NpTechTag Summary: Maslow Hierachy of Needs and Web2.0 Fundraising Schemes

The iCarta iPod toilet roll holder, a great last minute nptech geek gift idea!


Tis the Season

Attention NpTech Taggers!  A call to tag the best stuff of 2006! (here and here). 

This holiday season, there are several examples of blogs being used to collect items for almost every level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Physiological: 
Menu for Hope III is one of the best examples of blogger fundraising!  Food bloggers from all over the world get together to raise money for an organizations that works on hunger relief.  This year the recipient will be UN World Food Programme.  Or Help homeless youth and win a Sony PS3

Safety: 
Spare the Cold is collecting gloves and hats to donate to people in need.

Love/Belonging: 
Where do you stand on love?

Esteem
Perhaps something from this list?

Self-Actualization:
Democracy: MMob's democracy-inspired holiday gift ideas, including the bill of rights scarf.

What do geeks and nptechers put their holiday trees?  Recyled circuitboards and mario.  Happy Chanukah and spin the geek dreidel.

NpTechTag Puzzler

The answer to last week's puzzler is here and Jason riffs on his own metaphor here.

This week's puzzler:  The nonprofit curmedgeon blog gripes about a comment from a foundation officer directing an innovative program to distribute computers to nonprofits and schools across the country declared:  "Failure is not an option."  The NCB suggests the appropropirate mantra should be: "Failure is possible, but let's try to minimize it, and to learn from it when it happens."  Where did that quote come from?  If you know, write it on the back of Ipod toilet paper holder and send it to  ... or rather leave a comment here.

The Org.20 Pushback Continues

The Org2.0 piece from Seth Godin continues to get reactions this week. Some great questions (here) and debate (here and here) being raised about Web2.0 and Nonprofits!  Check out Laura Quinn's thoughts on it here.  She also references a recent post by Allan Benamer on office technologies that are better than Web2.0

And to interject some levity. I played with the Google customzed search of all things
NpTech and filtered the search for "by social worker" look what turned
up here.


As one who covers the Web2.0 and nonprofit beat, I have to agree with my colleagues.  It's always important to keep balanced and throw cold water on techno philia.  Yes, it is easy to get seduced by the tools and slightly less easy to totally reject them!  I think being flexible and agile is the way to and to fall some place in the middle.  That's why I think that the concept of Technology Steward put forth recently by Nancy White is an important.

Mobile2.0?

While most nonprofits are still tethered to desktops, a new buzz word is  popping up: Mobile2.0.

Social Networking and Participatory Media

This Executive Briefing on Social Networking for Businesses and Associations makes a few compelling arguments about why your organization should care about social networking.  It's from Cerado and my one of my favorite bloghims and serial hat monogamist, Christopher Carfi. 

Here's a list of Web2.0 Enterprise level applications.

Idealware has an article on Web2.0 participatory media tools and here's a nice glossy online brochure about the Rise of Participation Culture.

RE3.org is a social marketing campaign in North Carolina to raise awareness about waste reduction and recycling. The RE3
is run by the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental
Assistance. The blog posts summaries of examples of recycling campaigns
elsewhere (check out the Pick Up Your Dog Poop Campaign) but they also have a myspace site and YouTube channel as well as a pointer to a fab collection of Waste Prevention Clip Art.

Meanwhile, there is a Holiday e-cycling drive going on in Birmingham, Alabama.

Podcasts

The Tactical Philanthropy blog asks "Would you listen to a Podcast interview with someone who had something interesting to say about philanthropy?"   My answer:  maybe.  Not unless you tell me exactly how long the podcast is and give me a text transcript or summary of key points,. What do you think?

Video

AFP blog and the donorpower blog point to several different examples of local nonprofits tapping in the power of YouTube, although others question Why YouTube isn't the best place for political and advocacy video

Widgets

30 Amazing things you can do with widgets and probably none of them might actually be useful for nonprofit web sites or blogs.  What do you think?

Wikis

There is a wiki for Best Practices in Using Web2.0 in Nonprofits and Participatory Media Literacy but the All the Philthanthropy that's fit to print blog asks why no wiki for nonprofit fundraising? 

A recent article on TechSoup shares some tips and best practices on planning a conference wiki style.

Outside.in appears to be a map application with wiki features.

Flickr

Check out this Flickr Photo Finder that uses the Flickr API to save a few steps in searching by Creative Commons License, Tag, and Interestingness.  It auto generates the code for the photo and attribution.   I just wish you could set the design specs -- I hate flush right.

Games You Can Play With Numbers

Allen Benamer writes a rant about Second Life, although he makes some good points, his agrument is based on inaccurate statistics.

A Few Blogs and Web Sites

The social change website is a directory of the best nonprofit, grassroots, and advocacy campaign websites dedicated to making a difference in the world.

Nice roundup of advocacy blogs

And finally, some blogging stats to chew on - has blogging peaked?