holding page to take part – which I believe will offer an interesting experiment for volunteer managers and volunteers to interact and share their volunteering experiences.

For those of you that still can’t tell your ‘Flickr’ from your ‘Linked In’ then don’t fret as help is at hand! Modernising Volunteering is running a series of regional seminars to provide a basic introduction to these networks, and why and how they can help you, and yours truly will be facilitating them - and I promise to speak in plain English. Check out our website (www.redfoundation.org) for details odf the seminars which will be available next month – or email me at modvol@redfoundation.org to book an advance place.

There you go, blatant sales plug done, now off to tweet and talk about tagging with my techie, could my life BE more exciting?!

Jamie Thomas is CEO of Red Foundation and founder of i-volunteer.org

The Modernising Volunteering report ‘Fresh Thinking’ which examines the role of social networks and volunteering, is now available at the Red Foundation website http://www.redfoundation.org/admin/whatwedo/pdfs