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NGO 2.0 - I like REALLY this term

I posted about Blogswana this morning, mentioning the term NGO 2.0. I have been thinking about it all day and just came to the conclusion that it is a really great definition and idea. Even thou I posted a link to the definition (written by Curt Hopkins) I would like to post it here too:

If the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 can be said to be the transition from static, authorial, unitary, proprietary, non-transferable content to distributed, networked, user-generated, shared and easily transferable content, and if traditional NGOs may be said to function as cash-intensive, centralized, hierarchical, bureaucratic, specialist-driven operations, then Blogswana is, in a sense, NGO 2.0.

Blogswana bypasses the hierarchy of both the traditional charitable organization and of the recipient government. Its organization is largely horizontal. It distributes funds to a network, populated by the actual individual recipients of that aid, to do its work. It aggregates the work product of those individuals. It enlists those recipients to create and distribute the next generation of aid themselves. It is a user-generated, entrepreneurial, person-to-person network of aid. It is NGO 2.0.

What is interesting about this term, as with Web 2.0, that NGO 2.0 defines a new practice, a new approach, a new philosophy, a new process and a new mindset. I do not think it can be distinguished as being better or worse than the conventional NGO system, but it clearly it shows the power and adaptability of the online medium.

It is important to note that one does not just transcend an idea which works in real life practice onto the net, but that this idea becomes hybrid and adaptable to its respective medium. The general NGO qualities might get lost in the virtual realm, but I think that many other qualities, which conventional NGO cannot acquire, are attained via NGO 2.0, by using the online medium.

*Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online. (Wikipedia)

*This is not the official NGO 2.0 logo, just a graphic to make this post look nice :)

There