YOURCE: Context

Web 2.0 & Open Source Networking in Youth Work

ISCA´s YOURCE project has the innovative intent to create bearing links of the "Culture of Voluntarism", present in the most diverse fields of our society, with the newest developments from the web and open source field. Today’s information technologies, especially Internet and open source concepts, create new possibilities for exchange, interaction and cooperation between individuals while empowering participants in emerging knowledge and information transfer processes.

Web 2.0 and OST create new possibilities of networked campaigning for innovative young volunteers and NGOs engaging for society.
The development of user based internet, which depends upon user participation and contribution, and the lapse of "Gatekeepers", commonly understood as Web 2.0 (*1) and defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)(*2) as user created content (a participative internet), bear chances for all NGOs and volunteers engaged in societal development.

Since the arrival of Web 2.0, the communication capacities of our society have enlarged, creating open source concepts and a new base for knowledge development and expression in a modern world. The simple idea of including and combining as many people as possible, using their opinions, experience, and knowledge to generate more knowledge an therewith extended value for our society, is in a software context well recognized and successfully implemented. YOURCE will transfer and adopt this principle to the real life environment and modern society.

Open Source (*3) is defined as a modern model of social interaction for knowledge development and value generation.

Software development (e.g. openoffice *4) and "classical" knowledge development (e.g. wikipedia *5) are the most popular open source concepts these days, but are only two small fields of possible open source application. The mobilisation of personal strengths, transfer of knowledge and application to real-life social action opens new doors for all NGOs and their volunteers.

• Possibilities for interaction and cooperation are only rarely used
• Web 2.0 use and application know-how is underrepresented in the non-commercial field
• Connections between social actors and the open source movement are missing

The YOURCE project develops new tools, while it involves partners from all concerned fields, and links therewith the "classical" voluntary and social culture with Web 2.0 and the open source movement to expand the possibilities for voluntary engagement.

YOURCE stands for Open Source YOUTH Networking

The broad experience of ISCA in the field of youth-work suggests that Youth are an innovative presence for organizations.  ISCA has both trained and hosted volunteers for various general and project specific work.  This ongoing engagement of young persons has brought ISCA to the current place in time whereby ISCA is prepared to innovate the traditional model of voluntary engagement into “volunteerism 2.0”.

Web 2.0 and Open Source hold strong possibilities for the culture of volunteerism and the young people engaged by it.

References

1. Tim O´Reilly, Definiten Web 2.0 here
   
2. OECD Working Paper, DSTI/ICCP/IE(2006)7/FINAL, 12 April 2007 here
3. Open Source Culture, Defintion here
4. OpenOffice here
5. Wikipedia here

Further Information:

• Nicole Ebber, Chances and Risks of Web 2.0 for NGO´s management (GER, Abstract available in English) here
• Typical Example for democratising -lapse of information gatekeepers- effect of Web 2.0 here
• Creative Commons here