I’m an experienced community-builder, with six years of experience strengthening the online community of human rights defenders through the New Tactics in Human Rights Program. I believe that sharing experiences and knowledge through communities of practice is an increasingly important way to build capacity in the human rights field.

Pieces I’ve written about community building:

• How do we balance the responsibility to protect with a mission to connect? on the engine room website. In this post, I describe some of the challenges and dilemmas I have faced in engaging and connecting human rights defenders, safely. 2012
• Building New Tactics’ Online Community: Lessons Learned – April 4, 2014
• Resources for Online Community Builders – a Collaborative List

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Community-building events I’ve contributed to:

Nonprofit Technology Conference, March 12 to 15, 2014 – Co-facilitating an in-person exchange of ideas, challenges, tools and tactics among community organizers. More info. Feedback from participants.

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Communications and Technology Conference, 2010 – Participated on a panel about online community building. My presentation titled Building Online Communities: Stories, Strategies and Successes.

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Communities I participate in:

• Responsible Data Forum community of practitioners interested in developing tools to promote the responsible use of data in the human rights, development and humanitarian fields.
• LevelUp community of digital security trainers
• NTEN’s CommBuild community of practice (#CommBuild) – for online community builders who work in the nonprofit sector. #CommBuild chats I’ve facilitated:
• Achieving your community-building goals through themed discussions
• Packaging community contributions for the many
• How do we balance the responsibility to protect with a mission to connect?
• Exploring engagement points for online communities
• Collecting, sharing and using stories of impact
• Can CoP members leave their organizational hat at the door? (April 15, 2014)