Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

People on the Move in Nonprofit Tech: Jocelyn Harmon

Jocelyn Harmon

Making a change in your life - whether moving, getting married, having kids, changing jobs, or whatever to follow your passion - is very exciting.  And probably a little scary, but following your heart is always the right thing to do. 

I just got an email from Jocelyn Harmon telling us:

 

"I'm writing to let you know that I'm leaving NPower Greater DC Region at the end of this week to pursue my bliss –  WRITING, SPEAKING and THINKING WITH OTHERS about marketing and communications strategies for nonprofits!

1. Go where the energy is.
2. Test out your dreams.
3. See if they bear fruit.

So that is what I'm going to do"

I had the pleasure of working with Jocelyn on the NTEN Day of Service when the NTC was in Washington, DC.  I will still have an opportunity to work with her on another NTEN related project (Be The Media!)

Best of luck Jocelyn!

 

Paul Henderson's Geekily Recursive Photo!

Earlier this week I was on a panel at the UK Circuit Riders conference in Birmingham.  The session run by David Wilcox, Nick Booth and Laura Whitehead.   (I blogged my remarks here).

It's so much fun to do panels remotely. Thanks to Paul Henderson for capturing this photo.   He wrote up his report from the conference.  He's a great photographer - the rest of his photos are in his flickr.  Laura has more too and everything tagged ukriders is here.

Here's David Wilcox's post.

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. 

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!!! :-)

Susie's Blog -- A Nonprofit Techie Who Loves Chocolate and Open Source Software

Susie Halksworth photo in flickr


Susie Halksworth is the Resources Director at AFL (formerly the Cambridge Independent Advice Centre), a not-for-profit organisation based in Cambridge, focused on advice and ICT projects.   Her blog, Susie's Blog - Winning hearts and minds over to FOSS (Free Open Source Software) is an excellent example of how professionals in the nonprofit technology field use blogging for professional development.

Susie has a great sense of humor.  She describes why she started her blog, "I'm starting this blog because our organisation is trying to move over entirely to open source software, and it's been such a feast of internecine struggle and moral outrage so far I thought it would be useful to other people to show the real non-techy issues of Moving Over To The Dark Side."

1.  Tell me a little about your background

I’ve worked for AFL (Advice For Life) for 5 years, and I started work here a couple of years after I left university as a receptionist, moving up to administrator, then office manager, and now resources director.  I’m hanging around to see what I’ll end up doing next!  My degree is in English and I originally planned to do a PhD and go into research (on 18th century feminist women’s writing) but I somehow got sucked into the voluntary sector, I think because the people I meet are committed and interesting, I love having a job with a mission, and I never lasted longer than a couple of months anywhere else.

2.  Tell me a little about your organization

AFL, which was Cambridge Independent Advice Centre until, ooh, just recently, is a medium sized voluntary organisation based in Cambridge, which has advice (on Social Welfare Law) and IT projects. It started in 1988 with two part time staff (who still run it) and a £30,000 yearly income, and now we have loads of staff and lots of different projects and a turnover of 1.3 million.

3.  It sounds like you're an "accidental techie" - in that you didn't get training to do tech stuff.  What are your most challenging moments as the technical person in your ngo?

I’m not just accidental, I’m not really a techie at all. I did a bit of work on Joomla websites for our IT project, and I had no training except from our very helpful computer person, Chris, who gave me stuff to read, encouraged me and helped sort it out when things went wrong. I’m involved in our FOSS project in terms of smoothing its passage (so to speak) – actually helping to work out the details of what we need to do to get people to co-operate in using it. The most challenging moments by a long chalk have been the human aspects of FOSS – persuading people to try it and not give up at the first obstacle – it has sometimes seemed more like a power struggle between silver-backed gorillas than an IT project.

4.  Why blog?

A couple of reasons – I wanted to explore different and more informal ways of communicating what was going on in our organisation as we grow into this huge corporate monster, and Chris and I thought we were (to put it
euphemistically) learning so many useful lessons about how people react to FOSS being rammed down their throats with no prior consultation (sometimes slightly negatively, surprisingly) that it would be useful to share the experience.

5.  Is it an organizational blog or personal blog?  What conversations did you have within your employer about starting this?  What do you see as the value?

It’s a semi-organisational blog, which means I censor myself slightly but probably not enough! I didn’t really discuss it with anyone.  I did mention the idea to a couple of people, but no-one could really see why it was a good idea, so I went ahead and did it anyway. I don’t know what the value is, really, I’m still thinking about that one, and it’s still developing – I just think the whole networking thing that goes on with the web is really interesting, and I thought it might help us connect with other people doing the same kind of stuff. Also there was a whole feminist thing about wanting to add to the visibility of women working in FOSS.

6.  If you read other blogs, what are the most useful ones for nonprofit/VSC technology issues.

I’m sorry, this is the question I’m going to fail on. I’m still finding my way round nonprofit and technology blogs – the only blog I read on a regular basis is Eunny Jang, and I think I mostly do it to revel in feeling inadequate.  I’m open to any suggestions about what I should be reading!

7.  I see that you like to eat chocolate raisins, do you think chocolate is an important must-have supply on hand for nonprofits organizations?  What are the best chocolate raisins?

The best chocolate raisins are the ones from Al-Amin, the shop down the road, £1 for a great big bag. I notice Tesco has started selling extra-large ones, which would seem to me to destroy the whole chocolate/raisin ratio, but that’s Tesco for you – never satisfied. I do think chocolate is important because we in the voluntary sector are always so busy and underresourced, so we need something to keep us orally occupied and off the chardonnay.

Somehow, I think Susie would enjoy reading Nancy White's blog.
 

Why did the Kangaroo Cross the Road?

Gippsland
Originally uploaded by Choconancy1.

To get to the other side!

Nancy White is in Australia this month and you can follow along on her trip blog.

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.

Another online fundraising/event registration tool: Mollyguard

Over a year ago, I interviewed Carnet Williams, a long time member of the nonprofit technology and riders community and who recently launched a tool called Chipin which is designed to simplify the process of connecting with people in your social network to collect money for a personal cause, to purchase a gift, or for community fundraising.   Carnet also introduced me to Mollyguard and I took the opportunity to interview the co-founder, Julia Hartz, for blogher.

Back in October, Idealware did a fabulous roundup of twenty-seven lower-priced online software tools and  some pointers for how to select a tool that matches an organization's needs. (Idealware's founder and director, Laura Quinn, was recently interviewed as part of my interviews over at blogher.)  While Mollyguard wasn't in the roundup (it's relatively new), I hope that in the next review the folks at Idealware will take a look and tell us what they think!

Photo from Julia Hartz in flickr

Rob Johnston: NP Tagvocate for nonprofit employment resource information- 2nps

The NP Tagvocates N-TEN Affinity Group is trying to spread tagging in the nonprofit sector. (Click here and scroll down to NP Tagovates).   If anything else comes out of this experiment, it is a great way to find out about nonprofit bloggers and taggers. 

Today, Rob Johnston from the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Pace University stepped up as a NP Tagvocate for the "2nps" tag that should be used to share any resource related to employment in the nonprofit sector, career transitions, baby boomers and public service, etc. 

Rob is working on a program to ease the transition of experienced business people to nonproit employment.   The site is 2Nonprofits.org.  There is also a blog comunity.

Tags: 2nps

Raising Thousands (if Not Tens of Thousands) of Dollars with Email

Madeline Stanionis, author of new book on email fundraising.

My colleague Michael Stein emailed me about a month ago right before the NTC Conference to offer me a FREE review copy of a new book by Madeline Stanionis about how nonprofits can raise money online using email.  I love the title, "Raising Thousands (if Not Tens of Thousands) of Dollars with Email." published by Emerson & Church.  All I had to do was blog about the book after I read it ....  I was gonna read it on the plane, but with last month's sad events - it got lost in the shuffle.  So, I picked it up again this week ...



I was particularly interested in the topic because online fundraising strategy isn't my core area of nonprofit tech knowledge.   And, as a volunteer or board member with small nonprofits, we've never been able to go very far in implementing an online fundraising strategy.    So, this book might prove to be an excellent educationational resource. 

Madeline Stanionis is a guru in online fundraising.  Currently she is president of Donordigital, a well-respected firm that helps nonprofits (larger ones) raise money online and mobilize constituents for progressive causes -- so I was little skeptical as to whether the book would be a long sales pitch for her company's services. IT IS NOT!    The book is like having a private consult with her!  She is sharing extremely useful information in a way that smaller nonprofits can eventually apply it!

There's another thing I like about her book -- her .  I've never met Madeline or heard her speak, but she has a great sense of humor and her writing style made me laugh.  (And I really needed to laugh)   The book is friendly to visual learner types like me -- with lots of bullet points, charts,  and screen captures.  Better yet, you can read it in a few hours -- and it chocked full of stories from the field and strategy tips.   Her calm, authorative style leaves you with the sense that your organization can do that!   There is absolutely no snail oil talk either ...

Even though many of the examples are about larger nonprofits like the Humane Society and Earth Justice, at least she apologizes.  Better yet, she offers "translations" for smaller nonprofits.   I'm on the board of a small nonprofit that has flirted with the idea of email fundraising, but has stayed clear for one reason or another. (Fear of the investment, a sense that only large nonprofits can do this, blah blah blah, etc.)   So, I lent the book to a few board members and asked them to read it.  So far, there is interest in beginning a conversation about email fundraising!

Some other places where you can read more about Madeline and her new book:.

Michael Stein interviewed Madeline Stanionis for the N-TEN Blog
Betsy Harmon (a nonprofit internet strategy consultant) wrote a review here
You can purhcase the book here

Female Nerd Myth Busting: Female Nerds Are Not Ugly!

In the comments of my post of Annalee Newitz's talk on the Revenge of the Female Nerds, my friend Anina pointed me her interview on nerdtv.

I met and live blogged Anina at Blogher.  This female nerd doesn't wear glasses and is not ugly.  Anina represents the new European tradition in mobile Internet development. And you'd never guess her day job.

I loved the interview - especially the "Lies to Tell the Phone Company" bit.  It made me wonder why there weren't more female nerds on the nerdtv guest list? 

Macintosh OS programmer Andy Hertzfeld (9/6)
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin (9/13)
Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy (9/20)
Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle (9/27)
Internet publisher Tim O'Reilly (10/4)
Father of RSS Dave Winer (10/11)
Autodesk co-founder Dan Drake (10/19)
Intel Capital co-founder Avram Miller (10/28)
Anina High Fashion Meets High Tech (11/9)
Spreadsheet inventor Dan Bricklin
Computer mouse inventor Doug Engelbart
Former Lotus chief scientist Jerry Kaplan
Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak
Former Apple chief scientist Larry Tesler
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
The father of Linux, Linus Torvalds
TCP/IP inventor Bob Kahn
Guest list is subject to change

It does say "guest list subject to change."  Maybe we need to email Robert x.Cringley and suggest some other female nerds to be interviewed? Certainly there are lots of to choose from in the Blogher Speaker Wiki.

Technorati Tags: blogher, nptech, net2, webjustice2.0, femalenerd

Meet ThaRum: Cambodia's Second Most Famous Blogger

Tharum started his blog in June 2004 while a student at the National University of Management and working for the Open Forum for Cambodia, a Cambodian NGO devoted to digital divide issues.   He worked as a content editor for the Khmer language portal. 

Tharum became a celebrity blogger when his blog was featured on the front page of the Cambodia Daily (the photo above was taken during that interview).   He became a global celebrity a few days later when a another article appeared in Wired.   

I first "met" Tharum when he left a comment (one of the first!) on Beth's Blog in August, 2004.   I hope to get back to Cambodia and meet him face-to-face someday soon.

1.  A friend described you as an "IT Catcher" - can you explain what that means?

As always, young people are at the forefront of transforming their societies through the information revolution. I am personally interested in technology and I can quickly learn do something with it.

2.  What do Cambodian people think of blogs?  Are they familiar with  blogs? Do your friends and colleagues have blogs?  What do they think of YOUR blog?
 
A friend believes it is a tool he can publish thoughts, political analysis, and news review. He usually writes letter to the editor of the Cambodia Daily newspaper to his concern about the country. Few
people find it important, while the rest think that sleeping is a lot better. Few months after I created my personal weblog, I shared it with some friends. They, as far as I know, were not very interested in this
until my weblog was featured on the front-page of the Cambodia Daily. Since then some of them have created their own blogs. I was elated that some of them expressed support of what I have done so far with blogging.

3.  What benefits has your blog brought to you?
 

It is quite interesting to interact with people from different places all over the world. Some visitors write email to ask about working and traveling in Cambodia. This is good as I always want my home country,
Cambodia, to be known to the outside world.

4.  Do you think blogging will really take off in Cambodia?  What about the introduction of Khmer-Language software? 

Khmer Unicode and Khmer-language software, which KhmerOS project of the Open Forum of Cambodia have done, will be a major boost. People will find it easier in communication.

5.   You worked for the Community Information Web Portal Cambodia for a couple years as content collector.  What was the most interesting part of your job?  What are some lessons learned for providing local content for local people?
 
People need information. I was one of few others to carry out this work to help them.

6.   In the provinces, people can access Khmer language content via the CICs.  There are tremendous barriers - illiteracy, lack of electricity, etc -- how do they get people into the CICS to read the content?  What has been the local response to the content you've developed?
 

I believe the Community Information Centres project, funded by the Asia Foundation, plays an integral part in connecting provincial people to information at this beginning stage. Government officials and
Non-Governmental Organization workers are the primary target. Students, monks, and ordinary people can be key players in further disseminating information to their villages. After the centres and the portal were
established, we launched a national promotion campaign to inform our  audiences. However, we do believe, great service and content will make people to help this further more. Of course, it is interesting when we
receive email from the center asking for information on how to cultivate productively.

7.   How are Khmer people trained to use computers in Cambodia?
 
Short training course are available from private schools and some Non-Governmental Organizations throughout Phnom Penh. A trainer with a manual can give an introduction of computer basic skills to as many trainees as it fit in a room. The very first thing to be familiar with computer is learn how to type, typing skill. Only some serious learners find books important to understand more.

8.   What is your biggest hope for the future of technology/Web/Internet in Cambodia and bridging the digital divide?
 
I do believe appropriate technology deployment will benefit poor and  rural people. Young people are quick learners. The skills will help them find job easily. In another point, it empowers Cambodia to be a
knowledge-based and democratic society.

9.   Finally, since you speak and type in English and Khmer - do you have any advice for me as I attempt to learn to improve my khmer and make it half as good as your English?

It takes some time to be familiar with it. However, it is difficult to learn it as quickly and easily as you first learn to type in English.  With courage, everyone can do it.

(In case you're wondering, the most famous blogger is Cambodia's ex-king)

Cross-posted on Global s

Photo courtesy of Matt Reed, writer for the Cambodia Daily.  (Note:  Tharum tells me that this is his favorite casual shirt)

Technorati Tags: nptech

RSS Feeds from the Nptech World

I keep remembering how overwhelmed I felt when I first started my quest to find blogs to read that would speak to my interests in nonprofit technology.   Thankfully, a couple of colleagues shared their public bloglines subscriptions.   At one point, I had a linklist called "RSS Feeds I'm Eating" but I've decided to dump them into del.icio.us using nptech and bloglines tags.   They're here and in the linklist called "Blogging Primers"  (you know over there <----- to the left).    This little housekeeping was prompted by Michael Stein who shared his bloglines subscriptions.   

Technorati Tags: nptech

Profiles of Nonprofit Bloggers from TechSoup

Hmm ... missed this one.  Three interviews with nonprofit bloggers by Marnie Webb on TechSoup back in August, 2004.

Meet Marshall the Nonprofit Blogging Coach

I first "met" Marshall when he left a comment on my blog about the interview with Marnie Webb.  I was curious by how he described his work:  "blogger coach to nonprofits."  I also sensed a kindred spirit who is interested in how technology impacts what's inbetween the keyboard and the chair ... human aspects of technology.

So far, I have interviewed people who I have met face-to-face or have known through my work in the nonprofit tech field.  Marshall now has the honor of being the first person I have interviewed who I haven't actually met face-to-face.   

1.  What type of work do you do in the nonprofit sector?

I am 28 years old and am just beginning to work in consulting and training in the use of new web tools for research and communication.  More specifically, I help non-profit, small business and academic groups and individuals learn how to use web applications and services like RSS, blogs, wikis, search, social bookmarking, podcasting and more.  I'm very excited about it.  I am working on making a living turning other people on to it all.

2.  How did you become interested in nonprofit technology?

I have long been a dedicated web researcher, so when I started hearing about blogs and about RSS, I investigated.  That led to the whole exciting world some people call Web 2.0 - online services and applications made possible by ubiquitous broadband, dirt cheap storage, programming innovations and human ingenuity.  The way that it all made my brain team with information like surfing the web manually for text information never could made it obvious to me that I needed to tell as many other people about it as possible.   Maybe some of these new tools to be leveraged for purposes connected to fighting injustices.

3.  Tell us about your blog?  How long have you been blogging?  What do you blog about?

I try to make my blog a place people can come to learn about new developments on the web.  I have some static resources there, several dynamic resources (like syndicated feeds of certain categories of my Furl archive and the main column of posts or articles.  I try to write there at least 4 times a week.   I waited for quite awhile before beginning to blog, I've been reading blogs from probably a year, and have only been writing one for  6 months.

4.  You mentioned that you do blog coaching.   What is blog coaching exactly and how do you do it well?  Can you give me an example of some advice you've given some nonprofits?

By blog coaching I mean that I teach people how to run a blog.  I find people or organizations who could use a place online to post new information about their work regularly, quickly and with very little technical skill.  I set them up with a nice looking site, ancillary services like a traffic monitor, email-subscribe service, RSS feeds and explanation, syndicated headlines from elsewhere, etc.  Then I train them how to blog well, to the best of my ability.

I familiarize people with what kinds of content are appropriate for the medium.  I tell them to write short posts and often.  I show them several typical types of blog posts.  For example, in certain circumstances I'd tell people to base their posts on three basic forms: short announcements, medium length excerpts from elsewhere with commentary and very occasional long posts of original content.  I show people how to use a WYSIWYG editor, and how to learn HTML troubleshooting by flipping between those two editing modes.  I show people how to use ancillary services, including an RSS feed reader and social bookmarking system to find and store content that may end up on their blog.

A huge part of being a good blog coach in contexts outside the corporate world is, I believe, taking peoples' life experiences seriously.  As a heterosexual, middle class white man in the USA, it took me a long time to have it driven into my skull that not everyone relates to situations the same way I do..or even could if they wanted to.  In this context that means that though blogging and throwing my thoughts all around the internet may seem like the most natural thing in the world to me - that is not the case for everyone.  Many people with life experiences unlike my own, all of us always influenced by matters like race, class, gender and age, have some intangible but very real obstacles to feeling comfortable blogging.   I try to take this very seriously, and I'm just beginning to learn ways to engage
in an informed manner.  I don't write about these kinds of things on my blog, because there are other people far better qualified, and I want to help those people with the skills I do have.

5.  How did you discover my blog?  Have you been reading awhile before you posted or did you find and post a comment?   

I found you doing a Technorati Tag Search for Non-Profit, after I applied the same tag to a blog post of mine.  I think I noticed your interview with Marnie Webb, who I recognized from TechSoup.org. 

I did post a comment right away after discovering your blog.  I had something I wanted to contribute and felt it was not inappropriate for me to do so.  I recognize that this is easier because of the sense of entitlement I'm socialized with, so I try to exercise some discretion when deciding whether my thoughts really warrant posting.  But I also recognize that the world is in pretty rough shape, and if I can offer technical assistance then I should.

Any advice to me on how to improve my blog?
 
You might want to consider moving your "contact me" link to the top, instead of the bottom of your sidebar so it's easier to find.  Similarly, your "syndicate" link might work better to be in a more obvious place, and should probably be in closer proximity to your button explaining RSS.  I think it's good to have a small number of one-click "subscribe in..." buttons on a blog as well.  I think that people just beginning to learn about these subjects could really benefit from a Subscribe in MyYahoo or MyMSN or Bloglines button.  If beginers are part of your taget audience, they certainly are part of mine.

I don't know how good the Typepad RSS traffic stats are, but you might want to look at reburning your feed at Feedburner.com.  They have great stats and services.

If you think that email subscription to new posts is something some of your readers would be interested in, I like the services of bloglet.com.

Really though, your blog is pretty fantastic and is something I feel like I need to spend lots more time going through.

(Thanks Marshall for all the great advice, I'm going to make some changes after I post this interview.   Do you have step-by-step instructions for feedburner?)

6.  How did you discover the nptech tag?  How have you been using the nptech? 

I found it on one of the blogs I found through yours.  I've been using it as a technorati tag at the end of relevant posts on my blog, I've been grabbing the delicious feed to watch what other folks are finding, and I've added nptech as a topic in my furl archive to contribute to the stream myself.  It's such a huge field, we'll have to see how helpful such a broad tag ends up being.  Tagging itself is going to need to change so that people feel more comfortable using multi-word tags.

7.  I noticed that you recently posted on the nptech community site, how did you discover it?

Probably through the Delicious feed, probably via Technorati Tag search.  I don't know for sure.  I try and concentrate these days on where things are after I've seen them, it's a whole other matter to try and remember where I was before I found them!

8.  What are your observations about blogging and nonprofits?

I think nonprofits really need to use blogs to keep themselves on the public radar screen, to deepen the public knowledge about the issues as they unfold, and as a way to mobilize supporters. It's a great way to focus discussion, to communicate with constituents so you can be responsive.   The word blog is in many ways interchangeable with the word RSS feed, and there's lots of proven advantages of RSS over email.  (Pull not push content, changeability of information after initial  transmission, ease of opting out for recipients, easier delivery of attached multimedia files.)

I am also very intrigued by the concept some people are calling newsmastering, though I despise the word master.  Creating a place where content around a certain theme is aggregated, in part by machine selection in part socially, and in part by a human.  That's very exciting, I think.

I'm also very interested in the use of internal blogs.  A large number of big corporations are using internal blogs to facilitate conversation between leadership and the rest of the organization.  I'd like to help this happen more in the non-profit world.

Allocating sufficient time to the tasks associated with blogging is something we all have to take seriously, though.  I think that the medium has an unserious reputation, which is interesting but undeserved, and that disguises the seriousness of the work to write well regularly and participate in the conversations that rapid online communication enables.

Of course there is also the very important concern that the dominant people in the real world, even in social change movements, will also dominate the blogosphere to the detriment of everyone involved and the project as a whole. 

9.  Can you tell me more about your work with wikis and nonprofits? How have nonprofits you're working with used wikis?

Wikis are great for collaborative document development and knowledge sharing.  Meeting agendas can be edited to add items as the meeting approaches.  Mission statements can evolve organically, with each previous version available in the page history.  Meeting minutes can be deposited in a central place, added to or edited according to multiple perspectives.  Personal pages can provide participants with a sense of web presence to introduce themselves with far beyond anything they were likely to get using email introductions or a proprietary form based system.

Wikis are great, but they require some oversight for clean-up and encouragement.  Just because they are so easy to change, and thus to leave messy or forget about if email notification of changes is turned off or doesn't have momentum.  When I do a wiki training session I demonstrate the simplest "edit page", save and view previous versions first.  That generally gives people a good idea what's going on.  Then I show them Wikipedia, and I used to demonstrate Wikalong, but the page history of that service is broken and thus so is the wiki as far as I'm concerned.

That's a great loss, because the idea of Wikalong - a wiki space sidebar corresponding to every URL online - is fantastic!  I gave up on that particular service after I showed someone how they could post a description and link to the lawsuit against Coca Cola for hiring death squad members to kill union organizers in Colombia in the Wikalong sidebar for cocacola.com...and then it was deleted by another user days later.  No problem at all, if the page history function is working then the previous incarnation will never be lost, but will remain a part of the living artifact that is that particular wiki space.  But no such luck, it's broken.  That's one thing that I try to keep in mind when evangelizing all these amazing new web applications and services: they aren't very amazing when they break.

Technorati Tags: nptech

Carnet Williams: Nonprofit Technology, Blogging, Aggregating, & Surfing ...

While checking my links in Technorati last month,  I came across a link from a blog named "Darkstar.org" and wasn't sure who it was.   After a little digging, I figured it out was Carnet Williams!  So, I tracked him down for an interview ...

1.   You've been in the nonprofit technology space for a long time.   I remember reading your posts in the early days of Rider's list and finally meeting you back in 2001.  Can you share a little of your background ....

I have been bouncing all over.  My introduction to the nonprofit technology space occurred during my first year of law school in Oregon (1995).  I realized that technology was a powerful agent of change, but it was not being integrated into grassroots socially progressive organizations. 

As is my nature, I see a problem and try to solve it.  I formed Community Networking Technologies (CNT) with another law student (Rachel Ogdie, now my wife Yeh!) and a bunch of volunteers.  We ran around to local nonprofits in Eugene helping them with their technology projects.  We had no money and foundations did not understand what we were trying to do. 

I also wanted to recruit and train the next wave of nonprofit staffers since the aging middle of the movement seemed to be moving on.  College kids have a tremendous aptitude for technology, but lack real world skills.  I transformed CNT into NetCorps as a response to recruiting, training, and placing college kids in nonprofit orgs to lead technology based projects.  We taught our NetCorps students skills such as running meetings, performing needs assessments, project management, etc. 

Our goal was for NetCorps interns to teach NGOs how to integrate technical tools into their workplace to achieve their mission, at the same time these orgs were teaching our students how to deal in life.  The ultimate goal was for these students to be hired on full time when they graduated by the nonprofit organization who now realized they could not do without this skillset in the office.  Many of our students ended up staying in the sector after they graduated. 

I also met Rob Stuart early on as an organizer of the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene... I must say I was often not found in a classroom during law school.  I jetted out to the first Riders Roundup in Chicago where I realized there were other folks doing similar work. 

I then went on to help start NTEN as a board member.  I sidestepped out of nonprofit tech sector when I jumped into Silicon Valley to help start a Linux company called TurboLinux.  We never made it to an IPO, but I learned tons in the process.  I then tried to start an online advocacy firm called NetVocate, but when the dotcom bubble burst, so did we.  I then became and associate dean at Stanford Law School, then moved on to be Director of Academic Technology for Stanford University. 

My love and curiosity with technology runs deep.  I have always continued to dabble in all sorts of social organizing tools and try to keep up with the latest in cool new tools. 

2. What you are doing now?

Two years ago my wife and I decided we needed to get out of the rat race of the Bay Area, so we moved to Hawaii where I am now working at The Nature Conservancy starting up an international trade policy and invasive species program.  I have just recently decreased my hours at TNC to work with some folks to start a Wireless startup company in Hawaii trying to form a FreeNet WiFi network across the islands.  I am also involved in a renewable energy project to turn waste into energy to reduce Hawaii’s dependence on imported fossil fuels and to reduce the load on our island landfills.  Ok.. My wrists hurt and this is getting too long.

3.  Are you maintaining a personal or organizational blog?

I still keep a blog... Darkstar.org and a surfing blog. (BK Note:  In the photo, you'll see a surf board, along with the technology tools, including Carnet's new treo. If you want to see more of Carnet's boards, click here.)  I also use a mailing list to send friends things I read.  I find that I have such a hard time keeping up with reading that trying to blog on it is just too much time.  I am also trying to get folks to use WiKi, to collaborate, but it has been tough.

4. You created npoblogs.net in October, 2003 with Kathy Walkins.  Why did you create it?  What was your vision?

I created NPOblogs as a means to aggregate the many socially progressive blogs that were appearing.  This was in the days before bloglines and such.  I was finding it hard to keep up with all the blogs out there and thought it would be nice for someone looking for blogs/rss feeds to come to a single site to find a listing.  I also wanted to create a site to aggregate all the different online advocacy campaigns running based on categories, so a user could have a one stop shop to do “one good thing a day”... I would still like to build such a site so if anyone is interested drop me a line :)

5. Do you think there is a value in blogging for nonprofits?   

I think blogging for nonprofits is a great way for constituents to keep updated with what is happening within an organization.  Blogs are really just a mechanism for communication.. It is the actual message/content that is the most important.  Blogs have just made it super easy for groups/people to quickly get their thoughts online.  Sort of the 21st century scratch pad.  I think with the ease of use that Wiki software and CMS (plone, drupal) systems provide for quick updates, we will see many new mechanisms for groups to get their content/message out and keep their site fresh. 

I don’t think we should too hung up on blogging itself... We need to realize that the digital age has created a ripe environment for quickly disseminating and absorbing information.  We are becoming a multi-tasking and connected society.  Most folks now demand news and information from more than just their local papers.  Nonprofits need to take advantage of this change in personal engagement to the world, and make sure we have a place in that new window.

6. What do you think are the challenges of blogging for nonprofits?

Too much information, the noise and static of it all.  You should see how many lists, annoucements, actions, etc. that come across my email inbox a day.  That is why I think there might be value in sites that aggregate information so that folks can find the right time in their day to go read and appreciate topical information.  That is why I think a site that aggregates all the advocacy actions daily would be a good place to start a one good thing a day campaign and get people into the habit of checking to see what they can do to make a better world.  I know most folks have a short list of sites they check once a day (commondreams, craigslist, espn, etc).  I also think content is still important.. Blogs make it easy to post information, but sometimes I find the info is being posted just out of habit or to fill a day in the blog, vs. making the content mission driven, on message and clear.

7. I should also ask you about surfing - how often do you surf?  Are those all your surfboards on your surf blog?   

I try to surf as much as possible.  I actually have about 10 boards (sheesh.. don't tell rachel) that I ride consistently.  When I have time I get up, do an hour or so of work, then head out at sunrise and surf a couple of hours before getting online.  Surf's up ...Aloha ...

Technorati Tags: nptech

A Conversation with Michael Gilbert on Nonprofit Blogging

  

For this week's bloggerview, we caught up with Michael Gilbert, who writes the Nonprofit Online News, which is   not only the oldest nonprofit-oriented blog, but one of the oldest blogs altogether.   Michael shared some insights into his writing discipline and practice, content filtering approaches, and observations of blogging by and about nonprofits.   

Q: When did you start publishing? Why? How did you get started?

Nonprofit Online News is tied with Scripting News (Dave Winer's blog) as the oldest weblog still being published, period. As you probably know, Dave has been in the center of the blogging revolution, whereas I am over here in the nonprofit sector, so the histories of blogging never mention Nonprofit Online News. So yes, I have been blogging since before the term was invented.

I think of the origin of Nonprofit Online News as one of those sweet Internet accidents, something that always reminds me that networks are infrastructures of natural abundance. Let me explain by telling
the story of how it got started. 

During 1995 and 1996 I found myself in the position of being the person best informed about the Internet in my professional nonprofit circles. The growth of the web and mailing lists was explosive and I
was very interested in remaining well informed. So I developed some information consumption tools and habits that would scale well with the rapidly increasing volume of new material coming my way everyday. On the side, by personal email I was sharing interesting links, articles, and conversations with people who I thought might be interested.

Then someone (I really don't remember who) suggested that I go ahead and publish those interesting bits on the web. I was already very interested in automation at this point and built a small content management system for the purpose of publishing those bits. (Yes, I think this was well before the term Content Management was around as well.) And then, in April 1997, I became a blogger.

The reason I think this is a classic Internet story is that 90% of the ongoing cost of publishing that blog is my own cost of staying informed and reflecting on what I learn. That was a cost I was already paying and would always be willing to pay. As I see it, staying informed and reflection are part of my job. The incremental cost of sharing the results with anyone with a browser is very small.

If I had had to publish by paper this would never have happened. 

Since Online Nonprofit News was the first to populate the "nonprofit blogging space" -- what changes have you seen over the last few years in 501c3 blogland?

 
I will admit that I continue to be baffled by how long it's taken to catch on. In 1998, I was teaching web strategy workshops in which I described a number of strategies for failure on the web. The main correction that I offered was for nonprofits to adopt a news page format, with reverse chronological entries linking to deeper content on site and elsewhere online. So, I guess the only change I have seen
in the last few years is that some people are paying attention to it.

In my communication workshops, I still find that nearly every nonprofit organization is rather afraid of the idea of blogging. It's threatening to them to have their staff blogging, it's too much work to have their leaders blogging, and it seems irrelevant to have their stakeholders blogging. Obviously, I support all three of these blogging strategies and I think that together they represent a resurgence of a community based form of organizing, whether in support of social service or social change. But I think the vast majority of the sector isn't there yet.

The people who are paying attention are the techies. That does represent an important change. A few years ago at conferences I started asking my colleagues in the nonprofit technology field if they had a weblog. I guess I thought it was time, but people looked at me strangely, so I stopped asking. Sometime in the year or two after that, they started blogging. This is really rewarding for me personally, because among this wave of bloggers are people like yourself who take a systems perspective to nonprofit technology. The online conversations that are starting around those issues are very exciting.

Let me share with you what I hope will happen in the coming years and how blogging fits in. I believe that the nonprofit sector is too professionalized, too specialized, and too atomized. This stifles both innovation and movement building. The contemporary organization is the wrong model for civil society, the corporate structure in particular is dysfunctional, and human beings fit more naturally and are more empowered in communities, movements, and networks.

I see blogging as both metaphor for a different kind of sector and one of the means to achieve it. Other pieces of that transformation include the work by grantmakers to reduce the role of programmatic silos of funding and the growing emphasis on collaboration, both between grantmakers and between grantees. Blogging can help to break down some of the barriers that are preventing projects from scaling and individuals from being as successful as they might be if the full power of connectivity were pursued.

Q:  You have an impressive record of regularly postings, was there ever a time when you stopped posting (outside of vacation)? Why? What keeps you motivated?  

I'm coming up on 6000 posts at this point, so I suspect it's a little hard to tell where I might have slowed down, but there have been times when I did. In fact, there are entire months with less than half a dozen entries. The biggest reason for those slow spells was a sense of disconnection. I will elaborate on that.

My blogging is deeply connected to every other aspect of my work.

Most importantly, it remains a tool for staying informed and for reflection. It hones my thinking. It feeds into a variety of publications that I offer, some for free and some for sale. It builds connections with clients and collaborators. It serves as a public test bed for new ideas, at least among those people who listen to me.

So to answer your question, when these connections have been weakest, that's when my blogging has flagged. Sometimes it's happened because of poor planning on my part, such as when I have embarked on new ventures that don't leverage Nonprofit Online News. There were periods during my Social Ecology years like that. And I'm sure it will happen again, since my reach constantly exceeds my grasp.

Sometimes I have felt disconnected when I have not found the support that I had expected for new ideas. I go through cycles with that, where I am disheartened and a little alienated. I think we all deal with that from time to time.

So obviously, it's the sense of connection that keeps me motivated. I experience that connection most when I see that my work has been of value to others, when I see them applying it in their own work, and when people let me know that I have been relevant.

Q: Approximately, how many sources do you read regularly?

Your question, about how may sources I read, gets at the heart of Nonprofit Online News and my own information consumption patterns.  In other words, it could be a long answer and probably will be in a future article of mine. The short version is this:

One subsystem or another of my network pulls in about 50,000 messages a week. A message can derive from any of the following: an updated web site, a newsletter, a mailing list, an RSS item, a recommendation form, some personal email, newsgroups, and web based discussion groups. At any given time there are several thousand distinct sources or channels. The messages work their way through a series of filters.   

These filters are shaped by my habits, such as what I read, what I post or forward, what I bookmark, along with some collective recommendation systems and a neat genetic algorithm of mine.  In the end, I find that I personally skim about 400 to 2000 messages a week.

I would love to find a way to share this toolset and in fact I have talked to Jon Stahl about the idea. But I haven't followed through. I think perhaps the Social Ecology experience has made me cautious about tool promotion. I mean, RMS is still the most advanced relationship management platform out there, but that didn't make the company successful. And I know I would have to raise money for such a project and I'm weary of trying to convince funders of anything.

Q: When you say "a neat genetic algorithm of mine," do you mean your brain cells or an actual mathematical or AI formula?

It's an evolving set of interconnected formulae for helping deliver  news and information to me based upon a wide variety of factors including my past reading and posting behavior, along with some
provision for "mutation" and randomness.

Actually, Jon Stahl was very excited about this too. One of these days I need to find the resources to document this in a way that might be useful to other people.

(I wonder if it is something like I heard on NPR the other day?)
 

Q: I read your article about writing a book in a year and found it very inspiring.  You recommend two things for personal accountability: maintaining a log book or journal of your writing discipline and a weekly process of reflection and decision making.  Do  you think blogging might serve this function?

I'm glad you liked the article. I would be very interested in your critical feedback. I'm developing a model for taking the ideas in there to scale, in the form of online workshops and online support groups. If you have any thoughts on the subject, I would love to hear them. 

That raises a question: Are you working on a book?  (BK: No, I'm not working on book, but thinking about it)

Yes, I absolutely think blogging can and often does play a role in supporting people's larger writing projects. There are lots of examples out there, but I like the specific question that you raise about writing discipline and blogging. Blogs can be a great journaling tool. They could easily be automated to track progress of various kinds, especially word counts. And when they are opened up to other readers, they become a tool for group accountability and reflection. I fully believe that there will be a blogging component to the online version of Keystrokes.

Q: The blog, To-Done, has a great set of tips for being productive in daily writing.Do you have anything to add this?

That's an awesome list. The main thing I would add is just this:

Find every way you can to integrate and relate your blogging to your other work and to other people with whom you are or want to be connected. Derive blog entries from other things you are reading, writing, or thinking about. Derive other work from your blog entries. Write for other people's blogs and have them write for yours. Collaborate. Find other ways to connect with your readers. Make your blog relevant to the people who are relevant to you. 

I'm looking at the advice I just offered and realized that this theme of integration and connection permeates my work. But it's perpetually relevant. I think we actually put a lot of effort into isolating activities from each other, thinking that we make something more important by doing so, by setting it apart. While this is sometimes true, most often isolated activities (and this includes nonprofit programs and organizations) are not sustainable. As E.M. Forster said: "Only connect.... Live in fragments no longer."

Q: Many "blogs" have a comments or trackbacks section. I know that you started to blog before "blog" software with these features was around. So, how do you integrate reader feedback into your publishing
process?

I get an enormous amount of reader feedback, largely as a result of most people reading Nonprofit Online News through one of two different email editions. I also receive recommended news items and other feedback through a form on the site. Some of that feedback I respond to personally. Some result in corrections. Some result in followup news items. All of them are kept as part of our resource database.

I have mixed opinions about comments or trackback. They are both spam magnets and I have enough trouble dealing with email spam as it is.  Of the two, I think I have a greater interest in trackback, but I
don't see the full payoff yet. From time to time, I do consider the value of connecting my readers with each other, which is where comments might play a role. But I think there are probably other models worth pursuing.

Have you seen some really compelling outcomes of comments and trackbacks? 

(Anwer from BK:  As a writer, I like the fact that  comments and trackbacks can connect you to  readers and more bits of information  that you might not otherwise come across.   Recently, I commented on a Alexandra Samuel's blog who writing on tagging and social bookmarking I read regularly and  it started  an extended conversation that really deepen my own understanding of social bookmarking.  This wouldn't have happened from just reading her and I don't know if I'd ever had a chance to meet her face-to-face  ....)

Q: What do you see as the key benefit of "blogging" for a nonprofit organization? What about using social applications - specifically social bookmarking tools? What are the key barriers to the above?

There are a great many different possible models for nonprofit blogging. Right now, I think the highest payback for individual nonprofits is to use the blog model as either the main or the most important organizing paradigm for their web sites. But for some time now, I have been advocating that nonprofits work to release authentic s in their organizations by supporting individual blogging, starting with the leadership. Authentic s of that nature will open all sorts of possibilities for organizations who want to
mobilize and engage people, whether donors or activists or volunteers. But the long term implications are a more network centric nonprofit sector, rather than the organization centric system we have now. It's pretty threatening on a lot of levels.

 
As for social bookmarking, it's a great first step in the direction of emergent taxonomies. My main concern with social bookmarking right now is that there is really only one player -- del.icio.us -- and I don't like a collective resource like that being in private hands. I would be interested in social networking tools in support of communities of practice and in peer to peer approaches.

Technorati Tags: nptech

Where in the world is ...

Pearl Bear?  She's in Berkeley, CA.

Sometimes I wonder where in the world is ... an old boyfriend from highschool, a roommate from college, or a colleague I've worked with in the past.    My digital trip down memory lane typically takes me to Google and if I'm lucky and the name isn't too common, I might find what they're up to now.   

Blogging can also help you connect with people from your past but it is more like a "by chance meeting." You don't set out to find them, you just bump into them in the blogosphere by some common digital thread.   

That's what happened this week when I did a taggreation search on technorati.  I ran into "Pearl Bear," otherwise known as Michelle Murrain.   I left a comment on one of her posts and Michelle pinged me .... <P>

Michelle is a nonprofit geek extraordinaire! I've had the pleasure to work with her on a few projects.   (We discovered that we overlapped for two yearts at Bennington College but since she was a science major and I was  music major - our paths didn't cross.)  Michelle was also one of the most  on the "Riders" (nonprofit techie list) - always sharing expertise on many topics and raising good questions/issues for discussions.

Michelle is in Berkeley, CA and will entering the Pacific School of Religion in the fall. She is  blogging  about her seminary journey and these days she is thinking about what it means when ministers blog.  So, if you know Michelle stop by her blog and say hello!  She has a recent post about various tools she is using.

Technorati Tags: nptech, nonprofit

Marnie Webb On Nonprofit Blogging

I'm continuing with this informal research of the nonprofit blogosphere by pretending to be Terry Gross and conducting "Bloggerviews."   In previous weeks, I interviewed nonprofits who have jumped into the blogosphere trenches feet first .... This week I wanted to get a bird's eye view  of nonprofit blogging from a nonprofit technology assistance provider (people who work with nonprofits on technology/capacity building issues).    Immediately, Marnie Webb came to mind because of her extensive blogging experience, her work with TechSoup/Compumentor, and writing about nonprofit blogging.   

The photo above is one of two places where you will find Marnie blogging.   She describes her blog as a "workish" blog and she posts as part of her day job, but also from home.  I suspect she can be found blogging during her ferry commute, too.    

1.  Why do you think a nonprofit organization should consider having a blog?  What do you think the benefits are?

It's not so much that I think they should have a blog as it is I think that they should practice blogging.  By that I mean that they should expose themselves online.  They should belong to listservs, comment on community bulletin boards.  I think that all organizations should track what people are saying about them, about the issues they are concerned with, about the communities they are concerned with and then they should comment on those when appropriate.

Typically, by training and inclination, I'm not all about spouting off on what "should" be done.   I try to understand the problem and present a range of solutions.  Attention though -- and attention translates to money, to clients, to promotion of your ideas -- is a problem for all nonprofits and I think blogging -- as an activity -- can help to provide some of that attention, not through PR tricks, but through making yourself and your opinions known in the course of doing your work.

The benefits?  Well, attention is one.  An organization becomes strongly associated with a topic not just in people's minds but in search engines and that translates to more attention.  I also believe it's a way to record the history of an organization.  Encourage your staff to do that kind of participation and you can draw that together -- the blog is simply the artifact -- and begin to build up stories about your organization.

Implementation, I think, depends on the goals of the organization. Does everyone in the organization do this?  Do you set limits on time, on topics?  Individual blogs or a section on the organization's website?

 

 

Note:  If you want read some of Marnie's colleagues blogs, here's a short list and hopefully if I've missed any, they will add the url in the comment section.

Greg Beuthin, ext311
Zac Mutrux, ext437

2.  In your mind, what does "readiness to blog" in a nonprofit organization look like?   What is the most important thing that has to be in place for a npo to be successful?

The organization has to be willing to put in the time.  Setting up a blog is easy.  Keeping it going and doing the kind of work necessary to make it successful is not. A decision-maker has to be enthusiastic about it and so does the person blogging (these may be the same person, but not always).  In my own organization, I encourage my staff to blog and then comment on their blogs or follow up on some of the ideas and ask them for help in implementing them.  It's important, I think, to offer that kind of encouragement.  To make sure people know that they are being read inside the organization.

3.  As you look at the nonprofit technology landscape, what is your sense of where nonprofits are in terms of using blogs?   What are some of the barriers to blogging?

I wish I had a good answer to that question.  The answers I have are the things that come out when I speak on this topic.  At this year's NTEN conference, the thing I heard the most had to do with message.  How do we make sure that people are staying on message?  What if they say something we don't want them to say?  Aren't ready for them to say?

With that in mind, I speculate that giving up control is a big barrier.  Time is also a barrier.

I'd like to get some funds or a partner to do some research on this question.  To get a more than anecdotal snapshot of the nonprofit blogosphere and identify the benefits, challenges, successes and lessons.

4.  Someone said recently, there must be so much drama and utterly bloggable depth to the nonprofit blogland ... Are there any dramatic moments that you have witnessed in nonprofit blogging?

Well, I think the nonprofits that open their blogs up to tell the stories of their constituency -- the March of Dimes blog for example -- are inherently dramatic.

5.  What is Compumentor/Techsoup doing to help support nonprofit blogging?

Frankly, I'm most interested in blogging as a gateway activity to a whole series of sharing that can happen online.  I think that blogs are one piece -- and probably the most easily accessible and implemented piece -- of an online strategy that can encourage collaboration through the installation of plumbing that makes sharing inherent and explicit.  There I'm thinking of things like wikis, social networking applications that allow you to eavesdrop on what your friends are doing (this is how I think of subscribing to a colleague's del.icio.us feed), and tools that allow you to find other people and organizations who are working to solve the same issues you are working to solve.

To that end, CompuMentor/TechSoup has produced a lot of articles on blogging and related technologies like RSS and podcasting.  They support me in doing quite a bit of public speaking on this issue -- a lot of our PR lately has come from talking with reporters about blogging.

We're also looking at the whole of which blogging is a part.  You can see our own experiemnts there in ConsultantCommons.org.  We've been thinking a lot about the issue of the Commons and how we can extend that toolset to groups of nonprofits working in specific issue areas.

 

Note:  Here are some links to few of Marnie's articles on TechSoup:
Weblogs: The Promise for Nonprofit Organizations  
Weblogs and the Nonprofit Sector
RSS for Nonprofits
Ready to Start Blogging?

6.  How long have you been blogging?  How/why did you get started?  Is your ext337.org your personal professional blog or is blogging a part of your job at Compumentor?

I found Blogger in January, 2000.  I can remember sitting in the office of friend's house in Malibu.  I'd had a website at that point for a couple of years and wrote short articles for it, updated the pages by hand. I thought of it as a magazine.  Via a now defunct site, design site license, I stumbled on Blogger and was blown away.  I set up the first version of crankreport, my personal blog later that same day.  I was a freelance writer at the time and so it made sense to me.  Anything that made writing and sharing easier made sense to me.  When I applied for my job at CompuMentor, blogging was listed as one of my hobbies on my resume.  Now, it's listed as a skill.

I describe ext337.org as my workish blog.  I do it at work and at home.  While it's not officially a part of my job, it's certainly a part of my professional development.  The blog is named after my extension in the office and it's part of my signature on the TechSoup forums.  Going to conferences is a part of my job.  Paying attention and contributing to listservs is a part of my job. In that way, blogging is a part of my job.

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