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NICA ONLINE: Vision Scope (Introduction)
Objective: Enhance Virtual Community of NW Communitarians
Objective: Increase NW IC Web Site Traffic
Objective: Improve NW IC Exposure
Objective: Increase NICA Membership
Conclusion
Project Ideas
Board of Advisors
Program Manager

Project Ideas

As this project is discussed with members of the Board of Advisors, the NICA Board, other communitarians, and other interested parties, new ideas come up. While some of these ideas are outside the scope of this project as currently envisioned, other ideas have not yet been "woven" into the project vision. This page is devoted to holding these ideas until they can be further processed for possible use in this project. A number of the ideas here will flow into Objective: Enhance Virtual Community of NW Communitarians.

Ideas:

  1. NICA sponsors local "meetups" - not necessarily using the Meetup.com system. NICA would identify local meeting coordinators and help them get "meetups" started and support them on an ongoing basis.
  2. Seeker/Community matchmaking - similar to dating services, seekers enter data that helps them identify communities of the most interest, then to connect with the community
    1. Decison-tree which points at communities
    2. Help with/manage introductions - decrease the number of inquiries with no responses
  3. Website buying club - help community web sites use better technology
    1. Mapping system
    2. Calendars
  4. Well-managed NW IC webring
  5. Hosting photos
  6. Mobilize communitarians for political activism, e.g. changing existing Seattle housing restriction on number of unrelated adults living in a single house
  7. Online directory of community and community member goods and services and skills which can be bought or sold or given away. Should focus first on skills that serve the interests of this project, e.g. web dev
  8. Community "WWOOF" - system encouraging people to stay at communities in exchange for work on the community's needs
  9. Reputation management, facilitate visits by community seekers by enabling communities to see the visitor's reputation prior to deciding whether or not to "accept" the visitor. This would serve as a shared immune system similar to a letter of recommendation or the landlord data system used to help avoid problem tenants.
  10. Get a better URL for NICA (currently: www.ic.org/NICA) - all the obvious ones, e.g. www.nica.org, are unavailable
  11. Moving beyond text and photos, e.g. use Flash animations to communicate community ideas, processes
  12. Coordinated context creation and distribution - way to spread work on topics of common interest, as well as manage traffic
  13. Cooperative web advertising - why compete for community-interested traffic when we can cooperate? Advertise centralized resources and let them appropriately distribute the traffic. Could be done using Search Engine keywords, banner ads, etc.
  14. Activate cohousing resources for broader IC support
  15. Localization - use end user address information to localize what's displayed to a user.
  16. Convert traffic into income, e.g. commissions on book sales by linking to Amazon, application/membership/sponsorship fees - think about economic value of NICA contacts on a lifetime basis, including revenue-generating advertising, community programs?
  17. Online NICA shop
  18. What's New in NW Communities - news section on NICA home page

Do you have other ideas you'd like us to consider? Your ideas are welcome -- email Craig. Also, if you would like to be involved in the Board of Advisors -- email Craig.

Contact: Craig Ragland

Updated: 8/18/05