Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Nonprofit Software Development Summit

Teresa Crawford (a Dirk Award Winner in 2002) is working with Humaninet to develop the vertical track on Disaster Management/Humanitarian Assistance at the Nonprofit Software Development Summit.  You can find out more about Humaninet here

Here's a description that Teresa sent me:

It has been over two years since the Indian Ocean tsunami, and 16 months since Hurricane Katrina.  Are relief teams better prepared for future crises?  We are on the hunt for more like minded techies and NGO staff interested in pursuing a dialog.

Among the topics to be addressed at the Summit:

     * What software and other ICTs do field users need in a disaster response?
     * What software is ready for use in emergencies today?
     * What needs to be done to make information management a reality?
     * Are mapping and geographic information systems possible and affordable?
     * For our field and relief team partners: if you had a team of developers to design and test any software you wished for, what would that be?

How to get involved:

* Participate in the Webcast on Friday, February 9, at 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern) to discuss needs and ideas with a panel of developers and field users.  Email us at [email protected] if you would like to participate.

* Join the online discussion group

* Contribute to the Nonprofit Software Development Summit wiki and help forge a meaningful and stimulating agenda.

* Attend the DevSummit on February 21-23 in Oakland.

Do you recognize these awards?

On the left, we have the Dirk Award.  That's what I thought of when I saw the DemocracyInAction NpTech Oscar Pool.   Whatever happened to the Swimming UpStream Award?   I love taking trips down memory lane.  Yesterday, I was looking through my 10 year hard drive archive and found the Rider Video from Kansas City!

The Giving Carnival

Last week I summarized Allison Fine's articulate rant about the Gates Foundation.  I just stumbled upon "The Giving Carnival" over at the Tactical Philthanthropy Blog.   I think this is a great example of the adhoc type of collaboration that the social web enables.  I also like using the carnival to focus on opinion issue.

Confessions of a Non-Profit IT Director

That's Allan Benamer who writes the Non-Profit Tech Blog

My mental image of him for a very long time was the painting of St. Augustine on his blog that goes along with his tagline, "Confessions of a Non-Profit IT Director."  (Allan's blog isn't the only nonprofit technology blog to mix the themes of nonprofit technology and spirituality - take for example here and here.)

I especially get a kick out of his meebo (IM widget) "Confession Box."  Sometimes I pop out of my RSS reader to leave a drive-by IM message on his meebo client just to be annoying.   He's also on my "buddy list" for one of my too many IM clients (yet opportunity for distraction).  He uses a red haired avatar, so that has been my mental image of him.  That is, until he emailed the above photo to accompany this interview with him (see below).

While I don't always agree with Allan's opinions on everything he writes, I love his insightful analysis, sense of humor, and well researched articles.  His blog is a valuable source in the nonprofit technology blogosphere! 

1. Tell me a little about you:

I'm a Filipino American guy hailing out of New York, but originally from California. I've always wanted a nonprofit tech job and one of the first I had was as webmaster of the California Courts back in the mid 90s. I am currently the IT director for a medium-size non-profit with a budget hovering at $10 million dollars revenue a year.

2. Why do you blog?

The value of blogging for me was originally just to put my thoughts down somewhere and to not forget things. However, the value of networking and understanding what other people think about our sector and how tech works with it has become a much more valuable benefit.

3. Do you see blogging as a professional development opportunity?

Yes, but I hate to think of my blog as a professional development tool although I understand it can be one. It's not like I'm out there to make any money off this or to get job offers although that it happens. However, it is a little like a LinkedIn network but it works in a lot more subtle way. It's more personal than e-mail in many ways when someone takes the time to leave a comment for instance.

4. Do your work colleagues follow your blog?

My work colleagues don't really read blogs but they do get alerted if I write about something near and dear to their associates. I've gotten in "trouble" but all in all, we're fairly lenient in my org.

 

5. Does your organization have a blog?

Of course it would be. And we're going to implement something like that. I can already think of circumstances where it would have been tremendously useful if we had one.

 

6. How much time do you spend blogging?

I spend approximately 10 hours a week writing and researching for posts. I started to spend too much time browsing around for ideas and I found out that that was just a timewaster. I then encountered Marshall Kilpatrick's article about how he blogged and I went into that mode myself. I'm not in as much turbo mode as he was (after all I'm a part-time blogger). There are days when all I want to do is blog though and other days when I can't stand the sight of Wordpress' admin mode. So the work flow goes -- check for new comments, respond, check RSS feeds, decide whether to write about it, rinse cycle and repeat. I also like to play with stupid statistics crap. It's for stroking my ego and keeping me blogging. Quantcast, Google Analytics, HitTail are what I use but eventually I end up relying on server log stat software like AWStats.

 

7. What advice would you offer other folks who are staff at nonprofits and want to blog?

Don't ask for permission first, just do it. Then ask for permission once they find out. I know it sounds nuts but most people don't have blog policies and once you've demonstrated you're blogging a lot of people at your org will probably say, well, so and so wasn't totally irresponsible with his or her blog, maybe we should have one. And if you talk about things you know about because of the necessary work of entering the stream of conversation in your local blogosphere and things you write about on your blog all the better.

Beth's Note: I'm not sure, but I wonder if this is the blog post from Marshall Kirkpatrick that Allan refers to in the interview?

And, sometime I will even get the spelling of his name correct!!! :-)

Video Games, Virtual Worlds Workshop: Northern California Grantmakers Briefing

from my flickr photo stream

Susan Tenby from TechSoup gave a presentation for a workshop called Virtual Games/Virtual Worlds during the Northern California Grantmakers Briefing called From YouTube to Podcast: Digital Media, Philthanthropy, and Social Justice.   Anil Dash, of Sixapart, was one of the speakers.  You can listen to a podcast of his remarks here, read a live blog from Lucy Bernholz here and read his reflections on he said over at his blog here.

Tom and I arranged to meet Susan in-world for the presentation.  We started off with a little fun ... I brought out my grand piano and Tom showed off some pretty spiffy dance moves.   Susan had set us up on a SKYPE connection while we were in-world.  Sitting at my desk in my office near Boston, I could hear the audience laughing and Susan speaking.  Unfortunately, the session got started late and I had to leave for another commitment ....

But, I'm in luck!  There were two skillful social reporters in the room.  Lucy Bernholz was in the room live-blogged the session notes.  Eugene Chan was also in the room and took photographs and sent them to flickr.  The photograph below is Susan in the room testing out the equipment prior to the presentation.

Technorati Tags: VECoP

NpTech Conference Call Notes

Today was a crazy whirlwind of too many conference calls, IMs, emails, and trying to get things done (not as successfully as I'd like ...)

Well, at least I started off the morning with some vigorous cardio exercise at the gym -- a killer spin class before I logged onto a conference call to talk about the NpTechTag issues with NpTechers today.  Except for a little bit chaos while we quickly switched from a Skypecast to a traditional conference call, we had a excellent conversation and there are notes!

I wanted to capture some reflections while it is still fresh in my mind and this is going to be unformed and in no particular order ... still thinking outloud ...

• A key value of following the NpTech Tag stream, even though it is undifferiented is for finding or identifying patterns. 
  

• Who is tagging?  There is a lot to be learned about our respective tagging behaviors and who contributes to the NpTech Tag stream and why. How people are making sense of the tag streams.  What they tag as important and why.  In terms of additional data, perhaps some visualization of the taggers -- how many taggers, how many items tagged, who is the first tagger of a resource, etc.

• The idea of "social search" -- how do we layer our social network on top of a search.  Is that a formalized taxonomy or not?  There is a usefulness for a formal taxonomy or making it easy to find specific items, particularly for second wave adopters who may not be good at pattern analysis skills or people who can deal with messier data.

• There is an interest in a community filtering concept.  So, rather than have just a few folks filtering the nptech tag stream, to have some way to make the filtering social.  A sort of "digg" for NpTech Tag items.   I found that idea exciting!

• There is interest is seeing the NpTech Site become a central place to go for information, updates, or whatever is happening with NpTech Tag, not exlusively a place to aggregate nptech tagged items.  Particularly if there is some momentum around using the NptechTag "folksonomy" to develop a more formal taxonomy.

• Some discussion around how a community developed taxonomy could be helpful to facilitate shared publishing between web sites.

RSS Overload and Google Reader Stats

Nedra Weinreich of the SpareChange Blog left a pointer to comic this in a comment on my post about RSS as coping tool for Information Overload!  Just had to blog it!  It would make a great presentation slide!

It kind of says it all. 

I've been reflecting a lot on my RSS reading habits lately and how I organize (or don't) my RSS feeds in the reader.   Right now, I organize into sub-folders by topics I'm following.   I'm about to create a folder called "Circle of the Wise." inspired by Vicky Davis's post.  I'm going to identify 10-15 feeds out of the 240 in my collection that I find the most inspiring, causes me to think, or gives me ideas for blogging. 

I've been using bloglines for about two years now and am really comfortable, particularly with my work flow for reading and blogging.  These two tasks very connected, but must be kept in balanced.   I'm hesitating making any change for fear of becoming even less productive while I form new habits.  I also hate that feeling of anxiety that happens when you don't know where to click and you're under deadline pressure to get something done.  I hate not having the opportunity for reflection when you're crazy busy and overwhelmed!

Learning these tools is about habit change and habit change is uncomfortable unless you make the time for reflection.  It is most likely the discomfort that newcomers to blogging, rss feeds, or these other social tools may feel initially and it's always good for me to feel this first hand....

I came across a post by Kevin that describes a newly launched feature in the google reader that gives you some statistics about your RSS reading habits.  It could be useful a self-reflection exercise.   I had given Google Reader a whirl when it first appeared about a year ago and it was too alpha.  So, I was encouraged to give it another try.   There are some aspects of the reader I really like, but not enough to disrupt my whole workflow when I'm crazy busy and stressed out anyway ...

The Painting Journalist: Witness To Peace

I've had the great pleasure to meet many kindred spirits and interesting people via my blog who I did not know offline or may have never connected. 

One such person I've met is Ashely Cecil, a self-described "painting journalist" who describes the world with a paintbrush (and a scanner and a blog.)  I think of her work as a mashup between an extremely talented court room artist, journalist, social activist and philanthropist.

A few recent posts that I have enjoyed include her sketch and report about the grant preparation session held by a local foundation and her post/portrait of Braveheart, a dog available for adoption from the Human Society.  (I'm a dog person, so this one got my attention -- a portion of the portrait fee will be donated to the Humane Society, the dog might get a new home, and you can watch a time lapse video of her painting the portrait.

Ashely Cecil is fundraising on her blog for her upcoming to visit Venezuela this February with Witness for Peace where art will meet social activism.  She hopes to do the following:

• Meeting with labor organizers, scholars, professionals, business people, representatives of the media and activists to discuss the economic, social and political issues confronting Venezuelan society.
• Learning about grassroots resistance to unjust and devastating global economic trends.
• Discussing alternatives to current US policies and ways to advocate for more just policies towards Venezuela.

Here's the description from her blog:

The images I will gather from this trip will certainly yield excellent material for my paintings. I will be creating watercolors while I’m away and posting them (as well as my commentary) whenever an internet cafe is available.
So, here I am just one month from my departure, and $2,000 needs to be raised. I’ve added the badge above to the sidebar so my readers can contribute with donations.   If you’re not one to give without receiving, I am pre-selling paintings that will come as a result of this trip. 6″ x 9″ watercolors are $70, and 8″ x 10″ oils on canvas are $220. I encourage you to support my efforts in raising awareness about these issues and the organizations that are working to resolve them by clicking on the donation badge..."

Remember, if you support her trip with a pre-purchase of a painting, a portion of the proceeds goes to support organizations working to resolve these social issues.

NpTechTag Skypecast Schedule for Wed -1/24/07

via Marnie Webb's blog.

It’s Wednesday, 1/24 from 8a-9a (pacific time). Here’s the skypecast info and here’s a proposed agenda.

The password on the agenda is nptech.  Feel free to make any changes.

And if you’ve ever hosted a skypecast and have some tips, shoot ‘em my way.

Here’s to the conversation.

RSS As Information Coping Tool

Drawing from my "Information Coping Skills for Humans" workshop circa 1999

I've been doing Internet skills training workshops since 1995 and way back when I used to do one called "Digital Literacy" which was all about how to use email, listservs, and Internet search functions.   I used to include a segment on "TechnoStress" in which I had people create drawings that represented their stress as a way to do some small group discussion.  I'd also cover stretching and RSI and how to avoid it ..(in the UK, I made a Freudian slip and called RSI - RSS by mistake ..)

I'm finding that some people's initial reactions to RSS is "OMG, information overload!"  Of course, I showed people my bloglines and 233 feeds, but I also told them that I didn't start off with that many and I also give myself permission not to read everything all the time.  I also do everything on this list as well.  I started off with 5 blog feeds and as I discovered other blogs or resources, I added them gradually.    As someone who was trained as a musician, it is the way I used to practice etudes - start at adagio and gradually work up to allegro. 

I'm discovering that I'm finding RSS so efficient that I find email annoying.  I have a really good spam filter (Spam bayse), I use rules/filters to direct project related email and listserv email to folders, and am fairly good at "zeroing" out my inbox.  I also use Google desktop search and search when I need to retrieve.   I've also become quite aggressive with people who I am working with and colleagues who send me chit chat email to get on my IM list.  (changing habits is another story). 

I complained about this in the UK during the Social Media Session and Paul Henderson (photographed above) and he mentioned that you can use bloglines to read your listserv email!!

The description:

You can create an unlimited number of special Bloglines email addresses that are tied to your Bloglines account. The email addresses show up as subscriptions in your My Blogs page, and email sent to those email addresses appears as new items.

When you create a Bloglines email address, a subscription is added to your account. If you unsubscribe from that subscription, the email address becomes invalid and mail sent to it will bounce.

Email subscriptions are great for announce-only or broadcast mailing lists that don't provide RSS feeds. They are also useful as temporary email addresses.

I have in the past tried to access email from listservs that had RSS feeds.  For example, a few in google groups.   I stopped doing it because you couldn't see who the email was from and had to click through to read the message.    I just set up a few as tests.  I hope this sets me free.

I was considering doing a quick and dirty screencast, but while browsing my feeds I noticed that one of my favorite bloghers Amy Gahran (the photo above was taken at BlogHer when we finally met face-to-face) had written about this very topic. (We've done this a lot over the past year or so)   Anyway, she has some terrific advice on this topic here.

I also want to point you to Vicky Davis's piece on avoiding information overload with RSS --- There is excellent advice for newcomers to RSS.  The article answers these really important human questions:

• So, how do you select your circle of the wise? (Circle of the wise - how many feeds you'll read)
• How do you keep from being overwhelmed?
• How do you fit it into your already overfull day?

She begins with how do you ever fit in reading feeds?   Vicky talks about the elephant joke.  I always liked the saying - you never eat an entire salami whole -you cut it into small pieces.  She reads her feeds in little snippets of the day.  I do this myself and I've found having my bloglines on my treo and being able to read while in the car waiting in carpool line to pick up the kids or standing in line at the grocery can be make waiting fun!

She also gives some great advice about how to choose which feeds you read.

Are They Listening Carefully or Not At All?

Listen Carefully
Photo in Flickr CC "BY" license by Sookie

In the session that David Wilcox and I did in the UK on Social Media, we included some on the Web2.0 concepts.  One of the key points is listening.

The premise is that listening must become a priority in order to use the Web2.0 tools successfully. I think it is a pretty critical marketing practice despite what technology tools you are using.

Allison Fine in her book Momentum notes: "Listening requires genuine interest in what that person is saying and a willingness to change as a result of what was said." She gives examples of the listening deficits, but also the ways that social media tools can facilitate listening. She acknowledges that it takes time to listen and that there is no way around it.

The Zoomerang Study of Marketers and Web2.0 also identified the importance of listening.

"Smart marketers understand how important it is to engage their customers in a dialog…The advice for marketers looking to embark on a Web 2.0 strategy is to “shut up and listen…Your customers have a lot to say. Stop broadcasting messages they TiVo out anyway and hear what they have to say. Once you’ve done that, you can think about a thoughtful engagement strategy.”

In article about ego searching, Robin Good adds

If you can track what the rest of the world is saying about you or your products and services, you have a great deal of valuable information at your disposal. Knowing what others say and think about you is the best and most effective way to improve your profile, positioning, price without needing to hire any expensive marketing consultant.

This week there were some real opportunities for some vendors and a foundation to listen carefully to what was being said in the blogosphere about them and respond.     For example, this nonprofit marketer shares his decision about choosing a software tool in light of the recent acquisitions in the market.    Allison Fine and Lucy Bernholz take a foundation's investment policies to task. 

How do you listen carefully?  Ego searches. Web2.0 marketers use them to get attention. These are free and simple searches designed  to monitor blogs and news sites for mentions of your organization, services, or other specific keywords.  These help you stay informed, but may also help you keep a strategic advantage in the marketplace. Ego searches can be set up very easily - no special geek skills required -- and the services, are, of course, free.

Some tools and techniques follow below.   For almost all of them, there are general steps to listening:

• Do a search
• Click on the RSS button in the results page
• Add the feed to your RSS Reader
• Follow the feed and leave comments when mentioned.

Tracking Blog Conversations

Technorati

Ice Rocket

BlogPulse

PubSub

BlogDigger

Feedster

News Feeds

You can also use RSS to "listen" for mentions of your organization in the news.  (Gavin wrote some excellent advice not too long ago on a listserv and if we're lucky, he'll write it up as a blog post)

Yahoo News
Google News

Additional Resources

Marshall Kirkpatrick's Article on Netsquared:  How To Track Mentions of Your Organization

How To Create Your Circle of the Wise from CoolCatTeacher - best place to start for beginners

Robin Good - Who is talking about me on the Web today?

Robin Good - Ego Searching

List of Ego Searching Tools

Will Richardson’s Quick Guide for RSS Feeds for Educators - has advice on setting up search terms.

And, of course, a little fun!  How many ego points do you have?

Large Scale Art Event in Second Life on Feb. 11-13th - Call for Entries

In cooperation with Amoration AMO Studios, NMC Campus is hosting a large scale art event February 11-13, 2007.  Here's the email announcement from Alan Levine:

The NMConnect Visual Symposium will be the largest collaborative art event ever created in Second Life! Connect the Dots with hundreds of artists as we Illuminate and innovate together to weave new networks. Structures of artistic expression in every medium will be linked and combined to tell new stories on how we bond within our shared new worlds.  This will take place over multiple sims on some of NMC's new land.

There will be art on display, performances, discussion forums, guest speakers, and others modes of activity over the three days. Information on the event will be announced via the NMC Campus Observer (http://www.nmc.org/sl/) and posted to our Campus Wiki Guide (http://www.nmc.org/campus/NMConnect).

The schedule is still developing, but there is a call for Second Life Artists that will be open form now until the end of January. Interested artists should review the call and then enter their submissions via the web form at http://www.nmc.org/sl/nmconnect.php

Download NMConnectCallforArtists.pdf

Play2Train: The Island Where Anything Can Go Wrong

One form of online learning that Second Life and virtual worlds platforms are particularly well suited for is simulations.    The Whose on Second Podcast has an interview with Ramesh Ramloll who is technical director and Neill Piland the overall director of the Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness Program, IBAPP for short.   Play2Train is the Second Life component of the program, a disaster simulator complete with hospitals, helicopters fire trucks and restaurants which can blow up at a moments notice.  Ramesh is a research assistant professor in Institute of Rural Health at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho.  You can learn more about the project at this blog.

NpTech Tag Summary: Five Hot Conversations!

Screenshot of a poll from Philanthropy 2173
Still time to register your opinion!

Five Hot Conversations

NpTech Tag Skypecast Anyone?

Marnie Webb puts out a call for a call next wed, thurs, or friday to discuss in real time the issues that have surfaced around the NpTech Tag.   She proposes several different times, leave your preferences in the comments.   The proposed call agenda is here.  To catch up, read the summary here and to read the most recent thoughts -- see Gavin's newest post here and Emily's reflections here.

GetActive GetsAcquired - By Convio

This is big news and it bounced around the nonprofit and progressive blogs, listservs, IM, and emails. (see here)  Laura Quinn summarizes some of the concerns, while others look at the implications (here, here, here, and here)
Will this merger encourage more healthy competition from the other vendors  and providers? Or will Convio innovate less due to their massive new market share
and potential perceived lack of competition?  Jon Stahl gives us a good reading of the Tea Leaves.

Integration Proclamation

In light of recent developments, even more nonprofit technology users, providers, and vendors are signing onto the Integration Proclamation, a call to action to the entire nonprofit technology sector to engage in the conversations needed to move towards seeing a larger ecosystem of lighter-weight applications that do a couple of things well, easy to extend, and most importantly can talk to each other.  If you, like Jon Stahl and many others, are interested in seeing more tools play well together, go sign it right now.

Should A Foundation's Financial Transactions Fully Support its Social Purposes?

Should foundations align their grantmaking directives with their endowment investment policies?  Allison Fine points out some outrageous behavior by the Gates Foundation and asks "What does it take for the foundation and nonprofit community to finally take a stand on appalling behavior like this?"  Lucy Bernholz offers some commentary here and is taking a poll on the topic here.

Web2.0 Adoption - Yes or No or Shades of Gray?

The Web2.0 buzz at the UK National Circuit Riders Conference this week was not tool talk, but issues related to adoption of the tools.  Now, as David Wilcox notes, the thinking outloud on this topic is circling the globe.  Bev Traynor builds on the list here and reflects on how it isn't quite a yes or not question.  Might we start seeing tag called "NpTechUk" or a wiki for the UK Riders List?

Have an opinion on any of these topics?   Comment, Blog it, tag it NpTech, and/or start a blog over at the Netsquared site.


Change the World!

Be A Celebrity for Your Cause

Katya Andresen from Network for Good has been busy working on the launch of the SixDegrees.org site with Kevin Bacon.  The goal is to allow anyone to be a celebrity for their charity.

Imagine Connect Act

The idealist.org invites us to imagine a better community and a better world, and to see how we can build it together starting right now!

A Few Web2.0 Resources and Reports

Nancy Schwartz of the Getting Attention Blog summarizes an article with tips on for how nonprofit marketing and public relations staff can gain entry into the blogosphere

Michael Stein (East Coast) files a report from Mali about the GeekCorps Mali project.

Heather Carpenter from AspirationTech points us to two nonprofit studies -- one about employment trends in the sector and the other nonprofit effectiveness.

Your Guide to the E-Advocacy Revolution from PolicyLink. I know I should do this, but here's a direct link to the chapter on technology tools ...

Film Contest - "Film Your Issue" from Yahoo and other sponsors.

Good article from the New York Times about widgets, "Some Bling for Your Blog" and a post on the Yahoo Blog about social media meets fundraising.

The 59 Smartest orgs online is a list of 59 organizations that make good use of the web2.0 tools in their web sites.  Some commentary on methodology here.

Danah Boyd analyzes the recent Pew data on Social Network Site use.

New (to me) Blogs

Blau Exchange is posting interviews with interesting ict-minded folks and occasional research and presentations.  Check out the interview with Alexandra Samuels.

Gentilly Project using geographic information technologies and organizational theories to accelerate the residential and economic recovery of Post-Katrina New Orleans. (see photo of Quintus Jett here)

Ethos Roundtable now has a blog where you can find summaries and links to resources from meetings.

Grassroots.org blog reports on the recent National Media Reform Conference.

GetInvolved Blog shares a summary from the Sunlight Foundation and Berkman Center all day session called "Local Political Information in an Internet Era."  (See David Weinberger's write up "Cool Democracy Tools" and his question - Why are the tools for open democracy coming from the left?)

Ever wondered what people who work in nonprofit technology around the world are thinking?  Here's the UK perspective:  David Wilcox, Steve Bridger, Miles Maier, Paul Henderson,  Nick Booth,  Paul Webster, and Susie's Blog

Cross posted at Netsquared

Convio Buys GetActive: Is that the end of software legos?

photo by flickr user michale, licensed with CC "BY"

I arrived back from the UK only to jump into a car and drive out to Western, MA for a meeting to present an evaluation report I've been working on a for a client.   I stopped for yet another a latte on the way home, checked my treo and discovered this email from Ryan at PicNet about the big news in the Nonprofit Technology World -- Convio Buys GetActive.

This big news and it rocked the nonprofit technology world yesterday. (Blog reactions here, here, here , here, here and here.)  Laura Quinn provides a summary of the concerns expressed on different nptech listservs:

As these two software companies are two of the “big three” online integrated packages, this is a major shift in that marketplace. Convio says it plans to integrate GetActive’s advocacy and content management functionality into their own platform, and migrate both sets of clients to the new platform. GetActive’s management will take key roles in the Convio organization.

The listserves are hopping with this news. In general, GetActive clients are interested in adding some of the Convio functionality to their toolset, but are nervous about migrating to a different platform and learning a different tool. There’s also concern about the consolidation in general – that having fewer big players in the space will cause a decrease in competitive pressures and an increase in price.

For those of us without the money to use one of the packages from the big players, we have to deal with the drawback that different packages from different vendors usually don't play nice with each other.  When you try to move data from online fundraising software into your fundraising or volunteer database, it isn't a one-click process.

While in the UK, I was chatting with some colleagues about this issue.  The metaphor of legos came to mind. (Like it has in other nonprofit disciplines)  I want to be able to get a software package that allows me to put together the best set of legos to do what I need.  My next blogging obsession will be to try to accomplish that for the Sharing Foundation - now that we've entered into the world of online fundraising - we need to get our database, newsletter, and campaign software act together. (More about this later ...) 

A group of nonprofit tech colleagues ... plus many users, and developers of these types of software are pushing for interoperability (the term for how different software can work together easily).   This will make building things out of software legos possible.   They have issued a call-to-action --  the "Integration Proclamation."   Here's why it is important:

There are a lot of great tools out there for progressives -- email systems, volunteer databases, donation engines, social networking tools, the list goes on and on. But because these tools can't talk to each other, we can't use them effectively. Ask organizers about their tech tools, and you'll hear the same story over and over: too many overlapping databases, systems that don't work together, hours wasted importing and exporting and de-duplicating lists. In a recent study about progressive technology, lack of data integration was cited as the #1 universal complaint.

It doesn't have to be this way. Recent advances in web development make data sharing much easier. Past attempts at solving the problem have taught us valuable lessons. Technology vendors have become very open to integration (though individually, the market hasn't given them enough incentive to solve the problem themselves). And now, with this Proclamation, a wide community of progressive organizers, campaigners, vendors, consultants and technologists is demanding change.

All these forces add up to historic moment of opportunity - a moment we are coming together and seizing with this Proclamation.

(Here's another article describes the issues.)

On the Integration Proclamation listserv this afternoon, Tate Hausman expressed the following concerns about the merger:

For those of you new to this discussion, Convio and GetActive are two of the largest eCRM / eAdvocacy vendors for nonprofits & campaigns. In theory, their merger moves the progressive tech sector closer to a "one ASP fits all" model.  They'll likely combine their tools into a new toolset that they'll claim is bigger, better, and more comprehensive.  Personally, that's not the direction I want us to go. I strongly believe that model won't deliver the kick-ass, flexible toolsuites we need.

So, this merger seems like an opportunity to highlight an alternative to the "one ASP fits all" model -- ie, the integration model. I want a model in which many different tools can be "snapped together" into powerful, flexible platforms. I don't want to be locked into a single company providing all my online tools, no more than I want Microsoft to make all my desktop software. I want to mix and match!

I have a dumb question.   If there are particular software vendors that haven't signed onto to this petition - does that mean they don't support the idea and want to  keep their products "closed."  Or does it mean that  they just haven't signed the petition?

The big picture question:  What is the right direction?  The trend now is merger after merger into domination by one software company in the sector versus  the integration and specialization of software.  Would it be best to have many smaller software vendors that do their piece really well and can integrate or to have one big software company that does all and is the only one in the market?   I agree with Jon Stahl.

Apologies - still jet lagged and initially published this post without a title ... must drink more coffee

NpTech Tag Skypecast Anyone?

Marnie has put out a call for call to talk about the NpTech Tag issues we've been blogging about the last two weeks.  She proposed three different times on next wed, thurs, and fri - leave your preference in the comments.   Proposed agenda is here in a wiki - the password is nptech.  For context, see the discussion summary over at Netsquared -- go follow all the links for context -- and if you want to see what's been written this week, see Gavin's newest post.

Allison Fine's Rant: Outrageous Behavior by the Gates Foundation

Allison Fine has written an articulate rant about what she calls "outrageous behavior" by the Gates Foundation.

On January 9th, the Los Angeles Times, after exhaustive research, published a story on the conflicts between some Gates grants for positive social change and their investments to make their endowment grow.  For instance, the article explains that Gates is investing in an Italian oil company, Eni, that spews “250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer.”  This is the same part of the world where the Gates Foundation grants millions of dollars on vaccinations to immunize children against deadly diseases like polio and measles.

She goes to describe the foundation's response to the story which was to initially say they'd review it and then to refute the story and would not be changing their investment policies.   Allison quotes Patty Stonisfer the Foundation’s CEO, “It would be naive to think that changing the foundation's investment policy could stop the human suffering blamed on the practices of companies in which it invests billions of dollars."

Allison goes on to describe why this behavoir is so appalling -- you can hear her screaming!  She lays out four points why hte Foundation's decision not to do anything about its investment policies is specious and cowardly.

Given the Foundation’s resources and ability to hire anyone from anywhere with the necessary expertise to review their investments, it is mind boggling to believe that finding socially conscious companies to invest in - to at least avoid companies that are specifically and actively counteracting their grantmaking efforts, would be too difficult or distracting for them.  Even if the criteria aren’t perfect initially, at least try to develop some guidelines that don’t cancel out the intended good works of the Foundation’s grants.

She goes on to say this:

This behavior by Gates is a naked illustration of the lack of accountability by foundations in general.   Foundations have very few obligations but to spend 5% of their assets on average annually.  As long as they don’t give it to specific political candidates, they can give to just about any nonprofit or for profit organization, or any individual.  In addition to no accountability on the grantmaking side, the foundation is a self-described “passive investor”.  This is an organization with three board members, all family members (plus Warren Buffet soon) and no shareholders.  Their only constituents are grantees - and no less powerful group of people or organizations exist than those that depend on a foundation for funds. Think about this another way.  A foundation with assets larger than 120 countries, can do just about whatever it wants with tax exempt funds - and no one can do a darn thing about it.

She ends with a great question:

What does it take for the foundation and nonprofit community to finally take a stand on appalling behavior like this?

Lucy Bernholtz of the Philanthropy 2173 Blog offers her recommendations on how to change philanthropy here.

Imagine Connect Act

 

I received an email from Ami Dar who runs the Idealist.org inviting me to imagine a better community and a better world, and connect with others who want to help build it.  The idealist.org is serving as a connector to help people find one another to imagine and take action.  This project is taking the power of the social web and building bridges between people, nonprofits, and ideas.   

Take a quick browse through the comments from all over the world - pretty powerful.

First, find out what they mean by a "better world."

The intent here isn't to act along - but to find other kindred spirits who have the same passion about creating this better world and connect with them.   The project talks about the challenge of missed connections and the opportunities to connect.  The how section uses the metaphor of the rules for using the library or a store -- and talks about the idealist's values.   

The next section offers some possible solutions on how one might use the resources of the idealist in many different local communities or villages to serve as a connection point.  There is some advice for getting started and what to do right now!  The latter includes hosting or attending a meeting the week of Feb.5th to 11th.

I'm off to do some searching to see what other people I can find who are concerned about making a better world in Cambodia.

My Panel Introduction

I attempted to live blog my introduction to demonstrate how easy it is to blog.   The second time we ran our panel the Internet connection worked.  I spoke about how useful a blog was for my own personal knowledge management working as a technology consultant.  I talked about how I use my blog to "work things out" for myself.  This thinking outloud, in public, also helps to connect me to conversations with peers.

Lasa UK sCircuit Riders Conference: Opening Session

Disclaimers apply to live blogging - will clean it up later.  Typos, mispelling, lapses of grammar.

I am at Lasa Circuit Riders Conference in the UK at the opening plenary session, Spectrogramme - Where do you stand?  Three Questions that will get you moving to take a stand.

Sarah Lordes welcomed everyone and introduced the other panelists, Terry Stokes, Marc Osten, and person from ICT Hub evaluation team. Paul TIcher

Sarah:
-circuit riding has continued to grow over the last year
-still finding people who do this work who aren't yet connected
-regions have embraced the concept of circuit riding and interested in setting up projects
-getting ict integrated into infrastructure workplans
-conference is an opportunity to meet with people doing similar work
-theme for this year's conference principles and practice came out of feedback and the following issues:-

• How can we practice what we do? 
• Where do we fit in the spectrum? 
• What is a circuit rider? 
• Who are we? 
• What is our practice? 
• What are our standards for carrying out our work?
• Are we a network?  What would we do if we continue the network?

-hope to draw some conclusions at the end of this session about our work

Terry Stokes - speaking about plans for next 12-18 years

-What is happening in practical terms and Lasa's contributions to the ICT Hub.
-Today the business plan was funded - and will continue to build on the work done in the past.  Looking at sustainability of the network.
-Training and accreditation are central -- a chance for today and the future to influence that and contribute to it.
-Would be happy to discuss in more depth what's going on

External Evaluation Team - half of the team

-Evaluating what difference does the ICT hub?
-Work of the ICT Hub has made a significant difference to organizations on the ground.   Trying to look at what has been done, what is the impact, and how it has made a difference.
-They are collecting valuable information that influences the improvement of the ICT hubs programs.
-ICT Hub has taken an active approach to evaluation
-Please contribute to what we have been learning - pointed to the evaluation forms in the packet
-Conclusions will feed into lessons learned - what works, what doesn't - if you have written anything about what works in practice - they need to know.   Demonstrates good practice of delivery of ICT.

Marc Osten, facilitator

Three statements: 
Do you agree or disagree?
Split up the room

Ask yourself what you think about it and don't give a knee jerk reaction.

There should be a set of standards that circuit riders should adhere too.

agree
-branding
-client confidence
-easier to get funding
-peer support and sharing
-balance power and responsibility
-baseline to operate from
-raising awareness
-accountability - responsible for the outcomes of those services

middle
-whose standards
-what standards - flexible
-relationship between the standards and the sector - confine growth?
-who is the body that inforces
-people outside the scope of standards
-can the standards keep pace with the field and change in the sector

disagree
-issue with the term circuit rider - too technical
-so many different client bases - can't have one set of standards
-guidelines is a better word versus standards - can't standardize your services to meet standards
-waste of our time, should be out there working

Dialogue needs to be in the center - from general support to sector

Without accrediation, Circuit Riders will not be taken seriously by those who they work for.

agree
credibility
clients don't understand ICT, the accreditaton would help client
help organizations focus their resources more effectively
accountability
professionalism

middle
-difficult to capture the range of technical skills
-map of whats there already many standards -- using what is available versus reinventing the wheel
-how does it account for experience
-start to get your reasons
-can help but not the only thing that helps increase trust
-question assumes crc not taken seriously
-how ICT is taken seriously
-the content of the accreditation -- language and definition

disagree
-already built up relationships
-respect is learned
-it's about your performance, not the accrediaton
-cr may not exist if they have to be accredited - not time
-how to build into work
-other volcom sectors taken seriously without accreditation
-may be long winded
-orgs understand what it means
-relative merits of quality standards - could confuse the issue more -
-reduce the work on the frontline too busy getting trained and accredited

The sector is not ready to pay for cr services  - frontline organizations that are being served - they aren't ready to pay.
agree
-ict not seen as a priority
-poor leadership
-free services aren't valued - tradition of getting free services
-not top priority for funders
-don't visualize future and understand potential causes
-don't appreciate the quality of paying
-organizations are cutting budget and not wanting to spend money on technology

middle
-assumes services are the same
-larger organizations ready to pay, smaller ones no
-funders don't recognize maintenance, training, etc. in costs in grant proposals
-some organizations in the sector doesn't see it as an important
-premature - orgs don't know what is available
-can't perceive any value - pay for what?

disagree
-no funds
-costs are disguised so they are paying but do not know it
-would like to pay - scared of taking up a free service
-free services can be devalued
-more and more are paying for ict
-not budgeting correctly - isn't about not paying
-changing role puts value on cr services
-subsidy would be necessary to get pay started

Summary:
Still trying to figure out how to professionalize ourselves outside of this room.

Will revisit these questions to see if there is any change.

NpTech Tag Summary: Cross-Blog Discussion Summary, A Few Good Reports, and Powerpoint Karaoke

A screen capture of Chris Blow's nptech tag mashup licensed with CC "by"


Last week, we launched an experiment in holding an online conversation about tagging, taxonomies, and folksonomies that danced across blogosphere, stitched together by the NpTech tag.   Nonprofit techies and even a few from people other fields left comments on blog posts, posted to their blogs, tracked backed, tagged other blog posts not tagged with the NpTech tag, and so forth.   

The conversation threads represented different points of view -- from knowledge management experts, technies, and a cranky librarian or two --  and the points raised ranged  from the philosophical to day-to-day practice. 

It was messy!  It was thrilling!

I know I learned a lot from reading the reflections and thoughts of my colleagues. How about you? I also have a headache from trying to synthesize it all, but here goes.  The key themes and questions:

• "You say folksonomy,  I say taxonomy ...." It isn't an either/or.  We can we get the best of both worlds with "an emergent taxonomy" - (Don't we need a better word?) Is a folksonomy developed by a small group of experts any less of a folksonomy?

• Although the NpTech Tag ain't no taxonomy,  it draws people's attention to thoughtful posts or good resources and behind the tsunami of seeming random items that flow through the tag stream each week is a loosely coupled community.

• A reminder that the NpTech has been in use for almost two years and a couple of pointers to the history
  

• A "mashup" of the del.icio.us API that displays a visual tag cloud used in the stream over the past two years presented as a timeline and created by Chris Blow.  What can we learn from an analysis of this "data" that may inform "an emergent taxonomy"?  (And a larger question, why would we want to create a taxonomy for the nonprofit technology field and how might it be used?)

Moving from these sublime thoughts to more here and now, what guidelines, if any, could we promote or articulate about adding tagged items to the NpTech Tag stream to improve the quality or usefulness? 
This cacaphony of nonprofit techies blogging their thoughts about tagging was sparked by a librarian's rant from Gavin Clabaugh (be sure to read the comments and follow the trackbacks if they get out of the moderation que).  Gavin's key points:

• Folksonomies, while they have a cozy name, suck because they lack a "controlled vocabularly" and don't make the retrieval of resources efficient.
• Questioned the usefulness  of the NpTechTag - "Why would anyone want to use it?"

If you do a "googlefight" (taxonomies vs folksonomies) taxonomies rule!  And mostly everyone agrees with that for the most part if your goal is to retrieve information efficiently (and you have the time and resources to undertake and maintain one.)

But no so fast.  Laura Quinn, Michelle Murrain, Holly Ross, and Marnie Webb pointed out some drawbacks to taxnomonies, telling us why folksonomies aren't crap, and made solid arguments about using a folksonomy to develop and maintain a taxonomony.   EEK Speaks suggests that asking whether taxonomies are better than folksonomies is not a valid question and advises that we should be focusing our efforts on understanding how taxonomies and folksonomies can augment each other, not on picking sides.

What was also interesting to me was to discover some new" (at least to me) from people wandered into the conversation.  This included HighTouch and Alf Gracombe.  Maybe some dogs who tag will bark too!

I put out some navel grazing questions, asking folks how they used the NpTechTag - was it consumption or promotion or combination of both?  It seems that people do both. (See here and here)

As Holly Ross notes, people's personal preferences -- free spirit versus those who like order -- have a lot to do with how they use (or don't) the NpTechTag. I think it has to do with learning styles - global versus linear thinkers and to some degree myers-briggs personalities.  I suspect J's and S's hate tagging and folksonomies, while I's and P's love it.

Chris Blow wrote an excellent synthesis summing up the conversations here.  Chris also took it one step further and created a timeline/analysis tool of the nptech tag stream in del.icio.us.   It gives us a visual tag cloud for different points of time of the NpTech Tag (based on "pages in del.icio.us) and while as a researcher, I can see some potential bias -- it is a terrific starting point.

So, what is the next step? Marnie puts out the call for us to talk about it in real-time on a skype-based conference call.   I think we should look at this option.  Leave a comment in Marnie's post and we will figure out a meeting time perhaps using one of these.

Here's a few resources and posts that were not about tagging, taxonomies, or folksonomies:

Nancy White alerts us to the final report for I-See-T project available for download. It is also available to read and comment online in the style of the dotOrganize report: Online Technology for Social Change.  Perhaps our next cross-blog conversation will circle the globe in reaction to the key findings and similar themes in both of these reports.  Particularly this point: "Although the tools may be free or low-cost, significant investment in time and animation of other users are still needed to make effective use of ICT for collaboration."

Nancy also reports that the Technologies for Communities report she us co-authoriong with Etienne Wenger and John Smith has turned into a book about technology stewardship.

Click Here for Change: Your Guide to the E-Advocacy Revolution from the Community Technology Foundation of California has just been released.  I'm printing off my copy now! 


I'll end off with a few lighter tidbits as we head into the weekend:

Susie's Blog, winning hearts and minds over to FOSS, thumbs her nose at Intuit.

Paul Webster points us to PowerPoint Karaoke and promises to write about the FOSS Ubuntu usability debate taking place on ukriders list.

Jon Stahl has a little fun with green software made from widgets.

Also cross-posted at Netsquared

Splashr - A Way to Make Slide Shows Out Of Flickr Photos

One of the things you have to do with user-generated content -- participatory media projects is show the work to encourage others to jump in.   Lacking any programming skills to speak of, I've been looking at widgets and tools that put an easy interface to flickr that let you display photos.   Alan Levine left me a comment suggested Splashr and shared his notes.

Unfortunately, it didn't have an option for "groups" - you can only pull photos based on tags or a user.  So, I went to the pool and added a unique tag to the 17 photos.   Unfortunately, it doesn't seem want to pull two of the funniest ones(here and here) in the group, both magazine covers created with another flickrtoy.  I can't figure it out.  I checked for typos.  Another one of those mysteries because as I am previewing this, one of the magazine covers is showing up.  Maybe I am just too sleep deprived.

A reflection about participation.  Seems like it is hard to get someone who might be interested, but it isn't already a flickr user to participate. 

All the folks who sent me birthday cards are people who are already my contacts in flickr.  Other people who I emailed and don't have a flickr account have not sent a card, even if they know me really well.

Case in point.  My husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I jokingly said a black lab.  I've had three different labs over the past twenty years -- all birthday gifts - and all of them, unfortunately,  have passed away.  My husband isn't a big black lab fan (long story about labs who like to chew expensive leather shoes and pee on the oriental rug), when I mentioned a possible four-legged present -- it just wasn't going to fly this year.  So, I said, "Make me a flickr birthday card instead."   

He is familiar with flickr as he watches me obssessively email photos from my treo to my flickr account.   But he hasn't ever used it.  (And, he's a techie too, so he could certainly figure it out).  It just wasn't his thing.   ( I'm not sure which is less appealing - flickr or the dog!)  And, I got a great analog birthday card!

Demystifying Social Media Tools and the Social Media Game for Nonprofits/VolComs - Preview Version Available

 

Materials (draft) for a workshop on January 15 2007 at the UK circuit rider conference to be presented by David Wilcox and Beth Kanter.   We will lead a discussion about and present on nonprofits using social media and also beta the social media nonprofit adoption game during the workshop. We've planned and built the materials (which are a work in progress) on the Social Media Wiki - which also houses a draft guide on Social Media that David is writing for NCVO.

The slides and notes with links to loads of resources and examples can be found here

The social media game can be found here

Feedback appreciated.  You can leave a comment or post a comment in the space in the discussion area.  The wiki is under "by" 2.0 license.

I want to thank all the UK folks who sent us examples, pointers, left comments, and also a few US  colleagues for walking the open source thinking walk with us - Holly Ross at NTEN  and Katya Andresen at NetworkforGood who shared their powerpoints on these topics.   
as well as Nancy White (John and Etienne) for that definition of technology stewards.

You know, I'm getting too old to pull anymore all-nighters - and also wanted to thank the other night owls on Skype -- like Allan and Matthew who IM me some definition when I had brain freeze.    Well, gotta get another latte..

I got a blog for my birthday!!

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from the Beth 5.0 - Flickr Photo Birthday Card Remix Contest group pool. Make your own badge here.

This has got to be best birthday ever ...  check out the birthday cards ... and I got a birthday blog!!!  Check it out!  I was so crazy busy trying to get everything together for my session next week that I didn't notice the message from Loretta Donovan the Blog Queen - who created it!  Thank you!

Here I am, pulling an almost all nighter.   I'm going to get them into a slide show when the contest is over on the 25th ...   I really love them!  But must get some sleep. 

 

How Best to Stream Tagged Flickr Photos on a Blog or Web Page?

This one is from Mike.  It is generated by www.deviousgelatin.com/montager using the flickr tag 'beth5.0'

The Beth5.0 Flickr Photo Remix Cards are all wonderful so I'm going to start blogging them!!  I love the creativity and I'm learning a lot about remix tools.  Today, the group membership reached 50 people, with 11 cards so far (not counting the ones I made).   Keep 'em coming - there is still time to participate. Here's the information.

I am wondering how to display them all.  I'm thinking of doing a slide share show.  The other option might be to see I can stream all the photos in the group and have them display in a post.  Maybe one of the flickr widget badgets?

Ideas welcome!