In this guide, we explain how you can add external resources to Activist Handbook.

Here's how you can start adding resources to Activist Handbook:

1. Find external resources and add them to the 'external resources' section of each article.

2. Integrate external resources by merging their content with guides on Activist Handbook.

Below we explain in more detail how to do this.

Find external resources #

Steps of doing research #

Doing research is a skill you have to learn. If you have a process that works well for you, feel free to use that method. But if you are not sure, follow these steps to do research for Activist Handbook:

1. Make a list of resources about the topic (max 10 minutes). Include everything you find, it does not matter if they are any good or not. Just have a quick glance (10 seconds) at each resource, do not start reading everything yet. Add these resources to the ‘External resources’ section of the guide.

2. Quickly review the resources on your list (max 30 minutes). Spend 1 minute per resource to find out what it is about. Only look at the introduction, the headings and the conclusion. Write down 10 words or so per resource to describe what it includes and whether it contains valuable information that is relevant to the guide you are working on. Update your list in the ‘External resources' section (maybe delete resources if they add no value at all) and add your notes to the ‘Improve this page’ section.

3. Find out how you can use the resources on your list (max 1 hour). Focus on the resources that you think contain the most valuable information. For each, write down in bullet points how you think the insights from that resource can be integrated with Activist Handbook. Add these notes to the ‘Improve this page’ section.

During your research process, you will likely come across many resources that are valuable for activists, but not necessarily relevant to the guide you are working on. Feel free to improve multiple guides at the same time.

Places to find resources #

Here are some places where you can find external resources:

• 🔍 Use Google. Ok, this one might sound obvious. But with these tips & tricks, you will find better resources:

  • Add the words ‘activism’ or ‘nonprofit’ behind your search query: ‘social media activism’, ‘funding nonprofit’.

  • Search a specific website: ‘organise protest site:commonslibrary.org’

• 🔗 Search within specific websites and books. Check out our resources chapter for a list of the best websites to find information about activism.

• 👀 Use the resources that you already have as a starting point. Maybe they contain links to other valuable resources. And maybe the publisher or author of the resource has created more useful resources on the topic.

Integrate external resources #

Creative Commons = reusable #

All the way at the bottom of every page, we have a list of external resources. These are materials such as guides, books and videos that we have found outside of Activist Handbook.

Some of these resources are available under a Creative Commons licence. This means we can freely reuse them as long as we give attribution to the original author (and sometimes other conditions).

We ‘steal’ other people's work #

We want to integrate all those resources with Activist Handbook. Sometimes we merge (combine) them with existing guides on Activist Handbook. Other times, there is no guide about that topic yet, so we create a new page and copy & paste their contents to Activist Handbook.

In other words: we ‘steal’ their content for the purpose of making it better. At the same time, we welcome everyone to 'steal' our work back. We also publish everything under a Creative Commons licence.

This is why we ‘steal’ other people's work:

• By putting it on Activist Handbook, anyone can start improving it. Usually, other websites do not make it possible (or easy) for people to edit pages.

• By merging it with other guides, we take the best from each. Often, guides are written with the perspective and experience of one person. By combining various resources, we can create something better.

• By putting it on Activist Handbook, it becomes part of a much larger collection of guides. Often, it is not possible to go into much detail within a single guide. On Activist Handbook we can link to many other guides. This also means that each of our guides can be more focused: not everything has to be discussed in that one guide. We can simply link to other guides.

• The resources become accessible to people with poor internet connections. Unlike most other websites, the Activist Handbook platform is optimised for speed and minimal data usage, which is essential for activists in the Global South.

• On mobile phone, web articles are much more accessible than PDFs. Our website automatically adapts to all screen sizes.