Ushahidi.com Screencapture - Getting More Doves on the Map
NpTech Memes and Conversations
Social Networking
A couple of interesting social networking threads. These include: how SNS might influence changes in practice, whether to engage or not, and best tools.
Change in Practice?: The Economist did an "Oxford-style debate" the following issue: "Socialnetworking technologies will bring large (positive) change to educational methods, in and out of the classroom." Danah Boyd makes a case for not integrating SNS sites directly into the classroom, but they provide a valuabled networked public space for youth to gather with their peers. She says, "SNS do not make youth engage educationally: they allow educationally-motivated youth with a structure to engage educationally." Vicky Davis says it is about Educational Networking, not Social Networking.
With a wink and nod to the Economist, here's a proposition we could debate in the the NpTech space:
"Social networking technologies will bring large (positive) change to nonprofit communication and fundraising strategies, including those controlled and implemented by the organization itself as well as those outside of the boundaries of the organization's control."
Engage in Social Networking or Run Screaming?: Need some food for thought on the topic? Britt Bravo has a round up a couple posts on the topic, "to social network or not to social network?, including an Idealware article by Brett Bonfield entitled "Should Your Nonprofit Use Social Networking Sites?" which is part of a three-part series. So stay tuned.
Best Social Networking Tools: The Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants was hosted on the Wild Apricot Blog. There is a list of seven posts that recommend the, "Best web 2.0 and social networking tools for nonprofits."
Where is Open Source in the NpTech Ecosystem?
Michelle Murrain has some reflections based on her recent article on TechSoup, "The True Cost of Free and Low Cost Software." She wonders whether nonprofits have a better understanding of acquisition costs of FOSS software.
Memes
Deborah Finn has created a NTC wish list. It's a great idea and I think everyone should have some personal learning goals before attending a major field event. So, I'm translating it into a Social Media Meme. If you are going to NTC, what are your 3 goals? Are there people you want to meet and have a conversation with? A session or event you're interested in? Blog it and tag three others who you think might be attending. To get it started, I"m tagging Gavin Clabaugh, Michelle Murrain, and Jason Zannon. (Only because I know they'll be there ...)
Social Media ROI and Revenue Models
Social Signals has the first post in an ongoing series called "How your non-profit can earn revenue with Web 2.0?" which covers the pros/cons of making income from your social media. The series will cover in more detail revenue models such as advertising, fee for services, and indirect revenue. I wonder if there will be section on "How to Make Money by Giving Something Away for Free?"?
Chasing Social Media Influence from WebProNews summarizes some learnings about memes from a recent white paper called "Social Media: Distributed Influence Quantifying the Impact of Social Media." The paper looks at some proposals for quantifying metrics for influence as a measurement for Social Media. Alison Fine wrote a reflection about what we need to learn from networked activities in response to my NTEN article and our subsequent email conversation. Gayle Roberts made the point, "tags about the links between people are equally if not more valuable than tags about people." She also pointed to FAS research company that does social network analysis and their gallery of visualizations.
RSS and Blogging
The Wonderful World of RSS from the NTEN blog shares notes from the first 501TechClub lunch in Portland, Oregon. Marshall Kirkpatrick shared his knowledge about RSS and Holly captured some tips in this post. I love this, "RSS is not like email: you do NOT have to ready everything. Just skim headlines for the important bits."
Your RSS Reader can be a terrific personal knowledge management tool. Micro Persuasion tells you how.
Creating Passionate Readers talks about the value of creating a passionate audience (how much you talk about yourself will never compare to the power of others talking about you) and some tips for doing it. The "go the extra mile" resonates.
Beth Dunn has a list of benefits for blogging to advance your nonprofit's core mission. What else would you add to the list?
And if you're knee deep into blogging and wondering how to avoid it becoming a time sink, here's ten tips for blogging productivity. I'm trying to do more of #1 and #10. What about you?
An Introductory Guide to Global Citizen Media by David Sasaki offers context and case studies which show how everyday citizens across the world are using blogs, podcasts, online video, and digital photographs to engage in unmediated conversation which transcends borders, cultures, and different languages. This is an excellent primer to share with people are just getting starting applying the tools.
Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, and Social Media Fundraising
There's been a lot of excellent discussion (online and offline) and posts about nonprofits and twitter lately. So, if you've just set up a twitter account and are wondering, now what?, here is a really good Twitter starter guide. Coolcat Teacher blog shares some twitter productivity tips, Read/Write Web some promotional tips, and Terry Freedman offers some cautions.
Flickr Keeps Getting Better describes Flickr's new statistic feature and how to use a new online photo editing plugin with your flickr photos, called picnik.
Some more on privacy issues on Facebook and the blurry lines between personal and professional online social networking. Some new features on Facebook coming in response.
Peter Deitz offers his predictions for 2008 on social media fundraising.
Activism, SMS, and Mashups
Ushahidi is using a map to convey citizen reports of violence in Kenya. More from Nancy White, Ndesanjo Macha (Global Voices), and Ethan Zuckerman. Citizens can submit a report via SMS or Web and it appears on a google mashup.
FrontlineSMS, the first text messaging system to be designed for nonprofits and is a free download for nonprofits. Anyone testing or using it?
Joe Solomon has an detailed analysis about how the features and interfaces of online petitions might be improved. He even includes an interface mock up.
Social Media Adoption Issues
Michele Martin has a post called "The Social Media Helix and Learning." She uses the phrase (admittedly not the best) of "turtle learning" to describe those who are not using RSS, tagging, and social networks to share and exchange information. When you get highly connected, you can use shortcut navigation across networks to turbocharge this process. What does it take for an individual to move from the slower pace to faster pace.
Personal Productivity in an Age of Social Networking
The Myth of Managed Multi-Tasking from GeoScrum (hat tip Knowledge Jolt with Jack) points to research that finds people who work in technology are prey to embedded multi-tasking that will make us less effective. One tip mentioned comes from Tim Ferriss's book The Four-Hour Work Week: turn off your email and only read/answer it twice a day.
5 Boundary-Setting Tips for the Work Obsessed is from Anne Zelenka, who serves as Editor at Large for Web Worker Daily). She just published a book titled Connect!: Web Worker Daily's Guide to a New Way of Working
If you're looking for some ways to track your time online, either to be more productive or to measure ROI of Social Media, Nate has recommended some applications that do this.
New (to me) Nonprofit Blogs
21st Century Volunteerism offers some tips for funding networked volunteers.
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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Hi Beth,
I've been using FrontlineSMS to quickly pass safety and security related information to humanitarian aid workers in the field. It is already a good tool but version 2 is expected out soon and it sounds like it will be even better.
Posted by: Kevin | January 21, 2008 at 11:50 PM