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BlogsHot Brand for Inspiring Creativity, Material Re-use, Team Building, Problem Solving, and Occupational Skills – Crucible.orgHow does a small group of artisans and activists transform a community? The Crucible has accomplished this through offering classes and workshops in welding, blacksmithing, foundry & moldmaking, woodworking, machine shop, motorcycle & bike repair, stonework, neon & light, kinetics, jewelry & enamel, fire performance, and clay animation.
Categories: Blogs
With what shall I fix our tech, Dear Liza?
I often see that the importance of technology is sort of like an infinite loop song.
There's a hole in the budget, dear Liza, dear Liza, There's a hole in the budget, dear Liza, a hole. So fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, So fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it. With what should I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza, With what should I fix it, dear Liza, with what? Cut the staff in tech support, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, cut the staff, dear Henry, dear Henry, in tech. But what about our support, dear Liza, dear Liza, our support, dear Liza, from tech. Outsource, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, outsource, dear Henry, dear Henry, outsource! But who do we call for problems, dear Liza, dear Liza, Who to call, dear Liza, to call? Ask our staff who is the best, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, The best, dear Henry, dear Henry, ask the staff! But we fired them, dear Liza, dear Liza, They're gone, dear Liza, Now what? Hire an expert tech staff, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry, an expert, dear Henry, tech Staff. There's a hole in the budget, dear Liza, dear Liza, There's a hole in the budget, dear Liza, a hole.Subscribe in a reader
Categories: Blogs
Does Technology Narrow Our View?A couple months ago, Samantha Power, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, wrote a column for TIME entitled, Technology's Power to Narrow Our View. It begins: Commencement season is upon us, when students across the nation make familiar pledges to go forth and change the world. The explosion of social networks on the Internet--Facebook users have affiliated with more than 80,000 causes--has emboldened them to believe their generation will make change. But does new technology make it more or less likely that young people today will commit themselves to do something for others?
Categories: Blogs
American Express Members' Project: Submit Your Ideas for Positive ChangeHey all you do-good web innovators and entrepreneurs! American Express is gearing up for its Members Project again this year. They are looking for projects that are, "innovative, achievable, and can make a positive impact in one of the following areas: Arts & Culture, Community Development, Education, Environment & Wildlife, and Health." Last year, one of the finalists was DonorsChoose, a site that connects public school teachers' needs with donors.
Categories: Blogs
Walking the Line Between Web2.0 and Old Skool in Nonprofits
Johanna Bates, an extraordinary nonprofit technologist, has launched her blog with a very thoughtful post called "Walking the Line Between Web 2.0 and Old Skool in Nonprofits" This adds beautifully to the conversation over at NTEN Wiki (name coming soon). A number of insightful comments have led to the creation of How Can Your Organization Avoid Drinking the Web 2.0 Kool Aid?, a checklist helping orgs understand when they should not devote resources to Web 2.0. Johanna's post talks about the importance of knowing your audience. While you (staff person in the nonprofit) may be ready or getting fluent in Web 2.0, what do you do if your audience or constituents are not? What do you do? We survey our constituents periodically. They are not early adopters. After many years, they are now solid email users and are fairly confident using Google. But RSS? Instant messaging? YouTube? As much as we want them to be there, they are just not there yet. Some are showing signs. They are just on the slower side of the adoption curve. So does that mean that our org should not be investing time and energy in social media tools? Is the answer dancing in the spaces in between? I like the way Johanna describes it - a scaffolding. What we’re doing is taking a Web 2.0 approach, but we’ve dialed down the tools a bit. We are slowly marching out more ways for our constituents to engage online. Do you ever need to walk the line between cutting edge social media and Old Skool in your org? If so, how do you do it? As Gail Peterson notes in the comments of Johanna's post, "I think the answer is to try to be kind and helpful to those who fear technology and provide several ways to communicate."
Categories: Blogs
NTEN Project: Week 1 - Module 1 - Are we there yet?
On Monday, we started down the road to build Module 1: What is Social Media and Why It is Important To Nonprofits. If you have kids and have ever taken a long road trip, you've heard that question. Sometimes a long trip feels like you'll never get there, but little by little you do. So, my response to the question is HOOOHAA - meaning yes -we're almost there! This week I started working on a new project with NTEN to help aggregate the many amazing social media resources out there and develop a social media training curriculum that anyone in the nonprofit sector can use. As Holly Ross says, "The best part is, we're making it happen in true Web 2.0 style. This is content truly created by and for our sector." The community is the curriculum and we're working wikily and learning a lot as we travel down this road. As Michele Martin and Dave Cormier point out, the process of community as curriculum means that the learning is always emerging. So, take a look at Module 1 and give us your feedback in the discussion tab. There are a couple of small holes in the first module that would be great to fill -- in the resource section. We need the short list of blogs or web sites that cover social media and nonprofits. What ones would you add?
Categories: Blogs
Ask Idealware: VOIP Phones for Small Organizations?
Megan asks: We're considering one of those online/virtual phone systems. Regular phone systems are so pricey and if there's a VOIP option for multiple lines, voicemail, etc that's reliable, easy to setup and use, that would be great. Are these systems worth considering for a small organization? If so, what systems would you recommend?
Ron Zucker, with 2020 Vision, responds: Are any nonprofits using VOIP phone systems? Yes, certainly. Some love them and swear by them. The availability of advanced phone services, including voice mail and "Find Me" phone routing at a very reasonable price, is certainly attractive. Does VOIP make sense for smaller nonprofits? That's harder. One of the key considerations for VOIP is the reliability of the internet connection that you're using. If your internet connection goes down, so does your phones. If it blips out just for a second - which you wouldn't typically notice if you're just surfing the web - your VOIP phone call will be disconnected. For most home VOIP users, this is fine. If your phone is down for a couple of hours, or it disconnects, they'll call you back. If it's someone you really care about, they have your cell phone. But for business, that's typically not acceptable; you don't KNOW in advance who needs to find you (what if your phone's down on the day your big grant proposal is due?), and an unstable phone system is just plain unprofessional. If that kind of reliability is important to you, to use VOIP you really need an internet connection with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of at least 99.9% uptime (i.e. down less than two working hours per year -- 52 weeks/year minus 10 federal holidays times 40 hours/week = 2000 work hours/year). And most cable and affordable DSL internet services aren't willing to give you any SLA at all, let alone a 99.9% uptime commitment, or any arrangements for you if they fail. (Note: Some business DSL services will give you an SLA. You'll need to check it with your provider.) So that would imply you likely need to have a T1 internet connection. A T1 comes with uptime guarantees and failover solutions - but at a cost, often between $350 to $650 per month. On the other hand, a Plain Old Telephone Service (commonly abbreviated POTS) tends to be very reliable. And they're really not very expensive. At 2020 Vision, we spend $17/month for 2 lines that are local plus charged long distance, and $39 for two that are unlimited long distance. Incoming calls are routed to local lines first to keep the outgoing calls on the lines that include free long distance. Can you REALLY beat that by enough to justify the lower uptime of a VOIP line? Especially when you consider that you typically need to buy new physical phones when you switch to a VOIP line? VOIP phone service is certainly worth investigating if you have a T1 connection already, or one makes sense for other reasons. Or if the reliability of your phone service is not a critical concern. But for a typical small organization, Plain Old Telephone Service is likely to be pretty hard to beat. The Ask Idealware posts take on some of the questions that you send us at ask@idealware.org. Have other great options? Disagree with our answer? Help us out by entering your own answer as a comment below.
Categories: Blogs
In Honor of Independence Day: How Would Social Media have Shaped the Declaration?Here in the U.S., tomorrow is the 4th of July, Independence Day, the anniversary commemorating when the 13 American colonies declared their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. This morning I started thinking about how things might have gone down if the colonists had access to social media. Here's what I'm thinking:
What do you think? How would social media have shaped the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution? UPDATE--Check out comments where Thea Cooke has a really interesting take on how the Declaration of Independence might have turned out differently if social media had been used to write it. Flickr photo via snowriderguy.
Categories: Blogs
In Honor of Independence Day: How Would Social Media have Shaped the Declaration?
Here in the U.S., tomorrow is the 4th of July, Independence Day, the anniversary commemorating when the 13 American colonies declared their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. This morning I started thinking about how things might have gone...
Michele Martin
Categories: Blogs
Making Technology Available to Everyone - Interview with John Lyman from Google.orgJohn Lyman from Google.org talks to us about how social benefit organizations are using Google Apps to enhance their operations and collaborate. Our goal is really for non-profits to have access to the same technologies that Fortune 500 companies have… And the way that you do that, basically, is you make the same technology available to everyone, which is what Google has done. Jed Sundwall: What are you working on with Google.org?
Categories: Blogs
NTEN Project Week 1: Not Everyone Understands Social Media - Should They Be Embarassed? Been thinking about new names for the NTEN project and enjoying the comments and ideas from all of you! Tony Molloy made me laugh with his comment. And while checking out his blog, I discovered Twitter Counter - anything that creates visual data analysis I'm a sucker for ... Twitter Counter ...lets you chart the growth of your followers. Tony's blog lead me to Dave Press's post about 2gether, you can find out more at the event’s blog, or by looking around the associated social network. David Wilcox is involved - and boy does it sound like an excellent event. I landed on a video interview by David Wilcox with Technology writer Bill Thompson who chaired the opening session at the event. Bill Thompson thought it was time “non-techies” to get caught up. According to David, He went so far as to say that people should be embarrassed if they came to an event about social media but had to confess they didn’t understand anything about it. People don’t need to code - but should know what programmers do, said Bill. David and Bill think a solution would be to have a shoulder-to-shoulder training. As I listened to this interview, I thought about the first module in the NTEN curriculum project (soon to be named something new) and how important those basic primers are ... so - there's a slide show we're remixing .. but it is also important for people to develop some basic social media literacy skills if they are interested in the potential of social media. The social media literacy divide discussion is taking place in other sectors, like education. Tony Karrer's Lead the Charge? raises the question of whether learning professionals should be more technologically literate. He points to The Fischbowl's post -Is It Okay To Be Technologically Illiterate Teacher? What do you think? Makes me think that the curriculum needs to point to the best of the best how-tos or maybe have some instructions on how to do one of these parties ...
Categories: Blogs
NTEN Be The Media Project Name Change: We Need Your Feedback
If you've been reading this blog, you know that last week I started to work with NTEN on a social media and nonprofits curriculum development project called Be The Media. Yesterday, Holly Ross, NTEN Executive Director, posted this discussion thread on the wiki: We've hit a snag in the road, and we need your help to get past it. It
seems the lawyers affiliated with an about to be published book (http://www.bethemedia.com)
aren't too thrilled about our title. Given that they book is just weeks
away from hitting the streets, that the author is a pretty nice guy,
and that I don't want to hold up our work, the easiest solution is for
us to find a new name for the project. So, to change the name we need to:
Any advice on making this a smooth transition? Now for the fun and wonderful part! Many people have suggested fantastic names ... and asked great questions to trigger thoughts on a name and circumstances.
Response from Holly Ross: We're trying to first engage the social media "experts" to share their knowledge so we can design a curriculum that addresses the social media "novice." So the title has to be a call to action for community participation, and then work for the social media curious that might be attending one of the trainings. It's a tall order.
Shall we kill the buzzword? (That link courtesy of Danielle Brigida)
Wonder what AIDG's legal department would think of that?
I love the "starter kit," but Chris Brogan has used that phrase. Would we get into legal trouble with Chris? Guess not ..
Hmm .. looks like Josh Leo's blog is licensed by the least restrictive Creative Commons by license ... can we use the name? Will we get into trouble with Dan Gilmor or O'Reily's legal department? (What is an open book project?). It is too close to "We Media" will that get us into trouble with Andrew Nachison.
YOUR Media
NP Social Media Producers Move Online (just kidding, that's a whole different set of lawyers to piss off, but maybe they'd be cool) You are the media. We are the media. Screw the lawyers. No small irony that they would object.... What name best represents the project? What name won't get us into trouble with lawyers?
Categories: Blogs
Bay Area Drupal for Good Group FormingFor the past couple weeks there has been a long discussion thread happening on the Net Tuesday San Francisco Meetup list serv about people wanting to form a Drupal for Good group in the Bay Area. Joshua Wiese set up a Drupal for Good San Francisco Bay Area Google group to help get it organized. You can join the group by clicking here, and anyone can view any of the group's activity, without joining, by clicking here. Not in the Bay Area? Here is a link to the Drupal for Good discussion group that anyone can join wherever they live. You also might want to check out the Drupal Dojo.
Categories: Blogs
NTEN Media Project Name Change--Help Us Out!Well, we've run into a bit of a hitch with the NTEN social media curriculum development project. Yesterday, Holly Ross, NTEN Executive Director, posted this discussion thread on the wiki: We've hit a snag in the road, and we need your help to get past it. It seems the lawyers affiliated with an about to be published book (http://www.bethemedia.com) aren't too thrilled about our title. Given that they book is just weeks away from hitting the streets, that the author is a pretty nice guy, and that I don't want to hold up our work, the easiest solution is for us to find a new name for the project. So now we need your help coming up with a new name. Check out Beth's round-up of the discussion so far, along with the incredible collection of creative names that have been identified. Then drop Beth or I a comment or leave us a note on the wiki with your thoughts.
Categories: Blogs
NTEN Media Project Name Change--Help Us Out!
Well, we've run into a bit of a hitch with the NTEN social media curriculum development project. Yesterday, Holly Ross, NTEN Executive Director, posted this discussion thread on the wiki: We've hit a snag in the road, and we need...
Michele Martin
Categories: Blogs
Liz Strauss Asks - Are Crayons Social Media?
What does the Internet look like? Liz Strauss asks if crayons qualify as social media. It made remember the workshops I taught way back in 1993 for arts people about Internet literacy - the web was just getting started. I handed them crayons and paper and asked them to draw a picture of the Internet and then share with someone else. Here's some of the drawing from the thousands that I had in my collection (scanned the best ones). It's funny looking at these - because they are all about connections, people, transportation metaphors, networks, global, etc. Maybe if you were ask someone to draw pictures of social media or web 2.0 you would get similar images. So that leads me to the NTEN's Be The Media Project (name to change soon) and Module 1 that we're building together and talking about this week. For today, we'll be working on the specific learning objective: To understand the basic concepts and principles of social media I spent a bit of time searching through slide shows on Slideshare for a good primer. I think this slide show by Lee White is one of the best ever! It's a stellar example of good visual presentation and use of creative commons licensing. What would you change, add, or remove if you were to remix this slide show for a nonprofit audience? What do you think are the best of the best resources that cover the basic ideas of social media? If you were doing a workshop, what icebreaker would you design to help people understand these basic concepts? Leave a comment or drop your feedback on the NTEN wiki here.
Categories: Blogs
Using Learners' "Technoprofiles" to Integrate Social Media and LearningVia Christine Martell at Blog Cascadia comes this learning framework from Ray Jimenez on choosing social media for learning. It's based on Ray's reading of Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. Ray points out that the tendency in using social media for learning is to force creator status on everyone: The tendency in early adoptions of social networking in learning is the over emphasis on learners becoming active participants. Since Wikis, Blogs and discussions are abundant and tools easy to apply, trainers tend to emphasize the contributions of learners by postings and comments. This is unfortunate because not all learners may wish or are ready to make comments or participate in discussions, and yet may be willing to do something else. The biggest downside is that, trainers basing on this early experience, tend to conclude that "social learning and networking" does not really work because learners seem not too excited in making comments. I have heard this moaning so many times. The best instructional design recognizes that you need to meet learners where they're at if you want build the right scaffolding. Forcing people who are naturally lurkers (as most learners are) to move immediately into actor or creator mode may be counter-productive, as it will inevitably turn off your learners. The solution, Ray suggests, is to create learner "technoprofiles" as he's done here. This framework helps us consider the best strategies to consider in developing learning experiences that use social media. Christine points out in her post that since we're still in the early adoption phases, learning professionals might need to be focusing more on creating podcasts, videos, screencasts and online presentations that appeal to the lurker audience. I tend to agree, much as I hate to say it. My dream would be that everyone is a creator, but that's obviously not going to be happening, at least in the shorter term. I think that part of the issue is that people don't see themselves as learners. It is also a degree of technophobia. Although we need to spend time developing things like podcasts, videos, ect., I think that we need to be finding ways to help people move into actor and creator status too, recognizing that this may be a slow transition for many people. This is where using creator tools (i.e., blogs, wikis, etc.) to deliver "lurker" learning can help to move people forward--for example, embedding short, multimedia learning chunks into a blog and encouraging people to try commenting. Adding polls and rating systems may be a good intermediary step to include--it allows people to act on the online content without having to make a full creator kind of commitment. Using tools that help people bridge the distance between familiar and unfamiliar technologies may also be helpful. Posterous, for example, which allows you to blog entirely through email, seems like a great opportunity for encouraging people to try creating social media. For me, Ray's framework harkens back to some of what I was thinking about a few months ago when I drew the social media helix. Ultimately I believe that the most valuable and long-lasting learning occurs at the creator level, not at the lurker level. Ray's chart highlights this--check out the "Results" row where the learning result for lurkers is "retention," while for actors it's "application" and for Creators it actually changes work behavior. From a workplace learning perspective, clearly finding ways to move people from lurker to actor or creator is part of improving the quality of that learning. So the real question becomes what is the proper scaffolding to make this occur? How do we take lurkers and turn them into actors and creators? And I don't want to hear that we should just let people stay at the lurker level. That's like saying that we should just not worry about doing a good job as learning professionals. For me, part of the mission is to help people be better learners, not just to transmit specific content to them. Keeping people at the lurker level is a way to create followers, not creative thinkers and leaders. UPDATE--Be sure to check out the comments where some really interesting discussions are happening.
Categories: Blogs
Web 2.0 Wednesday: Create an Invitation to ParticipateEarlier this week I talked about the need to extend explicit invitations to people about participating in the Web 2.0 world. Although many of us have fully embraced the social networking and interaction that is typical of this new evolution of the Internet, a huge number of people still see the Web as a passive form of entertainment rather than as a place to interact. For this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday, we're going to use Web 2.0 tools to create an invitation to newbies to participate in the online conversations. Some potential ways to do this:
Keeping in mind that new people feel uncomfortable about randomly joining online conversations, be sure that you focus on creating something that's inviting to new users. It should help them feel welcome online, and maybe show them how they can feel more comfortable in this new iteration of the web. As always, tag your creation with web2.0wednesday and bookmark it with the same tag on del.icio.us. You can also leave a link to your newbie invitation in comments here. Have fun with it. Web 2.0 Wednesdays is low pressure learning!
Categories: Blogs
Web 2.0 Wednesday: Create an Invitation to Participate
Earlier this week I talked about the need to extend explicit invitations to people about participating in the Web 2.0 world. Although many of us have fully embraced the social networking and interaction that is typical of this new evolution...
Michele Martin
Categories: Blogs
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