Featured Villages, 2nd round

The aim of Featuring Villages is to learn how to get faster progress in the Villages in a more predictable manner.
In each round of featuring, a different part of the NABUUR process is examined to find out what works best. The coming period you will find 'defining the project steps and tasks' as the central theme, since a project stands better chances if all involved are focused and if the tasks and steps are concrete and small.

Focusing on defining the project steps & tasks
For this 2^nd round all Online Villages and applicants were invited to submit their projects, and a total of 31 requests were received.
In striving for transparency, all information regarding the aspiring projects/communities was made available for everybody to see, rate and provide comments/suggestions.
A panel of Neighbours, Facilitators and Local Representatives (with marginal intervention of NABUUR staff) narrowed down the initial list of 31 villages to 10.
Everybody did a great job, going through all the information available, asking questions to the Local Representatives, and providing comments/insights to all the candidates for these to better define their projects.
Of the 10 villages to be featured, 4 were already up an running, and 6 were at some point of their approval/ acceptance process. This means there are 6 new villages in NABUUR. Most of these new ones are now preparing the information regarding their community that are to be found under the My Story/My Village tabs, and are awaiting Facilitators. They will be online in the coming days.
This opens a new phase in the improvement of the NABUUR model, as now the project definition rests in the hands of the NABUUR users.

Your contribution will speed up activity in Villages You are all welcome to visit these online communities and share your insights to help them better define their projects, and so speed up their path to progress.

Update Featured Villages

21 january 2008

From September until December 2007 20 Villages were featured. The purpose of featuring these Villages was to find out how Villages on NABUUR could get results quicker and more predictably.

Results
Most of the Featured Villages experienced an influx of Neighbours by being featured. The majority of the Local Representatives was happy with the increased activity in their Village. Though in most cases the defined results were only partially achieved. Reasons for that were according to some Local Representatives that their goals were too ambitious, others found out their goals had to be redefined. Results that depend on finding (larger amounts of) funds are most difficult to achieve.

Predictability
Based on the feedback of the Local Representatives, the following conditions seem to be good indicators for success:
- In order to achieve results a project should have a clear focus and small, concrete steps;
- There should be a local team in place;
- Specific activities attract more volunteers than planning issues;
- Finding funding or sponsors is still a difficult issue that many villages encounter;
- Being featured attracts Neighbours but visible community involvement is crucial;
- Regular discussions and updates are necessary to maintain an active group.

Because featuring of villages seem to be a useful tool, there will be another round. This time the focus will be on defining the project with a clear focus and small, concrete steps.
The lessons learned are used for the redesign of the NABUUR website.

Update Featured Villages

14 november 2007

- Manuals available on 'My home' page. All manuals relevant for your function on NABUUR (Local Representative, Facilitator or Neighbour) are available on the bottom right of your profile.

- Featured Villages are getting results and progressing towards their goals for 2007. The activity in the Villages and number of Neighbours has increased. The Local Representatives and Facilitators are active and respond quickly to postings or e-mails and more Neighbours joined the Featured Villages.
Here is a small overview of the results of featuring villages (from August 30th to November 2nd):
Number of Neighbours joining a Village: 635
Number of Neighbours joining a Featured Village: 323
So 50% of all Neighbours joining a Village, join a Featured Village (only 20 villages) compared to the other 50% of Neighbours joining the rest of the Village (120 villages).
This means that giving extra attention to Villages works in terms of more Neighbours, activity and results.

- A new Village has been opened: NABUUR improvement and redesign. (you need to be loggedin to acces this village)
This Village contains Tasks that are related to the redesign. Everyone is invited to help with this big job. At this moment there is a discussion going on about the funding issue on NABUUR and a Task to structure the funding resources already available on NABUUR.com. This will be the place where you'll be asked for your input on the improvements and redesign NABUUR is going through;

- A draft of the functional design of a new NABUUR is well on its way. It contains all the functionalities of a new website that is to be developed which is easier to use for everyone. Your input and feedback is needed to make sure this will be a success! When the draft has been completed, it will be available in the improvement and redesign Village for input and feedback.

Update Featured Villages

- all Featured Villages are now visible in the new format

- a Monitor Team has been put together of 3 Local Representatives, 3 Facilitators and 2 Neighbours to draw recommendations from what goes on in the Featured Villages for improvements/redesign of overall system. The Monitor Team will share its findings and recommendations in draft documents which will be presented for general consultation to all of the Neighbours. Should you want to be more closely involved, please write to me at siegfried@nabuur.com with an indication of what you would like to contribute to the work of the Monitor Team.

- a Village ‘dashboard’ will be build to provide the Facilitators, Local Representatives and Neighbours an easy overview of project activity. A pre- version can already be seen (go to the “Our project” page in the Featured Villages and click on the link named “Dashboard”). The dashboard will eventually show the appropriate parameters. Which these are needs to be determined jointly. To get things started James put up what’s readily available, and your comments and suggestions are welcome to james@nabuur.com.

Please join the team of one of the Featured Villages if you haven’t done so already, so that you can contribute to the developments.

Update Featured Villages

4 September 2007

- 18 of the 20 Featured Villages are now visible in the new format

- new Neighbours continue to sign up in the Featured Villages, not only in the first three that were mentioned in a mail to all the Neighbours, but also in the ones that appeared later. The ‘our Neighbours’ page has been changed to make it easier to see which Neighbour has recently visited the site

- new Neighbours now receive a message from the Local Representative and Facilitator with the tasks that require their assistance

- in some of the Villages the Facilitator is beginning to divide the work among the Neighbours (e.g. Jinja Central)

Update Featured Villages

29 August 2007

- The first Featured Villages came online two weeks ago

- 14 Featured Villages are now online in the new format, the other 6 will follow in the next few days.

- La Rinconada (Peru) could not participate due to the earthquake in the region. NABUUR was able to contact Juan and members of his congregation, and are happy to report all are doing fine.

- Special efforts are made to draw visitors to the Featured Villages, via the large orange button on the homepage and other pages, via an e-mail to all Neighbours and by putting the tasks of the Featured Villages at the top of the task lists

- In Featured Villages a quick scan is done of the progress to date and the issues at hand

- Neighbours now sign up for the Village teams. This goes very well: e.g for Kangemi no less that 32 people signed up, 10 for Khunti and 25 for Jinja Central. In some of the Featured Villages the teams will be launched and guided to the tasks at hand.

- Also a team will be formed this week to draw lessons from the overall effort.

- Adaptations are made to welcom new Neighbours quicker and more comprehensively.

- A special room is made where Facilitators of the Featured Villages can exchange experiences and learn from each other

The Developing Stories

A radio spot and party in Kyomya, Uganda, & good news from Gbongay, Sierra Leone

“Search Engine” is a radio program broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Radio One. The series explores how the Internet is changing politics and culture around the world.

On April 3, “Search Engine” featured a story about the Kyomya East Village Project in Uganda. The story highlights the role NRead more

All developing stories

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