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News for July 2004

27 July 2004

Developer Declaration of Independence
	I invite all developers of nonprofit software to support the Developer Declaration of Independence. It is a clear and unequivocal statement of support for open standards. I plan on checking back here in a few weeks to see which nonprofit vendors are on the list of supporters and which are not. Scroll to the bottom to sign. Posted: 7/27/04; 12:14:32 PM #

The Political Consultant's Online Fundraising Guide
	The Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet has released its Political Consultant's Online Fundraising Guide (84 page PDF). Although the presence of such a report is definitely a sign of how far the field has evolved, it really only covers the basics. Neither weblogs nor peer to peer technology show up at all, and the evaluation section is a little weak. Posted: 7/27/04; 12:14:15 PM #

Attention Bond Mechanism

Numerous ways of creating a financial disincentive for spam have been circulating, but many of them involve measures that would severely damage nonprofits' abilities to correspond with their stakeholders. However, the Attention Bond Mechanism is the best one yet for our sector, because it is based upon having a trusted relationship with the recipient, even if silly spam filters catch your newsletter. Basically, you put some money up as assurance that your email is not spam. It's a nice idea. Posted: 7/27/04; 12:13:49 PM #

Aligning Leadership Style and Skills with Campus Needs
	In keeping with the theme of a recent post on Chief Information Officers, Barbara Kaufman writes about how technology leadership is not about technical expertise, in her article for University Business on Aligning Leadership Style and Skills with Campus Needs. Posted: 7/27/04; 12:13:28 PM #

The Challenge of Rural Telephony in Africa
	The digital divide goes very deep in Africa. To learn just how deep, take a look at Completing the Revolution: The Challenge of Rural Telephony in Africa. Posted: 7/27/04; 12:13:10 PM #

Notes on Natural Interaction
	In his Notes on Natural Interaction (PDF), Allessandro Valli is creating a sort of pattern language of how human beings interact with their environment. I love this sort of thinking. I find that, despite its abstractions, it grounds me in reality. Posted: 7/27/04; 12:12:49 PM #

23 July 2004

Planetwork Journal: Interactivity and The Open Society
	In the inaugural issue of the Planetwork Journal, Hardin Tibbs piece on Interactivity and The Open Society offers some superb analysis. I highly recommend taking your time with this one, with special attention to the possible futures that might befall the Internet and our freedom to communicate. Posted: 7/23/04; 1:39:26 PM #

Observing Nonprofits, July 2004
	The July 2004 issue of Observing Nonprofits looks at recent U.S. Senate Finance Committee interest in nonprofit organizations. Sounds a little like political theater to me, but it still deserves some attention. Posted: 7/23/04; 1:39:03 PM #

Next-Generation CIOs

In Next-Generation CIOs (free subscription required), David Mark and Eric Monnoyer look at how Chief Information Officers must involve the managers of an organization's key functions, as well as take a whole systems perspective, in order to truly add value through IT. There were a few visionary technology leaders (at some large foundations) that I thought of when reading this, because I've been so impressed with their work. This article, while focused on the for profit context, can help us all think more clearly about our technology decision making processes. Posted: 7/23/04; 1:38:27 PM #

The Internet Governance Project
	The Internet Governance Project is a new organization devoted to researching some very thorny questions. I recommend some of the papers by Milton Mueller listed under Research Reports. Posted: 7/23/04; 1:37:36 PM #

Foundations May Host and Support Candidate Forums
	The Alliance for Justice gives us some guidelines on how foundations and others can participate in the electoral process (PDF) without running afoul of restrictions on electoral advocacy. The key is the use of candidate forums. Posted: 7/23/04; 1:36:30 PM #

22 July 2004

My Everyday Software: Email Tools
	I've written the first in what I hope will be a series of articles that explore my everyday software environment -- the tools I use, both on my desktop and on various servers. I've decided to start with a description of the three email tools I use most often. Posted: 7/22/04; 5:00:29 PM #

19 July 2004

GNU/Linux Clears Procurement Hurdles
	In a move that will likely make open source more credible to the largest nonprofit organizations, GNU/Linux clears key procurement hurdles with the U.S. Federal Government. Posted: 7/19/04; 3:53:49 PM #

Democracy by the Dollars

I have begun to look at the debacle in Iraq as an enormous organizational development failure, in addition to the human and political tragedies. In Democracy by the Dollars, Pratap Chatterjee, of CorpWatch looks at how $167 million to foster local government was mostly wasted by the for profit company to which it was given. There are so many people in our sector who have experience with this kind of work, especially in Eastern Europe. But I doubt that funding a nonprofit effort would be part of the Bush plan. Posted: 7/19/04; 3:53:21 PM #

16 July 2004

Hitchhiker's Guide to Biomorphic Software
	I'm a biologist by training and I feel it's always been a great help to me in my work on computer mediated communication. Now, in a Hitchhiker's Guide to Biomorphic Software, Kenneth Lodding looks at how the natural world can help us solve our computer problems. Posted: 7/16/04; 11:50:37 AM #

Project Billboard versus Clearchannel

While it looks like this has been settled with the "inoffensive" image of a dove, instead of a bomb, it's been interesting to follow this story. Seems like ClearChannel media company, known for its blatant support for right wing causes, refused to accept a design from Project Billboard for a billboard during the Republican National Convention. The sign's slogan is "Democracy is best taught by example, not war". Posted: 7/16/04; 11:50:21 AM #

13 July 2004

PBS watches its mouth rather than pay big fines
	In PBS Watches its Mouth Rather than Pay Big Fines, Tim Goodman describes how nonprofit broadcasters are not immune from the new censorship being imposed by the U.S. government. Posted: 7/13/04; 11:46:27 AM #

Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About (2004)
	The United Nations has prepared a list of Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About. It's an amazing list and it puts the so called war on terror and the war in Iraq (not the same thing, right?) into perspective. Posted: 7/13/04; 11:44:48 AM #

8 July 2004

Neilsen on the Ten Best Government Intranets
	Jakob Nielsen tells us what he thinks the Ten Best Government Intranets are. I was not surprised to learn that two communication centered themes emerged as key practices for the best sites: support of content producers and support for user's workflow. Posted: 7/8/04; 12:41:26 PM #

Making Knowledge Management Work on Your Intranet
	An intranet and "knowledge management" are not the same thing. In Making Knowledge Management Work on your Intranet, Shiv Singh takes a stab at seeing how they connect. He makes a strong case for focusing our communities of practice on key priorities in these sorts of initiatives. Posted: 7/8/04; 12:41:10 PM #

Introduction to Information Architecture
	Subha Subramanian has written a decent little Introduction to Information Architecture. She focuses too much on content and not enough on communication, but she does hint at some ways to pay attention to users. It's a good overview of some of the actual best web site practices out there. Posted: 7/8/04; 12:40:51 PM #

7 July 2004

Indiana Nonprofits: Impact of Community and Policy Changes
	The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has released a report entitled Indiana Nonprofits: Impact of Community and Policy Changes. The study paints a discouraging picture of the capacity of nonprofits to respond to the challenges of advocacy, even for those for whom advocacy is a stated priority. Posted: 7/7/04; 1:02:34 PM #

Geographic distribution of arts organizations in the US
	I'm fascinated by the geographic clustering of arts organizations in this study by Americans for the Arts. I think I'm also rather proud of the fact that Seattle and San Francisco have the highest per capita density of arts groups in the country. Posted: 7/7/04; 1:02:24 PM #

Sample personnel policies
	I really admire the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits for all the resources they provide through their web site for organizations across the country. For example, my attention was recently drawn to their sample personnel policies. Posted: 7/7/04; 1:02:08 PM #

Usability and Listening to Customers Have Limits
	In Usability and Listening to Customers Have Limits, Gerry McGovern summarizes the problems with depending on self assessments by stakeholders and underlines the need for leadership and vision in online strategies. Posted: 7/7/04; 1:01:50 PM #

5 July 2004

The Declaration of Independence

Yesterday was the anniversary of my country's birth. I was sad to read that, at George Bush's speech that day, two citizens were removed by police, in restraints, for wearing t-shirts that took issue with Bush's policies. But I'm still proud to read the words of Jefferson and others in the Declaration of Independence. Please read it yourself, if you have a moment, and reflect the message our revolutionary ancestors were sending to their King George. What message do we need to send ours? Posted: 7/5/04; 7:21:33 PM #

Outfoxed
	I'm sure few of you get your news from Rupert Murdoch, but I'm also sure that many of your stakeholders do. That's why it's important to promote Outfoxed, an examination of the race to the bottom in modern journalism. Posted: 7/5/04; 7:21:16 PM #