the social network on the buddhist centre - getting ready

getting ready for the social network on thebuddhistcentre.com notes for triratna projects

part 1: the basics introduction We’re getting ready to launch the next phase of thebuddhistcentre.com – a social network for the whole Triratna community based around our collective commitment to Buddhist practice. We see the new space as a chance to encourage one-pointed, thoughtful engagement with the Dharma online – a beautiful, ‘slow’ network of connections, people coming together and mainfesting a coherent approach to Buddhism as members of one diverse, international sangha.

In April 2012 we’ll be setting the ball rolling by launching ‘Projects and Groups’. Here’s a simple guide to what you need to know to prepare for this.

what is a ‘project’?

A ‘Project’ in our context is the main space for any Triratna Centre or other project/team (eg. Free Buddhist Audio, Karuna Trust, Windhorse:Evolution, Poetry East). These will be public by default (except for Order-only ‘Projects’, which only logged in Order Members will see).

You can take a look at a test ‘Project’ we’ve made for our local Buddhist Center here in Portsmouth, NH. (You’ll be asked to enter a username and password to view the space, so just enter username: ECA and password: ECA.) http://fresh.thebuddhistcentre.com/portsmouth Click through the different sub-menus to see the range of what will be possible. As you can see, we’re still building some of the features but it’s mostly there. We’ve tried to think about the new space as an extension of what goes on at your Centre, and as a web space in its own right. ‘Projects’ have a simple home page where people can read a message from you about your work, see members of your team, view your own website, find your contact/location details, look at your latest program, and sign up to follow any posts you make.

We have also designed things so you can go at your own pace. If all you can do to get started is set up your home page, that’s fine! When you’re ready to go further, your team will also be able to make blog posts (these can be marked as ‘events’ too if you like), add quotes, pictures, audio and video talks (if you already upload to Free Buddhist Audio or use Video Sangha we’ll import your own talks for you automatically), share resources (files and other services), and create groups for use by your local sangha. People who connect with you can comment on posts you make and engage in discussion that way.

have a go!

If you’re feeling brave and want to try it out for yourself, we’ve made a communal virtual ‘sandbox’ for everyone to play in! You can enter your own project’s details, upload pictures of your team, try your hand at blogging, sharing files, and making audio or video posts. This test space is designed to be temporary, so feel free to write over or add to whatever you find there! (NB. we’ve disabled the creation of ‘Groups’ within a ‘Project’ on the test site for now.)

http://fresh.thebuddhistcentre.com/project/budapest-buddhist-centre Log in with the username: ECA and password: ECA123 to get started.

what is a ‘group’?

‘Groups’ are more specifically focussed spaces and intended as contexts for fuller participation under the auspices of your ‘Project’. You can start as many of these as you like! They are ‘private’ spaces by default: ‘Project’ team members can set them up and people need to apply in order to join and take part (though you’ll have the option of making some introductory posts for everyone to see on the ‘Group’s’ home page).

In a ‘Group’ you can explore particular subjects, and they are designed to complement the activities that go on in your situation, eg. a Dharma Training Course ‘Group’ for local Mitras, a Chapter ‘Group’ (as an example of an Order-only space), a ‘Group’ for a beginners’ or regulars’ course (keep the conversation going between classes!), a ‘Group’ for a sub-kula of your Council discussing a particular aspect of your collective work. All members of a ‘Group’ can post to it, though your team will still be able to decide what’s on display and to whom.

To see an example of how a ‘Group’ works, view the Urban Retreat archive here: thebuddhistcentre.com/urbanretreat Log in with the username: ECA and password: ECA123.

what about online courses?

With the Urban Retreat as an example, you’ll notice that ‘Groups’ on the site can also function as Dharma courses unto themselves. You’ll be able to run courses in this way too as part of your own ‘Project’. For more information and a fuller discussion of online learning, please see: http://issuu.com/thebuddhistcentre/docs/towards_effective_triratna_online_learning

part 2: added extras why do I need all the fancy services?

As you’ll see from the test spaces, we’ll support a range of new social media services that you can use over time to enhance your ‘Projects’ and ‘Groups’, and even your own website. Again, you don’t need to use these – you could simply set up your spaces with us, make blog posts, exchange files and have some discussion via comments with your local sangha.

But we’ll have a big general audience on thebuddhistcentre.com looking for information on the Dharma, and it might be the way some people first discover what you have to offer. The services that will be available to integrate with ‘Projects’ and ‘Groups’ are very popular and make for a great user experience online. People generally respond well to them and for some of those who’ll come across your spaces these kinds of services represent the main way they are used to accessing information.

This is especially the case with young people!

The services we’ll be supporting are also designed to ensure it’s easy to get your information and content out there onto other social networks (like Facebook and Twitter) and that it’s available on mobile devices too, both of which are a bit of a must when it comes to the internet these days. It’s not really enough just to have a web site, you need more of a general web ‘presence’: all your information available in multiple spaces on multiple kinds of devices.

We know that can all seem pretty daunting! So we’ve tried to take the sting out of it by building thebuddhistcentre.com in a way that means you won’t need to do most of the work. We recommend that you try out the services over time to see if integrating them into your web approach can be of benefit to your sangha and help attract new people via the internet.

At launch (or soon after!) our services will be: • Voicethread: We have paid to have an account that will let you try out Voicethread.com, which we’ll be using as a teaching and discussion tool on the site and in ‘Groups’ and ‘Courses’. Please email us at learning@thebuddhistcentre.com and we’ll set you up. If you’d like to read more about why online learning is important, you can read more on our guide for Centres.

• Soundcloud: One of the largest and fastest growing sources of audio on the internet, of all kinds.

We’ll be using it to host podcasts and audio for special features on the site. You can sign up for a free account at Soundcloud.com to try it out then post directly to your ‘Project’ page as a ‘resource’. We suggest using it for non-talks audio (eg. interviews or fundraising appeals or music from Centre soirées) and keep uploading your Dharma talks to Free Buddhist Audio. You can also re-post any of our Soundcloud posts that appear throughout the site.

• Issuu: One of the spaces where we are hosting Triratna articles, essays and eBooks for thebuddhistcentre.com. It’s a great platform for reading online and connecting with an engaged audience around the written word. It’s also a free service, though we pay for the ‘Pro’ version to avoid having ads included when we embed Issuu publications on our site. You might simply re-post

articles we publish in your own ‘Project’ and ‘Groups’, or start your own account on issuu.com and use it yourself.

• YouTube and Vimeo (video): Video is the most important driving force behind the development of the internet. But it’s very expensive to host video and stream it to anyone everywhere all of the time!

We are looking into enabling your ‘Projects’ and ‘Groups’ so you can upload video to us directly, but for now we strongly recommend making a YouTube.com or Vimeo.com account and uploading to their free services. That way you can easily integrate video into your presence on thebuddhistcentre.com and your own website/Facebook/Twitter. All of your videos will also feature on Video Sangha and we can automatically import your video and video talks from there.

• Audioboo: Another audio service but this time with the emphasis on ad hoc, on-the-fly recording: short pieces, like citizen journalism or spontaneous radio. Again, we’ll be using this for a podcast featuring different Triratna voices from around the world talking about their everyday practice and for live reporting from Triratna events. It’s built around recording via mobile devices and computer microphones, so it’s easy to get started for free at audioboo.fm. You can also download the app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, Android and Nokia phones.

• Flickr: You’ll be able to add a flickr set as an image post on your ‘Project’ and ‘Groups’, or add one of ours. You can sign up for a free account on flickr.com or post to the communal ‘Pro’ account Lokabandhu maintains for all Centres. Contact lokabandhu@triratnadevelopment.org for details.

part 3: next steps getting set up Running a social network is quite a complicated business. We want to do it in a way that encourages participation from the outset and lets us learn quickly from how it’s being used. And we’d really like the Order and Centres to be at the heart of it all. So here are five things to talk about with your Councils and management/web teams that will help you get ready for your new spaces. If you’d like to make an early start with us, it’d be great if you could think about the first three of these over the course of the next month or so (and if you want to take longer, that’s fine!): 1. Find someone (or a group) to take responsibility for administrating your project’s presence on thebuddhistcentre.com. It doesn’t need to be a techie, but it’s probably best if it’s someone who is comfortable with using the web day to day, even excited about the internet’s possibilities. We’ll need an Order member to take overall responsibility, but (as with Free Buddhist Audio’s system for uploading talks) they can choose to delegate aspects of the work when they feel it’s appropriate.

2. Discuss how you might use the facilitiies the site will offer. If you’ve a teaching team at the Centre, maybe talk it over with them, brainstorm, etc.

3. If you don’t have an upload account with Free Buddhist Audio, please think about creating one so you can put your own archive of talks on FBA. It’s easy to do and we’ll automatically import them into your ‘Project’ on thebuddhistcentre.com. Contact candradasa@freebuddhistaudio.com.

4. Let all the Order Members around your Centre know that there will be new ways to support your work, connect with the local sangha and, indeed, the international Triratna community.

5. We’ll also be expanding the social network for individual users. From April they’ll be able to sign up and connect with ‘Projects’ and ‘Groups’ like yours. Soon after they’ll be able to have their own ‘Practice Journals’ with us, start their own ‘Groups’, and connect with each other. Encourage them to get involved and think about bringing an awareness of Dharma practice to their internet use. It’s a big part of people’s worlds these days – using thebuddhistcentre.com can be the online equivalent of attending your Centre: a more thoughtful space in their life.

Viriyalila will be visiting the UK in March 2012 and will be available to support your teams in getting ready. If you’d like her to schedule a visit, let her know at viriyalila@thebuddhistcentre.com. If you or your team would like to talk with us about the new services or have feedback on any aspect of the social network, please get in touch anytime: candradasa@thebuddhistcentre.com.

the future We’ve been working on this launch since April 2009 and have plenty of plans for where we want to take the service over the next 12 months, though we’ll always welcome new ideas. We hope, in time, that thebuddhistcentre.com will fulfill our own vision but, most importantly, that of the ECA in early 2008 when we all first started talking about how to put in place the strategic priority of creating a coherent yet vital ‘virtual Buddhist Centre’ for the whole Movement. We can’t wait to see what you’ll do with the space! Candradasa, March 2012