Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Iphone: Not

via my flickr stream I just joined the Iphone Not group on Facebook.

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall: Practice With Google Maps Street View

My Flickr Stream

 

Pretty cool new feature from Google Maps - street view.  You click on street view and you can see 360 photo of the street.  I'm reminded about what Jerry from Electronic Sheep said at the 2006 Games for Change Conference about virtual worlds as a platform.  He something along the lines that the next web platform will be walking through google maps in 3D.

Typing for B-Roll

Interesting Saturday morning. got interviewed by tv station on how I live blogged my summer vacation las year using wayfarer

Learned a few things from the interviewer and camera person about b-roll and directions of where to look and how to respond .. some points that Andy Carvin made during the videoblogging and nonprofits session we did at NTC.

The best remix of one of my Cambodian Photos by Arn Chorn Pond

Via my flickr stream

My last trip to Cambodia, I photographed monks.  My best photograph was of three monks collecting offerings in Roteang Village.   It has been used for the Facing History site as part of Arn Chorn Pond's story.  I'm so honored.

Here's the email message I received:

I stumbled upon your slide show of beautiful photos of Cambodia.  Facing History and Ourselves trains middle school and high school teachers.  We're building a website for students all over the world that profiles five different human rights awards winners.  One of them is an amazing man named Arn Chorn Pond, who survived the Cambodian genocide.

Would you mind if we used your image "Monks in Roteang Village" for the website?  The site is currently in BETA form.  Our projected launch date is Fall 2007 (late September or early October).  We will then be taking the website global--it will have a wide reach and have a profound impact on many students.  We really think that your photo is absolutely stunning and it fits in perfectly within the site.  If you want to check it out the link is  here .

Citizen Post Blog: Cynthia Gibson

Cynthia Gibson is writing a blog called Citizen Post  It's about citizen centered action and philanthropy.  The most recent post asks "Can Philanthropy be Citizen-Centered?"  She's the author of report called Citizens at the Center commissioned by the Case Foundation.

Jason Z at DIA bog writes about the launch of "Make It Your Own: Case Foundation's Experiment in Citizen-Centric Philanthropy" which includes both MySpace and Facebook.  Lucy Bernholz also blogged or rather blogged pointers to what she had to say in the mainstream media.

NpTech Tag Summary: Putting the U in YouTube, Some Cool Events, and Electronic Sheep Dreams

Slide Share Show, "Putting the U in YouTube" although geared for higher education institutions provides some really good practical marketing tips for social networking sites that should be useful for nonprofits too.

NetSquared

The Seattle's Net Tuesday Group has just launched a social networking site on ning.  Net Tuesday Seattle has been in the local press too!

Netsquared Featured projects receive grant awards!

NpTech Talk

Congrats to Allison Fine for the Terry McAdam Book Award

Yikes, the first ever tag spam I've seen in the NpTech Tag Stream!  It like it was also splog and closed down by wordpress.

Gavin's Digital Diner has a thoughtful essay titled "Do Nonprofits Dream of Electronic Sheep?" (At first, I thought the title might refer to Electric Sheep Company, a big player in virtual worlds, and that it would lead to some more reflections on the MacArthur Foundation's recent Philanthropy Event in Second Life.  Then, I remembered the phrase flowed through the NPtech tag stream about six months as a reference to interface design.)  The essay has nothing to do with virtual worlds or interface design.  It is a lament about the phrase "nonprofits should act more like for-profits" leading some reflections about long-term thinking about outcomes.  It's a must-read.

Social Networking Sites, Online Communities, and Experiments

Jason Z at DIA bog writes about the launch of "Make It Your Own: Case Foundation's Experiment in Citizen-Centric Philanthropy" which includes both MySpace and Facebook. Jason notes, "Despite the institutional capacity of most funders to insulate themselves from experimental grantmaking, we're sure to see more forays like this in the years ahead, if only on an experimental basis."  Jason is spot on.  More about social media tools for philanthropy from Tactical Philanthropy.

AFP Blog points the Mindblizzard Blog story about how the Dutch Red Cross will begin fundraising in Second Life using Yike Strum, a top model, as their Red Cross ambassador.

Holly Ross points to Robin Good's Beginner Guide to Facebook.  An excellent primer that also describes why people love and hate Facebook.   For an added bonus, read Allan Benamer's terrific coverage of Facebook and Project Agape and Micah Sifry's piece on the political and social implications of Project Agape.  (BTW, Allan also gives us the correct way to pronounce: uh-GAH-pay). 

Danah Boyd has posted a provocative essay on the class divisions she sees in users of MySpace vs Facebook. Michele Martin has some reactions.

Rob Cunningham gives us a good laugh - FOAF your way to the top!

"Best Engaging Communities" a large collection of best-practices info and case studies about managing online communities found by Ian Wilker.

Tool Talk

Robin Good has a nice roundup of affordable Web Conferencing Tools and a useful comparison chart in a google spreadsheet.

GoogleEarth launches Nonprofit Outreach Program via the NTEN blog and NetSquared community blog.  Britt Bravo covers it here.  Looking for a primer?  Check this slideshow

A nice little utility that lets you embed google mymaps into your blog.

Michele Martin discovers a really useful tool called FeedCycle that lets you publish serialized
RSS feeds or chunks of content.  I've been looking for something like this where I could create feeds based on a category.  I look forward to reading about the results of Michele's experiment.

Here's another low cost email list tool, an email newsletter application just for bloggers called Zookoda.  Maybe it should be added to this list of free or cheap email list management tools.

Via LifeHacker, does google analytics make you say huh?

These two penguins do not want closed API.

Some really cool events flowing through the NpTech Tag Stream!

Bridge To Integrated Marketing and Fundraising
Conference
Washington, DC
7/8/07-7/10/07

NP.IT: Midsummer Mixer at Google Headquarters
in collaboration with NTEN
Mountain View, CA
7/12/07

Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales, Wikipedia Founder
San Francisco, CA
7/18/07

The NpTech Tag started as an experimental community tagging project in 2005. A loosely coupled group of nonprofit techies and social change activists decided to use the tag "NpTech" to identify web resources that would create an ongoing stream of information to promote and educate those working in nonprofit technology. Many individuals tag hundreds of resources each week. Through TechSoup's Netsquared project, blogger Beth Kanter, was commissioned to write a weekly summary.

Variations on the Internet Dog Cartoon

Via Rob Cottingham at Social Signal

 

Via Cogdog's presentation "Being There"

Using Social Networking Sites for Campaigns: An Interview with Carie Lewis, HSUS

Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager
Humane Society of the United States

In April,  I blogged about HSUS "Stop Canada's Cruel Seal Hunt" campaign over at blogher and my blog and last December on my blog as part of a roundup of articles on using social networking spaces for campaigns.   I've been following Carie Lewis's posts on the NTEN Affinity groups as well as other nonprofit tech listservs (yes, I still do read listservs) and caught up with her for an interview.   

As part of her job as Internet Marketing Manager in the Online Communications and Media department at the HSUS. she manages all social networking profiles, online advertising, search engine optimization, and online marketing techniques for campaigns.   Her main focus is on ways to use web 2.0 tools for online advocacy.

1.   Tell me about the Stop Canada's Cruel Seal Hunt campaign?

This campaign was generated to as a unique way to get people involved in taking action against the Canadian seal hunt. We wanted something different; not just another MySpace profile. So through the eyes of a baby seal, people were able to interact with him, hear his stories, send photos of what they were doing to help, and participate in ways to take action online (posting banners, signing the boycott, sending emails to the prime minister, etc.) People became very fond of sunny and were motivated to do whatever they could to help.

2.  Can you talk a little bit about how you mix or integrate social media tools with more, er, "traditional" online marketing strategies?

This was mostly a myspace campaign. We pointed people to youtube to watch the videos and to our website to participate in the advocacy. We also coordinated and integrated the content and blog postings with our hsus myspace page and rebecca’s online journal, without coming right out and saying this was being put together by the HSUS.

3.  Why did your organization integrate these social media tools - how did you choose specific tools?

We already had a strong following on the hsus myspace and youtube channels, so we used our supporters there to direct their attention to this page. Rebecca’s online journal told the tales of what she saw, so we just reworded her experiences through the eyes of a seal and posted blog comments from him. We also used youtube because it’s a great place for us to post our most graphic videos in hopes that they go viral.

4. What kind of research or community participation or presence did you have on these social networking sites before launching the campaign? What kind of experiments did you do first?

We had taken the time to build up a strong following on our hsus myspace page – it took about 7 months to get to 17,000 friends. The first thing we did was create a group dedicated to the seal hunt. We saw a flood of new members once we first created it, but then it died off. There was nothing exciting to really get people to come back after they joined. It was the same old same old – what you can do. We knew we needed a new angle, so we chose to go with storytelling. That’s why the myspace page by a seal was so effective – people kept coming back to see what he was experiencing and seeing if he was still alive – then we integrated our advos and other campaign materials into his story. We also created a custom profile and layout, which gave his page a different edge.

5.  Why and how has using these tools been effective?  Can you share some stats?   What was the result of the myspace page?

Sunny (the seal) had over 2,000 friends and 14,000 profile views in 3 weeks. We had about 500 new signups to our email list from MySpace. That includes the advocacy actions and the web banners. This does not include those who were already in our email system or have participated in advos in the past, so you can imagine the total # that participated is much higher.

6. What kinds of conversations in-house/on-staff did the desire to integrate social networking tools into your work spark? How much staff time did it take to incorporate the social media tools?

For this campaign, we had 4 people involved – myself, who was going to handle the design and maintenance /correspondence for the profile, the campaign manager to make sure it followed along with the goals of the campaign, the person that was actually up on the ice to make sure it was realistic and followed with what she was witnessing, and an employee in Canada that did the blogging and made sure the profile had a Canadian “feel” to it. The four of us corresponded on the strategy of the campaign and how it would flow. It took about a week to plan and implement start to finish, then about 15 minutes every other day to blog, and a half hour a day to handle the correspondence (comments, emails, friend requests)

7. If you were to give advice to others about incorporating social networking/media tools, what are the five most important things to consider or do?

1 – Take the time to build your friends list. We reached out to celebrities, other seal groups and profiles, current hsus friends, profiles and groups that had to do with the issues (global warming, animal welfare), Canadian-specific profiles, etc. Post your badges on their comment space once you have friends. Promote to your current constituency in any way you can. Include a link in emails, on your campaign page, on your homepage, blogs, etc. Once we added links in these places, we received an influx of friend requests.

2 – Remember the WIIFM (what's in it for me).  We created badges that people could put on their pages to show their support, instead of just asking them to take action and participate in our advos. (and these badges included text links back to our website and myspace page). Give people the text box with the code so they can copy and paste the code instead of having to download an host on something like photo bucket. Make it EASY.

3 – Come up with something different to keep people engaged. Everyone likes to have a lot of friends, but if you create a new profile for every campaign you have, you may get a lot of friend requests, but they may not ever come back. Ten different profiles for each of your issues or campaigns is boring. Come up with the big, cool idea. Then put together a strategy.

4 – Don’t engage in a social media campaign unless you have the time and resources. My position is dedicated to projects like this. I think it would be hard for someone to fit in the time it took to put this together and maintain it in addition to their daily job responsibilities. Social networking projects are not for everyone. We have a strategy and team of people in place for each campaign. Never put together a page then leave it, expecting people to come to you. Take the time to respond and interact with all your friends. If you don’t have this kind of time to do it right, find another way to get your message out.

5 – Take the time to measure results. Even though you can’t get stats from MySpace, take the time to track on your end. We source every link from myspace so we can tell what each person does once they reach our site. We can track other advos they participate in, donations they give, etc. The advo, donation, and tell a friend benefits from even one person can be incredible.

Has your organization implemented a campaign on a social networking site?  What is your best advice to those just starting?  Leave a comment and pointer to your campaign or web site.

See Give and Take Blog post

Does Playing Video Games Make You Smarter about Google AdWords Campaigns? Yes!

Marc Sirkin at last year's Games for Change Conference

Marc is the Chief Marketing Officer at the IRC.   I've been following Marc Sirkin's blog for about a year before I met him at last year's Games for Change Conference where he taught me Brain Age and Mario.  (At the time, my son was in the process of earning 50 stickers for NinendoDS and I wanted to be able to play with him.  Being over the legal age limit for these devices, I needed a tutorial.)

I'm working on another screencast (sponsored by NTEN and SalesForce) about the SalesForce/Google Ad Words Integration.  So, when I discovered that Marc during a OneWorld conference call that he has been implementing keyword advertising for a couple years, I called him up to get a tutorial.   Here's what I learned:

What are some of the best practices for nonprofits who are planning/implementing a keyword advertising campaign?

We'll still learning and tweaking.  And that's the point.  You need to take a reiterative approach - look at the results and evaluate and improve. 

If you're just starting, don't enter a million different keywords, landing pages, and ads.  Be strategic.    Start simply with a group of keywords, one landing page and one ad.  Review the performance and then expand.  Otherwise, you'll have so much data and too many choices to make to figure out what works best.

What advice would you give to someone who is developing their keyword advertising campaign with Google Ad Words?  What should they think about before jumping into the software?  Can you share some steps?

Step 1.  Start with your outcomes, not your keywords

Remember that your goal is the answer to the question: What do you want people to do on your site?  If you're using Goolge Analytics goals, you've already thought through some of this.  Do you want them to read content, download a screen saver, sign an online petition, sign up for more information, sign up to volunteer, make a donation, or something else?   The important thing is that is actionable.

Step 2:  Think about your messaging and determine the best "landing page"

Now, start to think backwards.  You have your goal.  Next, think about what a person might type into the Google search box, messaging that will make them click on your ad, and where they should arrive on your web site.  That last step is called the landing page.   The landing page has to make sense and it has to lead to the action you want.  While you can do this thinking on the fly inside of Google Ad Words, you are probably much better if you sketch it out before hand.

Step 3:   Identify Keywords and Write Ad Copy

It's a good idea to do some brainstorming with people on staff and outside research.   The question we might brainstorm is "What would a user type into a search engine to reach that goal?"  The Google AdWords software will suggest keywords.  There are some other methods you can use.  For example, there are some tools like Nichebot and Word Tracker, but they aren't free.

If you're already using Google Analytics, running some of the keyword reports will give you an idea of what keywords people are using to find your site.   You'll get some bonus information if you have Google Analytics goals set up. 

When you are thinking about keywords, be sure to include "not" expressions.  For example, if you were trying to promote the movie Pirates of the Caribbean you might include a  negative  "Not Pittsburgh" - so the movie fans would be clicking on your ad, not baseball fans.

You can write your ads (brief text ads) on the fly while you are in the software, but you'll probably do a better job if you do it before you venture into the software.  A quick environmental scan of other ads will also be useful.     Definitely type in your keywords into the search engine and see what ads come up -- that's your competition.  How might your ad get clicked on?    

You can learn how to write killer ads by typing in commercial words that are popular -- like mortgage.  Study those ads because they are no doubt making money.  And, of course use action words!

Step 4:  Set up Your Campaign in Google AdWords 

Now you're ready to go into the software and create a campaign and bid on adwords -- you'll need the following pieces of information -- your keywords, your budget (remember nonprofit donations have a limit of $1 per click) and your ad copy and position.   There you can start bidding for keywords.  Remember, if you're just starting out, don't go too hogwild - start with a few options, evaluate, and tweak.

Step 5:  Monitor, Tweak, Monitor, Tweak, Monitor, Tweak

Look at the results and ditch ads or keywords that aren't getting you a good return.   How to figure that out?  The click through rate, cost  per click, and conversion goal are the best metrics in google AdWords.  Google adwords metrics/reports tell you about what's happening with the campaign.  Eliminate ads, keywords, and position of ads that suck.  It is also important to look at your results in google analytics -- which  tells you how the adwords campaign relates to your overall web site. (It's nice that the two are integrated so you can easily tab back and forth) 

Finally, you need to be able to "source" the people that you pull in  -- so you can take it further.  If using the Saleforce integration,  I'd want to be able to select the people in my database who came to me via keyword advertising.  It's really good to know the original source - this person got on our database because we ran a killer keyword ad campaign and they clicked on one of the lead forms.  I'd want to use that information to segment a direct mail fund raising campaign or maybe do a survey to those people to find out how we could improve our web site, after all those people are probably heavy Internet users.

I'd also want to do some analysis and find out what works best for keywords -- signing online petition, making donations, or both.  I'd probably start asking questions like, "Why do the donors who came to us via keyword advertising only give $25?"   I'd want to use them to build personas of online information seekers.

I probably wouldn't get too granular with customizations of messaging - like refer to the fact that someone typed in a particular keyword to find us.  I think that might annoy the donors or volunteer.  While I want to learn more about my audience, I want to respect their privacy too.

Once an organization has implemented their first campaign, what should they do to improve the next campaign?

Get more strategic how you pick ad words, create ads, and test test test test.  The Google AdWords donation if fantastic, but just because it is in-kind -- you still need to be smart about using it.  If you decide to invest some of your organization's marketing budget in the Google advertising network which gets your ad out to the advertising affiliates, you'll want to use your dollars wisely.

We are being far more strategic and we look at monthly trends - the goal is to minimize the average cost per click and up the click through rate.

Have you implemented a Google AdWords Campaign with SalesForce integration?  What are your tips and advice?  What are your favorite resources for learning more?

Resources:

VolunteerMatch SalesForce/Google AdWords Case Study

SalesForce/Google AdWords Learning Center

Google AdWords Learning Center

Leveraging Google AdWords for Fundraising

Convio Primer on SEO

Self SEO

Boris Mordkovich's Keyword Advice

Ten Tips for Getting Started with Google AdWords

Which Keyword Research Tool To Use

Keyword Tips for Writing Powerful Google Ads

Google AdWords Tips

Turning Dimes Into Dollars: The Basics of Low-Bid PPC

Interview with Andrew Goodman

Ring it On! Ringtones 08 - User Generated Cell Phone RingTones!

Jo Lee from CitizenSpeak emailed me to let me know that CitizenSpeak has a new sibling called RingTones08.com - a free site where  people can create and share ringtones about the 2008 election.
RingTones08.com is a joint Green Machine PR (Jo is a partner) and Mobile Active (Katrin Verclas) in partnership with Myxer.com. 

Jo says in email announcement,

"A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes well-chosen short political sound bites can rally a cause, make us laugh, and even sway an election.  Ringtones08.com is first free site that lets people easily create and share ringtones about the upcoming 2008 elections. Ringtones08 makes it quick and easy to create ringtones and broadcast opinions - from any political persuasion - about national or local candidates, issues, get out the vote, or any other subject dealing with the 2008 election. To post a ringtone, users simply go to RingTones08.com, click on "Submit Your Tone" and follow the steps on MyxerTones' site to upload their 20 second audio file."

NPTimes TechnoBuzz: Telling Stories Online Makes That Vital Connection

The NonProfit Times has an e-newsletter.  (Disclosure - I've written a few articles for the TechnoBuzz newsletter) But, that's not why I'm pointing you over there.   

This week's TechnoBuzz Newsletter has an excellent piece by Jonah Sachs from FreeRange Studios on online storytelling, making the point that you don't need the latest web2.0 technology tool, but the oldest communication method known to human beings - stories!

This came just in the nick of time as I'm remixing my Web 2.0 workshops for July.  These are all on the on the topic of Web2.0 tools and fund raising.   For BlogHer, I'm on a panel with Britt Bravo and I have to present the widget fundraising case study in ten minutes. (rest of the session will be discussion/questions).  So, I am thinking about some of the advice in that Nonprofit Times article on how to do this.  Jonah has laid out a really good design process:         

• The Heroes: Who are they? What are they trying to achieve? What person, historical figure, even animal or mythical creature might represent these heroes? Think beyond your organization's employees when searching. The hero need not be you! Oftentimes it is our constituents or those we are trying to help who emerge as the most compelling heroes in our stories.

• The Villains: Every story needs a bad guy. People just won't accept a struggle without a villain and with no struggle there is no story. Who stands in our hero's way? Are they identifiable individuals or a set of problems that can be personified in a character or person? Villains should feel evil in your story but that doesn't mean you have to vilify your opposition. We don't have to personally attack other people to show the problem as evil (although at times, it has undeniably worked).

• The Catalyst: Stories begin with a struggle between hero and villain that does not begin to resolve until a catalyst appears. Something or someone shifts the balance and the hero begins to prevail. Who, or what, is the catalyst in your story? What people or actions will come along to break the deadlock and allow the desired outcome? How can the listener (or viewer) of the story be the catalyst or cause the catalyst to come about?

The other remix challenge is take the Social Media and remix for fundraising 2.0.  Luckily, my colleague Francesco has remixed the game for fundraising, but it is in Italian!  (cards and presentation).   It's so cool that the cards have OKNO and Segnalo - the Italian versions of Digg and Del.icio.us.  I wonder what they translate into?

Another Excellent Web Analytics Gurus You Must Read: Eric Peterson

People who know me know that I am research and information junkie.  This includes not only information on the Internet but also books.   A big problem in my office is the lack of bookshelf space and my family does not let enter bookstores in their presence. 

It may be one reason why I love the documentary approach to screencasting - an excuse to add to my book collection.   In the screencast wiki, I have a list of books and articles I used for the research as well as links to more comprehensive lists.  I could make an entire screencast examining the excellent resources and gurus out there on the topic. 

I'd like to introduce my nonprofit readers to one of them:

 

Eric T Peterson is the founder of a company called, Web Analytics Demystified. He is also an author of three books on the topic:  Web Analytics Demystified, Web Site Measurement Hacks and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators.   

His company is built around a series of fundamental principles that he calls The Truth About Web Analytics. 

1. Web analytics is not easy for most organizations.
2. Technology cannot replace the need for talented professionals.
3. Web analytics is actually a series of identifiable business processes.
4. People, technology, and process are all required to create repeatable successes.
5. All companies can be very successful provided they're committed to understanding the process of "doing" web analytics.

I just added a copy of The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators to my collection (it's an electronic book and comes with an excel spreadsheet of a worksheet).   Peterson defines them as "numbers designed to succinctly convey as much information as possible. Good key performance indicators are well defined, well presented, create expectations and drive actions."    When I was researching this topic, I wanted to go deeper into this area - but with limited time and wanted a primer - did not.  Now .. I'm interested in the best practices around using KPI and Peterson's book is a fantastic resource.  I thinking about what is translatable to nonprofits and organizations that have smaller budgets than Fortune 500 Companies.

I'm really fascinated by this whole Web Analytics field (and it looks like Web Analysts are in hot demand)  --  and I am especially interested in the whole conversation around analytics and social media.  It speaks to my inner research geek.

Well, must get back to researching for the next screencast which is on SalesForce and upcoming July training workshops which are on the topic of Fundraising 2.0.   

Virtual Worlds: The future or a fad?

Back in December after Clay Shirky's piece on Second Life, Stan who writes the PacificRim Exchange Blog took out his "I'm Sticking With DOS" buttons from the attic to make some points -- maybe something about keeping an eye on the future horizon.

Allan Benamer has written a post called Why Project Agape's Cause Is Better Than Second Life.  I think the title should have been more aptly "Why Project Agape's Cause Is Better ROI for Fundraising Than Second Life in 2007!"   Nicole Wallace's frames the post with these questions:

What do you think? Is Second Life a passing fad, or is it something savvy nonprofit groups should be watching and participating in?

Now this should set the stage for an interesting debate!

Ruby Sinreich notes in the comments, it isn't an either/or:

"It’s not like we have to choose either/or! Second Life is great for enabling rich learning experiences, creative expression, and complex interpersonal interactions."

Susan Tenby writes in the comments about the special qualities of Second Life:

There are few places where the security issues and the individual time of a member are rendered less significant. The boundaries of SL allow you to have access to many whom you wouldn’t be able to meet with in the real world (for example,business executives, celebrities and those in remote locations). It also allows you to create experiences that the two-dimensional web would never be able to produce (for example, walking through a human heart or experiencing schizophrenia as if you were the schizophrenic.) As soon as we have web directly enabled on Second Life (or whatever other virtual world takes it place), you will be able to have a seamless experience between your satellite office and your web documents.

It comes down to understanding what is the best tool/strategy to reach an organization’s outcomes and having an eye on what is on the horizon and what is being learned today. 

My feeling is that although we’re still in the early phases of virtual worlds, we shouldn't ignore it or label is a passing fad.  As such not all nonprofits organizations should be investing heavily in resources to implement a fund raising campaign in Second Life.  As Allan points out, there is a steeper learning curve and will require more resources to go to scale than say a Facebook profile. 

But, what about education programs?  What about the networking opportunities?

If I were a development person, I’d certainly want to get on avatar and get the chance to chat with Mr. Fanton directly about the foundation’s funding interests, find out what they learning about virtual worlds and philanthropy.  If my nonprofit's programs were geared for young people, I'd want to learn from first hand experience what opportunities virtual worlds present for my organization and its programs.  Exploring a tool with a low risk experiment to see if it is the right fit is not a waste of resources. Having knee jerk reactions – whether to immediately reject or immediately jump in with full scale implementation – is.

There's an interesting article over at the MacArthur Foundation Spotlight highlighting some recent virtual worlds research.

In a strange coincidence, I received an email from Jackie Marsh, a UK-based researcher looking at social media and early childhood, telling me about her blog, Digital Beginnings.  (We discovered each other via a post I wrote called "Mommy, what's a blog?" which was my attempt to explain blogging to my pre-K aged son, Harry.)   GenWe, today's kids, are a glimpse into the future.   And, it isn't just social networking sites they're using, today's young people are exploring and using virtual worlds.   So, are virtual worlds a fad or is it showing us what is to come.

Interview with Roshaneh Zafar, Kashf Foundation, part of Global X Social Entrepreneurs Video Series

 

There is a terrific video series over at Social Edge called the "X Interview" where you can watch and listen to social entrepreneurs tell their stories.  The videos are short, most less than 3-7 minutes, are simple -- a significant event that had a major impact on their life and how they see the world in 2017. 

The interview above is with social entrepreneur Roshaneh Zafar, founder and managing director of The Kashf Foundation, Pakistan's third largest microfinance institution, tells Global X why she had to unlearn what she learned about economics. She also shares what happened when she realized that she was sitting at a conference next to a gentleman called Muhammad Yunus.

New Screencast: Web Analytics Demystified: A Primer for Nonprofits

 

High bandwidth version available here

I'm pleased to announce that I have completed the screencast, sponsored by NTEN, on Google Analytics!  I created a companion wiki where you find lots of links to additional resources to help you learn more.  This screencast would not have been possible without all the help I got from:

• Dave Amos, Web guy at the Idealist (and Ami Dar) and Laura Whitehead, South Hams, CVS, who not only allowed me complete access to their Google Analytics stats, but answered my numerous stupid questions.
• Avinash Kaushik,  Analytics Evangelist, Google, really helped me understand the true meaning of Web Analytics 2.0 and has hopefully forgiven me for not saying his last name correctly!
• Laura Quinn for serving as my guinea pig for recording and incorporating brief interviews into screen cast (as well as her for terrific introductory article that helped me get started)
• Holly Ross for suggesting the topic and understood that it takes more than a week or two to make a screencast!
• For all my blog readers and participants on the NTEN Nonprofit Webmasters Affinity group who left comments, made suggestions, pointed me to resources, and shared screen captures of their stats.

Several months ago, I knew zip about web analytics.  I was a little scared to make a screencast about something that I knew nothing about.  (I blogged about that here)

What I discovered is that creating a screencast is a terrific personal learning environment because you can't create a media  piece unless you really know the topic.  And yes, learning is time consuming and you can't really master a topic like this in 90 minutes let alone create a media piece.   But a screencast forces you to organize your learnings, document them, and share them.   

I shared the screencast with Avinash Kaushik and frankly was a little intimidated to do so because well, he is the expert on the topic.  Here was the response: "It is wonderful. The thing like I loved about this screencast is that it is real, it is true UCG and has a human touch to it." 

I did learn one more thing that is a best practice.

One quick pointer on the date range comparison (around seven min mark). Where possible share the tip with you users that they should line up the week day of each time period if they can. Good best practice. So if your first time period starts at a Monday then just move the bars of the start date in the comparison time period to a Monday s well. This might not make for a complete month but it will ensure that for the sake of seasonality your time line compare the same week days. Else sometimes you’ll see lifts where there aren’t any.

Almost all the photos in the screencast and the music are from sources licensed with Creative Commons licenses.  I took great pains to attribute them in this section of the wiki.   In addition,  I asked for and got permission from two content sources that were "all rights reserved" including this photo by Audrey and Daniel. (Be sure to read about their connection with Cambodia)

I'd also like to thank Jeremiah Owyang who graciously allowed me to use 25 seconds from his video interview with Avinash Kaushik.

NP2020 Conference: Issues and Answers from the Next Generation

NP2020 is both a conference and a call to action to address a leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector.  According to a recent Bridgespan Group report, over the next decade nonprofits will need to attract and develop some 640,000 leaders -approximately 2.4 times the number currently working the field.  When one considers the impact of baby boomers preparing for retirement over the next two decades, there is a clear need for smooth leadership transition from one generation of leaders to the next.   

The conference will bring together individuals from around the country to begin a discussion about leadership in the nonprofit sector from July 26-28th at the Pew Campus of Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.   The conference will address questions such as:

• Who are the nonprofit leaders of the future?
• What skills, resources, or support will they need?
• How to address this growing need?
• What barriers exist to successful transition?
• What solutions lie within the nonprofit sector?

As one of those "baby boomers preparing for retirement over the next decades," at first I thought this conference was only for people between the ages of 21-40.  However, I misread the promotional material and Ashima Saigal, one of the conference organizers, assures me that is not the case. It will be a cross generational dialog, but they are specifically targeting younger leaders.  Hmm .. I wonder if they a facebook group for the event?

The conference is open space format, but the founder and executive director of Mixed Greens, Lisa Rose Starner, will give a keynote and representatives from Young Nonprofit Professionals Network will present findings from their research of member attitudes about the topic.

The registration deadline is coming up next week!   Here's the link for more information.

Check out Laura's Notebook: Laura Whitehead's Blog

As part of some research for a screencast on Google Analytics for NTEN, I gave a shout out to folks asking for examples.  Laura Whitehead shared a fantastic case study!  So, I was even more delighted to discover her blog and I suspect she will continue to share her learnings about using Google Analytics and other nonprofit technology topics! 

Stephen Downes' First Screencast: It's On Web2.0 and Personal Learning

 

I was delighted to discover Stephen Downes screencast created with Camtasia for several reasons.  First, I've been following the recent stream of posts about "personal learning environments" but haven't delved in depth yet.  I'm interested because it is what I attempt to do with my blog, screencasting, and all the other web 2.0 tools I use.   Seeing the powerpoint slides along with the commentary helped me understand the topic. 

Second, I'm always happy to see another screencaster, particularly one with great content, take the step of learning Camtasia.   It is a rabbit hole and as Stephen notes, it does take time.   I know that all too well.

And now to weave these two ideas together.   All my learnings about screencasting are organized in a wiki portfolio.  Stephen's first effort also calls to mind another example for using screencasting - public speaking - which Jon Udell wrote about this week.

I have found the wiki portfolio really useful in summarizing and clarifying my learning about screencasting from my network.  Take for example this piece of learning about conversational screencasts.

Finally, I wonder if the use of Soviet posters constitutes fair use?

Okay, back to the final editing of a screencast I'm working on about Google Analytics for Nonprofits sponsored by NTEN. 

Low Risk Blog Experiments

Source: Flickr In my workshop, I cover Web2.0 adoption strategies and often use this slide and talk abut low-risk experimentation.  But, what the heck does that mean? Brian Kelly, whose blog feed I've added to my "Circle of the Wise" feed folder,  has a section on his blog called 'Experiments.

Title

‘Claim your Blog’ in Technorati.

Reasons For Experiment

To explore ways in which a new blog can be found.

Discussion

This experiment was first announced on 6^th November 2006.  Follow-up reports were published on 11^th and 26^th November 2006 and 12 January 2007.

Conclusions

Technorati appears to be successful in helping a new blog to be found.  Its use is recommended to others.

I do experiments like this, but I don't necessarily put them in a structure that allows for easy evaluation.  For example, my most recent experiment was not to blog as frequently this week as I usually do.  What happened?  My subscriber stats went down and I got several emails from folks asking me if I was okay.

I'm am inspired to do something like this and incorporate the use of google analytics to get some qualitative data.  What experiments would you do to inform adoption or make improvements?

Virtual Platforms for Good: Empowering Individuals

Photo UgoTrade Blog

I wanted to highlight a couple of observations that Lucy Bernholz makes in her analysis of yesterday's discussion about philanthropy in Second Life by the MacArthur Foundation.   She points out why this was such a groundbreaking event and suggests a compelling new metaphor for philanthropy:

Imagine if philanthropy sought to be an "empowering platform for individuals (and organizations) to make change."

But to really be a platform for individuals, where the participants decide how to do things, where the successful organizations are only those that help residents succeed, where feedback loops are tight, fast, and respected - these are new ways for philanthropic institutions to act. A good start, a conversation with anyone who could get there, was made today. I hope the Foundation and its partners are successful in achieving their goals: listening to new s, providing means for isolated groups to get together, offering support for creative solutions "in world" that might transfer to "real life." The conversation started - lets hope (and help) it continues.

What is interesting to me about this concept of a platform for change that is very different from say - campaigns on social networking sites like Facebook or the use of widgets and charity badges on blogs for personal fundraising campaigns -- is that while Virtual Worlds are empowering individuals -- we are empowering collective action.

The Second Thoughts blog, in a post called "We Need A New Kind of Philanthropy" outlines ten ways a new kind of philanthropy could get started with the combination of social media and virtuality in worlds and games. 

I was also surprised to read this post by the Web Metrics Guru, not the usual type of blog that covers the nonprofit world or philanthropy.

Just as blogging is now becoming mainstream, but was ahead of the curve three or four years ago (and several Bloggers, are now seen as influencials (and members of the Press (sorta) - if they have a wide enough audience).   

I predict the same fate for Second Life and other 3D-Virtual Words - although the time frame is closer to 5 or 6 years from now (and I think it was Gartner who said that by 2010 or 2011 pretty much everyone is going to have a "Second Life" in a 3D Virtual World -I wrote about it in More people leading 3D virtual lives online) due to hardware and platform restrictions that prevent a wider adoption now.

I noticed that Macarthur Foundation is not limiting themselves to Second Life - but also are exploring There.com.  I saw There.com at Virtual Worlds 2007 but did not focus as much on them, being more interested in just covering the whole event and making contacts, which are already proving to be very useful and helpful to me.

But it's clear to me the lines have been drawn, even at unlikely places like Search Engine Strategies (I wrote about my first hand impressions at the last SES in NYC  in Search Marketers and Second Life don't seem to mix) - as many in the Search Engine market have traditionally seen themselves as the innovators - when in reality they have now become mainstream and tomorrow, some of them will be forgotten unless they, as group, move forward - to innovate and see what's happening now.

That's always the challenge ... to move forward...you have to give up something.

The UgoTrade Blog shares some notes from the event, but also tells us about the magic of Second Life and the ability to provide access to people:

Both Philip Linden and Jonathan Fanton stayed after the event to chat one on one with people.
I sent an IM to Jonathan Fanton about an African intitiated Virtual Africa portal to Second Life (see next post!). And, I got an instant response. Not only did Jonathan Fanton himself want to stay in touch with project. He immediately sent contact information for the person most involved with Africa at The MacArthur Foundation.

Meanwhile over in the teen grid of Second Life, there was a listening party where teen were gathered to listen to the event and invited to send questions.   Here's part of the report:

John near the end was faced with the tricky question of, if he had to chose 3 issues with priority over others, which would he chose for SL. He talked about Iraq, and said it was important, but there is enough media coverage of it all ready, and he feels nothing could be done in the short term. He said he would more focus on the "death and destruction" in northern Uganda and Eastern Congo.

Once again a small amount of the teens were messing around, this time singing "my milkshake brings my nan to the yard", but ironically they were all surprised at how soon it ended, and were begging for more.

Over at the Global Kids Blog, Barry Joseph reports that:

One teen quote in particular, from, Anthony Pomeray, summed up the effect the event had on many who participated: "After hearing the conversation Philip had today, I just feel like I want to be part of something to help mankind."

Here's an update on the round up of coverage:

• Event Announcement from Jonathan Fanton, President
• Doing the Impossible in Virtual Worlds by Doug Thomas from USC Center on Public Diplomacy
• A report about the event from Hastac
• My Live Blog post with notes from the event
• The flickr stream - photos tagged with macfoundsl and snapzilla stream
• Nonprofits in Second Life Blog coverage
• Lucy Bernholz captured the video stream from blog.tv and offered an analysis here
• Rik Riel's multimedia coverage the event
• Virtual to Reality Blog
• Ugo Trade
• Mindblizzard Blog - a good screencapture showing attendance
• Second Life 101 - some great photos
• Teen Listening Party and Global Kids coverage
• Second Thoughts blog, "We Need a New Kind of Philanthropy"
• Don't Tell the Donor Blog
• Britt Bravo's Second Life Do-Gooders
• New York Times article

NpTech Tag Summary: MacArthur Foundation Event on Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds, Online Campaign Tools and Strategies, and Social Media Tips

MacArthur President, Jonathan Fanton's Avatar

The MacArthur Foundation hosted a Virtual World Event on Philanthropy today in Second Life. Jonathan Fanton, MacArthur Foundation President, said, "we think virtual worlds will grow and become integrated into our daily lives."   He said the MacArthur Foundation hopes to make investments to help nonprofits and civil society organizations address serious issues.  They hope to reach out to residents and spark conversations about philanthropic work and to give advice and assistance to residents who want to advance charitable causes.

Here's a round up of coverage:

• Event Announcement from Jonathan Fanton, President
• Doing the Impossible in Virtual Worlds by Doug Thomas from USC Center on Public Diplomacy
• Nonprofits in Second Life Blog coverage
• Lucy Bernholz captured the video stream from blog.tv and reflections
• Rik Riel's multimedia coverage of the event
• Second Thoughts blog, "We Need a New Kind of Philanthropy"
• Beth's Blog, Live Blog Post
• Britt Bravo's Second Life Do-Gooders

Netsquared Community

Some great coverage for Netsquared in The Chronicle of Philanthropy and on the blog

A Netsquared community members is seeking advice about the possibility of a prison computer recycling center in Japan. 

A report from the ISummit

Internet Campaigns Strategy and Tools

New Organizing Institute's founder, zack exley's advice to nonprofits about online campaigns.  Network-Centric Advocacy blogs riffs on it.

Can you guess what's in this DIA blog post based on the title: "somit:-$$$ n weird". Definitely check out Jason's generational riff based on this amazing chart of online behavior.

Ethan Zuckerman's article in TechSoup on Mobile Phones and Social Activism.

Jon Stahl points to How Drupal Will Save the World by Jeff Robbins from Lullabot.  Be sure to check out Jon's ChipIn campaign for "PloneGetPaid"

e.politics shares a list of Drupal/Joomla Development Shops for Campaigns and Nonprofits.  Want to suggest others?  Add 'em in the comments.

Nice set of flickr photos and a summary of Forum One's "Hard Choices, Real Lessons: Internet Technology Planning for Decision Makers.   

Peter Dietz has an article on TechSoup about what you can expect from group fundraising campaigns.  Steve Bridger's Fundraising 2.0 presentation is a must-read.

Oh no, IT Director 2.0.  Some good deployment strategy points though.

Social Media

The Bamboo Project has some tips on how to go web2.0 for less than $60 bucks.

Wild Apricot offers some pointers about organizational blogging.

The Spare Change blog reflects on the outcomes of the HHS Flu Blog

Some tips on promoting your nonprofit using scrapblog as a scrapblog post.

Designing for Civil Society blog writes about how Facebook is re-inventing membership organisations.

YouTube Remixer launched with some unimpressed reviews, perhaps because there are eight other similar tools out there.

The Theory of YouTube Class: ObamaGirl and the Web2.0 Aesthetic

The DC MediaMakers has an archive of their meeting on blog.tv which featured Christina Arnold of Prevent Human Trafficking International.

Gelato and Web2forDev2007!

A good discussion thread about google tools for nonprofits over at oneworld

Tool Talk

The Non-Profit Tech Blog has an interview with Joe Green and Chris Chan of Project Agape.  Be sure to check out the comments.

From the NTEN Affinity Groups, a summary of advice and observations about Webinar and Online Conference tools.

Quantum Shift is Web.TV channel covering social change issues and civil society.

A request for a ning or php volunteer from this nonprofit. This is the first blog request for a volunteer that I've seen.   

Zentation.com "Where powerpoint meets video on the web."  You can view the video of a conference event while seeing the powerpoint slides.  Here's an example from the SalesForce DreamForce Conference.

Web Conferencing on the cheap with free tools!

New (to me) Blogs

Susie's Blog links to the Official Cambridgeshire Circuit Rider Project Blog

Welcome Louise Brown to the Blogosphere!

Keep on Smiling!

Check out the LOLNPTECH.ORG blog. Today's photo is pretty funny.

The NpTech Tag started as an experimental community tagging project in 2005. A loosely coupled group of nonprofit techies and social change activists decided to use the tag "NpTech" to identify web resources that would create an ongoing stream of information to promote and educate those working in nonprofit technology. Many individuals tag hundreds of resources each week. Through TechSoup's Netsquared project, blogger Beth Kanter, was commissioned to write a weekly summary.

Live Blog Post from MacArthur Foundation: Virtual World Event on Philanthropy

I just came from an historic and ground breaking event.  I don't know if I'm still shaking from the excitement or the hour long multi-tasking frenzy of listening to a live audio feed, seeing a blog.tv stream, reading a chat history, answering ims, and taking notes!

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation hosted its first discussion in Second Life to explore the role that philanthropy might play in virtual worlds.    For context, see the event announcement and today's New York Times article.    Jonathan Fanton, above next  to my Second Life avatar,  engaged in a discussion with Philip Rosedale (Linden) of Linden labs about the role of civil society in virtual worlds and answered questions from the more than 200 avatars that packed the space. (although there was a little bit lag, there was not a major crash and the audio feed was perfect - kudos! to the USC folks)

MacArthur hopes to gain insight into how virtual worlds are used by young people, to introduce the foundation to an audience that may have little exposure to institutional philanthropy and to take part in and stimulate discussions about the real-world issues that it seeks to address. 

Here's a quick summary of my notes:

In Fanton's welcome, he noted that it is easy to get caught up in the novelty and hype of virtual worlds, but whatever the complexities, "we think they will grow and become integrated into our daily lives."   He said that MacArthur hopes to make investments to help nonprofits and civil society organizations address serious issues.  They hope to reach out to residents and spark conversations about philanthropic work and to give advice and assistance to residents who want to advance charitable causes.

The discussion started with Fanton and Linden asking questions of each other. 

Fanton:  "Our first instinct was to create an island and a replica of our office building in Chicago and announce ourselves. We got advice not to do that.  We're trying a year of conversation about how to enter the culture in Second Life and the role of philanthropy.  What's your advice?"

Linden:   Second Life is a world being built by the people in it. Faster than real world.  A place where individuals are empowered to use relationships and tools to build the world.  What I'm seeing - companies and organizations that come in and are successful are those that are able to contribute something to the world itself.  Something to make the virtual world better and empowering the community in a unique way.

Fanton: That's what we are about in the physical world.  Foundations don't do it directly but via nonprofits.  If you think about what a foundation has to offer, money for sure, we're also good at convening people.  We're good at connecting and giving advice.  I can imagine a counseling service for young people who are interested in internships.    We could make the introduction.  We hope that when we enter Second life we can connect and empower.

Fanton: I've been reading recently about newspapers and articles that aren't entirely positive.  Can you talk about security and pornography issues?

Linden: You mentioned pornography.  Open spaces like the Internet are always going to be about empowerment and you need to have tolerance.  I don't see a way of fixing and I don't want to fix it.  We as the stewards of this new medium, we should not control people's choices.   Second Life can be the aggregate of public good - we'll give people the tools what they want to see or not see but not control what people see.

There were some excellent questions from the audience of over 200 gathered in the space.

Here's a few:

Question:  What role do you see MacArthur in building credible information?

Fanton:  MacArthur is a knowledge network. We know who is doing the best research.  We have to do due diligence in grant making, so we know who to trust.     We are a resource bank for people in Second Life who want to know where to get credible information.

Linden:  Second Life is building systems for reputation and trust and can go beyond what you can do in the Real World. 

Question:  What charitable organizations have been successful in Second Life?

Linden gives the example of American Cancer Society.

Closing by Fanton was inspirational:

As MacArthur begins is journey into Second Life, we begin with some assumptions.   We assume that people in Second Life are people who care about others and who are open to most communicating across boundaries - both cultural and geographic.   People in Second Life have optimism about what can happen and feel a strong desire to come together and work.   We hope that together to make the virtual and physical worlds better. MacArthur believes that people who care and have the right information will do the right thing.  We have a role to play to work with those of you in Second Life to figure appropriate policy and approaches.  How can MacArthur harness the idealism that exists in Second Life?

Rik Riel asked an excellent question and I'm quoting from his notes:

I got to ask Mr Fanton the following question: With a few exceptions, the philanthropic world has not been very good about incorporating Web 2.0 tech into their giving practices. What hope do you have that virtual worlds will be reacted to any differently?

He somewhat dodged the answer, saying that MacArthur wanted to learn how to work with virtual worlds, to convene people and to bring virtual projects into making real world change.

UPDATE

Following the event, I summarized the reflections and analysis in this post: Platforms for Good: Empowering Individuals

Here's an update on the round up of coverage:

• Event Announcement from Jonathan Fanton, President
• Doing the Impossible in Virtual Worlds by Doug Thomas from USC Center on Public Diplomacy
• A report about the event from Hastac
• My Live Blog post with notes from the event
• The flickr stream - photos tagged with macfoundsl and snapzilla stream
• Nonprofits in Second Life Blog coverage
• Lucy Bernholz captured the video stream from blog.tv and offered an analysis here
• Rik Riel's multimedia coverage the event
• Virtual to Reality Blog
• Ugo Trade
• Mindblizzard Blog - a good screencapture showing attendance
• Second Life 101 - some great photos
• Teen Listening Party and Global Kids coverage
  
• Second Thoughts blog, "We Need a New Kind of Philanthropy"
• Don't Tell the Donor Blog
• Britt Bravo's Second Life Do-Gooders
• New York Times article

Fanton's Avatar Looks Like Him!

Fanton's Avatar Looks Like Him!
Originally uploaded by cambodia4kidsorg.

Sitting in the event for the MacArthur Foundation.

MacArthur Foundation Event About To Start!

There are almost 200 hundred avatars here and it's twenty minutes before the event! Check out the article on the New York Times!

Web 2.0: Opportunity or Threat - IT Director 2.0

This is slide 31 of an interesting presentation about Web2.0 from the perspective of an IT department director,  Brian Kelly at the University of Bath in the UK.   I found it in one of my more recently required addictions - SlideShare.  In the middle, the slides cover the tools.  But as bookends at the start and finish, there is some great thinking about Web2.0 adoption, risks and benefits, and how an IT director or department might think about a deployment strategy.  It also describes how Web2.0 is changing the nature of IT support.  It's all done with a great sense of humor too!

There's so much to ponder in this excellent presentation.  A few good points about backlash:

When significant new things appear:

• Enthusiasts / early adopters predict a transformation of society
• Skeptics outline the limitations & deficiencies

There’s a need to:

• Promote the benefits to the wider community (esp. those willing to try if convinced of benefits)
• Be realistic and recognise limitations
• Address inappropriate criticisms

Beware The IT Fundamentalists

We need to avoid simplistic solutions to the complexities:

• Open Standards Fundamentalist: we just need XML
• Open Source Fundamentalist: we just need Linux
• Vendor Fundamentalist: we must use next version of our enterprise system (and you must fit in with this)
• Accessibility Fundamentalist: we must do WAI WCAG
• User Fundamentalist: must do whatever users want
• Legal Fundamentalist: it breaches copyright, …
• Ownership Fundamentalist: must own everything we use
• Perfectionist: It doesn't do everything, so we'll do nothing
• Simplistic Developer: I've developed a perfect solution – I don't care if it doesn't run in the real world
• Web 2.0: It’s new; its cool!

I followed a number of links to Brian's other presentations and a gold mine of resources.