BlueLink Information Network Strategic Plan 2008-2014

Mission:

BlueLink is an information network which encourages the usage of ICT for an active civil society and environmental sustainability.

Target group and activities:

BlueLink offers information, specialized services and develops capacities of the target group of active citizens and organizations. BlueLink stimulates the strategic use of IT and internet with the aim of progressive change in the civil society and mainly in the field of environmental protection.

BlueLink actively supports activities which protect the freedom of electronic speech and the independence of internet.

Vision:

BlueLink is an electronic information network which actively stimulates the cooperation and use of information technologies for a strong civil society and environmental protection. BlueLink concentrates citizens’ energy and gives information, services and solutions.

Main target groups:

•    Citizen initiatives and organizations actively seeking solutions of the environmental problems and sustainable development.

Secondary target groups:

•    Citizen initiatives and organizations working actively or with a potential to be active in a variety of problematic fields such as transparency, access to information, freedom of speech, independent journalism, support for disadvantaged groups.
•    Municipalities, state administration, media, business, etc.


General objective 1: Functional virtual network for citizens’ activism

BlueLink has to stabilize itself as an organization with motivated staff of professionals; which provides adequate services and is able to react flexibly and swiftly to the needs of the civil society.

Specific objectives:

1.    Constructing a strong professional and motivated team with loyalty towards the organization. In order to accomplish this objective BlueLink will:

i.    create an atmosphere of trust, transparency and good management of the team and put into practice working methods and structural organization with integral conformity with the Internal rules – ongoing.
ii.    Supply to the team optimal number of specialists in the ICT, networking and information service in order to accomplish the objectives of the strategy according to the approved by the Board members structure
iii.    Set the work relations with the members of the team in a complete accordance with the European Labour legislation
iv.    Minimize the turnover of employees and reach a level of average duration of employment of two years until the middle of the term of this strategy
v.    Provide information to the Board members and target groups of the accomplishments and responsibilities of each member of the team through all ways of communication BlueLink has after March 2008.
vi.    Create motivating and ethical working environment and ensure satisfaction of the team until the end of 2009 which will be estimated with at least 70% during the annual attestations of the employees.
vii.    Provide permanent and comfortable working premises to the team with the opportunity for meetings and part-time work with the founders, members of civil society and volunteers; which does not exclude work form distance with the members of the Board whenever possible and preferable
viii.    Implement and follow strictly (ongoing) transparency when hiring new members for the BlueLink team and publicly announce on the organization’s website all available positions, the remuneration offered and the criteria used for evaluation of the candidates; provide commission of at least three members who will take part in the selection process. For short term contracts to establish pool of subcontractors selected using the same procedure.

2.    To provide financial frame and fund raising which guarantees the execution of the mission of the organization and the vision of this Strategy and systematically avoid the situation in which fund raising becomes dominating priority of the organization. To accomplish this objective BlueLink will:

i.    Implement until the end of 2008 Rules for fund raising and usage of the reserve fund of BlueLink for the adequate execution of the target function of the organization, regardless the presence of direct funding for them.
ii.    Diversify the sources of financing so as there is   5 %  increase of the income per year  which comes from taxes, subscription and other direct income in stead of donor funding
iii.    Ensure 5% annual increase of the total income of BlueLink from paid IT services from 2009 until the end of the planned period
iv.    Implementation until the end of 2009 of paid membership and paid subscription for BlueLink’s services the income of which increase by 5% at least annually until the end of the period

In order to accomplish this sub- objective the paradigm of services offered by BlueLink should be transformed so as the financial cost is clear even when financing from a donor has been involved for their free offering.

3.    BlueLink to strengthen its position as sought after and respected partner and supplier of services for the civil society. Therefore:

i.    to ensure high understanding of the needs and objectives of the civil society by the team and until the middle of 2008 team members to join mailing lists as recipients which cater for the interests of the main target group except those who have stated desire for confidentiality.
ii.    to integrate systematically BlueLink’s team to the aims and dynamics of the civil society, particularly to the active core of the environmental sector by ensuring the participation of a technical, editorial or project team member at the meetings of the main target groups, such as the thematic coalitions of NGOs or citizens until the middle of 2008
iii.    Members of the team maintain the target groups of the civil society with IT   and content decisions, adequate for the current needs in their activities and successfully ensure their implementation and usage during campaigns, projects and the activities of the target groups, as well as their budgeting whenever possible; BlueLink executes at least five citizens’ initiatives functioning in the environmental protection field until the end of 2010.
iv.    To develop and implement package of services for the civil society until the end of 2009 which will be updated at least once a year.
v.    To ensure regular feed-back from representatives from the civil coalitions and groups; members of BlueLink eagerly seek evaluation of their services and work and share it via work reports with the founders and the rest of the team at least four times a year;
vi.    To introduce an open and permanent mechanism for feedback and ideas for improvement through BlueLink’s websites until the end of 2008.
vii.    Ongoing - to stimulate hiring of employees who share the values of civil society and who respect BlueLink’s  civil mission and activities; these values become criteria when hiring people and for  attestations of the team members from the beginning of the planned period
viii.    To establish BlueLink as a reliable source of information and services among donors and organizations which sustain and develop the civil society and to ensure that BlueLink receives at least three invitations per year to participate in projects, consortiums and similar organizations. Ongoing
ix.    To implement purposefully and only its functions of information network, supplier of IT services and knowledge and to become an accelerator of strategic usage of IT by the civil society and to make this its 100% function by the end of 2009.
x.    To implement purposefully its service function towards the civil society and to take part as a subcontractor of informal partner of these functions for NGOs and civil coalitions with at least 50 % of its projects from the end of 2009. BlueLink does not substitute the active citizenry/citizens movement/ but it supports it.
xi.    BlueLink should not perform other activities outside these functions and after this strategy is approved it should lead only projects and accept financing only for activities according to the objectives.

4.    BlueLink to become distinguishable by its functionality, its services and mission among: the civil society, donors, state administration (100% of these related to BlueLink’s activities) and media and in order to accomplish this:

i.      Introduce and strictly adhere to until May 2008 a rule which requires members of the team to popularize BlueLink’s mission and activities during all their professional and public appearances.
ii.      Hold at least one open meeting per year from 2008 onwards of national level with the participation of representatives of the main private and state partners, donors and media. Example topics for such meetings and conferences: Devaluation of the eco-idea, Freedom of electronic speech, civil society and the state security body, Active citizens’ position against the triteness of the business and the government, etc.
iii.     The team follows, analyzes and archives all media publications about BlueLink - ongoing
iv.     To prepare multimedia presentation of the services offered by BlueLink in Bulgarian and English until the end of 2009; it should be used at least four times per year by the team members and the founders

5.    To improve the cooperation and collaboration of the operational work between the founders, the Managing Board and BlueLink’s team. In order to achieve this objective:

i.    to establish a working and permanent contact between the team and the founders with opportunities for direct working contact face to face at least once a year between the founders and the team; and at least twice a year between the Managing Board and the team – during these meetings at least ½ day should be between the managing Board and the team no later than March 2008.
ii.    To establish a real exchange and coordination between the founders and the team; initiate until the middle of 2008 compulsory descriptive reports for every event, trip or another type of activity in which a member of BlueLink team participates. This rule applies to the founders and all subcontractors of BlueLink’s activities. This will ensure an exchange of no less than ten messages about current and future activities between the team and the founders a month; at least one Internet ‘visit’ of each member of the team and founder a month.
iii.    Ensure responsiveness and timeliness of reactions and contribution of members of the Managing Board towards the work of the team through establishing rules until the middle of 2008 in accordance with which the Managing Board has to react within three working days when emergency demands arise (average three times a year) and within ten working days (average – once a month) when regular questions are asked by the team members. Questions and requests for assistance will be made by the ED or a representative appointed by ED. Requirements for personal responsibility for the Managing Board will be initiated and conditions for timely services will be created, including phone and other Internet access.
iv.    Introduce by the middle of 2008 a mechanism for avoiding the clash of interests which settles how members of the MB can work and provide paid services to BlueLink with the knowledge and after the approval of MB.
v.    Ensure 100% implementation of the decisions made by the Managing Board; recording and circulation of protocol of the decisions made by the MB a week after the meeting of MB.

6. Minimize as much as possible the dependence of meeting donor priorities and seeking project financing (so called “projecting”). To guarantee / ensure full match between its activities and its mission and objectives and therefore:

i.    100% of all project applications submitted after the approval of this strategy should be entirely in the sphere of BlueLink’s target.
ii.    until the end of 2009 at least 80% of the capacities and the time of the team   members should be devoted to activities appointed in this strategy and the rest 20%  - to administrative, PR, training and other secondary activities

7. BlueLink will concentrate its efforts in the environmental sector but will stay connected and continue offering services to other sectors of the civil society. In order to accomplish this:

i.    to include a  new set of services for organizations which are outside the environmental sector in the main package of services BL offers until the end of 2008.
ii.     To incorporate members of organizations outside the environmental sector and movements towards BlueLink’s  activities and objectives through participation of their members in at least one event organized by BlueLink per year  - ongoing  

iii.    To activate the relations with professional and citizens’ organizations whose activities are close to those of BlueLink, as well as its mission and objectives; ensure participation of bloggers and professional journalists in at least three  BlueLink events per year and their realization in at least three of BlueLink’s media and information products.

8. To conduct trainings for citizens and NGOs for the effective usage of IT at least once a year.

9. To ensure reliable online maintenance of the services for citizen customers and in order to accomplish it:

i.    To establish functional Help section on the site until the end of 2009 which will be updated after any changes in the services offered
ii.    To guarantee reliable and smooth functionality of all services and minimize the technical problems to no more than three per year from the beginning of 2009
iii.    To introduce a way through which the users can post questions through the electronic mail or phone during the working hours, until the end of 2008

10. to establish network functionality for the virtual community of the target groups until the end of 2010. In order to accomplish this objective:

i.    to introduce the possibility for user registration
ii.    to introduce membership in BlueLink Information Network
iii.    to integrate technically the access to the different services and levels of usage with unified user names


General objective 2: Independent media product

BlueLink will develop an independent media product which will provide accurate and alternative information based on its own unique sources. To accomplish this objective BlueLink will continue to offer a media product without turning itself into a separate media.

To optimize BlueLink’s media activities it will unify the content means. It will introduce strict differentiation between the control of the quality of the information product and the editorial team will be responsible only for BlueLink’s media product.

Specific objectives:

1.    to introduce a set of media and services for the target groups until 30.12.2010 and to update it annually; to state(give account of) all media services and formats offered by BlueLink

2.    to specify prices and advertising policy which will be approved during the spring meeting of the MB and introduced

3.    to position BlueLink as a distinguishable brand on the media market based on accuracy,   punctuality,   trustworthiness and quality of the information offered which will lead to at least 10% increase of the cited information from BlueLink by the media compared to the previous year. In order to accomplish it:

i.    When preparing materials and offering them to the public from the middle of 2008 the principles of modern journalism will be used, including the model of ‘upside- down  pyramid’ for the news – a strong leading part for the reports; offering opposite point of view; avoiding materials which are based only on one source; proper use of numbers and data and citing the sources; separation between the news article and the comments part
ii.    All media products should be strictly focused on the mission and thematic field BlueLink has – civil society, environment and information technology. As an exception and with the editor’s approval materials about different topics can be included but a connection with the main topics should be sought for.
iii.    At least once a year a promotional campaign will be carried out in order to popularize BlueLink and extend the number of users, visitors and subscribers to the network

4. To conceptualize and introduce until the end of 2008 new media formats including  video and audio online, SMS alert, etc; the set of these new formats will be updated as suggested by the team at least once a year.

5. To prepare until the end of 2008 a promotional material for advertizing agencies which will be updated and distributed at least once a year. The material should be in Bulgarian and English and contain information about the users, the formats and prices for advertizing in BlueLink; a call for sponsorship and donors for BlueLink and information about them on the network’s website.

6. To introduce strict advertizing policy together with the introduction of paid advertizing; BlueLink keeps its right to refuse paid advertizing at any time until the end of 2008.


General objective 3: Change begins with us

 BlueLink will become a model for proper and ethical communication and partnerships.

Specific objectives:

1.    To achieve 100% transparency in its work with the target groups. In order to accomplish it:

i.    to publish until the middle of 2008 information about BlueLink’s activities on an accessible space on the websites of the network excluding confidential information of the MB ( by the decision of MB)
ii.    Reports of the team members, founders and other materials about activities, trips and other topics related to BlueLink’s work to be uploaded on the website from the middle of 2008 and to be accessible through the section “About us” and as part of other thematic sections sub-pages.
iii.    To demonstrate BL’s link between all its activities and the needs of the target groups through announcement of all its project proposals and receive ideas and support from representatives from the main target groups and publishing reports about their implementation on the website and through the mailing lists from the middle of 2008
iv.    Communication and professional exchange of information between the team and the founders should be done in accordance with this strategy and the Internal rules  and at least once a year -  ongoing – directly with the MB
v.    If conflicts between the civil society organizations arise after the approval of this strategy, BL will not take sides but will encourage the constructive surmounting of the contradictions and the strengthening of the sector in accordance with its mission. – ongoing
vi.    After the approval of this strategy the names of the founders, members of the Board and of the team will be published and updated on the website – ongoing.

2. Only open partnerships based on ethical communication and local and international good    practices should be established and compromising partnerships and relations should be avoided. In order to accomplish this objective:

i.    Annual evaluation of existing partnerships will be made together with the team and the founders of BL and problematic cases of bad partnerships will be identified during a meeting with the founders.
ii.    After the approval of this strategy MB of BL will actively guarantee (through the decisions it takes) the implementation of good practices.
iii.    In case of bad partnership MB of BL will give its public opinion which will clarify the position of the organization in the concrete case.
iv.    BL team members and all other partners related to BL will upload on BL website all major documents and other products of projects and activities in an intuitive and user-friendly way from the end of 2008


General objective 4: IT for civil society and environmental sustainability. BlueLink offers modern and practical IT solutions for the needs of civil organizations and informal groups and stands up for the freedom of speech/Internet.

Specific objectives:

1.    To prepare by the end of 2008 a list and description of the existing IT services which BlueLink offers to its main target groups. The list is actualized at least every six months.

2.    To introduce at least two new IT solutions on BlueLink site and/or the services which BlueLink offers per year resulting from a proven need of the sector.

3.    By the end of 2008 to develop innovative advertising campaign for the IT services offered by BlueLink directly to its target groups.

4.    By the end of 2008 to start and maintain a topic in BlueLink’s blog on practical, modern and needed IT solutions for the needs of the civil society.

5.    “IT-brain trust” within the team which ensures quality control of IT services, on-going conceptualization and support. Optimization of specific activities to be achieved by using sub-contractors.

6.    By 30.06.2008 to introduce online at its site for comments and suggestions for new IT services.

7.    To get actively involved in the protection of freedom of speech and the independence of Internet with at least one public event per year.