New Tactics has been hosting open online conversations for this community of human rights defenders since September of 2007. With your help, we’ve covered a wide range of topics related to creative human rights work such as using budgets for monitoring, engaging the UN Human Rights Council, using theatre, using social media, using humor, and many more.
As of June 2013, almost 1200 of our community members have contributed to these online conversations. We can’t thank you enough for sharing your experiences, questions, advice and ideas in this online community of practice! And a very special thank you goes out to the 600 of you that have committed to help lead these discussions by participating as conversation leaders!
Through online surveys (138 respondents), we have learned that 98% of the online conversation participants agree or strongly agree that their participation in the discussion has helped them in at least one of the following areas:
- Learning a new approach, tactic, tool or resource that they can use in their work someday,
- Gaining a new perspective on their work by reflecting on their own experience,
- Meeting new allies that can be contacted in the future.
We know that there is a lot more to learn about the impact of these conversations and how we can make them even better. In the meantime, we will continue to host these tactic-focused online conversations and experiment with a few other ideas.
To ensure that this community and its online discussions are useful and relevant - we need your help to identify what topics you would like to discuss! What kinds of tactics would you like to learn more about? What kinds of tactics have you mastered that you are eager to share with others? What are you struggling with in your work that this community could help you with?
And we're not just asking for topic-ideas - we’d like to explore new formats for exchange. How could we utilize Google Hangout to discuss tactics? Do we also need a private space for members to discuss? What would that look like? Could we invite a special guest with a particular expertise to be available for an 'Ask the Expert' type of online event? Please share your ideas on conversation topics and new formats below!
