If the internet and social media were a religion, transparency and reciprocation could be its golden rules. Be open. Be talkative. Share.

But transparency ain’t easy – at least not at first.

Engaging in an open conversation about data – and sharing resources in a collaborative way – is the driving intention behind Nonprofitmapping.org. The everyday tasks of making that a reality, though, involve a lot of open, free and constant communication. It means not just participating in conversations, but starting them too.

But, I have to admit, it’s not as easy as it sounds. I’ve come to believe that there’s a very real learning curve to be negotiated in collaborative and transparent projects generally – and that goes double for projects with a crowdsourcing strategy at their heart. For starters, web culture demands a kind of constant attentiveness. Post well and post often. Reply quickly. Tip your hat to friends and colleagues with a retweet, an outgoing link, or a thoughtful comment. Respond quickly to administrative needs as they crop up. Be on call and prepared when your website blows a flat.

All that demands that you move around your day with an eye for what might belong in the next day’s mental hopper of social media tidbits. When the team meets virtually, it helps to keep a notepad of worthy notables that might be shared via Twitter or Facebook. And when we approach or pass an important project milestone, I have to remember to keep our followers updated.

Making an effort to be as transparent as possible does contain elements of exactly that – effort. It means that putting your head down and working in your own space doesn’t quite cut it – you’ve got to engage with a larger community at the same time.

That’s not to say that transparency is a drag – it’s just the opposite. Social media and a willingness to work openly scratches an itch many of us have to share what we’re up to with others who are up to similar things. It strengthens the quality of our work and builds relationships, among much else. But as a writer making his first concerted effort to work in a transparent way, I’ve noticed that I’ve got to make slight adjustments to the way I work to make room for all of the “musts” listed above. It’s an interesting mark, I think, of the growing cultural difference between business as usual and the “open source” culture we’d like to help build (to get a sense of this, here’s a TED Talk from Michel Bauwens on his ideas about “open everything”).

Anyhow, this is a long, winding way of getting to the point: this GREAT piece from Spot.Us‘s David Cohn (his blog comes highly recommended too) on the importance of transparency and a willingness to experiment (and even look bad once in awhile) inspired an entire line of thinking last night as I tried to figure out what I wanted from 2010. So here it is: one of my New Year’s resolutions is to be more transparent. That goes for Nonprofitmapping.org, but also for any other projects both professionally and personally. It’s about relationship building, really – the bundle of ties that make us and our communities stronger than we would be otherwise.

What are your thoughts on the transparency learning curve? How has transparency affected your working style?

Here’s to a new year, and here’s to transparency – let’s make 2010 a good one!