[14830] in APO-L
How to use the Internet as a resource in APO
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lisa Martina Covi)
Mon Aug 12 13:27:41 1996
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 09:49:36 -0700
Reply-To: covi@ics.uci.edu
From: Lisa Martina Covi <covi@WANG-WEI.ICS.UCI.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
Hi everyone,
We had a terrific Sectional Resource Weekend (SRW) in Independence,
Missouri! We had representation from every region in the country and
shared experiences and resources about how to serve the chapters in
APO.
Here are some notes from the session on How to use the Internet as
a resource in APO. I thought they might provide some value to others
on APO-L and staff who did not attend. Please email any feedback or
questions to me: Lisa Covi (covi@ics.uci.edu).
I started this session asserting that Volunteer staff can provide a
higher level of service to chapters if we can use electronic mail and
world wide web appropriately. Here are some suggestions provided by
the participants in the workshop:
Electronic Mail (Email)
Advantages of using Email
1. Email is cheaper than snail-mail
2. Many actives use equipment to get email for free
3. Email is faster
4. Email makes it easy to communication with many people at once
5. Email systems can provide automatic documentation of correspondence
6. Using email provides computer experience as a valuable skill
Challenges of using Email
1. Email is not accessible to everyone
2. impersonal
3. Email is inconvenient for some to use
4. Email can be volatile (ignite flames)
5. Email is verbally limiting (compared to conversation)
6. Email is not confidential (easily forged and forwarded)
7. Some people do not have experience with email
8. Email can have a limited presentation format (i.e. text only)
Tactics to use Email
1. Chapters can require all pledges to get email - then through time
all actives will have email.
2. Chapters can designate an internet liaison to communicate with
staff and other chapters
3. Chapters can require pledges to send an email message to each
active member
4. Chapters can require all officers to have email
5. Use email as a backup or complement to other forms of
communication, not as a replacement for it
6. Peer pressure encourages people to use email
7. If possible, make sure sectional staff have modems
World Wide Web (WWW)
Advantages of WWW
1. WWW is a visual medium
2. WWW can be updated quickly
3. WWW provides a centralized location to put AphiO information/material
4. WWW may be inexpensive or free for some
5. WWW is used when people want to voluntarily seek out information
6. WWW can be easily accessible
Challenges of using WWW
1. Not everyone has WWW
2. You need a starting point to find information
3. It's sometimes hard to program/design WWW pages effectively
4. WWW is not always credible (there are fake and out of date WWW pages)
5. WWW is dynamic: pages may change frequently, user has burdent to
keep up with changes
6. It's important to disseminate URLs (locations of WWW pages)
7. WWW does not have a universal browser (text-only, different
versions)
8. Everything does not get transitions from paper to WWW
9. The infrastructure of WWW is substandard (links go down, not
reliable).
Tactics for using WWW
1. Post calendars and announcements for your chapter, section, region,
etc.
2. Make sure someone in the chapter has the responsiblity to update
WWW pages
3. Provide contact information for chapter, section, region, etc.
4. Start an electronic library for publications
5. Use common sense about sensitive issues
6. Provide staff information and sectional operations information on
WWW.
