Some organizations use a chat room to make a major announcement to volunteers, then giving them the opportunity to provide immediate feedback and ask questions that can be immediately answered. An agency could use a chat to introduce a new member to others in the group and allow them to interact in a more lively, interactive way than, say, an e-mail list.
Other organizations have used chat rooms to bring volunteers and clients together online (the Theatre As Digital Activity program at the San Jose Children's Musical Theater is an excellent example of this). Some use chats as a pre-face-to-face meeting, to build support or consensus for a proposal before a decision is made or official, on-site vote is held.
Some organizations use chat rooms as a way for volunteers and clients to ask questions of an "expert" in a particular subject or field, or to "meet" with the Executive Director of an agency.
Many organizations have asked the VV Project about holding online board meetings via live chats. You can definitely hold discussions (with no voting) this way, but not all states recognize this form of virtual meetings as official (as of January 1996, California had passed an amendment to state law allowing this, but with certain requirements). Check with your state attorney general office for more information.
Chats are particularly popular among young people. The culture of a chat is fast, with short comments coming in quickly and constant. It's much more like a face-to-face discussion than a list serv or newsgroup, although sometimes, people write thoughts they might never say in-person (see our information on Online Culture for more information).
Chats require users to all be at their computers at the same time, whereas an email-based discussion group or newsgroup -- also known as asynchronus communications -- allow users to participate, ask questions, provide feedback, etc. at anytime of the day, as often as they want. Chats often require that all users have the same software or operating systems. Chats usually require a high-degree of facilitation to keep the conversation going and pre-planning to get enough participants, a featured expert, etc. Chats also require that participants have a good understanding of how the technology works, and a high comfort level in using it.
Email-based discussion groups or newsgroups often have a much higher percentage of lurkers (people who read but don't post) than chats. Having 100 people on such a group is usually not overwhelming, because only a small percentage of them may actually post frequently -- the rest will lurk or post infrequently. Having 100 people on a chat, however, can become overwhelming, because most of the participants will engage in conversation, so consideration needs to be made in how many participants are ideal for your chat situation. Also, chats usually show everyone who is logged in, not just those who are posting; this means when someone enters a chat room, that person's name or alias gets posted to the group ("Jane Doe has entered the chat room"). A new participant might feel uncomfortable by this.
Finally, security and confidentiality of participants should be considered before creating an agency-sponsored chat environment. Will participants be using real names and email addresses or aliases? If they use aliases, will the chat room moderator know their real names? Will the discussion be private/password protected, or open to anyone?
The key to a successful chat is determining a mission/reason for it, and expressing this mission clearly and effectively to potential participants. Why is real-time communication necessary for your volunteers? What do you want the volunteers to value about the chat? What do you want to happen as a result of a chat?
A successful chat also takes more than participants -- you will also need people filling these roles:
- Facilitator, to keep the group focused, post items to generate appropriate and useful discussions, remind participants of the ground rules or topics for discussion, and sometimes step in to calm nerves when online arguments get out of control. This person also promotes the group to others and explains it potential participants.
- Administrator, to help with technical issues/problems, delete/add members, and archive the conversations.
- Chats also may require a Moderator to actually filter content, to keep out improper posts (jokes, advertising, insults); and an Expert or Special Guest, representing a particular field or issue, who answers questions from participants.
VOLUNTEERS CAN FILL ALL OF THESE ROLES. Just as with any task, match volunteers to roles based on their experience and interest.
The chat owner must make incentives obvious and valuable to increase and maintain participants' motivation. The information and interaction provided via the chat must be seen as valuable by participants. Some groups emphasize a sense of responsibility in members -- participation is part of their volunteer commitment -- to maintain participation in chats.
Other suggestions:
- Make sure the facilitator or moderator of the group, and whomever that person reports to, has experience participating in chats, so that they understand procedures (from both technological and group dynamic perspectives), the dynamics of live online conversations, etc.
- Make sure all participants have been told about the purpose and rules for the chat prior to participation
- Make sure all participants understand the role of the facilitator or moderator
- Encourage new participants to observe a chat for at least a few minutes before actually posting themselves
- Send regular reminders about chats to volunteers, highlighting special features of particular online events, such as special guests or a particular topic of focus.
- Encourage participants NOT to dominate the conversation. This may mean sending out a regular reminder, or it may mean communicating directly with a particular participant.
- Make archives of chats available via your Web site, and remind participants that their posts will be archived and reviewed by others
- Send an e-mail to everyone five-10 minutes before the chat, reminding them of the event and encouraging their participation
- Welcome people as they enter the chat room, just as you would in a face-to-face meeting
For more on this subject, visit The Moderator's Home Page, Resources for Moderators and Facilitators of Online Discussion, at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~mpc3/moderators.html. This is a growing set of resources, mostly scholarly, for moderators of online discussions, including chats, listservs and newsgroups. This is an extensive bibliography of netiquette guides, sample editorial policies, using online discussion groups in classrooms, tips for moderating, and information on teaching online.
Safety in Online Volunteering Programs
Information to help your agency create general safety guidelines for all online volunteering programs, suggestions and examples for those managing programs involving youth as online volunteers, and suggestions for bringing together youth and adult online volunteers.
Also see Internet Discussion Groups For Volunteers, developed by the Virtual Volunteering Project. Many agencies have created e-mail lists or newsgroups for their volunteers. These asynchronus online tools allow agencies to easily make announcements to volunteers, and sometimes also allow volunteers to interact with each other, get suggestions and feedback, and ask questions. They can also serve as a written record of participation, concerns, trends and issues for volunteers. Unlike chats, volunteers can participate whenever they wish, and they don't need special software to do so.
Computer Aided Facilitation Tips
http://www.facilitate.com/FacCom6/Tips/
An excellent list of tips for both those who will faciliate an online discussion group and the agency who will sponsor such. By Facilitate.com, a for-profit company and producer online conferencing tools.
The Self-Help Sourcebook Online
http://mentalhelp.net/selfhelp/
Sponsored by Mental Health Net. If you are interested in starting or participating in an online or offline self-help group, this resource offers ideas for starting both online and offline groups, how to arrange online support group meetings on commercial networks, how to encourage participation in online support groups, a searchable database of hundreds of national and demonstrational model self-help support groups, and opportunities to link with others to develop needed new national or international groups.
Dr. John Grohol's guide to Starting a New Online Support Group is focused primarily on how to do the technical aspects of setting up a group via e-mail, USENET, a commercial chat site or your own web site.
Preparations and guidelines for chatting online, http://www.safetyed.org/help/chatlive/chatlive.html, by SafetyEd International.
Online Community Toolkit
http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitymanual.htm
A great set of tools regarding online communities, from what they are to how to facilitate them to sample online community guidelines, rules and member agreements. This collection of helpful articles are by Full Circle Associates Nancy White, Sue Boettcher and Heather Duggan.
Using Online Chats in Lessons
http://henson.austin.apple.com/edres/ellesson/onlinechat.shtml
This is on online lesson for teachers that gives suggestions for use of chats and guidelines for setting up chat sessions in support of curriculum activities, but the tips offered are excellent for anyone interested in setting up a chat, particularly those that may involve youth.
WELL Community Guidelines, at
http://www.thewell.com/conf/guidelines.html, are an excellent example of rules for online communities and moderators. Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL) began in 1985, starting with a dialog between the writers and readers of the Whole Earth Review. The WELL is now a "cluster of electronic villages on the Internet." There are more than 260 Conferences open to WELL members, covering subject categories such as "Parenting," "The Future," or "Pop Culture." WELL members have founded advocacy organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and their experiences have been used to explore online culture and community (such as in Howard Rheingold's The Virtual Community.
Groupware Links
http://ww2.UsabilityFirst.com/usability/cscw.html
CSCW or "Computer-Supported Cooperative Work" is the study of how people work together using computer technology. Typical types of applications include email, awareness and notification systems, videoconferencing, chat systems, multi-player games, and realtime shared applications (such as collaborative writing or drawing). This site offers more information about CSCW, as well as many, many helpful links.
If you do use Virtual Volunteering Project materials in your own workshop or trainings, or republish materials in your own publications, please let us know, so that we can track how this information is disseminated.
