Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Chicago Symphony Social Media Strategy: What happens when people outside your organization set up a presence on Facebook?

The prelude to this interview is a tale of networking weaving.   

A few months ago, I created a workshop called "Arts 2.0" which was a strategic social media for arts organizations workshop. (I'll be leading this workshop in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance in about two weeks) As part of my research process (using social media, of course), I looked at what arts organizations were doing on social networking sites like Facebook.  I wanted to find an example of an official social networking presence, one clearly set up by the organization and one that was set up by the users.  Bingo .. I found the Chicago Symphony's Fan Page and the Charlie Vernon Fan Club group.

I was trying to make two points during the workshop

• The first step is to listen - and by listening I mean find out who is having a conversation about your organization or issue.  If you haven't done the listening, don't bother with a social networking strategy.
• The "loosing control" aspect of social media will happen no matter and you need to have the conversation internally to figure out how you will address it.

Not too long ago, I got an email from Marc van Bree, the PR coordinator from the CSO, who telling me about his new blog.  He also mentions that he saw my powerpoint and thanked me for using the CSO screenshot.  One thing lead to another and I directed him to the WeAreMedia project because the idea is that the conversation  can become more than a brainstorming session or list of resources.  Marc contributed some knowledge to the ROI section and also contributed some reflections about why he participated. (I really value that he took the time to engage in the conversation and the learning process ...)

And, I really wanted to do an interview with him to find out more about the CSO and Facebook.  Not just because of my own curiosity, but because I knew there might others there that could benefit from Marc's knowledge. 

Does this story illustrate the art of network weaving?   

1.)  Tell me about you and your job

I started my job at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra nearly three years ago, after an internship at a non-profit and a temporary stint at a PR agency dedicated to the arts. I didn’t have an extensive classical music background, but learned quickly and learned to love it even quicker. 

A day in the PR office of an orchestra is never the same; it goes beyond cranking out press releases and pitches. That’s what makes it fun. For example, when the orchestra returned to the airwaves, it was announced that there would be a large Web component to it. I got pulled in to help create weekly Web content for the broadcast, because of my interest in and knowledge of HTML programming and the Web.

That interest of programming started at an early age. When I was very young, I started programming BAT files and then moved on to “programming for kids” by Addo Stuur and when the World Wide Web entered the household I jumped to HTML. It never became more than an interest and I went on to study communications.

Now, I’m happy to combine the two: the Web and communication. Online communication is growing at an incredible rate and organizations cannot stay behind to shape their online image and story. I’m especially intrigued by the possibilities of combining old public relations principles, such as storytelling, and new media, including social networks such as Facebook.

2.)  You have a "personal professional" blog.  Why did you start your blog? 

I find it a good way to formulate my thoughts. Even though I sometimes look back and don’t necessarily agree with what I wrote anymore. I started in 2005 with installing PHP Nuke on my Web site, which combines several elements, such as forums, photos and articles. I was looking for jobs at that time, having just graduated, and I wanted to create some kind of portfolio. But I soon realized WordPress was the better option for what I wanted to create.

George Orwell wrote a piece once called “Why I write.” He lists four reasons: 1) sheer egoism 2) aesthetic enthusiasm 3) historical impulse 4) political purpose. After I hundred posts on my blog, I took these four reasons and turned them into a “Why I blog” article.

The sheer egoism could be translated into ambition and wanting to create a portfolio; the aesthetic enthusiasm is, as Orwell writes, a “desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed”; the historical impulse a “desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity;” and the political purpose a “desire to push the world in a certain direction,” a springboard to formulate my ideas.

I think the first and last reasons are key in my reasoning; I wanted to create a portfolio of my thoughts, but I also wanted it to be a training ground for putting together my thoughts.

3.)   I understand your organization has a Facebook Fan Page - can you tell me a little about the strategy, and why you set it up?  You mentioned that you've been sharing information with fans, but you hope to be a little bit more interactive.  What are you plans for doing that?

We started the CSO Facebook page a couple of months ago. We launched the page with an incentive: a chance to win a free CD of one of our recent recordings. Otherwise, there was no active campaign besides me telling my friends to join and those friends telling their friends to join and so on. Within a week, we had over 1,000 fans. After this early explosive growth by word of mouth, the increase in fans flattened and now there is an average of about 20 fans joining per day. We get nearly 100 page views a day, but this visibly spikes if we send out an update through Facebook or post videos or photos.

As of now, we’ve mainly been sharing information; pushing out information. We posted our new music director announcement with an update, links and information. In addition, we’ve tried creating an event for a radio broadcast and one for a specific concert to see if people would RSVP. One example of a little more interactivity was a ticket giveaway where fans had to answer a trivia question about a certain piece of music and the answer could be found on our Web site (in this case beyondthescore.org).

In the future, rather than simply pushing out information, we would like to see the users take more action and ownership of the page. We’re looking at ways to accomplish this and ways to make it easy for fans to participate by lowering the entry barrier. One such example is fan photos. This does, however, get a little tricky for performing arts organizations. We don’t allow photography during concerts, so it would work against our own policy to feature fan photos taken during concerts (which, as you can imagine, would be the majority of fan entries).

4.)  What has been the key value to the CSO for setting up a Facebook page?

Over half our fans on the page are younger than 24 and over 85% of the fans are younger than 34. Compare that to the average age of classical music patrons, which usually runs toward the mid-fifties or even sixties. I suspect that this means we have a whole new group to communicate with, which is enormously exciting.

As we’ve had the CSO page for a fairly short time and we are figuring out how best to communicate and reach out, I believe up to this point the key value has been simply listening and participating. This should always be the first step in any new media endeavors: survey the environment and see what you can learn.

5.)  What have been some of the results so far? What have you learned?

As I mentioned earlier, there’s a tremendous amount of young people joining as fans, much younger than our typical audience. I’ve noticed many of these youngsters are music students and proudly so (there are many that have profile photos with their instruments). I’d like to see it as a small sign that classical music is still important in many households and a whole new generation of patrons is growing up.

The results so far have been learning what works and what doesn’t work in communicating. In the future, we need to formulate more concrete objectives. These may include raising awareness (of a season theme or a composer festival) or perhaps community activation and participation (does the community respond to a message or a call to action?)

6.)  I understand that there are several groups on Facebook that support the CSO - but are not the official site from your organization.  How do build relationships and work with these other sites?

The people who started those groups are obviously passionate about supporting the CSO. Reaching out to these people works very similar to reaching out to bloggers; know who is writing and what they are writing; participate; build relationships; and adapt materials. Right now, we’re just at the “read and participate” stage, but we’ll have to come up with ways to engage them and provide them with useful materials that could easily be integrated into their group (RSS feeds, videos etc.).

7.)  You mentioned that you've become the 'go to" person on CSO for social media/networking strategy.  Is it a formal part of your job? Have you encountered any resistance or do they feel it is important?
What convinced them?

It’s currently not explicitly a part of my job, although you could argue that it does fall under public relations. And I’m by no means an expert on the topic, but I am passionate about the possibilities. 

Fortunately, I have not encountered resistance. On the contrary, I have noticed much curiosity. But it goes hand in hand with a lack of understanding on what to do with the possibilities, because there are very little go-to resources. I’d like to think that’s where I can be helpful. I do find it difficult to explain the “whys” and “hows” because there is a lot of unqualified information out there, but blogs like yours and the We Are Media modules are extremely helpful for formulating the answers you need.

Once I delved into the ROI of new media (which doesn’t mean just ticket sales), I found it much easier to explain and justify the possible endeavors into new media. In the end, it’s all about results and return of investments. With orchestra budgets as tight as they are, you’d be foolish not to make that a priority. Keeping up with the Joneses is just not a valid justification.

8.)  Any advice you want to give other arts people wishing to explore social media? 

Just explore! Set up a Bloglines account, set up a Google Blog Alert, set up a del.icio.us account, set up a LinkedIn account, listen to Pandora and so on. It doesn’t take much to get a basic grasp of what social media entails. You don’t have to jump on every latest fad, but find out what’s useful for you and learn what works best with your needs and what fits into your lifestyle. Then, when you’re comfortable enough, try to participate and engage.

The same counts for an organization: survey the environment, determine what you are trying to accomplish and then find the right tools that work for you.

Meet Connie Bensen: Network Weaver and Online Community Strategist

Are "the best" or "most influential" lists of bloggers a good thing or a bad thing? I rather not have a list, but get to know them one-by-one - and these interviews are a way of doing that.

But in the last month, I've come across three "best of" type women blogger lists.

In a recent post on Blogher, Virginia DeBolt mentions the list titled 100 Awesome Webmaster Blogs by and for Women by Jimmy Atkinson.  She was on the list and checked it out, finding a wide range of excellent blogs written by women. (I was delighted to that Holly Ross from NTEN was included on the list)  She notes that this is the first extensive a list she has seen produced by a male writer. 

In the comments, Christine Martell (who writes an awesome blog called) mentions a list of women edtech bloggers put together by Janet Clarey.

This week NxE published its list of the Fifty Most Influential Female Bloggers.  BlogHer's leadership trio Lisa, Elisa, and Jory was in the number 1 spot.  This list has included other BlogHers such as Anne Zelenka and myself.  I was flabbergasted and happy, but as I looked over the list I noticed some of my favorites were not there.

I was tempted to put together my own list, but I've come to the conclusion that lists like this only end up being divisive and can get you into trouble.  Instead, I'm just continuing to do these one-on-one interviews with incredible women bloggers that people who work in nonprofits (and others) should definitely read.

So, let me introduce you to Connie Bensen who I first started reading when I was researching an article for TechSoup.


1.   Tell me a little bit about you.

I live in northern Minnesota with my husband. Our daughter will be a sophomore in college. I'm self-taught & love exploring new mediums. I worked in the public library system for ten years & loved that. After that the shift to building community online was a natural. I'm presently with the social media team at Network Solutions. I blog at Marketing 2.0 & am also the editor for Personal Branding Magazine.

2.   How did you get started with social media?

Through my hobby of digital scrapbooking. The community had a need & my sister & I found a product that fulfilled it. Our evangelistic efforts turned into a website. My experimentation with WOM & marketing within the Web 2.0 world was not only intriguing, but addictive! Last fall I began working online full time.


3.   What is the definition of a successful online community?  What metaphor would you use?


It's a place where like minded people gather and find value in exchanging information. It's like the general store of days gone by where the interaction is a personalized experience. Your suggestions & requests are listened to & responded to.


4.   Nonprofits are beginning to embrace social media - particularly the online community building aspect.   But, for example,  I've seen a lot of nonprofit Facebook pages that are facades without much activity.    What would be your advice to nonprofits who want to build lively online communities using social media tools?


1. Have a plan; 2. Know where your stakeholders are at & what is relevant for them; 3. Have people involved in building the community. For sustenance, what does the community provide that they need/want?


5.  What do you think the difference is between online community and network?  Is there a sweet spot in between?

Communities are centered around a common interest. A network are the people that you know & interact with. For example, my network would be all of the people that I know. That could be broken down into subsets of communities. Some people in my network would have overlap in my communities. For example, those in my network from the digiscrappers community are fairly separate (although a few read my personal blog & share my interest in social media tools - they're the early adopters). Now when my guest post ran on ProBlogger in that I've gained a new subset of readers that are interested in community building, branding & networking (but they're not digiscrappers, social media junkies or community managers).


6.   You are the queen of networking - I've learned so much from reading your blog.  What advice or tips would you offer to nonprofits so they could be efficient?

Networking takes time & a concerted effort. I agree that it's easy to get lost in it. Do your best to be helpful & it will fall into place. My best suggestion is to have a focus, start small (don't get overwhelmed) & build on it. After awhile there is a tipping point where it comes naturally then it's much more fun to enjoy the interactions & keep building on them.

7.   I understand you're offering a course.  Can you tell me a little about it?

I'm really excited about my course for community managers! There are so many people looking for information & it's all fragmented around the web. My background is in education & I love sharing my skills. The course will be personalized for each attendee in the first session. Then the remaining five sessions will be small group conference calls. And I've set up a discussions forums at communitystrategist.net to share ideas, suggestions, resources, etc.

Check out Laura's Notebook: Laura Whitehead's Blog

As part of some research for a screencast on Google Analytics for NTEN, I gave a shout out to folks asking for examples.  Laura Whitehead shared a fantastic case study!  So, I was even more delighted to discover her blog and I suspect she will continue to share her learnings about using Google Analytics and other nonprofit technology topics! 

Meet Miles Maier: London Region ICT Champion

Flickr Photo courtesy of Miles Maier, London ICT Champion

I've had the pleasure of talking with Miles Maier face-to-face last month in Birmingham at the UK Circuit Riders conference hosted by LASA.  Currently, he's blogging about his Web Office experiment which is well worth following.  I'll get a chance to see Miles again at this year's NTC Conference and some lucky local nonprofit in DC will have Miles as a volunteer for the NTC Day of Service!

1.  Tell me a little about your background - I know you work for Lasa - can you tell how long, what you do on a daily basis.

I've been working in the non-profit sector for 5 years now and joined Lasa in June 2006, first on the consultancy side of the business by helping non-profits with their IT projects, and later as the wonderfully entitled London Regional ICT Champion.  This role is more about providing London's non-profit sector with a for ICT issues and getting policy-makers and funders to recognise that investing in the ICT of non-profit organisations can actually achieve lots of positives - transforming organisations to work smarter and better, better collaboration and information sharing, and so on.

Before making the jump to working for non-profit, I was on the other side of the fence, working for London's largest charitable funder, which had an annual budget of some $31m.  Being able to hand out grants and see how the money made a difference was satisfying but not always challenging, and on the whole I prefer life on the cutting edge of the non-profit sector, that's where the drive for social change is coming from.

2.  Let's talk about your blog - What value do you get from it? 

The blog is a pretty new thing to me and I get a tremendous amount of value out of the blog through connections I've made with other bloggers talking about the same things that interest me.  Probably the most satisfying thing has been to meet the authors behind the blogs - David Wilcox and Steve Bridger - and make a more personal connection there.  I'd like to blog a lot more, particularly about the potential of social media. 

3.  So, tell me about your Office 2.0 experiment? 

The two week long 'Great Web Office' experiment was inspired by IT Redux's Office 2.0 and the Dot Organize 'Organizer's Toolcrib', the idea being to find out just how easy or hard it would be to apply online tools to my everyday tasks - email, calendar, contacts, word processing, spreadsheets - that many other people in the non-profit sector also use to carry out everyday business tasks.

My own perception is that online tools have the potential to allow non-profit organisations to more easily exploit ICT (which many aren't doing) and better achieve their organisational goals. However, most of the UK voluntary sector (apart from larger organizations) are not grasping the opportunities of online tools to connect with their stakeholders.

For me, the key is going to be showing how online tools can be applied to everyday tasks, like the social media game developed by David Wilcox, which aims to show organisations how they might apply online tools or new media to their business. The question are web 2.0 tools suitable for business tasks like email, calendar, documents and spreadsheets?

Yes, I realise that many non-profit organisations face basic ICT barriers before they even get to thinking about applying online tools to their business, but it's in the nature of experimentation to show what can be done!  You can read about the 'web office 2.0' tools I used here


4.  Do you think Open Source is like fair trade coffee?

No.  You could argue there might be some overlapping values that FOSS and Fair Trade share, but otherwise they're not at all the same thing and the comparison doesn't work for me.


5.  As part of your work, you are assisting nonprofits with the use of technology on a daily basis.  I saw that you just signed up for the NTC Day of Service (bless you).  Why would you ever want to do this work as a volunteer?  Why do you think giving back or volunteering is important?

I'm now a trustee for a volunteer centre in East London and I think the short answer to this question is in Kevin Spacey's 'Pay it Forward' movie from 2000:

#1. It has to be something that really helps people.
#2. Something they can't do by themselves.
#3. I do it for them, they do it for three other people.

These are the rules when you pay it forward

6.  How do you see gift economies operating in the nonprofit open source community, the nonprofit blogosphere, and nonprofit tech community in general?  Is there a downside to gift economies?

Yes, I'm a big believer in the idea of being able to give and receive without necessarily monetizing it. It seems to work pretty well in the non-profit and open source context where the starting point is an expectation of sharing, collaboration and attribution. 

Personally, I expect to see gift economies really take off on the web, in non-profits and open source with the ability to remix knowledge, skills and experience into something different. It's already happening in the non-profit, blogging and open source communities, with Creative Commons and GPL open source software licences being examples of how the process can be operated fairly.

Gift economies can also help those without material wealth to trade for goods and services. By coincidence I've been reading Tony Horwitz's Blue Latitudes, which talks about the cultural clash encountered between Polynesian gift economies and western ideas of property and ownership as presented by the 'explorer' Captain Cook. Go read it!

My wife, Deepa, really got me started on the notion of gift economies within her online artistic community.  Here, collaboration, sharing, remixing, pass-it-forwards and random-acts-of kindness with others in the community are all very common as folks have no interest in buying or selling from each other.  Much more important is the spirit behind the gesture, that not everything given has to be for something in return.

7.  What are the 3-5 best blogs by UK folks writing about nps, social change, or nptech that you read regularly?

That would be: David Wilcox, Steve Bridger, Podnosh and Youthnet.

* Disclosure:  One of my contracts is with NTEN is to coordinate the Day of Service.  My contract does not include writing about the event or conducting interviews on my blog with event particpants.  I did this interview with Miles because he has some great insights to share!   Also,  we still have volunteer slots available for the NTC Day of Service and if you are attending the NTC and want to participate, please do sign up!

Angela Devlen: Emergency Management Professional and Blogger

Angela Devlen has worked as an emergency medical technician (EMT) along with years in the private sector doing business continuity (BCP/DRP).  She brings these two passions together in her current roles at Caritas Christi Health Care in Boston and the Business Continuity Planning Workgroup for Healthcare Organizations (BCPWHO).   She writes also for the Big Medicine web site.

1.  Tell me about you

I’m reminded of my first column for Big Medicine where I shared my response to the editor Hal Newman when he invited me to be a Big Med columnist. 

"...as a single mom of a five-year-old girl, working in emergency management in healthcare, with a background in private sector BCP/DRP...but started out as an EMT...not to mention my little side projects such as BCPWHO and gender issues in disasters [there is a feminist hiding not so deep inside me] and my passions for mountains, wine, cooking, gardening...well, one could argue I'm a little scatterbrained. I like to call it passion for life."

I am very fortunate.  I make my living by bringing my past experience and my life’s passions together.  My latest passion is a venture in which I am joined by a small group of fascinating women that I am very excited to work with.  We are working with international partners to address the consequences of disasters and violence on women and their families at the grassroots level-an issue that is near and dear to my heart.  Our website launch will be announced soon.  Until then, I can be contacted directly by anyone who is interested in learning more. 


2.    You've been in the emergency management field for 15 plus years.  How and why did you get started?

My dad is a firefighter.  It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I fully realized and appreciated what an impact he has had on not only who I am but also what I do for a living.  I was still in high school when I would borrow my dad’s first aid and emergency response manuals so I could read them.  By the time I was 16 I was certified as what was then called an Ambulance Attendant (later known as an Emergency Medical Technician) and worked for two ambulance services.   I was also involved with the Search and Rescue Team and was a Red Cross Disaster Action Team member. 

3.    So, tell me about your job, exactly?  What do you do?

I currently have the privilege of leading the emergency management program for Caritas Christi Health Care.  We have 6 hospitals in eastern Massachusetts.  I work with staff across all the hospital departments to improve our level of preparedness in the case of any type of event that results in an emergency affecting the hospital or the communities we serve.  This is done through lectures, disaster drills, collaborating with public health and public safety agencies, and documenting emergency management plans.  Some examples of the current projects we are working on include pandemic planning, weather related emergencies and hazardous materials events, including terrorist related events.


4.    How does being in emergency management as a profession influence your home/personal life?  Do you have cases of water in your basement?  What advice would you give to us to be prepared?

Being in this profession definitely influences my personal life.  I have also benefited from it although it is a combination of my profession and my personal interests.  For example, I have a backcountry stove, freeze dried food and a bunch of gear to keep us fed and warm if we lost power for an extended period of time.  Having enough water is essential.  The Red Cross and FEMA have a document that provides great information on what families need to be prepared.    If you want some creative ideas such as using your hot water tank in the event you don’t have cases of commercially bought water, this is the document for you. 

I would add that I recognize not everyone has the means to stockpile to prepare for a disaster, I recommend you establish a plan with your family and leverage what resources you do have.  I can’t stress enough how important being self-sufficient is to your safety.

5.    Should there ever be a disaster (god forbid), how could a blogging network like BlogHer be of assistance?

In 2005 I lost my home to a fire.  Since then I’ve viewed the aftermath of disasters differently.  While I appreciate and recognize the important work that is done in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, I have found most people don’t realize that the recovery period is the longest and most difficult.  It is then, when the media coverage has passed and interest has waned that the assistance is needed most.  I certainly would not discourage blogging network from assisting in some way in the immediate aftermath—that is when you’ll get people’s attention.  I would however, encourage any blogging networks to assist in such a way that it is sustainable and will extend into the recovery period. 

6.    I know you're a working parent, how do you balance demanding work like this with child rearing?

The best and worst thing about my work is it is a 24/7/365 type of job.  As a single mom I need to be creative.  First, my employer is amazing.  I have the support I need to juggle my role as a mom with a demanding meeting schedule, whether it is occasionally working from home, doing conference calls rather than face-to-face meetings or bringing my daughter to the office.  However, I recognize that privileges are granted based on performance.  If I need to be working at 11pm to meet deadlines because I went to work late so I could do something important with my daughter, I am happy to do so.  I have been given the tools I need to have that flexibility, so I don’t mind the odd hours.  I encourage all working parents to ask for the flexibility they need.  You won’t know until you ask.  However, the caveat is you need to earn that flexibility and honor whatever agreement you make with your employer.   

Jayne Cravens to Serve as Advisor to UN program in Afghanistan

A photo of meeting Jayne Cravens face-to-face after following her work for ten plus years online.

I've been a big fan of Jayne Craven's work at Coyote Communications since the mid-1990s.   That's when I was working with the New York Foundation for the Arts on its technology capacity building programs, including offline/online workshops for online skill building called SpiderSchool.  I finally got to meet Jayne about a year at the netsquared conference.

Just received word that Jayne is off to Afghanistan at the end of February 2007, to serve as Communication and Reporting Advisor for the United Nation's National Area-Based Development Programme (NABDP), part of UNDP.  (She worked in with UNDP's Volunteer Programme from 2001-2004 and is a subject matter in virtual volunteering, among other topics).   She notes in an email, "I'm very happy to return to my former employer, UNDP, but I'm ecstatic to have the opportunity to work in a country in which I have been interested since the 1990s. I'll be in Afghanistan through part of August."

She is hoping to make connections with organizations and individuals who are running programs based in Afghanistan.  You can follow her adventures in Afghanistan on her blog.

I'm really glad that she sent me this email because I had bookmarked one of her recent commentaries on nonprofits and online social networking.  I like Jayne's perspective because she has been on the web since 1993 (although I got started online in 1985 with BBS, followed by WELL, Echo, and MetaNet)

Her piece begins with a simple definition of online social networking tools and asks:  What's the appeal?

The appeal is mostly for young people -- these communities are easy ways for offline friends to "gather" online, and to meet new people, either for entirely online encounters or to meet eventually face-to-face. These communities also feel exclusive and special, something young people find particularly appealing.

She goes to ask whether or not online social networking should be of interest to nonprofits?   She suggests that if organizations are targeting young people, particularly teens and 20 somethings that platforms like Myspace can be a good tool.  She offers some strategies ideas, including asking current volunteers to put information about volunteer service into their profiles on OSN platforms in the employment sections.

If enough people start noting volunteer service in their profiles, these OSN platforms may start creating fields specifically for such. Having volunteers highlight their service in these profiles benefits your organization by giving your work exposure to potential new volunteers and donors, who will see the listing as they use the platforms to network with others.

She also observes that organizations cannot necessarily control how their organization is being portrayed or assocated in an individuals SNA profile.   She adds, "But the reality is that your volunteers may be engaging in offline activities your nonprofit wouldn't necessarily want to be associated with either (think about the t-shirts organizations hand out to volunteers -- such doesn't come with a list of where you should and shouldn't wear such)."

What Jayne is describing is an example of the change of thinking that is required in using Web2.0, social media, or social networking tools.  The idea that stakeholders can create their own experience with your organization.   She also recommends:

Nonprofits should also consider asking current volunteers what OSN platforms they use, and if these volunteers would be willing to:

• occasionally post new information about their service or new activities by the organization on their OSN profile or blog

   

• to post public events hosted by your organization under "Events I'm Attending" on MySpace and similar areas on other platforms

   

• be on the lookout in any OSN platform they use for someone commenting about your organization, positive or negative, and to let you know what's being said

   

• to have onsite trainings for staff on how OSN platforms work, and how they are using one or more to track and promote information about the organization

She also recommends that nonprofits should make it clear to volunteers, "that while it's fine for them to highlight their role as volunteers for your organization in their online conversations, that does not necessarily make them official representatives of such, and any comments or questions about your organization they see online, including on OSN platforms, should be brought to the attention of the organization's staff."

She isn't an advocate of online social networking for all nonprofits all the time.  She gives us a reality check:

Most nonprofits are struggling to keep just their simple web sites up-to-date and answering the many, many inquiries they already receive. These organizations don't have the time nor the staff to figure out how to use OSN platforms, nor which ones to use, and also don't have the staff or resources to keep their information up-to-date on these various locations as well their web sites. In addition, "traditional" online communities, whether on YahooGroups or via email, as well as the "old" WWW, are already connecting nonprofit professionals with many more people and organizations than they can keep up with. If a nonprofit has a web site, has an email newsletter, staff members who occasionally use online discussion groups, and volunteer recruitment posts to something like VolunteerMatch, I consider that nonprofit very techsavvy -- to be using podcasting and OSN as well takes an enormous amount of time and resources that the vast majority of nonprofits just don't have.

I agree with Jayne's points above, but I see it a little less black and white.  I think there are ways to design and deploy limited experiments or action learning around these tools - and take incremental steps towards adoption.   This can only happen, of course, with making available a small amount of time to experiment, figuring out how the experiment will help the organization reach particular outcomes, and keeping it very simple.   I also think this is where the role of technology stewarding comes in.

Jayne also shares some reflections about her use of online social networking tools:

As regular readers of my web site an the various online forums of which I am already a member, I am a huge fan of, and advocate for, networking with others online. So, do I use any OSN platform? I've joined an alumni association that has its home on Linked In, and have joined and posted a few things to Omidyar, but so far, rather than reaching potential clients and new resources, I'm reaching lots of people looking for employment. For me, simple theme-based online communities via YahooGroups or an email platform remain the easiest to use, the easiest to integrate already-published information on the web, and the best way to reach both colleagues, new resources and potential clients. I'm already on overload when it comes to email and online profiles -- unless more hours get added to the day and I also become agoraphobic, I'm at my online membership limit.

I can relate to some of the feelings of overload and I've noticed that I'm constantly challenged to change some of my workflow/system habits more frequently than in the past. 

An Interview with Lorene Straka, Joanna Eng, and Mari Velasco from the Idealist

An interview Mari Velasco, Lorene Staka, and Joanna Eng of the Idealist
Photos in flickr


The Idealist, a project of Action Without Borders,connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a better world.  If you want to get involved in social change issues or work with nonprofits anyplace on the globe, the Idealist is one of the first desinations on the web you should visit.   

The Idealist recently launched a new initiative, Can You Imagine a Better World? Next week, participants from all over the world are holding start-up meetings to imagine, connect, and act!

Action Without Borders is an 11 year-old nonprofit organization with an amazing history of accomplishment and growth.  I recently tracked down several women who work for the organization in their New York and Buenos Aires offices, including Lorene Straka, Joanna Eng, and Mari Velasco for an interview.

1. Lorena,  you've worked for the organization for almost 8 years, starting as an intern and moving to Chief of Staff position, what was your background prior to your internship?  Why did you decide to intern for the idealist?

8 years! Wow.  It all started with a subway ride...I met the founder, Ami Dar, on a subway two weeks after moving to New York in 1999.  During our commute uptown he very, very briefly told me about the Imagine project and I was intrigued.  As part of this bigger project, he was looking for an intern to research countries that didn't allow their citizens to create nonprofit organizations. 

When I joined, we were a staff of three, and we're now at 55 in two countries: the US and Argentina. It was, and continues to be, a great crew of people. 

2.  The Idealist.org has a long history of using the web for delivering it services/programs,  what do you think the opportunities are for the idealist to extend its impact embracing new web tools (e..g web2.0 Social media, etc.)

Lorene Straka:

We're about harnessing every resource and tool available to promote connections between people, ideas and resources and the more ways to do that, the better!  We're a small organization with limited resources, but we're creative, ambitious and are doing our best to keep up and capture the best of what's out there. 

Mari Velasco:

We have made some recent changes to expand our use of new web tools, but there's always more we could do!  We have started to make our presence known on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and we're encouraging people to use sites like Flickr and YouTube to share their photos and videos with the Idealist network. We'd still like to do more, though, to integrate these tools into the flow of our website.

We've also started using a wiki for a volunteer research project, and we'll probably expand our use of wikis in the future. The wiki model has great potential for us: since we are always looking to share resources through our website, why not make it easier for the public to contribute great ideas and resources they know about? The key with all of these new web tools is that they help us make our work more collaborative, help our network come alive!

3. Can you tell me some stories about how your organization has connected people, organizations, and resources to realize change? 

Mari Velasco:

I am originally from Ecuador and have two stories about connection.  I lived at the Galapagos islands for 2 years and last year a friend who runs an important NGO in the islands wrote me thanking me because through Idealist he managed to find 2 volunteers from Spain to work on a project about organic agriculture.  He said he felt it was going to be impossible trying to find people from a little island in the middle of the Pacific ocean and that he was thankful that there's a site like Idealist to connect people all over the world, and that it works!

The other story is from another friend who is the executive director of a great NGO (Fundacion Futuro del Ecuador) that works with indigenous communities living on the highlands, helping them have access to decent health care system.  They empower the communities so they can run the program themselves through "cooperativas" and she needed desperately the help of volunteers for a nutritional project to complement the health care program, and two argentinians from Patagonia traveled to Ecuador to give her a hand with the project and they have done amazing things and had a great life experience.  This happened from the connections they made on idealist.

4.   I understand that there will be over 200 start-up meetings in 53 countries  scheduled for the week of February 5-11.  What are are some of the common themes?

Most are about improving their communities and networking.  There are also meetings focused on youth, sexuality, volunteerism, and persons with disabilities.

5.  What else would you like to tell us about your organization or programs?

Come take advantage of this amazing oportunity to connect with people in their communities (and all over the world) to work together and improve the place where they live.  This is the best way to empower ourselves and to pass our enthusiasm to others.  The world can really be changed by the power of positive and active people working side by side with the same objective.

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!!! :-)

Judi Sohn of the Colorectal Cancer Coalition: Blogging for Cancer Advocacy

Judi Sohn, Director of Operations and Communications, for the Colorectal Cancer Coalition.   

I had the pleasure of interviewing Judi Sohn for Blogher and have finally published it.   I really enjoy reading her personal blog, A View from Home and if you work with nonprofits and technology - you'll find it very valuable.

She made some really important observations about using a blog for professional development that resonated with me.

Like me she is a self-taught techie, "Everything I know now I taught myself by experimenting and learning from others online."

She uses her personal blog, A View From Home, to help her keep informed of technology.  "I’m a geek wannabe. I understand this stuff enough to be dangerously chatty at cocktail parties but I’m no programmer. I use my blog to help work things out for myself. If I have a “eureka” moment about something, I’ll blog it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to remember when something happened or what the circumstances were that led me to a given point, and I’ll search my own blog to get that reference. It’s always fun when I’m Googling for something and my own site pops up in the results."

Her advice for those that work for nonprofits and do not blog anonymously.

"Before I hit the “publish” button on any post, I always ask myself, 'if the New York Times linked to this would I be okay? Is this something I would be comfortable posting on a bulletin board?' Since I’m the type of person who likes expressing her opinion, the answer is usually “yes.”

Her personal blog drives traffic to her organization's web site.

"I will sometimes use my blog to help drive visitors to C3 in the first place since my site is more established and gets better search engine traffic. C3’s referrer logs show that this tactic is often successful."

Judi recommends the following nonprofit technology blogs:

Emily's World

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

Studio 501c


Here are a few nonprofit technology posts from Judi's blog

Nonprofit blogging: keep your eyes on the road

9Charities 

Nonprofit technology: The next frontier

Logic Puzzles and Democracy

Photo Credit Used with Permission from Flickr User c3colorectal

The second thing she did after hiring an attorney to get the organization's tax-exempt status was to hire a well-known cancer blogger for her organization.   "My only requirement to her was not to let more than 3 days go by without an entry. Some folks in the organization looked at me like I was nuts, but they trusted me and it was the best thing we could have done. Our website is a top search result for many keywords, all originating from Kate’s blog entries. Kate is also now our Director of Research Communication. She has an incredible ability to take the most complex science and turn it around into language anyone can understand. It’s a lot harder than it looks."

The organization also has an Advocacy blog. "We need to draw attention to colon cancer.  This only happens through patients and their famliies. So we are working hard to connect with as many people who are affected by colorectal cancer as we can.  A blog can do this."

Alison Lowndes: Helping to care for children in Kenya

I "met" Ali while lurking on the UK Riders list, a peer group of ICT circuit riders.  She caught my attention because she founded an organization that works with orphaned and disabled children in Kenya.  She also asked some really good questions about blogging for ngos on the listserv.      

Ali is the Founder of AVIF (ABLe Volunteers International Fund). In  2002, she established a 65-teacher international summer school in NE Asia.  She lived in China for 8 months with her 2 young children.  On returning to the UK in 2003 she spent some time working in internet security before deciding to go back to school.  She was studying Astrophysics but unfortunately, as a single parent, she found it difficult to continue with the financial burden.  Having friends in Kenya, she came up with the idea to provide summer schools in Kenya.  In March 2006 AVIF was born, the first volunteer placement ran over a 5 week period this summer.  (She chronicles the program's start up on her personal blog)

She shares why she started her NGO, "The economic situation is far worse in Kenya than China so volunteer teachers were the only option.   I decided to make AVIF a charity rather than a company as people are always more willing to offer time to a non-profit organisation. That said we are hoping to launch a trading company allowing all the orphanages and communities we reach in Kenya to sell their hand-made local crafts; bags, sandals, pumice, soapstone, plates, jewellery etc, to further their own futures. Trade not Aid !"

AVIF is a virtual organization that uses free and low-cost Internet technologies like VOIP to manage its programs and development work from the UK.  Notes Ali, "It is me in my living room and a friend named Sharn Argwings-Kodhek networking in Nairobi.  We access all orphanages via the internet. We have a substantial network of people we speak to by SKPE or SMS.  Kenya has a poor bandwidth at best and this limits internet access to email only in most areas, except large corporations in large towns. Mobile communications are extremely accessible however, with very few dead zones."

The organization works directly with local ngos and volunteers matching them by interest, need, and skills.   Organizations in Kenya are carefully vetted.  Notes Ali, "Unfortunately there is a lot of corruption and greed in Kenya.  Assigning volunteers to work with vetted organisations allows us to fully verify the organization's commitment to the children. "

AVIF plans to open an online shop to sell items to raise money for its program.  "We have a large number of really beautifully-made items, hand made by the communities the volunteers lived with this summer. They have sent me photographs, weights and full descriptions of all the items. These items will be listed and hopefully sold on our online shop and the items packaged by the Kenyans and dropped with DHL for global delivery."

AVIF uses the Internet to recruit volunteers.  Notes Ali, "We advertise for free on the very many ESL /TEFL websites for teachers and also recruit many primary education student-teachers in 2/3rd year of university degrees via the UK government's Teaching Development Agency (TDA). We also advertise the Volunteer Centres in the UK web sites."

The organization has just started to use a blog to engage volunteers and others interested in their work in a conversation.  Volunteers are able to post about their experience in country.   Notes Ali, "Blogs also allow much more "real" info as well as progress reports.  It is so much more alive than a static web site.  We've just begun blogging and thankfully I've been helped by my peers on the UK riders group."

Photo from Ali Lowndes on flickr
 

Heather Carpenter: Nonprofit Operations Guru

Heather Carpenter is the Assistant Director of Aspiration which connects nonprofits organizations with software solutions that help better carry out their work.   Her blog, Nonprofit Management and Operations Blog, is an amazing resource for anyone who is responsible for managing a nonprofit.

Can you tell me a little more about the nonprofits that you worked for in the SF area prior to joining Aspiration?

I worked for two and half years as Operations Manager for Low-Income Families Empowerment through Education (LIFETIME) a statewide grassroots membership organization that helps low-income families go to college and get out of poverty. I also did consulting work for the Diablo Respite Center an organization that supports folks with Alzheimer's disease, the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group a nonprofit recruiting firm, and several other start-up nonprofits located at different locations throughout the US.

How did you end up as an "Accidental Techie"?

Although my job description as Operations Manager for LIFETIME didn't include technology per say, I worked tried to fix the problems with the 16 computers in our office as well as extending the life of those computers.  I started out learning about the computers by spending many hours troubleshooting the problems while on the phone with Dell.  I also utilized every one of Compumentor's programs and learned a lot from the technology consultants that I worked with.


What was the most stressful that happened to you as an "Accidental Techie"?

Our DSL (provider to remain nameless) went down for several days and I did everything in my best power to work with the DSL provider to fix the problem, it turned out to be a faulty card on their end. During troubleshooting I had reset the router, so when the DSL was supposed to be back up an running it wasn't, I didn't realize I had to reprogram my router, until my IT consultant came to the rescue and helped me. 


What is your proudest moment as an accidental techie?

Upgrading all the computers in the office from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 working with Hilary Naylor, my mentor from Compumentor.


I'm an accidental techie too and I joke that I got my training "in the street" and lunch time at Borders -- what methods did you use to learn what you needed to know to get the job done?

Like I mentioned above, I utilized everyone of Compumentor's programs to learn about computers.  The most beneficial program I went through was the Healthy and Secure Computing program where I was able to learn about best practices for technology like keeping an inventory of all the computers in the office. As a result of that class, I was also able to do a technology plan for my organization and implement specific aspects in the plan.  Also, when I first started out as an accidental techie, I created a technology budget so I could hire a technology consultant for a couple of hours a month to help me.  I made an effort to follow around each consultant who worked with me so I could learn what they were doing to fix my computer problems.


Your bio says that you have a passion for improving nonprofit operations and that you spent some time as a consultant doing that, what are 1 or 2 most common areas where nonprofits need improvement in their operations?  What advice do you give?

The most common area that nonprofits need improvement in their operations is with their finances, also second after that improving their human resources practices. Many nonprofits (the smaller ones) are so focused on achieving their missions that they don't think about maintaining the infrastructure of the organization.  That is why I created the Nonprofit Operations Toolkit, a step-by-step guide which describes many ways that a nonprofit can improve its operations. The toolkit is based on my personal experience of improving the operations of each nonprofit that I serve. 

Since the majority of my clients are start-up organizations, the words of advice I generally tell them is "start your organization out the right way, by filling out the necessary paperwork, setting up the systems for tracking finances, constituents, and donations and plan how to maintain those systems."

How are you bringing your passion for nonprofit operations to work at Aspiration?   

When I came on board with Aspiration, I made an effort to practice what I preach to my clients and followed my 10 Nonprofit Operations Success Steps to improve the operations of Aspiration. One of the first things that I did was to find a new office space for Aspiration which we now call the San Francisco Technology Center.  This collaborative space has 7 organizations who are all focused on some aspect of nonprofit technology, we are also starting to do nonprofit tech trainings in the space. It is exciting to see how improving the operations of Aspiration is helping us to achieve our mission. 

I am also enjoying building upon what Aspiration already started before I came on board like updating our event planning materials and procedures and sharing them on my blog.


Why did you start to blog?

I am so embarrassed to say that I did not know what blogging was until I started working for Aspiration. Our Executive Director, Allen Gunn gave me the opportunity to blog about something I love the most-Nonprofit Operations. So, I started my blog in July and it has been a blast! I love sharing nonprofit resources and helping nonprofits succeed!

What are your favorite nonprofit blogs that cover operations topics written by women?

Sorry I don't want to discriminate because some of my favorite nonprofit blogs are by men. Below are some of the blogs I read, I keep learning about new blogs each week, it is so exciting to see so many folks in the nonprofit sector blogging.  Some of the blogs below include topics about nonprofit operations, some do not. I pull helpful tidbits from each one.

These are in random order:

Nonprofitlawblog.com
Studio 501c
Donorpowerblog
Career Intensity Blog
The Nonprofit Consultant Blog
The New Charm School
Common Good Careers
Nonprofit Board Crisis
Where Most Needed

My YouTube Interview with Steve Cliff: Part 1 - Six Tips for Community Tagging Projects

I did a post about the Steve Cliff and the Voterss Project and it reminded be that for over a year I've been attempting to do multimedia conversation and I have only been able to talk to myself!

So, I posted the video below as a response to Steve's introductory video, asking him for some tips for success in a community tagging project:

Here's the response I got:

 

Here's a transcript of the answers:

Hey there Beth. I was excited to get your video question.  Almost as excited as I was when I got the call from YouTube founders about a $1million grant!

Interrupted by a call from his wife.  Steve’s buying an Ipod Shuffle!

Actually, we didn’t get a million dollar grant.  We’re out there in the wilderness doing our grassroots thing, using tools like Flickr, Del.icio.us, YouTube, etc.

I have six tips on how to start a community tagging project:

1 Pick a compelling theme

Don’t make it so narrow and obscure that only one or two people are interested in the topic. 

2. Connect with natural behavior

There are people who are already bookmarking particular resources.  Seek out those people first.   Don’t make tagging extra work or add on.  Find the people who are already tagging information in your topic area and work with them.

3. Pick your tags carefully

We had a problem with mno06 as tag, because it brought up all the YouTube users with mn in their name.   If you use a tag that has a date in it, like mno06 – it becomes dead.  We became more generic and used mnpolitics.

4. Display the results

Make sure people can see the results of what they are doing.   Our aggregation page allows people to see what we’ve collected.

5.Go beyond your known community

You are going to go to those already tagging or doing videos in your content as a first step..  Use the contact and social networking tools built into the tools to find them and connect with them.  Ask them to add your tag to the items they are already connecting.  That’s how we seeded our project.  For example, we found someone who was tagging photos of election themes.

There are people now beginning to contact us and are interested.  There are people creating new flickr accounts to join our efforts and we're teaching them how to tag.   Then shift to the new people who aren’t tagging or creating video.

6.  Tools, particularly video, need to be become easier

The biggest challenge is that I have to record in video and then upload.  YouTube needs a flashbased video recorder built into the interface.  It has to be one click and easy to do it.  Also, with flickr, people need to realize that they you need more than 5 photos to be live.  Also, YouTube has a delay.

I posted a video with a follow up question and Steve says he will answer it next week.  So, stay tuned!

Joitske Hulsebosch: Blogs, NGOs, and Developing Countries

Joitske Hulsebosch, who lives and works in Netherlands, writes a blog called "Communities of practice for development" where she writes about topics related to her work of facilitating processes at different levels; teams, groups, organizations, networks, and communities of practice.  After studying irrigation and soil and water conservation, which pays attention to the interface between social systems and irrigation technology in developing countries, she worked for ten years in Africa.   

Notes Joitske, "I lost the irrigation technology part long ago when I started to specialize on the human systems, first farmers around irrigation, later farmers federations, NGOs and networks.  My interest in online interaction is very recent; last year I asked what a blog and a wiki was. I didn’t have a clue."

She has worked in Africa as a trainer and later as an organisational advisor.  She notes, "I started in Kenya working with a water users association, living in a thatched hut!"  Later, her work brought her to Mali, where she advised on participatory methods. In Ethiopia, she did organizational capacity building work for a local network of NGOs.   

1.  What is your sense of how these social networking tools, tagging, blogs and the like – are they relevant to the people you work with in developing countries? 

PersonallyI see a huge potential for web2.0 tools for development, because everyone can now use the web as a space to express themselves, interact and co-create. Through my blog I see what’s possible with free tools. The tools can be useful for in-country connections, in local languages, or north-south connections.

In Ghana people are interested in knowing about new tools, because they need to stay in touch with what’s possible in order to decide what may be useful or not. On the other hand, the tools match a mindset of openness, co-creation, ease of writing and expression, etc. and that’s does not always match the way people communicate.

My question is whether you need to work on the mindset first, or whether the tools can help shift the mindset as well. I think it needs both, but starting too early to push is not helpful. An offline newsletter or meeting is very important in Ghana for instance for reaching people as they don’t have a habit of reading on the web.

I blogged a discussion on web2.0 in Ghana here and a  story about the use of a wiki in Zambia by my colleague Saskia here.

2.    Your blog is almost a year old!  I know because I encouraged you to start blogging!   Looking back over the past year, what has your blog done for you?  What benefits?  What’s the downside?

My blog has really stimulated me to read and gain insights. Blogging an article or a book helps me to go one step further because I push myself to formulate what I really learned from it. And it’s a wonderful archive for myself, I use the ‘search this blog’ button a lot on my own blog.  And I’m delighted with the positive feedback, the growing readership and the contacts I made. I've also been inspired to experiment with video blog posts and podcasts.  But that really takes up time. It’s a creative part of the blog I really love.  Lastly, now that I'm blogging, I’m reading other blogs through bloglines (I try to stick to around 50), it's a different way and fast way of learning too, which is very inspiring to me. 

 

The only downside is the additive nature of blogging, and it does consume a lot of time. And another disadvantage is that sometimes the best insights are unbloggable, because it is private or sensitive information you don't want to be public.

3. If you were to introduce yourself to someone online via your blog, what 3-5 posts would you have someone read and in what order?

Here's what I recommend by topic.  I would be interested to know if this is what readers think. Sometimes I think I have an important post, but it does not get comments, so I don't know what people think (and if they even read it :)). I'm too shy to do an online poll.

• Communities of practice theory
• Practical examples
• Culture
• Technology
• The art of advising communities of practice

4. What advice would you give to someone about starting a blog?

Start when you have enough time to get a good regular schedule going, think about the topics you want to blog about. Try and get some people interested beforehand to read it, so that you are sure some people will read your blog. It is good to have some experienced bloggers around who can help you out with simple questions you may have. And do it because you like the topic and write about it, don’t do it for an audience. The audience may come, but to keep going regardless of readership, it’s good to have a solid reason why you want write and keep a blog for yourself.

5. What do you think are the best blogs to read in your field?

Depends how you define my field!  My bloglines profile is public so you can see what I'm reading.   

For Communities of Practice, it is very nice to subscribe to the CPsquare member’s blogs feed (if you can deal with an overflow of posts that is.)   For technology I follow Techcrunch  though it’s most of the time too much for me and I just scroll through very rapidly. And Netsquared.  For development, there are blogs from agencies like bellanet  or global s for a selection of blogposts from any country you are interested in.

6. You work, you travel for work, you’re online, you blog and you have young children.  How do you balance all that?

I feel I need quite some free, unplanned time to think of new ideas, stimulate creativity, so I try to safeguard my own creative space by planning well ahead by what I take on.  I do say no at times.  I found a new balance since the children go to school and want to play with friends rather than with me.  I try to avoid taking on too much.  But my children still complain at times and tell me to close down the computer!

Meet Silona: A Woman Who Codes for Social Change!

Silona is organizing a Code-A-Thon that will lock up 100 programmers for 48 hours to see what kind of open source software can be written for non-profits.  It's taking place on October 13th at 6:00 p.m. to October 15th at 6:00 p.m. at tek republik in Austin, Texas.  Here's the reason why behind the event.  You can check out who's coming and sign up here.

I had the pleasure of interviewing her.

1.  Tell me about you?

I've had several careers at this point.  I worked on political campaigns and activism for 6 years, but I have been in involved purely in the technical end since 94.  My expertise is database systems, having worked on my first database in dbase 3+ in 1989.  I've also worked in the gaming industry and done a fair amount of technical training on large e-commerce and content management systems.

2. Why did you start LoTV? (League of Technical Voters)

It was after successfully lobbying on 9 out of 10 technical issues to the Texas Legislature.  (One of those was for municipal wireless access in Texas.)  I found the majority of the time all I had to do was show up and talk to the Legislators about the impact of their legislation on technology.  They often asked me to rewrite the bills on the spot.  The legislators are not particularly tech saavy and there really wasn't a nonpartisan group of techies for them to talk too. I researched further as to why none existed and determined it was an issue of personality type mismatches.  I thought I could solve that issue with software.   Hence the idea of the League was born. 

3.  Do you consider yourself more of a techie or a nonprofit/social  change activist or both?   

Techie first social change activist second.  It has made my life more difficult.  Most people don't always understand how a piece of software that facilitates conversations can change the world ... until it does.   Like um lets say myspace.

4.  How did you come up with idea of Code-A-Thon?
   

I made it up but soon after found out that other groups do some similar events.  Both BSD and plone do something call sprints that are quite similar.  Honestly, I think I got it from a combination of having working in the gaming industry where periodically during a big crunch we would launch into a nerf gun fight for like 15 minutes and then go back to coding.

5.  Jonathan Zittrain, professor at Harvard Law School, a lecture at  Harvard Law School about open source software and intellectual  property rights said "Put software developers in a room and pizza at one end and code comes out the other end"  What's your theory?  What do you think will come out at the other end  of your codeathon and will pizza be the input?
   

I don't know.  And I am excited to see.  I know that several programmers are cheating and will be bringing almost finished code.  Some things will get fixed.  Some things will only be designed and god only knows what amazing thing will be realized.  I never do.  It's that wonder that keeps me here.  We are in Austin Texas so I will be feeding them Mexican food as well as design specs and pizza.  I will have a caffeinated beverage sponsor!  I will try to keep their minds fed with a fair display of music and art every 4 hours as well!

6. How many women do you think will show up?
   

Several - all mainly friends of mine.  I'm hoping for about 5 or so but we are few and far between - in the gaming industry I was part of that 2%.

7.  Tell me about the hat in the picture on your blog?

It was my Great Aunt Jewel's hat.  She was an amazing strong woman.  I was on my way to a friend's tea party and had this picture taken.  I think it's cute.

Pamela Ashlund talks about blogging in the nonprofit workplace

Pamela Ashlund's first job was with a small nonprofit that provided services for the homeless and mentally ill over twenty years ago.   “I was hired to write their newsletter, but the budget was so tight that I shared an office with the controller.  He wanted to take a vacation so he cross-trained me in accounting.”   She has been a nonprofit finance executive ever since.

Pamela then worked for the YWCA of Sonoma County, a nonprofit focused on domestic violence and childcare before moving to a large community action nonprofit where she became the financial manager.  Along the way, she was a consultant, assisting nonprofits with new accounting software systems.  She says, “One such consulting job brought me to LA and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”  Her next job was with the Urban Conservation Corps in downtown LA, her current employer.

In January, 2006, she started a blog, the Nonprofit Eye, to write about professional topics of interest related to her work as a nonprofit finance professional.  She caught my attention when she announced her blog over at Netsquared. 

Your blog isn't an anonymous blog, but it is somewhat hard to find out about you and the organizations you've worked with.   Does your current nonprofit employer know you're blogging?

That’s a funny story.  I started  a blog as an online parody of my nonprofit workplace, but made a classic newbie mistake of naming my employer.  I thought no one would ever see the blog.  Little did I know ....  Worse yet, it was a two post experiment which I completely forgot about until it was “discovered” by my organization's marketing department. They were doing Internet searches for reputation management and it turned up.

Although I wasn’t fired for writing a blog, I was counseled.  It was a hard lesson and I wrote about it on my blog . Now, I try to keep my working relationship with my employer quite separate from my blogging life.

What advice would you give to other individuals who are staff members at nonprofits and have professional/personal blogs?

I still get a little nervous when I hit submit even though I don't write about my work life.  You have to remember that you are representing yourself and by extension your organization and sometimes both.  There is a gray line between the two.  I think that blogging could be such great buzz for nonprofits, but a personal/professional blog is not a place to air your dirty laundry.  A blog encourages openness and sometimes you might type things that you wouldn't say in other circumstances. I think the key is to use common sense.

Doe anyone at your nonprofit read your blog? 

Well, I don't send links to them.  I just publish it.  I suspect not because they're not techies.  They might come across it professionally now that I write about industry issues.  However, I think they would be proud.

Do you think there is a benefit to a nonprofit organization when  individuals/staff members  have a personal/professional blog? 

I think that is very beneficial for an organization.  But we're entering into new territory and I think you need to negotiate with your employer before hand.  There is a blog - called fispace.  That's a personal/professional blog written by a nonprofit staff member that makes the organization look good.

Should nonprofits have policies around staff blogging?

Some already do, see my blog:  Whistleblogging  & Whistle Blogging Part II.   I find the intersection of whistle blowing and blogging to be a source of humor as technology inevitably clashes with policy. 

How have you promoted and marketed your blog?

Even though I promised myself I wouldn’t blog about blogging, I did one post Birth of a Blog where I tell the tale of my attempts at marketing and promotion.

 

What are the 3 or 4 best blogs by women who write about the nonprofit sector? 

I discovered the nonprofit blogosphere after I heard a speaker at California Association of Nonprofits,  Bruce Sievers,  Visiting Scholar at Stanford University give a talk called “A Tale of Three Cities”.  I looked him up on the net and found SSRI where I found a link to White Courtesy Telephone.  There I found links to other nonprofit bloggers including yours!

If I had to identify three favorites:

Deborah Elizabeth Finn Technology for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector
Nancy Schwartz’s Getting Attention
Kelly Kleiman’s Nonprofiteer

From Community Arts To Community of Online Learners: Janet Salmons, Ph.D

I met Janet Salmons many years ago while I working on various arts and technology projects in New York State for the New York Foundation for the Arts.  Ever since, our paths have crossed several times in nonprofit technology circles online, most recently via the Digital Divide Network listserv and the online forums at TechSoup.   Earlier this month, Janet sent me a note that she had completed her Ph.D.  To celebrate this accomplishment,  I interviewed her!

1.  Tell me a little about your professional background, particularly the work you do with nonprofits?

I started in the Cornell University Center for Theatre Arts, where I founded and directed two programs: Cornell Theatre Outreach and the Community-Based Arts Project. These programs involved cultural, educational and training efforts that used interactive theater and storytelling. From Cornell I went to the intergenerational, national nonprofit called Magic Me. Most of the projects with these programs were carried out collaboratively; so I had a chance to see how different kinds of organizations, from grassroots to national, operate.

I figured out that I could offer teaching, training, consulting activities online. Since then, I've incorporated as Vision2Lead and started teaching online for Capella University.

2.  Congratulations on completing your PH.D!  Can you tell me what your doctoral research focused on?

It focused on collaborative e-learning. I interviewed ten online educators in five countries about how they planned and organized collaborative learning activities. The research was conducted entirely online, using a multi-media platform and over Internet.  I developed a Taxonomy of Collaborative E-Learning--a new conceptual framework for understanding levels of collaboration and ways to organize learning activities so participants learn to achieve collective outcomes. A premise for this work is that we need to be better at working collaboratively—whether the collaboration is across sectors, disciplines and organizations, or within a given organization, with participatory decision-making and teamwork. I'd like to see people have a variety of purposefully designed collaborative learning experiences so they are prepared to work collaboratively in professional life.

3.   As a faculty member for Capella University School of Business, can you tell me about some of the courses you've developed and are teaching?

I have developed and teach a variety of graduate courses on leadership and team leadership. These courses are designed for adult learners, using a "scholar-practitioner" model. That means we are looking at theories and principles in light of their application in practice.  Learners bring their own experience and observations into academic study, and build on what they know. The learner population is very diverse; over a third are people of color and 60% are female. Since the courses are very interactive, learners gain experience in online communication and teamwork as well as new knowledge in the subject of the course.  These diverse learners have a chance to see how the ideas being studied apply in corporate, small business, non-profit, medical, or military settings.

4.    What is your favorite course to teach?

I have two favorites. The first is called Leading for Results and the second is called Leading Teams. The Leading for Results course is not just about studying other leaders, but about learners thinking of themselves as leaders. This is a new perspective for many; as one put it: "until taking this course, I have never thought of, or seen it as my place to foster a common vision." The other favorite course is Leading Teams. For this course, learners practice what they are learning by working in a team for the course. They have to figure out how to communicate and organize their work online, to accomplish a case analysis together. I designed the course to reflect lessons learned from my doctoral research.

5.   What was your most exciting moment as an online instructor?  As an online learner?

As an online instructor at Capella, I have an exciting moment whenever I see someone make progress and gain new insights. When I get a note from a learner saying,  "thank you for challenging me to dig deeper," it makes my day.

I frequently give presentations using online conferencing— a different kind of teaching than the academic courses. I find it very exciting to have people from across the planet online together, asking each other questions and talking about ways to address common problems. Similarly, as an online learner, I find it exciting to share ideas and learn from and with others. From my view, this is what the web should help us do: become a global learning community. (Maybe we'd need fewer bombs?)

5.    Tell me a little bit about your blogs.

I am getting into the swing of blogging with two blogs: elearn2lead  and BElearner.

elearn2lead is aimed at educators in higher education. I share ideas and resources on topics related to collaborative e-learning, as well as general sources of interest to online educators. The blog focuses on instructional approaches, not on the technologies themselves.

BElearner. is aimed at online college/university learners.  Observing issues my learners grapple with, I find resources and put them online for any learners to use. I came up with a 4-step framework for the blog: 1. Find it! Locate current, relevant, appropriate sources. 2. Evaluate it! Assess the value of the resource you've found. 3. Write it! Use clear and appropriate writing styles to describe the ideas. 4. Cite it! Reference the source.

 

7.    Best blogs to read for online learning?

Sites/Blogs about blogging as an instructional tool:
Weblogs in the Classroom provides links to articles, tools and examples.
EduBlogs offers free blogs to educators and learners.

Blogs about collaborating online:
Ismael Peña's blog discusses The Campus for Peace, online collaboration and development
Kolabora Robin Good on social technologies and collaboration
Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Activities interesting ideas and examples

Photo from Janet Salmons

 

A Conversation with Lucy Hooberman About Mentoring Worldwide

Lucy Hooberman

I'm so amazed at the people I've met through blogging who are passionately interested in many of the topics I am!   I met Lucy Hooberman and learned about her Mentoring Worldwide project at the Global s London Summit in December.  I immediately signed up as a mentor!  A few months later, Lucy and I attended the Netsquared conference and split a room - so we got a chance to know each other and learn more about our work.

How did you dream up the idea of  Mentoring Worldwide?

I love the concept of "dreaming up" an idea!  It's hard to pinpoint a moment in time but I can say that a combination of influences lead to this idea taking shape towards the end of  2005.

I read a lot of hype about the next phase of the web but at the same time we  received stark messages about global fragility.  I'm talking about  the South East Asian Tsunami, Katrina, the earthquake in Pakistan as well as the poweful and continuing campaign to end poverty in Africa and the developing world.  We saw an outpouring of generosity from the public both in terms of donations of money, but also a desire to help in whatever way people could.  To the extent that it was not possible for agencies on the ground to spend all the money, nor possible for people to see where there money was going, nor was it possible for them to manage all the volunteers who wanted to go and help. I kept asking myself , what can I do?  Could I go?  If I went, what could I do?

Mentoring Worldwide was a personal and ethical response to living in an interdependent world and I think that is why so many people signed up to become mentors. And while I would never say that mentoring is a substitute for disaster planning and relief, it is clear that there is a demand and a role for mentors with skills to mentor people and projects in the developing world who might need those skills. Disaster or no disaster after a crisis there are many funded projects that could use a mentor, and many organisations who would welcome the expertise a mentor might provide to help an individual or project leader move forward.   And there is a need too expressed by people to offer their expertise, knowledge, time and skills if there is someone who needs them, rather than their money alone.

It sounds a bit grandiose, but it felt like a small idea which if it worked could lead to a bigger change An idea which could lead to people doing just what they could from home, and helping out one person at a time, one project at a time.  A kind of peer-to-peer process in which both parties will have much to learn.

How did you develop the idea?

I was very very lucky to be sent to a TED conference in early 2005 .  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.  I had heard about the conference for years.  The year I first went I was one of a hundred people to go on a breakfast brainstorm cruise around Monterey bay - something which is less appealing than it sounds if you have jet lag! 

We had been asked to bring an idea to change the world (seriously) and the job was to convince ten people on your table that your idea was best, the convince the other 90.  Well I was too British for all that early morning competitiveness  and my global conversation and mentoring idea came to naught.  But I plugged away and tried to get them interested in Pledgebank then a new tool developed by MySociety   

To cut a long story short - about nine months later Chris Anderson (curator of TED) discovered Pledgebank for himself and wanted to promote it in the US.  He challenged  his amazing conference attendees to come up with an idea change the world.  (Chris means business in this department.  If you go to one of  the  conferences you will get the measure of his and the conference attendees ambitions.)

I wrote up my idea in terms of a pledge and posted it on his site  and after it was chosen as a prize winner I had literally ten minutes to compose a pledge for pledgebank.      I pledged to mentor two people in the developing world if 250 people joined me.  350 people signed up by the deadline and I further pledged to create a database to try and make this idea fly.  He chose my idea and gave me £1,000 to start the project off.   

Around the same time I went to a Global s Conference hosted by Reuters at Canary Wharf.  I went as part of my work on citizens media for the BBC as I was working on a big project behind the scenes about how we could better engage with the blogosphere.  When we were all introducing ourselves I mentioned the pledge and quite a few of the Global s people, including you, signed up too!. 
Peter Gabriel is involved in a project to work with elder statesmen around the world as they have so much wisdom to offer and was kind enough to blog the plege on his website too - so it got quite a bit of attention.

We hit the 250 pledgers target a week before the pledge closed.  In the last week a further 100 signed up - which proves what we say we know.  That the web acts as an amplifer to our s - once things take off they take off. I was pleased to close the first pledge  in mid January as I was concerened how many peoples expectations I had raised. 

To make this dream a reality Chris Anderson  supported the idea further by hosting a lunch for me, well for the idea at TED in February 2006.  I was told there would be 30 people - not such a big deal I thought.  But 90 showed up.  Many of them have been in touch since with ideas for moving things forward, offers of help.  Even the critical friends have been useful.

What do you find most exciting about the idea?

I am excited, but I am cautious!  If that is a possible combination!  I am excited at the chance to start small and see it grow.  I am excited by the fact that so many people want to give it a go themselves.  I really hope we can find a way of making it work as part of peoples busy lives and that we have a chance to proove the concept.  I am much more excited than I am sounding here...

What are your next steps?

I have spoken to as many people as I can in the context of doing this in my so-called "spare time"  I have done quite a bit of research and many many of the pledgers have sent me ideas, called me, told me their views.  We have started a blog which is telling the story of the project, publishing research and ideas and letting people know how to get involved.  Next step is to open up the group to those who want to discuss various aspects of the proposition. I have had many offers of help , people wanting to volunteer . 

But we have needed to define a framework into which those offers can be made concrete.  The most crucial thing we need to do is to run a trial.  I'd like to test out some of our own claims, see what we can offer over the internet and phone across continents and cultures and see if it is of value.  The parameters of the trial are being discussed now and then I hope the volunteers are still there to help run the trial and to mentor.  It's been six months since the pledge, so some people will no doubt have lost interest - but I sincerely hope most will still want to mentor and some will want to help run the trial.

Can people still sign up to mentor?

The original pledge is closed  but you can still get in touch if you would like to mentor.  Or indeed if you want to help set up the next stage of the project or help with the trial.  I am actually going to fundraise for a paid project manager to work with me and the other volunteers.  We have to be realistic about peoples time.  Most of the Tedsters and Global s pledgers and , indeed, others are already very busy and very motivated people - and they signed up to mentor not to set up a trial or new organisation

What other type of help do you need?

That is a great question.  And the one I am most asked.  I will need a web designer who is sensitive to cultural context and able to make the complex simple! I will eventually need help with fundraising once we have done our trial.  I need someone to design us a leaflet - a real, printed leaflet that we can send people and leave on their desks!  I am sure there will be many many more things and   I will use our blog and mailing lists to keep people across what we need as we develop over time.  I need a laywer who knows both the US and UK charity scene and can advise us on governance, and how best to set up, and who wants to help for free.  If you can find us one of those then we will be eternally grateful!

Flickr Photo from the Mentoring Worldwide Blog

Nedra Weinreich: Social Marketing Guru

Nedra Weinreich, Spare Change Blog

Nedra Weinreich was one of the first nonprofit tagged blogs that I discovered while browsing the blogher blogroll a few months back.   She works with nonprofits and government agencies to bring about health and social change using social marketing.  She is the founder and president of Weinreich Communications, and wrote a book called "Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide."   

She writes the Spare Change Blog which I think is one of the best out there that focuses on social marketing.  Her articles are informative, well written, and provide good context.  Take for example her write up on Games for Change.     As you'll note from that article, Nedra has also been exploring Second Life and we bumped into each other at the TechSoup space there where we completed our interview.

1. In addition to your consulting practice and the book, can you tell me a little more about yourself.

My background is in public health, with an interest in using the mass media to help bring about healthy behavior change.  I’ve been teaching a course on social marketing at the UCLA School of Public Health, which has been a fun experience for me.  And I have my blog, Spare Change, which I just started in January.  (I also discovered during our interview that Nedra plays the cello!)

2. Why did you start blogging?

A year or so ago, I did not think that blogging would ever be something I would want to do, but I kind of fell into it and now I’m hooked!  My social marketing colleague Craig Lefebvre, who has a blog (On Social Marketing and Social Change), asked me to expand some comments I had made on the Social Marketing Listserve as a guest blogger.  After that, I found myself reading things and thinking “This would make a great blog post!”  So I decided to start my own blog to help people see how social marketing concepts can be applied to their own health and social issues, as well as to have credibility when I tell my clients to consider using blogging and social media.  A wonderful side benefit is all of the new friends and colleagues I have met as a result of writing the blog and commenting on other blogs.

3. What is your (simple) definition of social marketing?   What makes a successful social marketer?

Unfortunately, the term “social marketing,” which has been used since the early 1970s to refer to a specific marketing discipline, is being hijacked to mean something else entirely with the rise of things like social network marketing.  Social marketing is actually the use of commercial marketing techniques to promote behaviors that will bring about positive health or social change — the same tools that companies like Apple or Nike would use. 

A successful social marketer is someone who really gets to know their audience — what are they thinking, feeling and doing in relation to the health or social issue you are promoting?  What are their core values that you can tap into to motivate them to adopt healthy or pro-social behaviors?  I think to be successful, you also need to follow a systematic process for developing your social marketing strategy.  For example, rather than starting by saying “We need to establish a presence for our organization in Second Life,” begin with an assessment of who exactly you are trying to reach and where they can be found.  Perhaps most of your target audience members are not technologically savvy and don’t spend much time online beyond checking their e-mail.  Some sort of research — whether formal, like focus groups and surveys, or informal is imperative in order to create an effective strategy.

When nonprofits and government agencies want to create change on a large scale, they’ve traditionally relied on education as their main method — giving people all the facts and showing them why taking a particular action is in their best interest or is good for society in general. Sometimes this approach works, but more often it falls flat and is ineffective.  People generally know what it is that they SHOULD be doing, but what they ACTUALLY do is often related to things beyond the rational side of their brain.  Successful social marketers tap into people’s emotions, highlighting the real or intangible benefits that are most important to them.  So, for example, while a rational reason for breastfeeding might be that it provides beneficial nutrients and antibodies, a campaign to promote the practice might be more effective if it builds on a woman’s desire to be a good mother and provide the best for her baby, or if it highlights the bonding between mother and baby that its physical closeness promotes. 

4. How can blogs and other social media be used to support social marketing strategies?

I think blogs are a great way to draw people in to an issue by connecting with a real person who writes about their day-to-day experience.  If the blogger is someone similar to members of your target audience, and is a good role model in terms of adopting the behavior you are promoting (or even showing their struggle and difficulties with doing something, such as quitting smoking, assuming they eventually are successful), that can be very powerful.

And giving people a forum to create their own blogs, creating a community around an issue, can be empowering and life-changing for people who have not previously connected with others going through the same things as themselves.  I think everyone wants to be heard and have their experience validated, and we can provide a platform for this to happen, connected with a broader social marketing program.  Of course, we can also have an “official” blog created by the social marketing program itself, talking about issues related to the campaign, but I think it is so much more powerful to let the audience talk to each other.

Outside of blogs, I think that anything that facilitates word of mouth can be very effective.  When your friend or family member sends you information and invites you to become part of the campaign, you are much more likely to want to be involved than if a stranger contacts you.  The key is in figuring out what would be the big draw that people would want to share with their circle of friends, whether it’s new information that’s relevant to their lives, an interesting or funny video clip, an event or social movement that they want to make a difference in...

5. I see that you’ve been exploring Second Life and avatar marketing – do you see any possibilities for nonprofits and social causes?

Sheva Weeks (Nedra Weinreich in RL)

I am fascinated by Second Life and the unlimited possibilities it offers for social marketing.  I think the technology needs to improve before it becomes more widespread, but when it does I think it may well become the “third place” that people hang out in that’s not home or work.  The key difference between using SL and other online channels for marketing is that SL is so experiential.  You can create or simulate an experience that can evoke an emotional response from a visitor, as they have done with Camp Darfur.  I’ve also been interested in watching what the American Cancer Society has done with its virtual walk-a-thon in Second Life.   Other in-world possibilities include things like virtual one-on-one counseling, conferences, protests, benefit concerts, education centers, contests — you name it and I bet it will eventually be done.

6. Aside from your blog, what do you think are the best blogs out there on this topic?

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of other bloggers writing specifically about social marketing.  Here are the best of what I am aware of out there, including some nonprofit marketers that often have relevant posts:

- On Social Marketing and Social Change by Craig Lefebvre
- Katya Andresen, author of Robin Hood Marketing and VP at Network for Good, has a blog on Amazon at
- npMarketing blog by Marc Sirkin
- Selfish Giving
- Also see Nedra's post Five Resources for Social Marketing

Meet Erica Sonnier: All the Rumpus Blog Administrator

Erica Sonnier with daughters and new puppy (photo  on flickr)

Erica Sonnier is the “Blog Administrator” at Community Season, the developer a web-based automation tool for community organizations called Rumpus (http://www.rumpusnow.com/). The client base includes park and recreation organizations. 

1. What does someone with the title “Blog Administrator” do?

I am the writer/editor for our company’s corporate blog, All The Rumpus,   Everyone at our company feels that blogs are an excellent way to make our company’s feel more personal and to share
ideas and news with clients, potential clients and other interested parties.  I solicit and suggest story
ideas from people on staff. I might assign someone in the office to write a post if I’m not writing it myself.   While I’ve written many of the pieces,  I invite guest writers, people who we feel can
give something to our clients or the public.  I see myself as the point between our internal
teams, and our external blog presence. I have to say, the blog is one of the most enjoyable parts of my job. Now I’m even writing my own personal blog because blogs do get addictive!

Our company is currently working on a case study of how 20 or so nonprofits are using our software. We want to know about their needs and how technology providers can better meet those needs. Then we’ll share what we’ve learned with all our clients and the public through blog updates and feature articles on the blog.

2. Are you blogging full-time?

Blog Administrator isn’t my only job responsibility at CommunitySeason. I’m also the office and accounting manager. But Blog Administrator is my fun title!

3. How did you acquire the skills to do this job?

I didn’t have any special training, but I had to learn about blogs and how blogs are evolving in the world of the Internet and nonprofits.  All of us were blog novices. I think the best way to master something on the Internet is to just jump right in and get busy. I read different blogs to see what features may be appropriate for our blog site.

4. Why are you interested in the nonprofit sector?

I believe that nonprofits are important to our society. There are many people that need assistance at different times in their lives .Sometimes they need advice, sometimes they need support, and sometimes they need financial aid. Nonprofits help to support our citizens, our government,
and our very social structure.   I worked at a not-for-profit hospital early in my working days. At one time, I was the project manager for a silent auction sponsored by one of my employer’s for the National Kidney Foundation of New Mexico. I volunteered to help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of New Mexico when one of my friends was an event coordinator with them. My brother has a connective tissue disorder and my mother suffers from several different illnesses. Nonprofit organizations have provided me with detailed information on their illnesses and have brought my family members into the circle to meet and read about other people who may suffer from similar ailments. With all this, there is no doubt about the strength of my interest in nonprofits.

5. Do you think nonprofits should have blogs?

I think that nonprofits should have blogs because people want to feel that they are a part of something. The quickest and easiest way an organization can make an appearance of being “personal” is to create an organizational blog. Reading the personal opinions of staff members, seeing a little bit of the warmth and humor, learning about what they strongly believe in – these are things that people love!  People need people, blogs help create personality. Dry, stiff, professional websites have their place… but for organizations that want to appeal to the people and incorporate a sense of community – blogs are the way of the future! Blogs are your online newsletter, coffee break and gossip corner. You can share vital information, create a sense of community, and highlight important needs or considerations all in one place

6. What do you enjoy most about your workplace?

Our company is a fun bunch of people. We wear jeans to work, kick back, listen to some tunes and try to serve our clients the best way we can. We also a bring your dog to work policy. Take for example, Eiffel,  the lovely lab of our VP of Operations and our CTO, who is the Director of Employee Relations (http://www.communityseason.com/Company/about/staff.html). But she doesn’t know she’s a dog, so shhhhhhhh! She has excellent benefitslike sleeping during work hours, trips to the park instead of staff meetings, and raises full of hugs and kisses! I can’t wait to bring my new puppy to the office, Boudreaux is a boxer and he’s still learning about the best locations for potty time. So, he’s not quite ready to come to work yet. We have an awesome environment that’s just plain fun to be a part of. We love animals; we love kids; and we love our clients! We don’t love downtown traffic, but hey, it can’t all be good, eh?

Welcome to the Blogosphere: Julia Fabris McBride

A few years ago when I was working for the Online Arts Leadership project with the New York State Alliance for Arts Organizations and Cornell University,  I met Julia Fabris McBride. At the time, she was deputy director for programming at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation (IAAF).  She has since started her own consultanting company, Community Collaborations.

I have not heard from her in a while, but she just sent an email telling me aobut her new blog.  In March 2006 Julia and her husband, architect William A. McBride will make their long-anticipated move to Matfield Green, a town of 70 people in the heart of Flint Hills of Kansas.

Technorati Tags: arts, artsadministration, artsmanagement

Blogging To Improve Cambodia's Environment

Meet Zarah Jane Almeida who works as  a producer for Mlup Baitong's Environmental Advocacy Radio Program.   She has been blogging about her work and life at Sreisaat Adventures in Cambodia  since January, 2004.  Born in Roxas City, known as the seafood capital of the Philippines,  she graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in mass communications.   She moved to Cambodia in April, 2000.

1.  How and why did you find yourself in Cambodia?

Five years ago, after more than three years of working as a TV producer,  I  lost my enthusiasm for my work and resigned.   My sister was working for an NGO as a volunteer agriculturist in Cambodia and encouraged me to take a job there.

2.        Tell us about your work in Cambodia with the NGO, Mlup Baitong.

Mlup Baitong’s mission  is to address the problem of deforestation in Cambodia, with a focus on educating the public on conservation of natural resources.   I manage the over-all production of the radio program, attending production meetings and conducting in-house training for the local radio program staff so that they can take over my place after a period of time.   It was difficult to learn to the language at first!   Now, I enjoy working with my colleagues, traveling, searching for stories, interviewing people and listening to their stories and just interacting with them.   Although I come from a different culture, it doesn't hamper my work.  It is a benefit. 

3.   How does your NGO use technology to support your advocacy and education work?

Our organization gets feedback from listeners of our radio program via email and sms text messages.  (I got an exchange deal with a local mobile phone company and they gave us a free dial number so that listeners can call in during the broadcast for free for one year.)

After broadcast,  we re-edit the material and distribute for pagoda broadcasts in the provinces during holy days. The monks broadcast it through the pagoda public address system, a rudimentary system composed of a cassette player connected to an amplifier.  The monks help us with our environmental education and advocacy work.  I've written about this program on my blog and posted photographs on flickr.

The Community Forestry committee was also provided with a digital camera to aid them in documenting illegal activities that they've encountered during their regular patrols inside the forest.  The pictures are very vital evidence when the committee members write reports to local authorities or our organization to seek assistance.  The committee members of Community Forestry and Ecotourism projects were trained in basic computer skills and English language skills.

4.   Tell us about your blog?

I started my blog with the main goal of keeping in touch with family,  relatives and friends from far and wide.  I want them all to know about my work in Cambodia, and life here in general.  My Indonesian friend introduced me to blogging.  Using chats, she taught me how to start a blog and upload pictures. When I started to get lots of visitors, I realized why not blog more about my work with Mlup Baitong?   Although my blog is primarily for family and friends, I am inspired to read comments left by visitors saying that they learn more and something different about Cambodia’s environment.

Cross-posted on Global s

Technorati Tags: net2, nptech, cambodia

Meet Michael Stein 2.0

When I heard that TechSoup will be hosting an online about Web 2.0  and Nonprofits on Oct. 24th and that Michael Stein was one of the co-hosts,  I assumed (wrongly) that it was Michael Stein, Internet Strategist from Oakland, CA.   But in an email this morning pointing out my, gasp,  mistake,  I learned that there were two nonprofit technology consultants named Michael Stein!   And, the one who lives on the East Coast, this Michael Stein is the co-host!

I view mistakes as opportunities, so I took this chance to do an interview with Michael Stein (east) and perhaps help avoid any name confusion (at least on my part).

Can you describe your work in the nonprofit technology field?

I'm a techie by origin, having studied physics at MIT.  My first computer experience was with an IBM1130, a machine the size of a washer/dryer combo, with a whopping 16K of memory!

In the early 1980s, I began writing software programs for friends in various nonprofits organizations located in an office building where I rented office space.  My first clients were "solidarity" groups.  Gradually and actually pretty much by accident other organizations found us and we eventually had a very diverse clientele.  Along the line we incorporated it as MEMBERS ONLY SOFTWARE.   Out of all this work, a software application was born, called MEMBERS ONLY, a modular application for nonprofit CRM.  We also do consulting.

Do you often get confused with the other Michael Stein?  Was I the only person on this planet who didn't know there two Michael Steins in the nonprofit technology field?

It's a common name. I see five Michael Stein's (not counting myself) in my LinkedIn Network, for example.  I've had two other previous work situations where I worked much more closely with someone named Michael Stein. This led to a LOT of confusion. In one case I was eventually known as Little Michael Stein and the other Old Michael Stein.  That wasn’t a satisfactory resolution to name confusion.

But I guess it is pretty odd that there are two Michael Steins who work in the same field. I first met Michael by googling for myself and whoa! He sounds a lot like me!  So I dropped him a note.  Every now and then someone sends me an email clearly mistaking me for the other Michael Stein. 

Why are you interested in Web 2.0 and nonprofits?

If you read my blog entries here and here,  I have an ambivalence about how important some of these developments are for non-profits at the moment.  While Web 2.0 tools take collaboration and information sharing to a whole new level, the non-profits I work with have nuts and bolts Information Systems issues that are, and should be high priorities. 

For organizations that are ready,  I am eager to help them explore these tools. There are a number of discrete pieces that make up Web2.0., programming techniques, tagging and social bookmarking, blogging and they need to be looked at separately.

Even if an organization could benefit from these tools to solve a priority problem, there is an education effort needed. I was at YMCA of the USA Technology conference this week. When I suggested in a workshop that blogging was a natural for a YMCA, whose mission involves community building, I heard uniform resistance. Several people framed blogging as a negative  --  that it would raise traffic to their web sites and increase bandwidth costs.  So there is really a different understanding of what an Internet presence really means, what it can accomplish for an organization.

What advice would you give to nonprofits who are actually interested in exploring Web 2.0 tools?

I'd focus on tools that are meeting a need, "resolving a pain point."  I think collaborative tools like Wikis or Writely are worth exploring.  Everyone knows the nuisance of emailing around a doc and then having to collate everyone's edits.  Wikis or Writely can certainly be more efficient.

Despite what I report in the paragraph above, I'm still an evangelist for nonprofit blogging. It makes you SO much more visible. I'd also invite people to look into Ajax and related approaches when they are updating the interactive parts of their website to move their ecommerce look and feel forward. My users are very concerned about the experience their supporters have on their website when buying something or registering for an event, and these tools can make a real contribution. 

I think the excitement over tagging is lost on most of the folks I work with - they just do not see the "conversation" on the Internet as a major part of what they do. And those staff members who do are far removed from the IT staff - so IT is not supporting their effort with an organization-wide plan.

Meet the Bloghers: Liza Sabater

Meet Liza Sabater

This is a woman I was dying to meet face-to-face and didn't have a chance until the ending session when I was lucky enough to ploop down at the same table.   One of my other obessions is arts and technology, and in my book she is the  technology goddess of the artworld.   I wish I wasn't so brain dead when I interviewed her.

She has been an advocate for artists to switch from static portfolio type web spaces to blogging.   She told me that Thundergulch is moving to blogs. Liza said that migration to blogs is moving slowly.  Most because there was a wave of early adopters ten years and change is difficult.   The artist reaction to blogs is little "Been there, done that."  Liza is working drupalart.org - which will be a community blog/e-commerce site for artists.    

Technorati Tags: bloghercon blogher

Meet the Bloghers: Marian Douglas

Meet Marian Douglas she was sitting in the row in front of me during the When Globalization is Good for Women panel moderated by Nancy White.   In the discussion, she made an comment about wanting to get hooked in to Global s Online.  (I directed her to the For Bloggers section)

Marian's blog is about gender, race, nationality, and news not covered in the mainstream.   The amazing thing about Marian is that she speaks five languages!    Her main takeaway from the conference is that there is a growing network of women with lots of skills and talents.

Technorati Tags: blogher

Marc Canter at Blogher

Meet Marc Canter

I'm not sure if we are related or not.  Both our Kanter/Canter last names came from Russia.   Marc told me that he owns the domain name canter.com which is devoted to the family history of all Canters, Kanters, Cantors, or Kantors ...  I learned that the Canters came from Russia but immigrated to England first, not to the US like the Kanters did.   The Canter name was originally Canterosky, but had to be shortened.  The Brit translation changed the spelling to be like the city of Canterbury.   There's lots of famous Canters -- Eddie Canter, Canter's Deli in LA, etc.

Why did you come to blogher?  It's my wife's 40th birthday so it was my birthday present to her.  Her blog is lisa.blogs.it

This is a hypothetical question.   If we got married, would you want me to: a) change my name from kanter to canter 2) keep my maiden name or 3) hypenate Kanter-Canter?  I'd let you do what you would want to do.

What's it like to be a man at blogher?  The industry isn't about all white males and I apologize for having a penis!

Technorati Tags: blogher bloghercon