February 27, 2006: Headlines: NPCA: IT: Internet: Virtual Community: PCOL Exclusive: Josh Busby writes "A look at a proposed IT solution for the NPCA"

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Library: Peace Corps: National Peace Corps Association (NPCA): National Peace Corps Association: Archived Stories: February 27, 2006: Headlines: NPCA: IT: Internet: Virtual Community: PCOL Exclusive: Josh Busby writes "A look at a proposed IT solution for the NPCA"

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-25-123.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.25.123) on Monday, February 27, 2006 - 2:40 pm: Edit Post

Josh Busby writes "A look at a proposed IT solution for the NPCA"

Josh Busby writes A look at a proposed IT solution for the NPCA

"Affiliate groups should endorse this project with cautious optimism but remain vigilant about the details because NPCA has the (in)capacity to make a hash of it. We should see that phase one doesn't become an excuse just to give the main site a facelift and that the heavy-lifting to make this truly a reinvention opportunity for the organization actually takes place."

Josh Busby writes "A look at a proposed IT solution for the NPCA"

In case you haven't seen it, Communicopia's IT plan for NPCA is up, and it is very good. This web plan was proposed to the Board but has yet to be adopted. The staff now has until March 6th to come up with an implementation plan for phase 1. See the documents and website. My commentary follow.

The NPCA "Virtual Community"

Creating a Virtual Peace Corps Community

A Proposal for a Web Technology Strategy Web Site Plan from Communicopia

Communicopia's plan for IT is what affiliate groups have been asking for months -- the full spectrum idea of standardized template affiliate pages with multi-functionality. It is, as the prior consultant Merrill Rose also found, an endorsement of the idea that the only way to grow the NPCA is to support the affiliates through an integrated web architecture. The vision Communicopia has laid out in pages 17-20 of the report is ambitious and one I would heartily endorse. There are some major implications for membership renewal and the orientation of the entire organization.

That said, the interim implementation strategy is key. The three year costs for implementation are estimated to be between $111k and $121k (pg. 38). I hope the organization can come up with the resources to make this happen.

I am not convinced that NPCA has the current staffing structure, resources, and expertise to carry out the transition. I am somewhat confused what the staffing structure charts on pages 39-40 would mean for the organization as currently configured. The most important recommendation is the call for hiring a webmaster in year 2. That recommendation and that hire will be crucial if the herculean task is to be managed with professionalism.

A couple of other points, the revenue projections for what the new IT structure might generate seem wildly optimistic based on past practice. $315k over three years with large spikes in membership (25% in year one alone) seem somewhat unlikely.

I also think the top of page 29 ultimately endorses my own view that the Association Anywhere software has been a boondoggle, that the failure to think about the web architecture at the same time as the new database means that we have to go through another painful transition. This underscores the point that NPCA needs to hire experienced web and data people and contract with reliable providers to make this next stage work.

"It is recommended that NPCA continue leveraging the Association Anywhere software for the first phase of this project. Association Anywhere would continue to be the authority for most information about members, donors, etc., until this new infrastructure was widely adopted and a clear migration path to a new integrated member management system became viable."

In sum, affiliate groups should endorse this project with cautious optimism but remain vigilant about the details because NPCA has the (in)capacity to make a hash of it. We should see that phase one doesn't become an excuse just to give the main site a facelift and that the heavy-lifting to make this truly a reinvention opportunity for the organization actually takes place.

Josh Busby
President, Friends of Ecuador

Josh Busby
jbusby@princeton.edu
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/jbusby/




About the Author

Peace Corps Online

Josh Busby is a Fellow at the Center for Globalization and Governance in the Woodrow Wilson School. He is currently working on a book manuscript, entitled States of Grace: Moral Movements and Foreign Policy. Prior to coming to Princeton, Dr. Busby was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in the International Security Program. In 2003-2004, he served as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Foreign Policy Studies program. He defended his dissertation with distinction from Georgetown University in summer 2004 where he also earned his M.A. in 2002.

Josh Busby is President of the Friends of Ecuador and has served on the board of the NPCA. For an example of a professionally designed multi-functional affiliate webpage, take a look at Friends of Ecuador's Web Page.





When this story was posted in February 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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Story Source: PCOL Exclusive

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; NPCA; IT; Internet; Virtual Community

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