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News for November 2005
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 28 November 2005 |
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| An Introduction to Activism on the Internet |
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I'm profoundly impressed with John Emerson's Introduction to Activism on the Internet. The topics he touches on (complete with rather current links) include: International Web Landscape, Campaigns Around the World, Cell Phones, Surveillance and Crackdown, Protection and Anonymity, Advocacy Tools, Email, Blogs, Openness, Viral Marketing, Translation and Accessibility,
Examples of Effective Action, and Torture and Terrorism.
Posted: 11/28/05; 6:05:57 AM # |
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27 November 2005 |
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| On the Varieties of Software Reviews |
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Ever since getting out of the nonprofit communication software business, I have taken a deep interest in other developers and their offerings. Because of my commitment to a systems perspective, I have so far confined my reviews to our Everyday Software series, which presents tools within the context of the communication ecosystem to which they have to contribute, after a period of regular use of six months or more. (I loathe regurgitated press releases and feature recitations masquerading as meaningful reviews and have refused to slip into that pattern myself, despite the fact that it's what vendors are used to and even, sometimes, seem to prefer.)
The software that, after a period of months, becomes part of our community of tools is the software that will end up in our Everyday Software, at some point. Or sometimes, I will get a license to some software and I will know within weeks that it's not likely to fit into any of our workflows in the near future. Those will never get reviewed because I have no time to write negative reviews unless I think there is an active disservice to the sector being done by the company and its tools. It's recently become clear to me that there is a third category: There is software that seems to find a special use from time to time, or with which I'm fascinated and experiment incessantly, or which may not work as a product, but is doing something very interesting. All of these end up in a kind of software limbo in our office, neither integrated nor set aside.
Today, I will start reviewing these tools from time to time, to describe what interests me about them, even though they have not (at least yet) found their way into our daily workflow. I may also highlight aspects of software that has found a place, but about which I might want to say a few more things that didn't merit attention in the broader review context. And I think I may be able to illuminate a few things about how I apply some system requirements to individual applicaitons. I hope you enjoy them.
Posted: 11/27/05; 9:56:54 PM # |
| Ecto: Full-Featured, Desktop Blogging Software |
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In my article on the content management workflow for Nonprofit Online News, I mentioned Ecto, a desktop blogging application that I admire, but don't use. Ecto is available for Windows and Mac OS, although not for Linux. It plays well with all the major blogging platforms. It supports per-post control of trackback, comments, post time, categories, and tags. It is a top notch writer's tool, with spell check, integration with other content tools (like iPhoto on Mac OS), word count, rich formatting, and filters. Unfortunately, there is one important protocol (involving a separate element for links to which individual blog entries point), essential to the one link per entry model of the Nonprofit Online News platform, that Ecto doesn't support. I think this is an elegant example of the connection between a core aspect of a communication model and a technical protocol.
Posted: 11/27/05; 9:56:38 PM # |
| Curio: A Rich Environment for Ideas and Content |
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My colleagues and students know how much I like effective visual thinking. I use outliners, conceptual mapping software, ecosystem modeling, and network exploration tools. I draw circles and arrows of ideas when I talk on the phone. And I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to make sense of ideas and manage information. So, it's only natural that I would be attracted to Curio, by Zengobi. Curio is not easy to describe and while I continue to explore it, it still hasn't found a home in my workflow, as much as it still intrigues me. But it's likely to be the perfect idea exploration and documentation tool for many visual thinkers. If you have ever taken some physical documents, like photographs or index cards, arranged and rearrange them physically, and have found that this process helps you develop insights, then Curio is the digital tool that allows you to scale up that technique. You can drag all sorts of related documents, images, clippings, and web search results into various "idea spaces", save it, rearrange it, and share it in a variety of ways. In other words, it's a scrapbook for thinkers.
Posted: 11/27/05; 9:56:28 PM # |
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23 November 2005 |
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| Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload |
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Stever Robbins has compiled some great Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload, which include: Use the subject line to summarize, not describe. Give your reader the full context at the start of your message. Make action requests clear. Separate topics into separate emails. Edit forwarded messages. Make your messages one page or less. Check email at defined times each day. Send out delayed messages. And finally, my favorite, charge people for sending you messages. (You'll have to read it to know what this means.)
Posted: 11/23/05; 4:01:07 PM # |
| Philanthropy as a Field of Practice |
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In Philanthropy as a Field of Practice, Philip Cubeta makes a plea for philanthropy to come together with a common focus, a community of practice, and collegiality. He argues that the subsectors of philanthropy barely speak the same language. He identifies those subsectors as: (1) Donor Groups, (2) Financial Advisors, (3) Donor Advisors/Foundation Advisors, (4) Wealth Counselors, (5) Family Therapists, (6) Wealth Coaches, (7) Life Coaches, (8) Fundraisers/Planned Giving People, (9) Political Fundraisers, (10) Values-based planners, and (12) Trickster Heroes.
Posted: 11/23/05; 2:06:53 PM # |
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18 November 2005 |
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| Whose Vision of an Information Society? |
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Today is the last day of official meetings of the World Summit on the Information Society being held in the censorship-rife country of Tunisia. There have been parallel events, protests, and highly critical commentary about the Summit, much of which makes for interesting reading. I'm encouraged by the connections that have been made between civil society actors in the context of this event, as much as I am discouraged by the content of the event itself. So, rather than a pile of links to this particular issue or that particular outrage, I will point you to Ajit Pyati's excellent piece in First Monday earlier this year: WSIS: Whose vision of an information society?
Posted: 11/18/05; 4:17:01 PM # |
| Police Still Harassing New Orleans Relief Workers |
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So it looks like the New Orleans police are still harassing relief workers. It's sad to me how the engines of authority seem to be increasingly at odds with the most basic actions of a compassionate civil society. I have become accustomed over the years to reading these sorts of stories (and far worse) in other authoritarian countries, but to be reminded once again of the direction the United States has taken is deeply discouraging.
Posted: 11/18/05; 4:10:04 PM # |
| Common Knowledge |
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Nonprofit professionals are not always well rewarded for sharing their knowledge with others, but there is a growing understanding that such sharing is valuable. In 2000, Nancy Dixon wrote Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know. Although it's not at all focused on nonprofits, the books five models of knowledge transfer -- serial transfer, near transfer, far transfer, strategic transfer, and expert transfer -- are practical tools for helping an organization create systems for ramping up learning.
Posted: 11/18/05; 4:04:20 PM # |
| Forging Nonprofit Alliances |
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Jane Arenault's Forging Nonprofit Alliances is a book that has only become more important since its publication in 1998. The author takes a close look at four models of alliances -- joint ventures, MSOs, parent organizations, and mergers -- and offers a framework for exploring and pursuing such alliances that respects the realities of the nonprofit world. Her ideas on cultural integration are particularly valuable, as is her step by step guide to negotiation and new governance.
Posted: 11/18/05; 3:56:20 PM # |
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16 November 2005 |
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| Selecting an Online Donation Tool |
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Idealware has released their first report: Selecting an Online Donation Tool. It's a careful, Consumer Reports style examination of a number of low cost online donation tools (under $100 a month of fees other than those related to transaction). I particularly liked their guidelines for choosing among the recommended options: (1) Consider whether donations are just a small piece of a larger puzzle. (2) Decide whether to use a vendor’s merchant account or your own. (3) Calculate the size and volume of donations you expect to get. (4) Decide if the donation form needs to look like your website. (5) Weigh the time required to import donations into your donor database. (6) Decide on critical features.
Posted: 11/16/05; 7:01:59 PM # |
| FourDocs Guides to Video Documentary Preparation |
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Britain's Channel 4 has a fascinating project called FourDocs, which is dedicated to promoting and broadcasting four minute documentaries. To that end, they have a set of Guides on how to plan, shoot, edit and compress your documentary. I consider most of it superb advice for the production of any kind of nonfiction video. If you're in the business of real life story telling -- and most nonprofits are, in one way of another -- this is an invaluable resource.
Posted: 11/16/05; 6:53:23 PM # |
| Nonprofit Online News Journal: November 2005 Edition |
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We have just published the November 2005 Edition of Nonprofit Online News Journal. This month we offer five articles: My own Twelve Ways To Fail at Email follows a key principle of mine, which is that its often easier to remove barriers to success than to assemble new engines to plow forward. Marc Stenlin's "Knowledge Management Feng Shui" explores the role of physical infrastructure in promoting sharing. The Danish government has documented the role of ICT in helping meet the Millenium Development Goals. (I still hold out hope for those goals, despite having been undermined recently by the United States.) Rick Cohen doesn't pull any punches in his advice to the world of philanthropy. Finally, Tom Kelley's "Ten Faces of Innovation" gives us a framework where everyone can participate in moving an organization forward. We have our usual features, including 35 resources, 5 book reviews, and a new Quicksheet: a radical revision of the Workflow of the Email Savvy Organization.
Posted: 11/16/05; 5:29:50 PM # |
| Achieving Success in Online Communication |
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I'm delighted to announce that I will be in Kansas City on November 29th, teaching an all day workshop on Achieving Success in Online Communication, under the auspices of the DonorEdge program of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. We'll be covering all the essentials: The Email Newsletter Marketing Model, the Modern Nonprofit Website, Frictionless Fundraising, Communication Centered Technology Planning, and the Role of the Executive Director in Nonprofit Technology. If you're in the area, I suggest you check it out. DonorEdge is a great program and they are offering steep discounts to their member organizations.
Posted: 11/16/05; 4:10:36 PM # |
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15 November 2005 |
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| The Innovation Game |
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The Innovation Game by Armelle Le Corre and Gerald Mischke is a book for systems geeks, a rare and specialized audience. In it, the authors build up a set of interlocking systemic models to describe the processes of innovation. The ultimate product is an innovation pipeline that allows you to experiment with a wide array of variables to see how they might influence the outcomes. I cannot tell you if the model is accurate (somehow I doubt that it can be), but like any good model, it doesn't have to be accurate to be revealing and thought provoking.
Posted: 11/15/05; 9:10:13 PM # |
| Web Design on a Shoestring |
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Carrie Bickner's Web Design on a Shoestring is a very smart book. Bickner, an experienced nonprofit webmaster who now works for the New York Public Library, doesn't fall into the usual foolish penny pinching that many people on a limited budget seem prone to. Nor does she succumb to the common nonprofit notion that staff time is infinite and we can always ask people to work harder. Instead, she takes a frugal total cost approach to web development and maintenance. She advocates investing in planning, in usability, in standards, and in lightweight content management. I highly recommend this book.
Posted: 11/15/05; 8:52:48 PM # |
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13 November 2005 |
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| Some Disasters Compel Us to Give |
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In Some Disasters Compel Us to Give, the Washington Post reports on what sorts of calamities bring in the money and what sorts do not. Their conclusions are revealing: (1) "Natural" disasters beat manmade disasters. (2) Sudden disasters beat slow-moving crises. (3) TV counts. (4) Drama counts. (5) Timing counts. (6) Ease of giving makes a big difference. (7) Personal experience helps. (8) Simple beats complex. (9) Disaster giving doesn't supplant donations to other causes.
Posted: 11/13/05; 10:30:16 PM # |
| Information and Communications Technology for Sustainable Development |
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I have become increasingly interested in the topic of information technology and development. It's discouraging to me how often development projects end up benefiting local elites and multinational corporations. My own interests with regard to ICT have therefore focused on the empowerment of the poor and on sustainability. Rahul Tongia, Eswaran Subrahmanian and V. S. Arunachalam have written a book entitled Information and Communications Technology for Sustainable Development and made it available for free online. Their conclusions are realistic and focus on the politics and process of ICT planning more than on ICTs themselves.
Posted: 11/13/05; 10:16:46 PM # |
| Catawba River Foundation |
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Tonight, I learned about the successful use of a weblog by the Catawba River Foundation in fighting the environmental practices of the Wal-Mart Corporation. The company's stores were putting pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers into the river by leaving the bags out in their parking lots as a matter of corporate policy. No amount of direct contact with Wal-Mart ever got any response, but when the Catawba River Keepers started a weblog documenting their attempts to get the company to even return phone calls, then they got some serious press attention. Wal-Mart changed their practices almost overnight.
Posted: 11/13/05; 10:10:04 PM # |
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7 November 2005 |
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| Corporate Blogging Survey 2005 - Executive Summary |
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The Executive Summary of Back Bone Media's 2005 Corporate Blogging Survey is available online. Some of the highlights include: It took most corporate bloggers less than 2 months from the inception of the idea of a blog to the launch of the blog. 92% of blogs were solo affairs. 83% reported increased web traffic as a result of blogging. The survey suffers from problems of self-reporting, but is nevertheless very interesting.
Posted: 11/7/05; 11:41:13 PM # |
| A Cognitive Analysis of Tagging |
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Tagging of content (especially in contrast to classification) is all the rage right now. It's great to see some thoughtful work such as Rashmi Sinha's cognitive analysis of tagging. As is the case with many other tools, tagging is popular because of the lower "cognitive costs", in essence meaning that there are fewer mental steps required to assign the metadata. I think her diagrams in particular are helpful in thinking this question through in more general terms.
Posted: 11/7/05; 11:32:11 PM # |
| When Can I Expect a Response? A Study of Rhythms in Email Usage |
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Joshua Tyler of HP and John Tang of Sun have identified some interesting patterns in the area of people's Email Rhythms. In particular, they noticed that because the burden of managing email expectations falls primarily on the recipient, senders are left to their own devices to come up with expectations of replies and discerning a breakdown in communication, until they learn the habits of particular recipients. This is just the tip of the iceberg for these sorts of questions, I think.
Posted: 11/7/05; 11:27:04 PM # |
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