Sometimes you learn the most when you are taught something you already know. As a 30 year old working for a United Way in new media, I often find myself projecting lessons I have learned in the online world back into my local United Way. I think that technology has accelerated a shift in public expectations of what individual interactions with institutions should look like. More than ever, I see the need for organizations to recognize and retool in order to become more user-friendly, open and adaptive institutions. After attending the Harwood Public Innovators Lab the ethos of the Web 2.0 movement and Harwood's perspective became tightly intertwined in my mind. Harwood challenges us as agents of these institutions to face today’s reality and therefore shift to a more open and out-turned cultural orientation. 

The lessons I learned at Harwood, combined with my experience at United Way, gives me a unique perspective on the driving forces behind Web 2.0 and the beneficial interlinking of Harwood's message of turning outward.

Usability – The key to creating a usable website is to focus on the experience of the user. This seems simple enough but without realizing it most designers end up catering more to what the organization wants than what the user wants. The only way to break this habit and make websites work for users is to go right to users for input. A great example of this philosophy is the book “Dont Make Me Think”, which pushes designers of web pages to avoid big usability studies and find time to watch everyday people use their system periodically throughout development. In this way the site becomes something much more connected to the way people actually use the Internet. 

Constant Beta – This is a concept that is connected to usability but is more focused on making a space for innovation after the “construction” phase of the project is over. When developing web software there are four main stages: development (just getting off the ground); alpha (a workable version for people inside the organization to test); beta (a fairly refined version used for user feedback can still be modified by developers) and release (the final version that has to be good enough to stand the test of time). The disciples of the web 2.0 movement said that we no longer needed the last phase. They recognize that developers of web based software should always be innovating based on user input. Even when their software is widely used, developers should remember to forever hold onto the philosophy of that beta label as a reminder to continually improve. One of the most notable examples of a company with this perspective is Google. Google’s Gmail is a notable example of a large company keeping their online software in beta even after it became a leading email solution. 

Community and Openness – I am constantly amazed at what organized and motivated communities can do. In software I am particularly excited about the open source movement. There are a shocking number of open-source projects where individuals and groups come together to create software that is free for others to use and modify. A relatively small group of committed organizers can leverage thousands of creative volunteers by defining a common goal, establishing ground rules, and allowing open participation in the development of their software. This is a true marriage of leadership and community. The results have much more benefit to society than most people realize. If you are reading this online now you are using several levels of open source software that dominate the infrastructure of the Internet. Just a few other examples of open source software are Ubuntu (a Linux based alternative operating system that is fast and user-friendly), Gimp (alternative to Photoshop), Firefox (a faster more secure web browser), Drupal (a powerful Internet content management framework) and Apache (one of the systems that is foundational to the structure of the Internet). 

The teaching of the Harwood Public Innovators Lab compels us to take time to talk to everyday people directly about their aspirations. This ultimately gives us an understanding of people's reality beyond the data, and as a result we will become better at organizing community responses to problems. Much like the constant check-ins with users as a grounding “reality check” for website developers, conversations with regular people help institutions to find an underlying truth about how the man on the street views our world. This concept also goes hand-in-hand with the concept of “constant beta”. With the greater understanding of people's realities, United Way can be empowered to constantly adjust, refine or rethink our approach to problems. In a world that is rapidly changing, this cultural acceptance of a constant feedback loop is critical. 

Finally, I saw a strong connection between how Rich Harwood talked about social movements and the way that the open source community operates. Both require leadership to capture the shared aspirations of a group to productive ends. A lesson I took from the workshop is that successful movements combine the technical opportunities of expert knowledge and timed momentum of public knowledge. 

Although an oversimplification of Harwood's lessons, I think these three three key web 2.0 concepts echo what I learned at the Harwood Innovator's Lab. Just like he is asking United Way to do, Rich Harwood has turned outward. He sees the potential in United Way. I am happy to know he and his team are working to nudge United Way, likewise, to turn outward and more aptly lead a national movement for the common good.