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News for April 2006
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 27 April 2006 |
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| An Ordinary Country: Issues in the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa |
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Sometimes in life it's hard to draw the line between genuine passion and romantic tripe and sadly, I think we are all too often roped in by the latter in our social change and social service work. Having worked in the American anti-apartheid movement for many years in my twenties, I can appreciate the romantic appeal of the peaceful transition to democracy in South Africa. Neville Alexander's book, An Ordinary Country is a brutally honest assessment of the contradictions of that transition with implications for social movements of all kinds, particularly those taking place in the rapidly growing connections between grassroots actions and global strategies. And commitment without the blindness of romance is something we all need, if we are going to bridge the gaps between our movements.
Posted: 4/27/06; 12:53:24 PM # |
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25 April 2006 |
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| The Prostitutes' Union |
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Rarely has an article in Scientific American brought tears to my eyes, but this one did so more than once. Among the poor prostitutes of Sonagachi, India, a new project has found a way to slash the incidence of HIV to a twelfth of what it is in other cities: organizing sex workers as any other labor collective. Started purely as a health measure by Smarajit Jana, other outcomes include bank loans, schooling for children, literacy training for adults, and reproductive health care and the virtual elimination of trafficking of women in the locale. The story is touching on so many levels to me: the contrast between this empowerment approach and many other social service programs, the manner in which the founder planned his own obsolescence, and the sheer hope that this has brought to 60,000 women and their children.
Posted: 4/25/06; 10:36:28 AM # |
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24 April 2006 |
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| Fundraising Guide for NGOs |
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I just recently discovered Jane Bradshaw's Fundraising Guide for NGOs (30 page PDF). It focuses on old-media strategies and is written for international volunteer based organizations that would otherwise be a little lost. I think it's a good resource to recommend to such folks.
Posted: 4/24/06; 7:39:49 AM # |
| Community Interest Companies |
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There is a new model of organization that has been created in Britain in the last year called Community Interest Companies, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good. They report to an independent regulator and are subject to rules about reinvestment, but are nevertheless able to raise private capital and operate in a more entrepreneurial manner than charities. Now of course, charities in the UK are more limited than nonprofits in the U.S., but I'm encouraged to see such new models being explored.
Posted: 4/24/06; 7:30:58 AM # |
| Writing Sensible Email Messages |
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I'm really impressed with the growing number of sophisticated observers about the effective use of email. Merlin Mann's advice on Writing Sensible Email Messages is a good example. His suggestions include tips on writing great subject lines, clarifying your outcomes, and agreeing on conventions related to expected actions.
Posted: 4/24/06; 7:25:51 AM # |
| Emails and Egos |
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We all knew this already, but researchers have demonstrated the relationship between egocentrism and poor communication in email. The researchers investigated the powerful role that tone of voice and interaction played in rapidly increasing the effectiveness of communication and a reduction in conflict, leading them to conclude that we should all pick up the phone more often.
Posted: 4/24/06; 7:20:34 AM # |
| Common Ground Collective |
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If you're interested in tracking what's happening on the ground in New Orleans these days, the Common Ground Collective is a good place to start. They are a grassroots relief organization with a strong emphasis on empowerment and their website is chock full of news, video, audio, and other local resources.
Posted: 4/24/06; 7:11:16 AM # |
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20 April 2006 |
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| Nonprofit Online News Journal: April 2006 Edition |
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The April 2006 Edition of the Journal is out. We've got more articles than any issue so far, including a very specific guide to tools for distributed teams, more general pieces on blogging and boycotts as strategies for social change, two very different and very useful sets of recommendations regarding your personal email practices, and eight short articles about the recent SANGONeT Conference. We have all the usual resources and book reviews, and a Quicksheet that takes a relationship and message oriented perspective to choosing between weblogs and newsletters.
Posted: 4/20/06; 8:30:05 PM # |
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16 April 2006 |
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| A Few Good Email Newsletter Tools |
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IdealWare continues to produce well considered articles on nonprofit software. Considering how opinionated I can be about email, I approached their piece on A Few Good Email Newsletter Tools, cautiously. But, with the exception of having left Zookoda off the list (a well conceived system for building newsletters from blogs), this article lives up to the Idealware reputation. You can be comfortable recommending this to people considering new email applications.
Posted: 4/16/06; 10:49:03 PM # |
| An Adoption Strategy for Social Software in Enterprise |
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Suw Charman's adoption strategy for social software in enterprise lays out ten steps toward adoption, five to be taken at the grassroots level and five to be pursued with management. Her steps toward fostering grassroots adoption are: (1) Identify key user groups. (2) Identify and understand key users. (3) Convert key users into evangelists. (4) Turn evangelists into trainers. (5) Support bottom-up adoption and emergent behaviours. And her steps with managers and team leaders are: (1) Lead by example. (2) Lead by mandate. (3) Lead by reminding (4) Ensure there is adequate support. (5) Ensure personal and business benefits reflect each other.
Posted: 4/16/06; 10:43:41 PM # |
| Lifelong Kindergarten |
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There are a lot of projects at the MIT Media Lab that I like, but the one that's made me smile the most is called Lifelong Kindergarten: "We develop new technologies that, in the spirit of the blocks and fingerpaint of kindergarten, expand the range of what people can design, create, and learn." Take some time and play with what they are doing. If you have a kids program looking to extend the reach of your work, then take an even closer look.
Posted: 4/16/06; 10:36:54 PM # |
| Intel's Got (Too Much) Mail |
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The web seems full of tips about email and most of them are just fine, but contain the same basic ideas. Nathan Zeldes at Intel has ten ideas, several of which I haven't seen before: (1) Don't use your inbox as a catchall folder. (2) Set up a folder that deletes its content automatically after five weeks, as a repository for certain messages. (3) Assist colleagues' inbox-filtering efforts by agreeing on acronyms to use in subject lines. (4) Send group mail only when it is useful to all recipients. (5) Ask to be removed from distribution lists that you don't need to be on. (6) To cut down on pileup, use the "out-of-office" feature of your email. (7) When possible, send a message that is only a subject line, so recipients don't have to open the email to read a single line. End the subject line with < EOM> , the acronym for End of Message. (8) Graphics and attachments are fun, but use them sparingly. (9) Put large attachments on the web. (10) Be specific.
Posted: 4/16/06; 10:32:10 PM # |
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9 April 2006 |
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| Tool for Assessing Startup Organizations |
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Grantmakers for Effective Organizations makes available a free Tool for Assessing Startup Organizations (39 page PDF). Prepared by the ubiquitous La Piana Associates in 2003, it focuses on identifying and assessing risks in six critical areas: Governance, Leadership, Development, Finances, Human Resources Management, and Communications. I have a few quibbles, such as the way they equate 'leadership' as the single person of the executive director, but it is by and large a superb document, valuable to nonprofits and grantmakers alike. And any startup organization should certainly be working with these issues in their own planning, of course.
Posted: 4/9/06; 11:34:15 PM # |
| Big Easy May Face Showdown Over Internet |
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Telecommunication oligopolies want to prevent New Orleans from having free wireless. Right now, the Big Easy has the first and only city-wide, municipally supported free wireless service in the country. It's cleverly implemented, decent speed, and it's helping businesses and nonprofits get back on their feet. But the telecom companies don't like it. Years ago, I was a lobbyist (for consumer and environmental groups) in our state legislature, among other places. It shouldn't amaze me what wealthy people can coax out of them with a little well placed whining, but I guess I expected better for New Orleans.
Posted: 4/9/06; 11:28:10 PM # |
| How to Recycle Your Computer |
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Salon offers recommendations on How to Recycle your Computer (one day ad-support or subscription required). They pay particular attention to the usual pitfalls of computer recycling, including how to avoid having your computer end up in a landfill in Africa.
Posted: 4/9/06; 11:21:54 PM # |
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6 April 2006 |
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| Building Unstoppable Support for New Technology |
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We've been working for several years now on a project that I informally call Improving the Conversation Between Nonprofits and Technology. If you attended any of my luncheons from my national tour, or almost any workshop I've taught that is general enough, you'll know that I believe that this conversation is often dysfunctional. One of the symptoms of that dysfunction is enormous frustration on the part of those of you who have a vision for the potential of new tools to further the mission of nonprofits. It's with your frustration in mind that we're announcing our newest series of online workshops: Building Unstoppable Support for New Technology: From Resistance to Revolution. To be held on May 16 - 18, 2006, it will be presented in three separate sessions entitled (1) Resistance is Revealing: Overcoming Barriers to Technology Adoption, (2) Consulting Aikido: Discovering and Nurturing the Seeds of Change, and (3) Technology Promotion: Responsible and Effective Approaches.
Posted: 4/6/06; 9:03:18 PM # |
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5 April 2006 |
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2 April 2006 |
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| Ninth Anniversary of Nonprofit Online News |
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Nonprofit Online News was launched as a weblog nine years ago yesterday, although the word "weblog" had yet to be coined. With the support of our readers we have more compelling resources and more original content than ever and the prospects for our tenth year are very exciting. Thank you for being part of it!
Posted: 4/2/06; 10:18:24 PM # |
| Make a FOIA Request |
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You're probably aware by this point that the U.S. government is spying on a wide range of nonprofit organizations and their volunteers, particularly those that are working for peace and justice. Although your right to be free from such spying is vehemently opposed by the Bush Administration, they still occasionally concede that you might have the right to know you are being spied upon. The Freedom of Information Act, which achieved its current form after a similar period of executive abuse (the Watergate scandal), gives you the means to request such information. The Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press is helping people file Freedom of Information Act Requests through a simple web based form. I encourage every reader and their colleagues to complete this form. Let's find out what's going on!
Posted: 4/2/06; 10:15:28 PM # |
| Stakeholder Commitments and Initiatives |
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The World Summit on the Information Society's Golden Book is a directory of 375 projects (downloadable in its entirety) from around the world which are working toward the eleven WSIS "Action Lines". Only a small portion of these are strictly civil society projects, but my reading of it gave me a unique global perspective on the advancement of ICT for development and the closing of the digital divide.
Posted: 4/2/06; 7:56:14 PM # |
| Democratizing Innovation |
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Katrin Verclas recommended Eric Von Hippel's book Democratizing Innovation last week and now I want to recommend it to you, in turn. It's a great companion book to Lessig's Future of Ideas, but it has its own critically valuable points to make, particularly in the way it lays out a vision of user driven innovation. I believe the nonprofit sector is at best ambivalent about empowering stakeholders and with regard to innovation, often we don't even really know what we mean by the term. There are several chapters of Hippel's book that could help our sector sort out its confusion: Innovation Communities, Toolkits for User Innovation and Custom Design, and Linking User Innovation to Other Phenomena and Fields.
Posted: 4/2/06; 7:46:50 PM # |
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