Assignment 4

Personally, in accordance with the first topic asked, I didn't experience or feel any sort of disruption or friction develop in the organization, regarding information or bureaucratic operation. My organization is small enough in personnel that delegation of that responsibility wasn't much of an issue, and I felt that myself and the other two people who work on blogs in the same organization were left fairly autonomous. The information flow topics discussed in class I feel are applicable mainly to large-scale organizations with many people or in very highly-structured organizations such as the Democratic Party blog or the Regional Science Center blog. As the main source of my information was written/published materials, established lines of communication were not really necessary.

Authority mainly rested with myself and the others, with very few restrictions placed on our work. The occasional comment or two was sent to me to alter something to better fit the organization's message, but other than that I was pretty much left to work on my own. From this, authority and structure in the organization relating to this project wasn't a large issue.

As to continuation of this project, I feel that this project might not continue. Some reasons for this is apparent lack of readership and true interest. While enthusiasm for the project was large in the beginning phases, I think that the organization really doesn't require this at this time. While the past history of PEPP is important, I don't think that the general pubic is as interested in the past as it is in what the organization is doing at this point in time.

As for the turning of the project over to PEPP, I haven't discussed this with them, the reason being the items I have stated above. This project was in part motivated by accumulation of data, but I also wanted it to be more of a communicative and participatory project as well, participation I did not have much of during the course of the project. I don't think that I've been completely wasting my time on this, but I do get a tad discouraged that I didn't get any feedback from anyone, save one or two of my classmates and the head of my organization. If PEPP wants to, of course, I will turn over the blog to them for their own personal use.

New Posting

Well, I put up a new post on my org. blog last week, spent quite a bit of time searching for that CMR site, but other than that addressed an earlier question. I'm going to be moving into the 1990's soon, and I'm planning on calling Barb Chromy or one of the other columnists who wrote for the early PEPP newsletters for their comments. My reasoning for that is because there were some rather big things going on in 1990-92, like the Housing Now! march that a member of PEPP participated in, so it might be interesting to get a hold of them to provide more insight.

Log Update

I have my second post up on the organizational site. It took me longer than I thought it would, I will admit that. I took the time to sift through the material I have to find a copy of the letter sent to Rep. Joel Carlson and a list of early members, as well as a copy of the petition and post in relevant information from those into the site. I will begin immediately on the next post, as soon as I am able to find more information in the time immediately prior to the 1986 events. I will also be considering scanning in photos and other materials to put up that will be relevant to the upcoming posts.

Third Assignment

The target for my organizational blog is anyone who is interested in the history and past successes of PEPP and whoever is interested in the track record of the organization. This audience helps PEPP by providing more support for the organization through knowledge and interest, while PEPP itself is trying to get people intrigued about the whole organization and the clients they help out.

To the best of my knowledge, this audience has been more or less reached in the past. There have been several attempts at this sort of history chronicalization before but it never really caught on to a large degree. Apparently PEPP used their website to reach the audience but that part of the site was infrequently looked at. There just wasn't the reader base to get the project perpetually run.

From what I already know I'm going to be writing down important bits of information in a chronological order to help promote the track record of PEPP. I guess readership might be a bit of a problem; hitory buffs and other non-profits interested in PEPP will read it, but I'm not really expecting a huge turnout. I'll try to convey the information as best I can but I doubt that anyone who isn't interested in history will really read it.

I sort of report to Duke, but mainly he's given me free rein on what I want to do with the site. The organization does have a website, http://www.pepp.org, and the URL of my organization site is http://pepp20years.blogspot.com. The organizational site will have a link to the PEPP site, but otherwise will be separate from the main website itself. The reason behind this is that I'm familiar with the Blogger software and not so much with PEPP's server software. I opted for Blogger as well because of convinience reasons, mainly that I can sign in anywhere and post things without worries of having to mess with signing into another person's system.

Organization Site

I talked with Duke on Thursday, and we decided that it would be a good plan for me to work on a history documentation project for PEPP, posting historical data, organization successes, etc., so others can look at the info and get interested in the organization itself. I was given materials to begin working on, and I created the actual posting area on Sunday, which I will be giving the address to Duke for approval on Monday, to see if there need to be any major changes before I begin actual work. I only worked on the org. site for about 30 minutes, seeing as it is only in the framework stages. I will postthe address of the actual site later, when I have its layout finalized and ready to openly publish.

Time Log

As of 9/20/06:
approx. 4 minutes spent on Assignment 1
approx 30 minutes spent in first meeting with Duke at PEPP
approx 10 minutes spent on Assignment 2

total approximately 44 minutes

Meetings

On Monday, September 18, 2006, the other people involved with PEPP and I met from 9:00 to 9:30 AM to discuss the overall plan on what could be worked on. Tomorrow all three of us will be meeting at separate times, mine being 2:30 PM, for 45 minutes to discuss where our interests lie with PEPP projects and how projects will be distributed amongst us.

Second Assignment

PEPP is an organizational service - it mainly serves as a way to get the community organized, get them looking at the system, and developing leaders in the community to the point where they are ready to take the first steps towards autonomy. PEPP has many projects in the works at the moment, some of the more important being the Waking the Sleeping Giant Project, the Bennet Park/Greenwood project, delving the organization into more of the civil engagement aspects of activism, and forming a solid history of the last 20 years of their activities. It is the people who PEPP works with, the people of the community, that truly benefit from their work. PEPP benefits low income persons, clergy, less-access people, and allies to their basic goals. They attempt to focus on human-service issues, expanding beyond what other non-profit organizations do. The community of Fargo-Moorhead isn't directly dependant on PEPP, but over time the services PEPP does give would be severely missed.

First Assignment

Why am I taking this course? I've taken an interest in how the Internet can be used as a tool to promote a group's beliefs and ideas, and this class offered a way to discover how. I don't have much experience in the area of blogging, so I hope to learn a little more about that too. I haven't done much with community organizations, save the BSA and my church in my hometown, so that will be an interesting experience as well.

I hope that I will be able to use the Internet more effectively from taking this class and that I will be able to understand how the Internet can be used for activism through the project with the organization I will be paired with.

The blogging part of this class is rather interesting, and the community service might also be rewarding, so this has the potential to be a stimulating prospect from both sides.

Also, the links to the side will lead one to whoever's course page they wish to go to, as well as the 290 home page. If I am missing anyone's, please let me know.