Build coalitions with like-minded stakeholders
From Comunica iGuides
Once you have found the other stakeholders in the issue you are working on, Web 2.0 tools also have the potential to help build more significant partnerships with stakeholders who have the same values and principles as you do.
Keeping in mind that coalition-building requires online and offline strategies to be successful, these are the key strategies in how to use Web 2.0 tools to achieve this:
- Create a space for the coalition to continue interacting between and beyond face-to-face events and activities
- Broaden the coalition by reaching out to stakeholders that have not taken part in face-to-face events and activities
- Hold online events for the coalition to learn more about the issues based on your research findings
- Document and manage your coalition members
Strategy: Create a space for the coalition to continue interacting between and beyond face-to-face events and activities
| Tools and Usage | Potentials | Limitations | Examples |
| Google sites | Use this service to create an online space for your coalition | ||
| Social networking tools | Ning is built for online communities. It has functionalities that allow community members to interact with each other, such as blogs, discussion forum, etc. | By July 2010, Ning will no longer be free. |
Strategy: Broaden the coalition by reaching out to stakeholders that have not taken part in face-to-face events and activities
| Tools and Usage | Potentials | Limitations | Examples |
| Social networking updates
Use Twitter to promote the coalition's online spaces, face-to-face activities and discussions. |
Strategy: Hold online events for the coalition to learn more about the issues based on your research findings
| Tools and Usage | Potentials | Limitations | Examples |
| Webinar – a real time online video seminar on a specific issue
Robust and popular webinar (online meeting) systems are Blackboard Collaborate and Webex. A popular free service is, for example DimDim.com.
| Thematic webinars can be organized periodically, for specific groups of participants, or topic-specific.
If well done, webinars represent a good way to bring people together and have them learn in a participative way. | Production of a webinar is time consuming
Steeper learning curve in for using the tool effectively and organizing webinars Most webinar services are costly (the user has to pay in order to be able to use the platform to organize webinars). Free webinar systems have limited features and not always work on all operating systems. |
Strategy: Document and manage your coalition members
| Tools and Usage | Potentials | Limitations | Examples |
| Online databases
If you have a very broad coalition, use Civicrm to manage your contacts database. | Civicrm is free and users to set up a contacts database that can then be used in websites. | It needs to be hosted in a server.
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| Use Google spreadsheets to document and manage your contacts. | You can create spreadsheets for free. | This is not advisable for large amounts of data. |
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Table of Contents of the iGuide
This iGuide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.
Impact 2.0 is a project of the Fundación Comunica with funding provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), 
Ottawa, Canada.
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