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Harnessing the Internet: Building Online Communities By Alexander Wood Executive Director, Disabilities Network of New York City There are over one million people – of all ages and population groups – with physical disabilities living in New York City. The challenge of addressing physical disabilities in New York City is complicated by a highly fragmented service delivery system. The Disabilities Network of New York City (DNNYC) provides a forum aimed at strengthening this system throughout New York City for people with physical disabilities. The DNNYC represents tens of thousands of New Yorkers with disabilities, however, there are thousands more we have yet to reach. Using the Internet, the DNNYC is reaching out to the disability community. The Internet is one of the greatest and most cost-effective tools for organizing a far-ranging group of people. It cuts across literal and figurative boundaries to build an easy access, online community. A Personal Journey I believe the Internet has a vast untapped potential to link communities of like-minded people and that its power can be harnessed to effect positive change. In 2002, I was hired to develop a physical disabilities impact network focusing on systems change to improve access for New Yorkers with disabilities. Over four years in the making, the idea for the Disabilities Network of New York City came out of a United Way of New York City (UWNYC) targeted needs assessment, performed in 1999. This assessment revealed the need for a coordinating council to unify the disparate interests of the over one million people with disabilities – and the organizations serving them – in New York City's five boroughs. Two days after I started on the job, we held a meeting of the steering committee for this new network and resolved to create a listserv.
Our listserv is on a Yahoo!Group and it's free. It took less than ten minutes to set up. The site allows for us to add up to 100 members a day. Sharing information (like relevant news articles) and posting notices for public hearings on policy issues affecting the disability community are the prime uses of the listserv. "Having over 100 participants scanning the news, going to events and sharing interesting information saves me tremendous time and energy," says Miller. "[It's] like a personal clipping service." Jean Ryan, a Board Member of Disabled in Action and an Access-a-Ride activist also identifies the listserv's potential for information sharing as a critical function for the community. "This year there have been about a dozen articles about Access-a-Ride in major New York City newspapers," says Ryan. "I email the articles...[using] the DNNYC listserv. With one click, I can reach a hundred more people who otherwise would not have read the articles." Realizing Our Potential A whole world opens up when you can access a group through your web browser. Our Yahoo site allows us to share files and links to Web sites that deal with the issues in which the community is interested. "I have been using the listserv for over a year to reach out to all the members of the DNNYC, particularly regarding our events," says Leslie Winter, Executive Director of Achilles Track Club and Treasurer of the DNNYC Board. "Our formal races, featuring people with disabilities in mainstream running events, are also opportunities for nonprofits to fundraise using our venues. The DNNYC listserv gets my message out to the nonprofit community in moments. As the listserv grows, it has become a vital mechanism to reach our targeted audience with announcements and, importantly, feedback." The site also contains a community calendar that notifies members of upcoming events. Members can upload and download photos. There is a database channel where files can be maintained and a polling channel through which members can be polled on questions designated moderators want to address. As Ryan notes, "Through the DNNYC listserv, I find out about important City Council hearings and other events I would otherwise not know about." "One especially effective use has been advertising job openings for both VISIONS and for projects that the DNNYC has been involved with," says Miller. "Since the DNNYC listserv is a targeted audience, we can be sure that people with disabilities (and people who know people with disabilities) can get timely information about jobs that might not be advertised elsewhere." DNNYC is just over a year old, and organizing and educating the membership via the listserv has been a central part of our activity and is largely responsible for the successes achieved in the organization's development. But we have not neglected to communicate with members who are not connected to the Internet and to market the organization to potential members, to public policymakers and potential funders and community allies via a newsletter, individual mailings and letter-writing campaigns. "The listserv does not substitute for the telephone or human contact but it does cut down on time needed for announcements, briefings, news alerts and articles that we can read or submit anytime it is convenient," says Miller.
You can contact the DNNYC at www.dnnyc.net and Alexander Wood at Awood@uwnyc.org. Author's note: The inspiration for this article was the book Click on Democracy: The Internet's Power to Change Political Apathy into Civic Action, by Steve Davis, Grant Reeher, Larry Elin. (2002, Westview Press, Oxford, UK) http://www.clickondemocracy.com |
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