Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Thank you for the best birthday ever! We raised $6,255 for the Sharing Foundation to send 625 Cambodian youngsters to school!

Cambodian youngster in the Sharing Foundation's Education program practices her alphabet.

In Roteang Village, where the Sharing Foundation has programs that help over 1,500 children each and every day, there was a birthday bash at the orphanage for the 70 plus children.  The Sharing Foundation hosts an annual, for-everybody-at-once Birthday party, with cake, fruit, and soda.   This year the girls each received a handmade doll by two women from a nursing home in Massachusetts and the boys got matchbox cards donated by a local Cub Scout Troop, along with handmade birthday cards.

Today is my birthday and this year, as I have done for the past 8 years, I asked friends and family to donate to the Sharing Foundation in my honor. (If you want to know more about why my family and I care about the children of Cambodia and this charity, take a minute to watch this video my son, Harry made.) Last year,  I got 51 people to donate $10 for my 51st birthday using my blog, Twitter, and other social media outposts.   This year,  I experimented with Facebook Causes birthday application.

We raised $6,255 from 162 donors!  That's enough to cover the cost of school uniforms for 615 Cambodian youngsters.  Many children in Cambodia do not go to school because their families lack the $10 for a uniform, required for school attendance.  Last year, the Sharing Foundation's sewing school, a vocational training program, made over 1250 uniform sets and donated them to needy children in Roteang Village, to the Street Children's Assistance NGO, and to a poor government orphanage.  The sewing girls, who are employed by the Sharing Foundation's vocational training program, earn from the first day of their training, so this is a win-win situation.

Link in Tweet

As part of the experiment with the Facebook birthday causes,  I added a donor matching challenge to the Sharing Foundation's Facebook Cause that I would donate 10 x my age if the Sharing Foundation Cause reached $5,200.  Causes has recently added a donor match feature and since I am also the volunteer administrator for the Sharing Foundation's Facebook Cause, decided to experiment.    We met the match on January 10th and my credit card was automatically charged $520.

Here's the Campaign by the numbers:

161 donors contributed $6255  in total

115 people contributed $3429 through my Birthday Cause
  38 people contributed $2509 through the Sharing Foundation Cause
    9 people contributed $317 outside of Facebook

Before the Campaign: The Sharing Foundation's Cause
206 members
$955 in total donations

After the Campaign: The Sharing Foundation's Cause
349 members
$6893 in total donations

Happy Birthday Facebook Wall Messages
167 (42% non-donors)

Donors
45% new donors
25% has donated to at least one other of Beth's campaigns
30% have donated to at least two or more of Beth's campaigns

If you want a full accounting of how the money is being spent, you can look up the Sharing Foundation's form 990 on GuideStar.  Also, subscribe to the Sharing Foundation's email newsletter.   We send it out quarterly with detailed reports.  Also, as a board member, feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

This is my 7th personal fundraising campaign using social media tools to help the children of Cambodia.  In total, have raised over $220,000 since November, 2006.  Not alone, of course, with lots of help from my friends and network.  This is a passion-driven effort on my part with two goals: to support Cambodian children through the work of the Sharing Foundation and to share my lessons learned with other nonprofits so they can use these tools for the greater social good.

I'm working a deeper reflection about this Birthday Cause - what worked, what didn't in terms of strategy. Right now, I've been taking the time to send a personal thank you note to each and every one of the donors no matter the size of the gift.  I've been leaving notes on Facebook walls, Twitter, or whatever is the best channel.   This isn't about getting the huge donor numbers, velocity, or dollars amounts , it's about building a culture of giving in a presonal network or "collective" - and that is about relationship building.

Here's a big thank you to everyone for the best birthday ever!

Donors (Partial List)
Agenthandy Loves
Adina Levin
Alicia C. Staley
Allison Kipta
Alnisa Allgood
Amie Gillingham
Amy Lenzo
Amy Sample Ward
Andrew DellaPietra
Ann Marie Miller
Avi Kaplan
Ayelet Baron
Barbara Clarke
Bernadette Mannix Feeney
Beth Alexander
Beth Jackson Bates
Beth Kanter
Bill Snyder
Bora Vuth
Britt Bravo
Bruce Brown
Caren Levine
Carol Lewis
Carol McCreary
Cheryl Hanback
Christina Arnold
Christina Jordan
Christine Egger
Christine Martell
Corey Pudhordsky
Corey Pudhorodsky
Craig Cunningham
Danielle Brigida
Darlene Charneco
David Krumlauf
David Wilcox
Debra Roby
Donna Callejon
Ed Nicholson
Ed Schipul
Eduardo Bejar
Eduardo Jezierski
Elana Centor
Elke Sisco
Emily Culbertson
Emma Lathan
Ethan Zuckerman
Garth Moore
Gayle Thorsen
Geoff Livingston
Holly Ross
Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer
Hope O'Keeffe
Ivan Boothe
Javier Avellán Veloz
Jay Hall
JD Lasica
Jean Case
Jeff Weidner
Jennifer Pahlka
Jeremy Chapman
Jerry Michalski
Jesse Wiley
Joe Baker
Johanna Bates
Judd Feurstein
Judi Sohn
Judith Weiner
Julia Bailey
Julie Lloyd-Dove-Kennedy
Kari Dunn Saraatovsky
Kate Bladow
Kate Teeling Talbot
Katrina Heppler
Katya Andresen
Kevin Ball
Kim Synder
Kristjian Fjord Peturson
Laura Palmero
Laura Whitehead
Lisa Harris
Lisa Nordick Colton
Louise Coventry
Lynn Tveskov
Maria Thurell
Marie Deatherage
Mark Grimes
Mattise Bustos Hawkes
Megan Ryan Stohner
Michael Hoffman
Michael Stein
Michael Wesolowski
Michaela Hackner
Michelle Murrain
Miriam Dayan
Nick Booth
Patti Anklam
Paul Lamb
Peter Deitz
Phil Klein
Qui Diaz
Ray Nichols
Rebecca Krause-Hardie
Robert Weiner
Roger Carr
Romina Oliverio
Rose Vines
Samphy Y
Sandra Sutton Andrews
Scott Stadium
Seth Mazow
Shonali Burke
Sokunthea Sa Chhabra
Stephanie McAuliffe
Stephen Sherlock
Sue Waters
Sus Nyrop
Susan Chun
Suzy Twohig Quinn
Todd Van Hoosear
Tom Watson
Tori Welch Tuncan
Tresha Thorsen
Tresha Thorsen
Walter Schwabe
Wendy Harman
Woody Collins

Birthday Campaign Update: $2,929 Raised From 50 People - Need $2,321 for Matching Money - Can We Do It?

First of all, stand back and admire that image.  I won't tell you how long it took me to create it, but I wanted to thank the 50 folks who have so generously contributed to my 52nd Birthday Campaign.  You all rock.  I appreciate you!

One of the people on that image is a coder who helped code the birthday causes.  

My birthday is officially on Sunday and if we can raise $5,200 - we can leverage some matching money - $520.  Okay, that's not a huge amount, but I'm the donor!

I just got an email from Dr. Hendrie who is in Cambodia right now.  We have an opportunity to receive a couple of  OLPCs for our literacy program at our farming project (we school the kids of farmers who we train to farm the land, sell vegetables, proceeds go into micro loan fund.)

The money raised from my birthday campaign would help us hire one of the college students that the Sharing Foundation has sent to school to teach the kids.

If you'd like to wish me happy birthday and help leverage matching dollars for the Sharing Foundation, make a contribution to my birthday cause.  If you don't want to donate through Facebook, here are some other ways to wish me happy birthday

Vote for Carpets for Communities Project: Help free children in Cambodia from exploitation

 

Just got this from David Bacon, founder of Carpets for Communities

Hi Everyone,

Help us free children in Cambodia from exploitation by taking 2 minutes to vote..

To help please vote for the Carpets for Communities project in an online charity competition by going to www.votechildren.org (it will redirect to our main website) and following the instructions to register and vote.

Our innovative development project has been selected as a finalist in the Changemakers "Ending Global Slavery" competition by a prestigious panel of judges, from over 200 entries world wide. We understand that we are very close to winning the award and desperately need your help voting for us!

The $5,000 prize money (and more importantly world-wide exposure) will all go towards freeing children from exploitation and getting them back to school in Cambodia. Also recent winners received huge financial support following their win (they were invited to apply for up to 1 million in funding!). The winner will be decided by popular vote...you can help us win!

Only 36 hours to go! vote NOW!!! (www.votechildren.org)

We also have a facebook group: "Im voting for CfC to win Changemakers End Slavery Award" Join and invite your friends!

We are already making a big difference in Cambodia. Please help us reach more families by forwarding this email to everyone you know...
don't hold back..you'll feel better for it!

Thank you for your kind support,

David Bacon

About Carpets For Communities
We offer instant intervention into child trafficking & labour by empowering mothers to earn a steady income from home & return their children to school, giving us time to work with the families in a participatory fashion towards exiting the cycle of poverty. More details at www.carpetsforcommunities.org

Video Blogging in Rural Cambodian Province

Photo by MeanLux

Last August, I was invited organizers of the Cambodian Bloggers Summit to give a keynote and teach Web2.0 and video blogging workshops in Cambodia.   I launched a personal fundraising campaign so I could help be a sponsor for the conference and get over there with video cameras, shwag (t-shirts and stickers donated by nonprofits and tech companies) and teaching resources.   Folks from the video blogging community - like Jay Dedman, Ryanne Hodson and Coffee With Doug came up with the idea of video blogging kits and donated some cameras.

Mean Lux emailed to let me know that they had taken the cameras up to a Youth Festival and Training in a remote corner of Cambodia called Pursat!   Viirak (the guy behind the stickered laptop) and Be Chantra were there to help.  Mean Lux wrote a blog post, but it is in Khmer can't translate fully.  May Mean Lux will drop a comment in english?

Videos to come shortly!  Meanwhile, enjoy these photos.   I am thinking now that Flickr 90 second video would be awesome, although I'm sure the Internet access in that remote province is definitely cell and slow ..

Happy Cambodian New Year, Fire in Russey Keo, and One World Cambodia!

Photo by Mongkol

Happy Cambodian New Year!  It was celebrated this past weekend in Cambodia.  This time of the year represents the end of the harvesting season. The farmers enjoy the fruits of their harvest and relax before the rainy season begins. In the US, there will be celebrations happening all month long and we'll be going to Lowell, MA next week.   The photo was taken by Mongkol who is now back in Cambodia after spending two years in graduate school here in Boston.

Unfortunately, sometimes holidays in Cambodia bring bad news and this New Year's there was a devastating fire as reported by blogger Jinja. 

The Russey Keo area has experienced a devastating fire, with over 200 homes burned, taking several hours to extinguish. Agence France Presse estimates ‘thousands’ are now homeless. We’ll never know for sure if it was an accident, or intentional; but the timing stinks. Organizations addressing housing issues such as LICADHO, Bridges Across Borders and Teang Tnaut will tell you that this is not the first community that has experienced a fire as residents attempt to assert their rights.

You can see the aftermath of the fire in this YouTube footage. 

 

I was looking to see if there were any efforts to help the fire victims and have not come across any.  However, on an unrelated note - there is a campaign for One World Cambodia to raise money for some organizations.  The One World Cambodia program is designed to introduce young people (ages 18-25) to human rights and development work on the ground in Cambodia. During the nine-week program (June 1-August 1), young leaders will participate in a human rights, development and leadership workshop, then volunteer with Cambodian NGOs.  One of the organizations, Bridges Across Borders, works on housing issues in Cambodia.

Rest in Peace Dith Pran: We Will Not Forget

As we were boarding the plane to Florida, I read a tweet from Ben Greenberg and was saddened to learn that Dith Pran, of the Killing Fields fame, had passed away.  When we decided to adopt from Cambodia, we tried to learn as much as possible about the country.  We read books and rented movies (including the Killing Fields).   

Little did we know that one year after bringing home our first child, we'd get an opportunity to meet Dith Pran at a Cambodian New Year's Celebration in Rhode Island.  Dith Pran came to a New Year's Celebration at a friend's home that included many children adopted from Cambodia.  He was very excited to meet the kids and spent a lot of time with us, the parents. He talked about his campaign against genocide everywhere.  The quote from the New York Times obit says it all:

“One time is too many,” he said in an interview in his last weeks, expressing hope that others would continue his work. “If they can do that for me,” he said, “my spirit will be happy.”

In those days, I kept a manual blog.  Here's the blog post I wrote about Harry meeting Dith Pran and the Year of the Snake Cambodian New Year's Celebration.  I remember showing Dith Pran my digital camera and he showed him nikon digital camera.  He gave me a photography tips.

 

I sent him the photo above that I snapped him holding Harry.  Harry did not cooperate.   I made a copy of the email thank you note for Harry and some day he will understand the great mean that held him at age 1.

Christian Kreutz, Web 2.0 for Development Blogger, is in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam Now ... Cambodian Education System Changes To OpenSource Software!

I've been following Christian Kreutz's blog, CrissCrossed Blog, which explores social changes through communication and focuses on the impact, potential and challenges of using Web2.0 tools in different cultures around the world.  He is also interested in approaches network learning and highlights knowledge management for development.  (He did some terrific reporting from the Web2.0 Development Conference in Rome last September)

Through following his twitter stream, I discovered he's on the ground now in Southeast Asia and is coming to Cambodia.  So, I'm posting this here on my blog to alert my Cambodian blogger colleagues (whose email I don't have) that Christian is coming to your country.   Ping him over at his blog.

Christian also sent me some links that answer an earlier question I've had, "How Can We Use Cell Phones to Bring Web 2.0 to places without high speed Internet access like Cambodia?"   

I have heard of interesting examples using mobile phones getting RSS feeds from blogs. One example to publish comes from Africa - here and here. There was also a more technical guide but I cannot find it right now.

On another note, I got an email from Javier Solas (interviewed the Linux Chix on his staff last fall) from Open Institute who has been leading the Khmer OS project and building the educational technology plan for Cambodia letting me know of major project milestone: The Cambodian Education System Changes to Open Source Software and KhmerOS

At a massive ceremony that took place on 22 January 2008, the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport presented its new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Textbook for all schools that have computers, all universities and all teacher training facilities.

The new textbook teaches the use of Khmer language Free and Open Source applications, such as OpenOffice, Mekhala (Firefox) and Moyura (Thunderbird), which have been fully translated to Khmer language (Cambodian). It follows eight months of intensive training during which all new upper secondary school ICT teachers, all ICT teachers at upper secondary schools that have computers, and all ICT Master Trainers from teacher training facilities have been trained to teach this type of software, as well as to maintain their computer facilities. The books are distributed together with a letter from the Ministry indicating that from now on this should be the materials to be taught

 

If English is your Second Language, What Language do you blog in?

That is the title of a post on ProBlogger today.  It jogged my memory of a session at the Cambodian Bloggers Summit, "Is It Better To Blog in English or Khmer?"  David Saski took great notes that day, but wanted to pull out his points on that session:

Later in the day there was a debate between Javier Solá and Preetam Rai (moderated by John Weeks) about whether it is better to blog in Khmer or English. Here is the case for both sides, bulleted:

Why blog in English:

• You can also blog in your own language, but when you blog in English, you’re sharing your lives and your community with the entire world.
• It provides important information
• You are making Cambodia more visible on Google and you are portraying Cambodia from a local’s perspective rather than a foreigner’s perspective.
• English is more search engine friendly - more online software is available in English than Khmer.
• Bloggers in Cambodia can connect with their relatives who live in the USA and other countries.

Why blog in Khmer:

• Blogging is about communication. When you are blogging you are trying to communicate something.
• You are writing to a targeted audience and you should speak the language of that audience.
• Do you want to be read by a lot of people all over the world or a specific group of people in your community?
• Are you trying to reach the 1 or 2% of Cambodians who speak English or all Cambodians who can access a computer?
• As it is, there is an over-abundance of information on the web in English, but there is a lack of content on the web in Khmer and you can help change that.
• Your language has your culture in it. Language and culture go together. So if you are trying to communicate with other Cambodians, you are limiting yourself if you do it in English.

Another Cambodian Video Blogger .. Yeah!

Click To Play

Earlier today I posted about discovering some new photo blogs, podcasts, and videos from Cambodian Bloggers.  Vuthasurf left me a comment that he created a video clip, uploaded to blip.tv, but was having trouble getting the video to display in his word press blog. 

So I posted it on my wordpress blog and discovered that perhaps he didn't use the drop down menu to set it to word press.  So, I made a quick screencast with jing project to illustrate the steps. 

I also suggest to Vutha that he do the following:

• Post the video (use the word press setting - see flickr)
• Write one paragraph describing the setting for the video.  Where is it?  Who are those kids? Is this what a vacation resort looks like?  Why did you capture this?
• Write one paragraph describing what you learned about shooting a video or how you might improve what you shoot the next time.

Any other video bloggers want to offer some advice?

I also noticed in the comments that Pagna wants to do some video blogging too!

Some Cambodian Photo Blogs, Podcasts, and Video Blogs!

Starting to get reports of podcasts, videos blogs, and photo blogs from Cambodia.

Norbert Klein has started a photoblog - I love the photo of family on the motorbike.   A typical scene in Phnom Penh. Norbert is a long-time ex-pat and perhaps the first person to bring Internet access to Cambodia via a Unix to DOS program and using a dial up modem.

Denith has posted a new photo album that contains pictures of Udong Mountain, aka Phnom Preah Reach-
ja-troub. In my opinion, in the next few years, this place will be a good place for tourist site, because the Buddish Centre will be completed soon. I found only a few foreign tourists when i visited that place last sunday, but i hope there will be more. I will find more information about Udong Mountain.  He's also been putting some videos on YouTube.

Chesda Sar has started podcasting! 

The Power of Web 2.0

 

A recent newspaper article about the Cambodian Bloggers Summit mentioned that the video cameras were donated by American companies.   Actually, they were purchased with donations from individuals to the personal fundraising campaign.   The idea came Doug who contributed the first batch of cameras that Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson took over to the Sharing Foundation computer school in July.   Maybe in the future we can convince Hasbro or another company to donate them.

Videos: Leng Sopharath and Google Lesson in Roteang

Click To Play

I didn't spend any of my free time being a tourist.   On Monday, when I landed, I went straight from the airport to meet Leng Sopharath, the college student our family sponsors through the Sharing Foundation's program. (Some of you may remember that I used Chipin for my first personal fundraising campaign last November to sponsor her and write a case study here.)

I got to spend about an hour and half with Leng Sopharath.  She showed me her room, her photo album, talked about her family, her daily activities, her job goals and how much she appreciated the opportunity to attend the university. I was touched that our photos and the kids drawings that we exchange on a quarterly basis were on her wall.  I took this video so I could show it to the kids.

I got a tour of the girls dorm.  Later the boys arrived and we sat and talked. I presented them with some of the tech shirts. The young woman with the google t-shirt is a IT major!  The shirts were very much appreciated. In contrast to my blogging friends, I asked the college students if they knew what a blog was. They were not sure. They were familiar with google and yahoo and they use the Internet for email, but blogging was a new term for them as it is for many Cambodians.

Click To Play

The next day I went out to Roteang and observed a google search lesson being taught at the Sharing Foundation computer school by Mam Sary the head of the Sharing Foundation's English School program. (You can read more about the program over at the Sharing Foundation's web site).   Mam Sary is able to access the Internet via his cell phone connection.  It's slow, but he is able to teach a lesson to the students about how to find supplementary materials for their school assignments.   One of the students asked if Google was the best search engine.  Mam Sary said, 'Yes, Google is the best."   This is quite amazing because several years ago these students would have had no idea about the Internet.

Mam Sary also received several of the video cameras that Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson brought over.  So, I invited to the Cambodian Bloggers Summit and he was thrilled to learn about the Web2.0 and is very interested incorporating some of the ideas into his instruction.

Video of Cloggers Summit by Preetam

Just found this video from Preetam via Lux and just had to blog it!

Reflectons from Video Blogging Session at Cambodian Bloggers Summit

 

On Friday,  I co-presented the video blogging presentation at the Cambodian Bloggers Summit with Virak, Cambodia's first Cambodian video blogger (I think).   The curriculum is here

I did a lot of preparation for this workshop to document as much of the how-tos and resources because I only had 30 minutes to present.  Upon my arrival in Cambodia and actually experiencing the how slow the Internet is, how long it takes to upload, and that the videos posted to hosting sites don't necessarily play here.   A lot of the reaction to video blogging can be summed up by Chandee's face below which I included in the presentation materials I revised the day before.

The most challenging part of training is the skills transfer and adoption.   You can come in as a expert, do a presentation, provide some hands on exercises, and leave behind well documented manuals.  But what happens when you leave?   How do you build capacity.    So, my initial goal was to find someone who was interested in doing video blogging, had the ability to train, and understood the technical stuff.  That person, ended up being Virak.   I worked with him on Wednesday afternoon so he could be resource to the others who might want to video blogging.   Here's Virak's first video blog post. 

I was impressed with how quickly he picked it up and invited him to co-present with me.   Train the trainer in action!  Since Virak was also one of the organizers and I was also doing too many other things, we didn't have the luxury of indepth planning and we had never worked together!  So, we did a bit of improvisation.

When I co-train with other trainers and we speak the same language it is easy to trade of roles.   For example, one person may be talking while the other is demonstrating on the computer.  Virak narrated, but in Khmer - so I had to guess approximately what he was saying.  I had to turn it into a little bit of comedy act and the audience laughed.  They got a kick out my Vanna White style of demonstrating how to take the SD card out of the camera and put it into the card reader.

Of course, the ideal way to accomplish this would be been to have more time to transfer the skills to the trainers, model the skill transfer, and observe it.   Nonetheless, I'm confident that there will be more video bloggers in Cambodia.

Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson brought over 3 video blogging kits to the computer school in Roteang.  Sari, the computer teacher is here today and he brought along his camera.  He also told me that based on yesterday, he started a blog.  At lunch, we talked some student lessons he could do to have the kids at Roteang document their village.   Of course, his Internet access is very slow - via cell phone.  So, he may need to travel into Phnom Penh to send or copy onto a CD and give to a sharing foundation rep on their regular visits.    So, now he is another resource and Cambodian video blogger!

And, of course, there were the winners of the Clogger Awards which included the two other video blogging kits I brought over.   I will be following up with a post about the winners once I get back to the US (now in the Singapore airport before my 18 hour flight)

Some notes:

• Incorporate the people into the presentation.  Take photos while in country and incorporate into your presentation material.
• Listen for resistance and incorporate that in your teaching materials.   Name it and claim it.

more later.

Thank you Youth Noise (and Erin!)

Thank you so much to Erin and YouthNoise for the t-shirts and the badges!   

Thank you Tara Hunt, Chris Messina, and Citizen Agency for the T-Shirts and Schwag for Cambodia!

Today a big box arrived from Citizen Agency with lots and lots of t-shirts!  Special thanks to Tara Hunt and Chris Messina for the excellent assortment of shirts and stickers.   My daughter couldn't resist a photo session! 

Social Media Game in Khmer

Back in January for the LASA Conference, I did a session with David Wilcox on Social Media that include an introduction and the social media game.  I done various remixes -- for example most recently for fundraising and a version for Filmmakers. A number of other folks have remixed the game -- and it's been translated into different languages too.  Most recently Nancy White did a version in Colombia.   Ihad set up a wiki with the idea of collecting the remixes and incorporating some templates or make it easier for folks to remix.

I've been creating the cards in Publisher -- not the most web collaborative tool in the world - and putting the resulting document up as a pdf.   The problem is that it isn't easy for people to remix.   

Nancy White offered me a few suggestions in the comments of a post.

We used the game in Cali, Columbia at CIAT, an agricultural research station. Alas we did not have workshop time here in Bogota to run the game at the eLearning conference. But I think it would be a fantastic resource and I'll make sure to share it with the great staff at the Ministry of Education. I will also try and blog about the game - I felt it was a really useful exercise and people appeared really engaged. I will also ask my contact there for any additional feedback. We discussed the possibility of adapting and translating, but as we discussed in email, it sure would be great to liberate the cards from publisher or adobe. Even embedding in MS word is better because more people have the application. Or can you embed pictures in googledocs?

In a subsequent email exchange with Nancy, she mentioned that Jay Cross suggested http://www.vyew.com   because you can store all kinds of documents.     So,  now I'm in a time crunch because I need to send it to my Cambodian colleagues so they get it translated into Khmer for next week's conference.   

Any suggestions?

I need to create a template that other folks can edit.  The template includes text and images and has to be layout for print so the cards can be created.

UPDATE:  Time crunch .. used RTF because most likely they will use KhmerOS insert Khmer translation.
Download cardsrtf.rtf

Khmer Social Dance Lesson from Somaly Haye

Click To Play

Still in the US in Lowell, MA for the "Rath Family Reunion."  When children are orphaned in Cambodia, their last name is changed is "rath" which means orphan.  Every year at the annual Water Festival in Lowell, MA, we have the "Rath Family Reunion" where families who have children adopted from Cambodia gather.  We attend the water festival, stay at local hotel, eat meals together and have culture lessons.  This year Somaly Haye taught our children some dance steps and games.   This lesson was really useful because I am hoping that at least one night while in Cambodia I'll get to practice my khmer dancing skills.

I met the Khmer Angels!

I'm not in Cambodia yet.  This weekend is the Lowell Water Festival, the Cambodian American version of the Bong Um Tok.   The Khmer Angels were at the Khmer Broadcasting Network booth and signing their CD's and giving away Cambodian flag stickers (finally got one for my laptop).  I also got a signed poster.   

Video Blogging in Cambodia

This is a video of the camera kits.  I have spent almost all day today testing different ways to compress and host video posts that might work where the Internet access is slow or if you are video blogging from an Internet cafe and the computer does not have windows movie maker on it.  It took me a long time because I also made a series of screencasts using jing.   It was actually quite liberating not to be carefully scripted and staged.  I should do that more often. 

I always like to start with the why ... right now two reasons:

• Sometimes pictures and people's voices are a better way to tell a story than text alone
• You need to add Cambodia's voice to the global conversation happening on video blogs

Note the cameras are very inexpensive.  The compression is high.  So there are some trade offs to quality.  I've included some tips for getting good clips in small video files.    Am I missing anything?

I decided to show how to use moviemaker because I think it will be important to compress the files.   I set up a series of compression tests and plan to see if play at all while in Cambodia.  I will also go to an Internet cafe and attempt to upload these files and bring my stopwatch to see how long it takes.

I tested three video hosts - blip.tv (which doesn't have online editing yet), YouTube (And  YouTube Remix), and Jumpcut.

YouTube's Testube has a remix option that uses Adobe video editing.   It offers very simple features and the interface is well designed.  The only problem is that your remixed video takes forever to get posted on YouTube.   That's not gonna work.

However, if they can edit offline or if they take a good clip that can be uploaded right out of the camera without editing, posting on YouTube might be a good idea.   The reason.  There is an active Cambodian community/groups there.  Mostly these are Cambodian Amerricans or Cambodian Canadians.    I know this because my Cambodian videos on youtube have gotten 20,000 plus views compared to other videos which range between 100-1000 views.

I also tested Jumpcut.  The interface is confusing.  It took me many takes to get it right.  Also, it does weird things to the video and the auto posting to your blog does not work.

The curriculum is here:
http://cloggersummit.wikispaces.com/Video+Blogging

 

Is there anything else to think about in terms of video blogging from places in the world where the internet access is slow. very slow.

Gender Blogging and Personal Branding: Khmer Style

My Logo, Cambodian Style by Virak


Now that I finished the campaign to raise the money to get myself to Cambodia to attend the Cambodia Bloggers Summit, I've been very busy preparing instructional materials. I'm very excited to be teaching Web2.0 and video blogging to Cambodians and a delivering a keynote!  I am also so excited that the there will be a breakout session titled "Gender Blogging" facilitated by 

Srei Saat and Sopheap Chak. (I can't wait to share what I learn with the Blogher Community)

Since I am a supporter of the Cambodian Bloggers Summit, one of the organizers, Virak,
emailed me with a question, "We need a copy of your personal branding
and logo for the conference flyer and t-shirts."    Ah, I have no logo.  Virak
said, no problem, "I will make you one." 

I've been incredibly busy trying to prepare for international travel, get the kids ready for school,  and finish up work-related responsibilities that I hadn't gotten around to posting my notes from one of the best sessions I attended at Blogher - Personal Branding.  So, now I can bring together these two disparate threads.  Here are some notes I took:

• Take time to ask yourself, "What does success look like?"   This will help you think strategically about what you need to communicate.
• Don't establish a personal brand that you can't be true to.
• Ask yourself what you bring to a particular conversation area that is unique.
• One of the speakers, Penelope Trunk, told a great story about she learned to deal with email overload that may result from writing a popular blog.  She said that spending four hours a day answering email is better than being a garbarge person and to see how popular bloggers handled their email she left comments on the blogs of "a-list" bloggers.  They answered her with one-liners and she suggests doing the same.
• There were a lot of questions about how to build traffic on your blog.  I learned that posts that drive a lot of traffic tend to be those that sit on the intersection between two topics.   In other words, pick your niche and blog in the center.
• Be interested and interesting to other people

I visited the blogs of the speakers to discover additional resources for this post.  Penelope Trunk has a useful post about how to be better at self-promotion.

Nextsteph - Stephanie Cockerl, mentioned how important it was to listen and see who was linking to you.  She offered three excellent resources on how to do this:

• Google Alerts
• Measure your online identity
• Feed your ego with RSS by Life Hacker

Nina Burokas handed out a 5x8 card that listed some personal branding dos and don'ts.  I went searching online to find it, but was not successful.  However, I did find a post on Nina's blog pointing to some additional resources from the session.

NpTech T-Shirts for Cambodia! Thank You!

Check out the T-Shirts!   Thanks TechSoup and NTEN!

Today I tried adding a music to the video in jumpcut.  Really easy to do!   The video was taken with the inexpensive cameras I'm taking over to Cambodia. The purchase of these Video Blogging Kits was made possible by the readers of Beth's Blog who contributed to the campaign.  Thank you.

Now, I am madly working on the curriculum while also trying to madly finish up work. 

Here's the first draft of "Video Blogging in Cambodia"

Encouraging Blog Conversations in the Comments: Your Best Tips for Cambodia Wanted!

Photo by Mean Lux used with permission

 What tools and techniques do you use to create good conversations on your blog?   What advice would you offer to Cambodian bloggers?  Do you have an awesome example of a conversation on your blog or one that you've started elsewhere? Let me know in the comments below.

I'm doing a workshop in Cambodia called "Five Steps to Khmer 2.0"  for the Bloggers Summit.  I have a half-hour to explain Web2.0 and provide some practical tips to a non native English speaking audience.  This workshop was remixed from Associations 2.0 which was based on Marnie Webb's Ten Ways To Use Web 2.0 to Change The World I also created another version for University Extension professionals and one that focused on fundraising/marketing.

So, needed to really simplify which was so liberating!

Here's Step 2:

Conversation
Read someone's blog post and start a conversation:

Advice:
Before you leave a comment, ask yourself:

• What did they say well?
• What did they miss?
• Answer questions
• What are other people saying
• How does it apply to you
• Look forward
• Look backward
• Ask what if?

Source: How To Add Blogging Conversations by Darren Rowse
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/02/22/how-to-add-to-blogging-conversations-and-eliminate-the-echo-chamber/

Examples of Good Conversation in Cambodian Blogosphere and Beyond

Borin - Blogging Does Anyone Tell You To Stop
Details Are Sketchy - Street Art

Mini Screencast: How to have a conversation

Once you establish relationship, try networking

• Network with the Bloggers – when you reach out to individual bloggers, always ask “What other blogs do you read?”

Via powerpoint from New Organizing Institute

 

Resources

How to Comment Like King or Queen by Coolcat Teacher Blog
Strategic Blog Commenting A Screencast by Amy Gahran
Strategic Blog Commenting: Blog Post by Amy Gahran
Commenting by Alan Levine
Google News Feature to encourage commenting  by Michele Martin

T-Shirts for Cambodia!!!

T-Shirt Donation!
Originally uploaded by cambodia4kidsorg.

A box of these t-shirts just arrived at my doorstep. The UPS man asked me what was going on! I told him that I was going to Cambodia and bloggers from all over are sending me t-shirts for my suitcase. He looked at me in a funny way.

This t-shirt came from the good folks at
http://blogs.atlassian.com/news/2007/03/tshirts_20.html

One of my readers who knew the president of the company told him about the campaign and last week I received an email with an offer.

\Thank you!

The Jing Project: Embed Screencasts Into Conversation

Click to play

I have less than 20 days before I get on a plane and fly halfway around the world.  That in and of itsef is a little mind blowing.  And, I have to prepare some instruction in a completely different context, get organized to visit Sharing Foundation projects, pack T-shirts,  AND finish the massives amount of work before I go.   

So, I starting worrying about the Internet connection in Cambodia.  The very calm Preetamrai, the Southeast Asian Editor for Global Voices who is also attending and leading a workshop at  the Cambodia Bloggers Summit told me about his very cool new app from Techsmith, JingProject.  Then I noticed that Andrew Parker had just tweeted it. (I mention Andrew because he is seeing if there any Twitter t-shirts that I can take to Cambodia.

TechSmith is the maker of my favorite apps, Camtasia and SnagIt..  (Did I also mention that they sent a box full of SnagIt t-shirts for Cambodia?)  The jing project is their first experiment in the Mac platform. Here's the description:

The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.  It’s something we want to give you, along with some online media hosting, to see how you use it. The project will eventually turn into something else. Tell us what you think so we can figure out what that is ...

It is very easy to use.  You can capture and narrate in snap.  You can upload to their host or you can download a .swf file.  It was very liberating for me to create a screencast like this -- no storyboard, script, no retakes ... the perfect app to share or explain something when email just won't  do it.

I'd love for it to have some javascript so you could embed it into a blog post.  That's the only thing missing.

Some possible uses:

• I put this out on the SalesForce Nonprofit Practitioners listserv.  I'm working on a screencast and it might be excellent way to do research or share implicit geek shoudlder-to-shoulder knowledge across the Internet.  I'm getting email descriptions and since my depth of knowledge of SF isn't as deep, it is hard for me understand some of what I read in text.  Also, I'm a visual learner. 

• I don't know if this possible - I have to find the right .swf to .avi converter and test it - but you could possibly edit and remix these clips into a screencast.

• I'm going to use it (if I can carve out the time before I leave) to create some screencasts of my workshops to have offline- just in case the Internet doesn't work.

• I pitched a session at podcamp Boston called "Screencasting for the Masses" -- this app is perfect for that workshop! (Yet to be created)

The content that I cover in the screencast, btw, is a quick peek at two Facebook apps.  Cogdogblog points to the DogPeeBook -- (laughing helps reduce stress.)   Alan also points to a blog devoted to Facebook apps.
While I was on Facebook, I checked out my Razoo votes for speed granting.  I am number 28!

SpeedGranting is a tool for the Facebook community to help spread the good by getting funding for worthy projects. It's pretty simple...we (Razoo) set the dollar amount, the theme (e.g. "Children's Health" or "Education"), and the duration for the grant. Any Facebook member involved in a project that needs funding can submit a proposal, outlining things like the problem they are addressing and where the money will go. Once enough people "validate" (vote for) the project, it becomes active and visible to anyone using the SpeedGranting application. At the end of the grant period, we tally the votes and distribute the money to the winner.

Update about embedding from Laura Whitehead:

Jing saves as an SWF, which is easily embedable using something called the SWF object.  Get the bit of code
you need here

What is SWF?
WFObject is a small Javascript file used for embedding Macromedia Flash content. The script can detect the Flash plug-in in all major web browsers (on Mac and PC) and is designed to make embedding Flash movies
as easy as possible. It is also very search engine friendly, degrades gracefully, can be used in valid HTML and XHTML 1.0 documents, and is forward compatible, so it should work for years to come.

With the  SWF Object, if the viewer hasn't got flash or doesn't want it, it degrades nicely and you can add alt text for those that can't see flash or don't want to whcih appears instead of an error image, so good
for accessibility.

I did a post about You Tube breaking my validation recently, and there are some good links later in the article about embedding flash easily (and accessibily too!): http://laura.popokatea.co.uk/2007/07/26/youtube-broke-my-validation/


Does Typepad have any neat little plug ins for this or not? Be
interested to know!

Shout if you need a hand with what to do, happy to help! It looks abit
scary but really isn't I promise, all you need to do is add the file
name and size and some alt text in between the technobabble of code! And
voila!