Colleagues,Our friends at LabourStart have worked hard on improving the glitches and problems in the first version of UnionBook and are proud to announce the launch of UnionBook 2.0.
I have copied and pasted below a text from Eric Lee on Wednesday. Please visit the new site, register, and this this facility, not FaceBook, for all of your online networking, particularly that which is TU related. Thanks. Ian
The current version of UnionBook - the social network for trade unionists established in late 2008 - is costly, clunky and ineffective. It's been buggy and very hard to fix.
At the LabourStart conference in Canada last month we talked about ways to improve it.
Today I'm proud to anounce the launch of UnionBook 2.0.
The features available are better than what we currently offer. It is much easier to fix, configure and add things to. It also looks a lot better.
But we need to test it in practice, to see if we can get a Facebook-like experience for UnionBook.
Please sign up for an account today here and then take the new UnionBook out for a test drive:
post your photos, videos and music
join existing groups and create new ones
add comments to other people's content
add events to our online labour calendar
post entries to your blog
update your status
make friends
use the online chat to talk with other trade unionists online
invite friends and fellow union members to sign up too
send us your questions, comments, and suggestions - use the special group called "UnionBook Help and Support Network" to do so
In joining the new UnionBook, you'll be helping us create a powerful tool, an online global community of trade unionists. And I hope you'll also have fun doing so.
Thanks very much!
Eric Lee
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6 comments:
Thanks for this Ian, I'll register and then sign you up as my 'friend'
I've not really bothered with either FaceBook or UnionBook. I don't see how they are better than plain simple speaking to people?
Can this idea really be better for union organising campaigns - I remain to be convinced.
SOrry Ian.
Hi Ian,
I'll give this a go. Have a look at my comment on your other piece as well.
Jaz
SS85, I don't think you need to view it as an either/or. Getting people together virtually gives you different opportunities. Get a crowd of people with wildly different experiences, but similar outlook and committment together (as UnionBook hopes to become), and you'll find your question gets answered a lot better by the wisdom of crowds.
One quick example from the TUC's network for reps, www.unionreps.org.uk - a rep wanted to know what to look out for with an obscrure new chemical process in their factory. They posted to the network and inside 3 hours had 2 replies, one giving safety chapter and verse, and one giving practical considerations for working processes with those chemicals. That would have taken a lot longer to research if the rep had gone through their union, and wouldn't have been reflected in such detail in any H&S resources they had to hand. They'd never have been able to get the info face to face, as they were all from different regions, workplace and employers, and only able to come together online.
Hi John,
Many thanks for the reply to SS85 and for giving a live example to illustrate the direct, immediate benefits of web tools like UnionBook which have the capacity to provide information more quickly amd efficiently than conventional means.
As you say, it is not a case of either/or, the web has created the virtual space for 'as well as'. Increasingly however, and your example is a case in point, the web is becoming just as valuable as traditional networks.
If I reflect on my experience as a TU studies tutor and consider your example I know that you are right to ilustrate how beneficial it is to bring people together in the first instance to share workplace concerns/examples of issues. Where we can improve on this traditional forum is to introduce ICTs and the web to supplement, accentuate and accelerate the collation and dissemination of information across the group.
Although of course this widening of sources of information increases the likelihood of misinformation or pure distortion. However, it also increases the opportunites to check sources/information.
Ultimately the trend to increase the ability for TU reps to access information and critically evaluate its relevance to their role, the better.
Thanks again John.
Ian
Hi Ian,
I didn't get round to signing up for the first unionbook let alone the new one!
Will do asap and let you know how I get on.
Thanks
Ian
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