Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Mary Joyce: Global Social Change Blogher - Her Latest: Free Monem Campaign

Mary Joyce in front of her campaign posts during a recent trip to Lagos to set up computer equipment for the OpenNet Initiative in April, 2007  (Photo from her Flickr stream)

My colleague Mary Joyce who writes a blog called "ZapBoom: The Sound That Change Makes" that focuses on the question, "Under what conditions does citizen activism occur and how can it be supported and encouraged?" 

She has is supporting a campaign to Free Monem, a blogger arrested by Egyptians security forces on April 15th.  He was charged with several crimes, including "belonging to an illegal organization" and "organizing secret meetings with the aim of disturbing public order."    According to Mary, his real crime was challenging the dictatorial regime of Hosni Mubarak by telling the truth about the torture he underwent and condemning the country's unjust military tribunals.

In an email, Mary suggests taking these actions:

As the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day an Egyptian blogger,  Abdel Monem  Mahmoud, sits in jail, his only crime his desire for a more open Egyptian  society.  We cannot let the regime succeed in silencing him.  We have to show  the Egyptian regime that when you imprison a blogger, you don't silence his  , you AMPLIFY it!  How?  By taking action!  Here's what you can do: 

1.  Watch the protest video.  Share it with your friends.

Global s Advocacy  Director Sami Ben Gharbia has created a video which powerfully explains the  reasons for the detention of Monem and demands his freedom.  View it. Share it.  Post it on your blog: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v  =-017xCZEXFU&eurl=

2. Add the Free Monem quote randomizer badge to your  blog's sidebar.

Yeah, we think it's  pretty cool.  Activist tech guru Astrubal has created a sidebar badge which  cycles through a stream of Monem's blog quotes (à la Amnesty's Irrepressible campaign).   Fortunately for us, Monem is an eloquent writer.  Here's a taste: 

"We [Egyptians] claimed freedom for others and forget our own  freedom"

"If I taught a woman to wear a veil, I should teach her to claim  her right to enter the university wearing the veil."

"Freedom is now an  obligation and should be implemented before Sharia'a"

 

Yeah, we think he's pretty inspiring too.  The symbol of a brighter future  for the Middle East, in fact.  So let's make sure he  gets his freedom, not just by posting his words on World Press Freedom Day, but  by broadcasting his words every day.  You can get the badge here on our  "banner and badges" page or you can just insert the following embed code into  your blog:

<iframe name="monem" src="  http://freemonem.cybversion.org/monemphrases/monem_phrase.php"  frameborder="0"  marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" height="200"  width="150"></iframe>

Eventually, quotes from other imprisoned bloggers will  also be added to the quote feed.  Just sit back and let the free speech  flow. 

3.  Re-publish Monem's posts on your own blog. 

For the last few days a crack team of volunteers  from around the world has been translating Monem's posts so millions of new  readers can read his censored speech.  Let's show Mubarak that his attempt to  silence this blogger has been completely counterproductive.  Instead of reducing  the number of people who read Monem's words, let's make sure that the number of  readers increases... exponentially!

It's easy to take part!  Just pick a post by Monem from the list below and copy and paste the whole thing  (or an excerpt) into your own blog.  It would also be great if you could tag  your post (using Technorati or deli.cio.us) with the words  "FreeMonem" to help us keep track of how many people take part in this action.   

----MONEM'S POSTS... for you to republish on your  blog----

Free the Brothers...Free Abdel Kareem... Free Egypt 3/7/07  (one of our favorites - Monem calls for jailed blogger Kareem's release and  points out how secularists and Islamists face the same oppression by the  Mubarak's regime)

The Fourth Anniversary of the Torture of Detainee #25 4/14/07  (essential reading - moving account of torture by Egyptian security forces  during his imprisonment in 2003 )

Alexandria University Detour 11/1/06 (frustration with the  Muslim Brotherhood at his university and a call for Egyptians to demand their  freedom... excerpt)

Birds' s 2/12/07 (how blogging is changing the Muslim  Brotherhood... excerpt)

Berkman Island on Second Life

(Click through to the larger version to read the poster)

I've been going to meetings on information island at the TechSoup area in Second Life where a small group of avatars interested in nonprofits and Second Life have been busy working on some exciting plans lead by Susan Tenby of TechSoup.   (Next meeting is 10:30 a.m. PST at the TechSoup Office).

So, I volunteered some time to work with Emily Commerce and  Lyre Calliope on researching and compiling the nonprofit directory on Second Life - which is not an easy thing do for a newbie avatar because my skills are still very basic, but easy because there aren't a lot of nonprofits on SL quite yet. 

So, I was delighted to discover that Harvard's Berkman Center will have a presence in Second Life.  There is an event taking place on Friday on topic of "Avatar-Based Marketing" as a conversation between avatars moderated by Ansible Berkman.   You can read the details here from Wagner James Au's New World Notes Blog.

I immediately teleported to Berkman Island today to see if what the place looked like and ran right into Ansible Berkman.   I reserved my seat.  As I ran snapping my tourist photo of the poster for my learning journal (which I keep on Flickr), Ansible mentioned that uploading Second Life snapshots on Flickr is controversal.  He pointed me to this Wired article.

If anyone has been following my flickr stream lately, they will notice perhaps a few dozen Second Life snapshots in my 2,000 or so RL ("real life") photos of my kids - less than 1-2%.  So, perhaps my photos won't be censored from the public search.  And, darn, a few like this one may not make it into the public Cambodian group.  And reading the article, I wonder if the scans of my kid's drawings would also be a violation of the policy.  It will be interesting to watch how this is all resolved and how many people turn into Flickr haters.

All that aside, I can't wait to experience this virtual event - it will be my first "educational" experience.  Hey, at least I can say to my son that it is a professional development activity, not a game that I am playing.

I am also behind in my reflections about my first virtual meeting at the TechSoup office last week.  (Taran, whose back problems kept him in bed on painkillers with his laptop, was also there and has written a  great report on his explorations.).

I've facilitated and participated in many online meetings - using various tools (phone, chat, whiteboards, etc.) and so I volunteered to take notes.  I usually do this because typing is my strategy for paying attention.   I wasn't used the multi-channel chat and IM - so it was a little distracting.  The meeting content was very fast paced as Taran mentions and the many of the other participants were already immersed in the culture and language of SL - so for someone like me who was a newbie - I wasn't following all of the subtext or terms.

I felt a little weird being at a meeting where I didn't know most of the people or avatars and wasn't sure of who they were in "RL" (Real Life).  Watching the avatars sitting around "listening" to the meeting discussion wasn't as distracting as was the multi-channel chat.  The question running through my mind was "How does this compare to a phone conference/chat channel in terms of understanding, being on the same page?  How does the use of the avatars add or distract from our communication/interaction or to collaborate effectively?" 

It is way too early to answer those questions.  But I did discover that I had to follow up one-on-one to catch up on the stuff I'm not understanding.   A steep learning curve ..

Learning Now

Learning.now is a weblog that explores how new technology and Internet culture affect how educators teach and children learn. It will offer a continuing look at how new technology such as wikis, blogs, vlogs, RSS, podcasts, social networking sites, and the always-on culture of the Internet are impacting teacher and students' lives both inside and out of the classroom.

This newly launched blog on PBS TeacherSource is written by Andy Carvin, thought leader on the topics of digital divide, nonprofit technology, and educational technology.    Andy is an amazing blogger, podcaster, and vlogger and a very talented writer.   This new blog promises to be a must-read for anyone interested in the nonprofit and educational technology space.

Reddit Alien is Ready for Thanksgiving

The Reddit Alien is ready for Thanksgiving!  Here's more about Reddit.

Female Nerd Myth Busting: Female Nerds Are Not Ugly!

In the comments of my post of Annalee Newitz's talk on the Revenge of the Female Nerds, my friend Anina pointed me her interview on nerdtv.

I met and live blogged Anina at Blogher.  This female nerd doesn't wear glasses and is not ugly.  Anina represents the new European tradition in mobile Internet development. And you'd never guess her day job.

I loved the interview - especially the "Lies to Tell the Phone Company" bit.  It made me wonder why there weren't more female nerds on the nerdtv guest list? 

Macintosh OS programmer Andy Hertzfeld (9/6)
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin (9/13)
Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy (9/20)
Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle (9/27)
Internet publisher Tim O'Reilly (10/4)
Father of RSS Dave Winer (10/11)
Autodesk co-founder Dan Drake (10/19)
Intel Capital co-founder Avram Miller (10/28)
Anina High Fashion Meets High Tech (11/9)
Spreadsheet inventor Dan Bricklin
Computer mouse inventor Doug Engelbart
Former Lotus chief scientist Jerry Kaplan
Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak
Former Apple chief scientist Larry Tesler
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
The father of Linux, Linus Torvalds
TCP/IP inventor Bob Kahn
Guest list is subject to change

It does say "guest list subject to change."  Maybe we need to email Robert x.Cringley and suggest some other female nerds to be interviewed? Certainly there are lots of to choose from in the Blogher Speaker Wiki.

Technorati Tags: blogher, nptech, net2, webjustice2.0, femalenerd

Revenge of the Female Nerds: Myth Busting

View A Video of Annalee Busting The Take Off Your Glasses Myth

Last night, I attended a fabulous talk by Annalee Newitz, contributing editor of Wired, on the topic of "Revenge of the Female Nerds:  Busting media and industry myths  about why women can't be technical."   The lecture took place at Harvard Law School, and what follows is my liveblogging of that lecture.

The room was probably 60-70% women, by the way - which goes along with her main idea that this is a gender issue, and that men and women need to work together on solving it.

She began with a couple of anecdotes.   She attended Defcon, a major Hacker convention in Las Vegas. "Every time I was introduced, I was asked whose girlfriend are you?  A woman at a conference like this wouldn't be interested in the subject matter...  Both men and women asked."   She also described a session where a male presenter said, "There are no women hackers."  Despite the fact that many were in the room.  The speaker continued to describe his unsuccessful attempt to identify women hackers, and therefore he asserted there were none.   As he spoke, women starting leaving the room.  By the end of his talk, there were no women  hackers in the room."

Her assumptions:

• Gender  inequality is a social problem for both women and men to solve
• Larry Summers is wrong (There is no conclusive research that women's brains are different)
• Historical statistics aren't particularly helpful
• Women in high tech and the sciences exist, thank you very much.

She cited statistics from National Science Foundation Studies

In 1985,  36% of bachelors degrees in CS by women.
In 1995,  28% of bachelors degrees in CS by women.
In 2001,  27% of bachelors degrees in CS by women. 

What does this mean?  That women should behave in way that is more feminine (that is, they don’t play with machines)?  Are women less interested in technology/science?  Another way to look at the numbers, it seems like there are cultural forces at work that are pushing women out of taking jobs in the sciences or that woman have internalized.

However, if you look at long-term from 1966 to 2001: engineering degrees went  from 0% to 21% in 2001.  There is a generation of people educating the next generation. It doesn't happen fast, but is growing.

We need to be asking:   How do we make the future safe for female geeks?

We need more Grace Hoppers and fewer Martha Stewarts!  (Hopper invented the compiler.) (My fellow blogher, Lisa Williams, disagreed on this point.  She feels we need to value "women's work.")

Annalee Newitz said, "We need to look carefully at the women who are participating in science and technology. Look at the social and cultural myths that are holding women back. We need to question fantasies and myths about science and women. How are those myths holding women back?"

Myth 1:
Women aren't interested in technology

She showed some examples of female geeks, from Ada Lovelace in the early 19th century to a group of female robot designers.  Look, there are plenty of examples of women interested in technology.

Myth 2:
Smart women (geeks)  aren't pretty - and women should  be pretty

This myth claims that you have to be unattractive and wear glasses to be a geek.  And pretty girls don’t code because they'd rather be ice skating, dating boys, etc. How does a brainy girl become a "real girl", and have the same experiences as other girls? Answer (according to this myth): The girl takes off her glasses.   If she wants to be successful and pretty (and have sex!), this myth requires her to take off her glasses.

That's bullshit.

Society is giving women a false choice:  Either keep the glasses on and do the technical work, or take the glasses off and have a dating life.

She went on to explain that the principle way people get ahead in sciences is through mentoring. If men dominate, your mentors will be male.  There is anxiety about an older man mentoring a younger woman. (They can always take off their glasses!) The concern is that he is just mentoring her because she is judged a "cutie." That struggle doesn’t exist between two (heterosexual) men, allegedly.

Myth 3
Women would rather stay up all night with babies than stay up all night in the lab.

The myth of "family responsibilities" keeps women from working in science and technology.  It's propaganda and it's working.   Society is saying that if you have kids, you can't work. No real reason. Look at the propaganda. Why can't they bring their babies to the computer lab?

"Raising children isn't a special job, it just takes planning?" [I wonder if Annalee has kids?  Even if you have a balance with your spouse and childcare options, it is hard to balance both demanding work and demanding children. - Beth]   Women are given a false choice: either a job or raising kids.

These myths are ones that women have internalized and are imposing upon themselves, in addition to society constantly imposing these myths upon women.

She suggested that we "propagate memes" - as she called to the bloghers in the room - go forth and propogate memes! 

Female nerds need to organize.  She then gave these examples:

DorkBot
Linux Chix
University groups for women engineers
MentorNet.net
Blogher
(Deborah Finn told her to add Boston TechnoBabes to the list after the talk ...)

These are "female dominated groups, but men can join."

Geeks fight for the future! -- Know the basic myths that are holding people back and informing their opinions of themselves and each other. Myth busting. Men and women are allies in this - women don't need to do it alone. In order to change, both genders need to work together.

Technorati Tags: blogher, webjustice2.0, net2, nptech, berkman
feministcarnival

Reddit yet? Cute Aliens, Community News, and Youth Venture ...

Last night, I attended the Berkman Thursday Blogger Meeting which featured Alexis and Steve, Reddit Founders.   Reddit is a community news service with ratings.   Alexis and Steve received venture capital from a company that funds projects by youth (these guys must have been all of 22).  ("Not enough money to live in luxury, but enough to be able to work on Reddit and live.")

Here's their elevator speech:

Download reddit.wmv

They hand out stickers and buttons, but have business cards to give to "older people" if they ask for them.   (They let me have a few stickers for my kidsm thanks!)

Here's what I learned about Reddit from their presentation and the Q&A that followed:

They hate tagging, even though the interface design of their site may look like del.icio.us (minus the cute Alien in the logo  who changes his shape, dress, or mood daily)  The intent isn't to find something later, the intent is to collect news.

The logo changes daily.  Yesterday, the name became "Spredit" ... Here's a holiday example.

Example:

Alien before Halloween

Alien after Halloween

Think of it as a Slashdot space with ratings for geeks who are tired of reading about technical news.  While most of the users are early adopters, the content isn't just technical.

Reddit is like del.icio.us popular, but a broader selection of topics.  There is 8-10% overlap between delicious popular and their page.

"Reddit" is not a mispelling of Rabbit is a pun of "read it?"  It took them a long time to find the right name that had an available domain name.   

The ratings are a human edited system and with a human system can't be gamed with filters.

The more you use it and rate, the better it becomes for you.

2,000 registered users – approximately 10% vote and 10% submit links

When links that you posted get a hands-up or hands-down, your Karma rating changes.  There is Karma competition amongst users.

 

 

Technorati Tags: berkman, nptech, net2

Wikimania in Boston in 2006

Just heard via email from SJ Klein.  I feel like we won the World Series again!

Blog Metrics Analysis for Global s

Ethan Zuckerman  has been analyzing Global s stats since the site's redesign last month.    The tool used to count total links is Blogpulse (He also shares his worksheet)  In the analysis, he mentions that the average blogger links to Global s 1.86 times. (I earned the distinction of linking the most times to Global s this past month - 7 times, although later I found out that I was tied with Ethan.).  In another post, Ethan writes about the Blogpulse tools he used to do the analysis here.  It would be interesting  to compare the results of this analysis with using an open community algorithm, if such a tool were available.

Lisa Williams Gives Kick Ass Podcasting Presentation!

I only knew a handful of blogher participants, so I was delighted to see fellow Berkman Thursday night blogger, Lisa Williams.   Her presentation on audio blogging was fantastic!  It helped me move past my audio phobia and I'm going to do it, damn it!

Here is Lisa's opml blog with blogher coverage, including her presentation.  Here's the session description with links to live blogger, Melissa Gira who took notes.

Technorati Tags: blogher bloghercon

Notes for Berkman Conversation

I'm trying to get some links assembled in one place for the Berkman Thursday evening bloggers meetings where we will discuss nonprofit blogging.   

What does the nonprofit blogosphere look like?

It’s a fairly small niche, but a vibrant and rich one -- hopefully growing ...!

There is no official organized nonprofit blog census,  npo blogroll or a bridge blog like Global s. (Closest thing right now is the attention stream created for the nptech tag community - although the focus is on one slice of the nonprofit sector)  There are a few adhoc decentralized nooks and crannies in the blogosphere where you can find listings of nonprofit blogs or aggregated content of interest to nonprofits. 

-Omidyar Thread on Nonprofit Blogging 

-Npoblogs (aggregated content) created by Carnet Williams, with LotusMedia taking it forward

-Bloglines (nptech account)

-Blogrolls or linkblogs of nonprofit bloggers (Deborah Finn's Blogroll or Marnie Webb's sidebar)

-Rebecca MacKinnon’s Blogging for a Cause Post

-NTEN/NTC Conference Bloggers

Many nonprofit bloggers feel like Robert Moffit, blogger with the American Lung Assocation of Minnesota, who said as a nonprofit blogger, he felt like an Ivory Billed Woodpecker, a rare species.

Podcasting by nonprofits is also still in the embryonic stages with the exception of Andy Carvin.   Examples are few:  ItConversations, Gregory Heller’s experiment and examples in Brian Russell from Audio Activism's recent presentation

What are some examples of nonprofit blogging?

* Many non-profit blogs are written by nonprofit techies and political activists  and a lot of these are individual's s – purposes may include  “professional development”  and networking/marketing.   See side links for different examples of individual and organizational nonprofit and nonprofit technology blogs or click on the "Bloggerviews" for interviews with a few).

* There are more and more nonprofit organizational blogs entering the blogosphere, although these probably only represent a very small percentage of nonprofits.  There is still a long ways to go before nonprofit blogging becomes common. 

Some examples:

1.  Authenticity and Demystifying the Artistic Process

Walker Art Center
New Media Blog
Interview with New Media Designer
Community Programs Blog
Interview with community program

Blog on the Boards: 
Where an audience member writes the review of performance and it is posted on the blog

2. An internal focus for organizations to capture knowledge and support collaboration and go external ...

American Cancer Society – Fi Space
Malden Cybercafe

A post by Marnie Webb from ComputMentor on internal uses of blogs by npos

3. A in the emerging new medium to get their message out there

American Lung Association of Minnesota
Some comments by Bob Moffit about their blogging experience

4. Facilitating people who receive organization’s services to blog and connect

March of Dimes
Nancy White reflects on the project in response to postings by me and Lisa from Rherotic of Me

5. Fundraising:

Walk the World Event

6. A blog to discuss a report/book

Power to the Edges:  Trends and Opportunities in Online Civic Engagement

Smart Communities (Shared authorship)

6.  Executive Director Blogs

Environmental Organizations

Artistic Director Blog (Inactive)

What are the barriers?

From Micheal Gilbert interview:  Fear

I still find that nearly every nonprofit organization is rather afraid of the idea of blogging. It's threatening to them to have their staff blogging, it's too much work to have their leaders blogging, and it seems irrelevant to have their stakeholders blogging. Obviously, I support all three of these blogging strategies and I think that together they represent a resurgence of a community based form of organizing, whether in support of social service or social change. But I think the vast majority of the sector isn't there yet.

From Marnie Webb interview:  Loss of Control & Time

The concern is: How do we make sure that people are staying on message?  What if they say something we don't want them to say?  Aren't ready for them to say? With that in mind, I speculate that giving up control is a big barrier.  Time is also a barrier.

 

From Ed Batista:   Fear 

Sustainability/capacity -- some start blogs, but haven't given thought to how to sustain

There are a number of nonprofit tech providers (NTAPS) who are providing training and awareness raising of the value of blogging (and other emerging technology) for nonprofits.  Here's  a sampling of articles:

Marnie Webb, CompuMentor Ready to Start Blogging?

Marnie Webb, CompuMentor RSS for Nonprofits

Marnie Webb, CompuMentor So you wanna start a blog?

Marnie Webb, CompuMentor What's in NPO Digital Media Kit?

Nonprofit Quarterly/N-TEN Collaboration: What's a blog and why should nonprofits care?

OneNorthWest: Bloglines and Delicious: Two Tools for Uncluttering Your In-Box

Ruby Sinreich, Why nonprofits should use tags?

Ruby Sinereich, Nonprofit Blogging and Podcasting Presentation

Peter Campbell:  Non-profits blogs are better than web sites?

Weblog Strategies for Nonprofits by Radio Free Blogistan

Jenn Thompson, Blogging as an Effective Fundraising Strategy

Nonprofits and RSS
Kris Bell (will be offered by Npower Webinar)

Issue Dynamics, Inc - Presentations on Blogging for Organizations

What are some examples of drama in the nptech blogspace?

The most exciting thing for me right now is the use of tags in nonprofit techie land - the nptech tag community.  I set up an H20 list with the snippits of the history.

Cross-blog talk can lead to better understanding of topic with colleagues or ad-hoc collaborations

For example, whining about something lead to a collaborative writing space set up by Marnie Webb.  The article on consultantcommons is still a work in progress, but got popular link status on delicious!

Cross-blog talk in response to Michael Gilbert's article on online publishing workflow lead to some nonprofit techies sharing their blogging workflows and their tools lists here and here.   Gilbert commented. More people mapped their work flow.    

And, Ed Batista's thread "“Is the term blog obsolete?”  had quite a lot of us writing, reflecting, and ranting 

Hmm .. I just saw that Brian is bringing his video camera, I better go take a shower....

Thursday Berkman Center Bloggers Meeting on Food

  Thursday Berkman Center Bloggers Meeting on Food 
  Originally uploaded by cambodia4kidsorg.


Last night I attended the Thursday Bloggers Meeting at
the Berkman Center.  The topic was food blogs.  The
meeting ending very promptly because I think we got
hungry.   For me, the best blog was Cooking for Engineers
Why?  Check out the visual of the recipe.  Why don't all
cookbooks format recipes in that way?

On of the other participants, who blogs about US Food Policy
took some excellent notes.