|
[Printer Friendly Version]
News for June 2005
|
 29 June 2005 |
|
| Three Principles Behind All Creativity Tools |
|
I'm fascinated by creativity and innovation. Like many of you, I have mixed opinions about the plethora of creativity games that facilitators play with people in meetings. But I was fascinated by Paul Plsek's idea that there are just Three Principles Behind All Tools: Attention, Escape, and Movement. They look so much like some of the principles of organizational change management, that I started wondering if they could be applied at the strategic level, as well as at the level of the meeting. Interesting stuff. Take a look at his massive "Directed Creativity" toolkit while you're there.
Posted: 6/29/05; 5:14:05 PM # |
| EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers |
|
If your organization or those associated with it are writing weblogs or considering, it, I recommend you take a look at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Guide for Bloggers. Actually, much of this advice relates to anyone who maintains a web site or an email newsletter as well.
Posted: 6/29/05; 5:09:42 PM # |
|
26 June 2005 |
|
| We, the Media |
 |
I know that my interest in the underlying support structures of civil society are not of day to day import to nonprofit leaders engrossed in their work, but I continue to look for examples of interdependencies that can get people to look up from their desks at the encroaching world around them. Last week's close call with U.S public broadcasting has focused my recent attention on the media. In that context, I can think of no more important book to recommend to you than Dan Gillmor's We, the Media, which is the best book yet on the future of journalism. It documents the forces that are democratizing the media and the reactions to those forces from the moneyed interests that stand to lose. Whether you're organization is already dependent on a relationship to the mainstream media, or if you have never had such a relationship, but you are engaged in something that is newsworthy to someone out there, you need to read this book.
Posted: 6/26/05; 7:34:05 PM # |
| Hackers and Painters |
|
I have more than once recommended the online essays of Paul Graham, so I'm surprised that it's taken me until now to recommend his book, Hackers and Painters. The title derives from a signature essay of his in which he makes some deep aesthetic and social connections between people who write code and fine artists. As someone who has had the honor and burden of managing some talented engineers, I can say that I agree with his connections. None of his essays, even the one on computer programming languages, are strictly for the technically adept. Some, like the one on design and research, is of value to any creative person or organization. I don't agree with Graham's politics in some places, but I always find myself in a wonderful thoughtful place after reading him. You might too.
Posted: 6/26/05; 7:33:57 PM # |
|
24 June 2005 |
|
| Almost All Libraries Offer Free Web Access |
|
Libraries have been a key bridge across the digital divide in the United States. This is all the more true now that we learn that Almost All Libraries Offer Free Web Access. Unless you have concerns about government spying on library users (which I do), if you combine this with the other resources that libraries offer, you pretty much have one stop shops for small, community based organizations.
Posted: 6/24/05; 4:55:54 PM # |
| Toolbox + Workflow = GTD |
|
In Toolbox + Workflow = GTD (GTD = "Getting Things Done"), Sonny Cloward documents parts of his day to day online workflow, starting with a very well done diagram. The interesting highlights include extensive use of low tech interoperability, such as email and RSS and complete integration of his key tools within his web browser. I was greatly pleased to read how the process of making the diagram helped him improve his workflow. That's the essence of communication centered planning. I encourage you to engage in a similar process of reflection and share your results.
Posted: 6/24/05; 4:33:41 PM # |
|
23 June 2005 |
|
| e-Engagement Tools That Fit |
|
Angus Reid takes a stab at a taxonomy of e-engagement tools by setting forth a two by two matrix of organizational attitudes toward engagement and technology. Certain online communication tools are more suited to some cultures than others. This could be a nice piece of back pocket advice for consultants out there.
Posted: 6/23/05; 4:14:21 PM # |
|
20 June 2005 |
|
| Nonprofits and Public Broadcasting: We Need Each Other |
|
My short call to action yesterday does not do justice to either the urgency or the importance of the current threat to public broadcasting in the U.S. I firmly believe that there is a great deal of interdependence in the nonprofit sector. Public broadcasting is a great example of this. In my article, Nonprofits and Public Broadcasting: We Need Each Other, I describe that interdependence, some aspects of the current threat, and ask you to take action today.
Posted: 6/20/05; 4:18:16 PM # |
|
19 June 2005 |
|
|
15 June 2005 |
|
| Nonprofit Online News Journal |
|
The June 2005 issue of Nonprofit Online News Journal is out. The longest piece in this issue is my own work on 'Streaming Grantmaker Knowledge', a step by step guide to RSS based syndication for grantmakers based upon some work we recently did for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. That piece is complemented by Molly Holzschlag's very practical review of best practices in 'Where is Your Feed?'. We're pleased to be publishing 'There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch', a hard hitting piece by Putnam Barber on the subject of the culture of entitlement in the nonprofit sector. Ethan Zuckerman reviews the research done by Mike Best on whether ICT for Development actually works. And finally there is one more piece by me, a profile of Barbara Kibbe and her work at The Skoll Foundation. We also have our usual monthly resources, including 17 annotated and categorized online resources, seven book reviews, and a Quicksheet on the subject of Online Publishing.
Posted: 6/15/05; 6:23:13 PM # |
|
14 June 2005 |
|
| Philanthropy's New Clothes |
|
In Philanthropy's New Clothes, Kathleen Enright looks at why honest feedback is sometimes hard to find in the field of philanthropy. Only a small fraction of grantmakers solicit feedback from grantees. A great many demand practices of their grantees that they themselves don't do. There are some hopeful signs of change, and her article is very much a call to action.
Posted: 6/14/05; 11:35:43 PM # |
|
9 June 2005 |
|
|
8 June 2005 |
|
| How to Write a Book in One Year |
|
I'm neck deep in a lot of writing projects right now and as usual, I'm interested in sharing the process of my work as much as the product. Not too long ago, we launched the Keystrokes pilot project, in support of writers who wanted to develop their discipline, rather than just their craft. One of the products of that pilot project is a simple, but effective model for helping people develop the vision and practice needed for completing large writing endeavors. I've outlined this model in a new article: How to Write a Book in One Year.
Posted: 6/8/05; 1:48:38 PM # |
|
7 June 2005 |
|
| Software Comparison Report |
|
Bridges.org has published a report comparing open source and proprietary software solutions in public computer labs in Africa. As usual, their findings indicate that it is the human costs, such as software support, that are the biggest issue. They do place some hope in more maintainable, thin-client computing models.
Posted: 6/7/05; 5:14:58 PM # |
|
6 June 2005 |
|
| Beyond Knowledge Management |
|
Last year, a team of academics from four British universities wrote Beyond Knowledge Management, a book that tries to analyze existing knowledge management theories and synthesize them. In my opinion, the latter ambition is flawed and of little utility, but the book succeeds superbly at creating a framework for understanding many of the various competing theories and languages of the field. The chapter on Systems Thinking and Knowledge Management alone is worth the price of the book.
Posted: 6/6/05; 6:12:11 PM # |
| Creating Knowledge Based Organizations |
|
Jatinder N.D. Gupta and Sushil K. Sharma's book on Creating Knowledge Based Organizations is rich with contributors, references, and footnotes. It's a goldmine of high quality concepts and examples. I found great value in the chapters on Inducing Enterprise Knowledge Flows, Virtual Communities as Role Models, and a Fractal Approach to Managing Intelligent Enterprises. The last one in particular is relevant to the new, emerging models of network advocacy and organization management.
Posted: 6/6/05; 6:12:07 PM # |
| Knowledge Networks: Innovation Through Communities of Practice |
|
Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble's book Knowledge Networks: Innovation Through Communities of Practice brings together two of my favorite concepts: innovation and networks. A couple of years ago, in an Open Letter to Nonprofit Technology Funders, one of my three major recommendations to the field was to "fund technological fertility, not monolithic 'solutions'". The book demonstrates at length what I was talking about by showing what the factors are in a network that contributes to innovation. I recommend this book to funders, technical assistance providers, umbrella organizations, associations, and large scale movement organizers. I was pleased to see fellow Seattleite Nancy White among the many brilliant contributors.
Posted: 6/6/05; 6:12:01 PM # |
|
5 June 2005 |
|
| Ten Myths of Global Civil Society |
|
Melanie Lovering documents Lester Salamon's Ten Myths of Global Civil Society in Charity Village. The ten myths are: Myth #1: That civil society is only made up of NGOs. Myth #2: That the civil society sector is a marginal actor economically. This is simply not true, as research assembled from countries all around the world proves. Myth #3 & 4: Civil society organizations are chiefly an American phenomenon and are not present in the welfare states of Europe, where reliance on government is greater; and that there is no civil society sector for all intents and purposes in the Scandinavian countries, where the welfare state is most fully developed. Myth #5 & 6: Volunteers play a more important role in the civil society workforce in developing than developed countries; and paid staff drives out reliance on volunteers. Myth #7: The civil society sector is mostly engaged in the provision of services. Myth #8 & 9: Philanthropy is the chief source of civil society revenue; and philanthropy is at least the chief source of civil society revenue in the United States. Myth #10: The civil society sector is growing at a slower rate than the private business sector.
Posted: 6/5/05; 11:31:32 PM # |
| PledgeBank - Not Finished Yet |
|
This is a simple idea that I have been wanting to see for years. On June 13, 2005, MySociety will launch PledgeBank, a kind of contingent organizing tool. It works like this. You make a pledge to do something (make a donation, take an action), but only if a certain number of other people do it. It's a simple, powerful, and age old tactic just waiting for this kind of technological support to bring it to scale.
Posted: 6/5/05; 11:28:39 PM # |
| Charity body jibs at transfer of services |
|
British nonprofits are facing some interesting challenges, as the government considers handing off substantial social services to them. A leading umbrella organization has come out against the move, which I find enlightened. In the U.S. devolution has often been seen as a nonprofit gravy train, without regard for the larger social picture.
Posted: 6/5/05; 11:25:48 PM # |
|
3 June 2005 |
|
| We Media |
|
In 2003, Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis wrote We Media (not to be confused with Dan Gillmor's recent book with a similar title). The report explores how audiences are shaping the future of news and information. If you're interested in how participatory journalism could play a role in your own organization, I recommend this report. The effects are being felt far more widely than just in formal news media.
Posted: 6/3/05; 5:31:17 PM # |
| Smarter, Simpler Social |
|
Lee Bryant's Smarter, Simpler Social was written in 2003, but is still a superb introduction to online social software methodology. The seven sections are:(1) Software becoming bigger, more stupid. (2) From Online Communities to Social Software. (3) Networked individuals and personal publishing. (4) Supporting emergent networked behaviour. (5) Mapping social networks. (6) Knowledge Sharing and Social Capital. (7) Towards a social methodology. This remains a relevant and insightful groundwork for thinking about online communities.
Posted: 6/3/05; 5:16:20 PM # |
| Toward a New Literacy of Cooperation in Business |
|
In 2004, Andrea Saveri, Howard Rheingold, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, and Kathi Vian, under the auspices of The Institute for the Future, wrote a report called Toward a New Literacy of Cooperation in Business (57 page PDF). The central premise of the report is that new environments of connectivity are increasing the needs for cooperative, rather than competitive strategies in business. I believe that this phenomenon is an order of magnitude more important in the more traditionally cooperative world of civil society. The report explores the topic from four angles: (1) a conceptual map of the nature of cooperation, (2) research on seven different forms of cooperation, (3) choices faced by organizations wishing to be ready for cooperation, and (4) managing expectations, opportunities, and disruptions.
Posted: 6/3/05; 4:53:36 PM # |
|
2 June 2005 |
|
| 21st Century Collaboration Resources |
|
As funders, issues, and the Internet bring nonprofit organizations together, the goal of collaboration is on everyone's mind, hard as it might be to attain. In our latest publication, 21st Century Collaboration Resources, we've assembled five recent contributions to our understanding of cooperation in civil society and 91 modern resources, organized into a taxonomy of nineteen categories. The publication is for sale immediately, with both individual and organizational licenses available, so that you can share it with your team.
Posted: 6/2/05; 11:38:34 PM # |
|
|
RSS