In the previous blog post I mentioned that Good News Shared has developed to include charitable acts, as well as the work registered charities are doing. One of our most read articles is about a young man who let an elderly woman sit on his back when they got stuck in a lift. We love coming across stories like this! We know people are doing amazing things every day, and not because they are being paid to but because they want to. These stories of random acts of kindness, or even regular acts of kindness, help restore people’s faith in humanity.
Another development has been focusing more on specific areas and locations. When we started we wanted to cover news from around the world from every sector. Over time we have had to accept that focusing on a smaller number of areas would be the best way to develop Good News Shared. This will help us find inspiring stories, and will mean readers will know what to expect from the website. For the moment we will be focusing on inspirational stories about volunteers, young people, older people, food and drink, and animals. We will be working to increase the core areas we focus on over time. If you have an uplifting story that you think would fit one of these areas please get in touch!
There are lots of developments we would like to make to the Good News Shared website during the next 6 months. In particular we would like to look into how to make the website more interactive. Initially we were really keen to use gamification on the website. I attended an nfptweetup event in March 2013 which was about gamification and how it might be useful for charities, and the concept stuck with me. Gamification is the application of game theory and concepts to non-gaming activities. More information about gamification and how it can be used in the charity sector can be found in this storify by Martin Lugton. I have spoken to a few people about gamification and how we can use it with Good News Shared and have had mixed responses – some have thought it would work really well, while others have thought that it is not the best way for Good News Shared to develop. It would be great to speak to others who are experts in the field about it. If you are a gamification expert and have time for a chat over a coffee, please get in touch!
It has been exciting to see Good News Shared develop from an idea in my mind to an actual website with content people can read and share with others. I am looking forward to seeing how it develops over the next 6 – 12 months.
Thanks for reading, Nisha
