Organise online groups

Bearing in mind the amount of tools and technologies aimed at groups and societies, it’s sometimes surprising that people don’t make more use of computers to keep things organised.

The classic mistake a lot of people make when using technology to address a problem is not defining the problem first. The first thing to do, then, is establish what you want the technology to solve.

The second is to look at the situation in question. In this case, if most members of a group don’t have internet access, then it’s no use expecting them to respond to an emailed newsletter, and if they are relatively unsophisticated computer users then it’s a waste of time to suggest setting up a wiki or asking everyone to get a Skype account for free phone calls and instant messaging.

Rather than try to typify every sort of user, it’s worth going to http://tinyurl.com/375ce3 in which Dave Pollard’s ‘How to Save the World’ blog looks at levels of internet expertise and what tools certain types of people are likely to use to communicate.

Pollard claims most people use the telephone, group email and face-to-face meetings. However, out of these, emailing is the only communication that leaves any sort of trail behind it for participants to check what’s been said.

Then there are the advanced computer users, and in the middle, the 20 per cent or so who are reasonably computer literate. We’ll be focusing on that 20 per cent for this feature.

Target audience
The first thing to do is find out who’s able to do what with their computer and how comfortable they feel. They may, for example, feel better about using products from companies whose brand names they recognise. Apple offers a service for organising groups with Mac.com so long as you are willing to pay an annual membership fee.

Search engine Google offers a number of ways to keep in touch with people, such as a web-based calendar function (www.google.com/calendar). To set one up, create a Google account or sign into an existing one and click on ‘Create’ button. It’s as simple as that. To add appointments, events and reminders, click on a time field within the calendar and enter your event.

Alternatively a user can import a Microsoft Outlook or Apple iCal calendar with events by clicking on ‘Settings’ and ‘Import calendar’, then selecting the file where your calendar is stored. Events can be made public or private so that members can log on and look at any items that you want to share, while keeping other items inaccessible.

This is done by clicking on the arrow next to the name of the calendar on the left of the screen and going into ‘calendar settings’. On the next screen, under ‘calendar address’, look at ‘change sharing settings’ and then opt to share your calendar with specific people or with everyone. It is also easy to send invitations to specific events by clicking on an event and clicking through the ‘edit event details’ wording, which then offers the option to add guests. They will need a Google account but this is free.

Depending on the group in question, Google will provide a free discussion area for members. This can be found from the main page of Google under ‘Groups’. After signing in, there will be a selection of groups and categories on display, but the one to watch for is ‘Create’.