LINC'S communications infrastructure expands

LINC's own communication infrastructure - the LINC website (www.LINCproject.org) and an email based listserv - has taken new directions in the past year in response to the developments in our community. Both are well-used resources, with the website now receiving some 10,000 distinct visits in a typical month (up from some 5,000 in November 2000) and the listserv now reaching 400 activists.

The LINC website, which was the first site to focus on the organizing efforts of low-income groups addressing welfare and economic security issues, has expanded in new directions and continues as a source of information about a wide range of groups and coalitions. In the past year we concentrated our efforts on building two areas of the site - a new TANF Reauthorization page and an expanded Technology Toolkit section. These features are the most frequently visited pages on our site. The TANF Reauthorization Resource Page allows visitors to identify the groups and coalitions working on reauthorization and offers a set of helpful resources and links to materials on reauthorization. The toolkit features our technology tips, technology assessment and baseline standards materials, technology training materials, and links to other useful resources, including funders and media resources.

Beyond adding content to the site, we have improved the site by reorganizing the presentation of material, transitioning the site from a static site to a database-driven site to make updating and searching easier, and developing an email distribution list to alert our broad and diverse audience to site updates. We have experimented with web-based "start pages" that deliver LINC site content and other useful material when a user first connects to the Internet. These "start pages" are now being used by several LINC groups, including WEEL, CVH, PUFF, and WROC.

National Welfare Engine Meeting

Our online Directory of Low Income Organizations Working on Welfare Issues is a unique resource for identifying grassroots groups in each state. Recognizing the importance of promoting communication among groups as welfare reauthorization approaches, we began work to update the Directory and developed a feature on the website that allows groups to provide updated information online. The updating is expected to be completed at the end of 2001.

Our organizers' listserv brings together activists and organizers across the country and has an average of three to four postings a week. In the past year the list has evolved from one that featured personal opinions on a range of welfare topics to one that emphasizes planned activities of various campaigns, opportunities for collaboration, information and analysis on current developments, and action alerts. This transformation reflects the increasing sophistication of our community as networks, coalitions and groups use email to mobilize, educate, and inform their allies.

We have improved administration of our listserv by bringing it in-house instead of using a free listserv host. Experience taught us that free listservs have hidden disadvantages, including the loss of archive materials, inadequate information about subscriber changes, subscriber mix-ups when hosts merge, and censorship. In addition to hosting our own listserv, we use our expanded capacity to host the lists of the NCJIS, WROC, and WRWAN as well. Hosting the lists provides the advantage of allowing individual list administrators to better manage each list.

2001 Report, go to page :: [ 1 ] :: [ 2 ] :: [ 3 ] :: [ 4 ] :: [ 5 ] :: [ 6 ] :: [ 7 ] :: [ 8 ]