goals

Create a Community of Practice. In a June 2024 essay ("Your town’s online group matters more than you think"), Eli Pariser of New_ Public noted the lack of an “American Community Moderators Association” to help members help their communities. It certainly is needed (it could even be global). We need to connect, and help represent, people who run community groups on Facebook / LinkedIn / Google. We need the vendors to be represented in these groups and to respond to common needs -- and ultimately ensure that the tools meet our needs.

Bridging civic and online groups. Civic committees are often disjoint from online communities; few people participate vigorously in both. “Online” people may not have the patience or endurance for committees, and committee people might argue the same thing for online groups. Nathan Schneider of the University of Colorado has written about this at times (4 years ago: Implicit Feudalism: Why Online Communities Still Haven’t Caught Up with My Mother’s Garden Club).

Civic Committee Digital Modernization. Many volunteer civic committees are predisposed to in-person meetings, and eschew modern practices like project management or digital collaboration tools. This development could help bridge the gap above.