Building Digital Communities

It was the first event of its kind. Twenty seven students from the Sapir Academic College Innovation Lab met with representatives of JDC-Israel to pioneer a new approach to social service and advocacy.

They’re all part of course at Sapir’s Communications Department, organized in conjunction with JDC, on the interface between digital communities and the third sector.  Under the direction of Dr. Omer Keinan, students follow and analyze relevant social media content and then build effective digital communities to help JDC improve its social intervention programs. The meeting itself featured co-teaching on how to strengthen the connection between digital and physical ecosystems for social activism. Students presented the visitors from JDC with models they developed for building digital communities to help maximize access to rights, benefits and social services among disadvantaged groups.

The next meeting will showcase the research findings of an upcoming report on building and managing digital communities for nonprofit organizations.