Photo by Danny Sullivan
Open Social: Should Nonprofits Totally Ignore or Wait/Watch, and Plan?
Lots of buzz about Google's Open Social API, from TechCrunch to ZDNET. The nonprofit technology community is asking: "What will Google Open Social mean for nonprofits?"
Allan Benamer answers: Not much because the average nonprofit does not have the infrastructure and skill sets that would allow for rapid adoption for new technology. Michelle Murrain concurs "Most nonprofits haven’t even begun to take advantage of the Web 2.0 world in general, let alone the bleeding edge of OpenSocial." Allan gives his analysis of the nonprofit micro-philanthropy application landscape, but says it is too early to speculate where things will be in the next 21 days or next few months for that matter. One thing is clear, nonprofit techies will be watching, playing, and thinking about it.
Will marketing directors be explaining this to their bosses?
- How do you explain to your executive director? If you are the Internet marketing person or responsible for your organization's web strategy, how does this impact your strategy?
Having trouble explaining Open Social to your executive director? Jeremiah Owyang to the rescue with this succinct post written for non-techies!
While some headlines might proclaim that Open Source is meaningless in the nonprofit sector, the issues as Holly Ross of NTEN says, "The question isn't really about open source, but about openness."
Wired Fundraising
Most of the findings of the recent Network for Good report follow my experience with personal fundraising, especially the point "You can raise more than you think." Definitely go read this new report from Network For Good called The Wired Fundraiser by Katya Andresen and Stacie Mann. NTEN says it is well worth a read as does Netsquared.
Top Five Ways to Raise Money for an Independent by Peter Dietz provides some tactical tips for using five different online tools. Aside from the various fundraising widgets suggested, other ideas include using PledgeBank to get people pledge support and cafepress to create to sell swag. More resources on personal fundraising here.
Creative Commons has launched its annual online fundraising campaign. It includes a widget that lets you wear "I Heart CC" widget on your sidebar. Why not remix your own version of the fundraising campaign and support creative commons?
One strategy is to get a blogger with a larger readership to write about your campaign. I wonder what the impact is on Wikipedia's annual campaign to get a profile in TechCrunch? Will techies engage and be generous?
Facebook, Twitter, and Social Networking Sites
Newsweek story about Facebook Causes for breast cancer awareness. Favorite quote, "The Facebook generation wears their causes like the way they wear their favorite fashion." Makes one wonder if the individuals join causes or groups on Facebook (and other social networking sites) just to give the appearance that they care. I wonder how much these Facebook group joiners learn about about the organizations and causes? And, what are nonprofit organizations who are managing groups and causes on Facebook and other social networking sites doing to deepen engagement? Do these efforts yield results or is there some question if Facebook causes are worth the effort?
The fastest growing Facebook group now has a million members - the Stephen Colbert Group. This is the strongest example of social network usage for political promotion. By spending very little time and money, Colbert has managed to gather one million supporters. Now that Facebook recently held a political summit where they announced they would life the limit of <1.000 people for group mass messaging within Facebook, Colbert can at least communicate with these supporters. (The summit summary is available on TechPresident here and backstory is here.)
Now you can have a Facebook Profile for your avatar in Second Life.
Tim Davies has a terrific post about how to use twitter for conferencing and consultation at events.
Struggling to figure out the ROI or how to measure success of your nonprofit's social media strategy? Here's a resource.
Avoid this social networking book sharing application. It spams your email address book.
I caught this slideshow when it was first posted last month by Tara Hunt and just recently watched the video
of the keynote. She also
just signed a book deal with the tentative title: How to be a Social Capitalist: winning with the currency of online communities. Are the points transferable to nonprofit communities? You bet they are.
Network for Good's recent Wired Fundraiser report talks about "super activists" or the nonprofit equal of Seth
Godin's Evangelists. Super activists are individuals who raise money for a cause and have a large network that can be leveraged. The Six Practices of High Impact Nonprofits, a new book out by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McCleod Grant found that one quality that makes great nonprofits great is how they work beyond their four walls, inspiring Evangelists. I haven't read the book yet, but I did catch this interview on ABC with one of the authors and read the essay over at the Standford Social Innovation Review.
The Psychology of Social Design summarizes the theories that drive social participation online and offline. Really useful to help you think about how to encourage people to participate in your online social networking groups or communities.
Ruby shares some insights about the lifecycles of online communities going through changes.
Global NpTech
New UK Initiative for web-enabled social innovation starts in the pub! David Wilcox reports about the first meeting in London of NpTech people interested in Netsquared UK and Europe. There is also plans for a UKGovweb Barcamp!
Here's a competitor to the OLPC. Which one would you get first?
Consuming, Aggregating and Summarizing Content
Laura Quinn asks readers whether they miss the article roundups on the blog that take so much time to do, shifting through a lot of content. I certainly know that from first hand experience how time consuming it is stretch your synthesis muscle.
Are you a media snacker?
Video
The Nature Conservatory just recently set up its YouTube Channel and there's already 56 videos including this entertaining psa how climate change is already affecting nature and people and... janitors. To learn more
about climate change or to find out how much good or harm you're doing
to the planet.
It's not too late to sign up for a YouTube Nonprofit Channel.
Youthnoise has launched the Right to Learn Initiative and needs your pledge.
New (to me) Blogs
Tactical Philanthropy describes for-profit philanthropy blogs. He spotlights the newest b5media blog 501(c) Files.
Michelle Martin has an excellent post with some advice for new bloggers. Maybe we'll start to see some new ones in the summary?
The NpTech Tag started as an experimental community tagging project in 2005. A loosely coupled group of nonprofit techies and social change activists decided to use the tag "NpTech" to identify web resources that would create an ongoing stream of information to promote and educate those working in nonprofit technology. Many individuals tag hundreds of resources each week. Through TechSoup's Netsquared project, blogger Beth Kanter, was commissioned to write a weekly summary.
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