NA in the digital age Early attempts Bulletin boards/modems/user groups AOL ( , boards, chat) alt. groups (alt.recovery.na, etc.) NArchive (first real history site) Personal websites Wsoinc.com late 1995 Home page, 3 other pages, 2 addresses and NA-L and NA-Admin MAGNAWS

Today Bulletin boards (some general, some specific orientation) Online chat rooms, electronic meetings Main NA website – (evolved steadily since 1998) Numerous local service committee websites Streaming audio sites offering NA recovery messages Multimedia offerings: PSAs, Flash presentations, video Facebook, Twitter, etc. Outside enterprises offering one-stop recovery community Etc., etc. (from the time this presentation was developed, there are probably a number of new efforts) NA in the digital age

Challenges Strive towards Vision StatementVision Statement Cultural and linguistic diversity - mapmap Maintain fellowship ownership of recovery literature and logos (FIPT) Anonymity Sharing local experience/resources (therapeutic value…) Database (by the time the information is entered, it has changed) Volume of info vs. user-friendliness (what makes sense to each audience) Cannot please everyone all the time—prioritization/resources NA in the digital age

NA service committee website considerations (in planning for a local website – PRHB Chapter 10 and Resources) Who is your audience? – –NA members – –General public – –Professionals/referrers – –Service committee members Size and scope? – –Is the site aimed at all audiences or select ones – –Content aimed at audience(s) – –Design – –Usability Hosting NA in the digital age

NA SERVICE COMMITTEE WEBSITE CHALLENGES (generally agreed) What are normal challenges? – –Human (who will develop and maintain website, training/mentoring) – –Accountability (who has oversight) – –Updates (how often is the information checked and updated) – –How does your audience find your website (search) – –Traditions (anonymity, shared domain, opinions on boards, referrals, etc.) – –NA-speak (does your audience understand the language and idioms) Other challenges – –Bulletin boards/chat rooms (monitoring, responding) – –Service committee records (privacy, anonymity) – –Linkages (to other websites, maps, other services) NA in the digital age

Other challenges facing NA online Popular services such as Facebook and Twitter – –Mixing personal and business lives online – –Anonymity issues (pictures, privacy, etc.) Miscellaneous – –Bulletin boards – private or public browsing? – –Webinars – considerable knowledge and training needed to make it truly interactive – –Have and have-nots (those with computers and those without) – how do you keep a level playing field at the local level? – –Streaming media and anonymity NA in the digital age

Other challenges facing NA online Security (twice as much malicious code is being developed as legitimate software) – –Personal computers Malware – software meant to secretly access a computer without the owner’s informed consent; e.g. virii, worms, phishing (identity theft), trojan horses, scareware, spyware, rootkits – –Websites (over 1,000,000 websites infected in 2010) Makes no difference whether it is Linux or Windows; e.g. between June 7-9, 2010, over 110,000 websites running Windows were infected Types – –SQL-injection – any website that is running a database can be impacted, unless host has taken strong security precautions. – –Cross-site scripting – java script hidden in links leads to potentially wide variety of actions from redirection to installing rootkits and/or trojans, silently. – –HTML-injection – many web editors have vulnerabilities that leave them open to be hacked Possible results: redirection, used for spamming, being listed as hosting malware, being blocked, losing website. NA in the digital age

Q & A

What’s next 10 min break NA in the Digital Age, Part Two NA in the digital age

Panel discussion “What benefits/dangers do you foresee for NA in the digital age?” NA in the digital age

Q & A