(Guidelines for posting to the Information Systems Forum are posted
periodically for the edification of all.)




Dear ISF Colleagues,

Welcome to the Information Systems Forum, an online discussion for
nonprofit professionals who are interested information and
communication technologies to increase organizational effectiveness.

This is a moderated, flame-free email distribution list that is open
to anyone who is interested in the topic and willing to adhere to the
idea of civil society.

Here are a few tips for making your contributions to the list more readable:

o Write about subjects that pertain to information and
communication technologies for nonprofit organizations. Readers
subscribe to the list because they are interested in this specific
topic. If you stray too far from it, other members of the group are
likely to ignore your messages.

o Trim, trim, trim! Unnecessary repetitions of previous posts,
list footers, and signature lines are tedious for other members to
negotiate. If you're replying to a previous message, please trim away
everything but the essentials of that message and your response to it.
If you don't trim your post down, and I think that it would benefit
from trimming, then I edit it myself. This means extra work for me,
and a trim job for your message that you (as the author) may deem
unduly harsh.

o Clean up jagged margins; readers tend to get so discouraged
by them that they skip your message and go on to the next one.

o Double-check your subject line, and make sure that it
summarizes the topic. If you subscribe to the digest format of the
list, then the subject line will automatically be something like
"Digest Number 123." Please change it to something more topical. It's
also helpful to trim away clutter from previous generations of
forwarding; "FW: Funding for nonprofit technology" is much more
readable than "Fwd: FW: Re: [Other Listserv] RE: Funding for nonprofit
technology."

o Avoid using all capital letters. In email, this is equivalent
to shouting, and considered an insult to one's readers.

o Write for an international readership. If you say that an
event is happening tonight at "the Firehouse in J.P.," the Bostonians
will know that you mean "the Firehouse Multicultural Art Center in
Jamaica Plain," but maybe the folks in Thailand won't. And if they
need to fly in from Thailand to attend, it's probably a good idea to
give them more than a few hours' notice.

o Frame your message in the language of civil discourse, and
avoid inflammatory rhetoric. The rule of thumb is to assume that
others are motivated by the best intentions, even when you think that
they are gravely mistaken.

The following kinds of posts are always unacceptable for posting to this group.

o Flames, or rhetoric that might incite flames. Sometimes
members of the group have perfectly good points to make, but choose
language that is inflammatory. Posts that are simply attacks on
someone else's religion, operating system, ethics, ancestry, internet
service provider, or attitude are usually deleted without comment.

o Advertisements of products or services. As the group
moderator, I delete the blatant spam before the rest of the group ever
sees it, but there are some borderline cases. For example, each
newcomer is invited to introduce him/herself to the group upon
joining, and it's appropriate to mention any products or services that
he/she sells to the community. That's fine, but thereafter it's best
to let your satisfied customers recommend your product or service.
Another borderline case is announcements about conferences and
workshops. These are fine if they are specifically tailored to the
needs of our community. Bulletins about workshops and conferences
given by nonprofits are usually approved; posts about for-profit
organizations that offer these events are approved on a case-by-case
basis.

o Solicitations of cash donations for organizations or
individuals. Requests by nonprofits for in-kind donations of either
products or services are approved on a case-by-case basis.
(Legitimate offers of cash or in-kind donations are acceptable.)

o Off-topic questions, out-of-office auto-replies, and personal
messages that were never intended to go to the whole list. I try to
catch these before they go out, and they are usually deleted without
comment.

Please note that the moderator (Deborah Elizabeth Finn) and alternate
moderator (John McNutt) reserve the right delete any inappropriate
messages without circulating them to the group, or to bar disruptive
individuals from membership in the group. While I will do everything
possible to encourage community building, fruitful dialogue, and free
expression, the moderators remain the only arbiters of appropriate
content for this community.

Thanks for your attention to these guidelines.

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Information Systems Forum moderator

Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
www.cyber-yenta.org

-----original message-----
From: NetSquared <net2@...>
Date: Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 8:21 PM
Subject: Net2News: Join Google's Net2 Mashup Challenge Hackathon
To: deborah_elizabeth_finn@...


Net2News - February 29, 2008

  The Newsletter from NetSquared.org

  Remixing the Web for Social Change

  1. Join Google's Net2 Mashup Challenge Hackathon March 7

  2. MoveSmart.org Gains Exposure from the Net2 Mashup Challenge

  3. 14 Net Tuesdays Need Speakers and Co-Organzers

  4. Reminder: Net2 Mashup Challenge Deadline is March 14

  5. Jobs and Internships

  6. Questions, Comments, News You Want to Share?

  1. Join Google's Net2 Mashup Challenge Hackathon March 7

  On March 7th, NetSquared Mashup Challenge applicants have an
  incredible opportunity to participate in a Hackathon at the
  Googleplex in Mountain View, CA from Noon-5 PM.

  A group of Google engineers, product and project managers will
  be available to help you think through your idea, answer
  questions, give advice and start building your mashup for social
  change!

  To attend you need to submit your project idea to the NetSquared
  Mashup Challenge. The application process is just that, a
  process. Fill out what you know now, and begin soliciting
  feedback from others to move your idea to a completed mashup:
  http://www.netsquared.org/mashup .

  Hackathon registration info. is available on the Net2 Blog:
  http://tinyurl.com/2ukjvy

  2. MoveSmart.org Gains Exposure from the Net2 Mashup Challenge

  This week Justin Massa of MoveSmart.org posted on the Net2 Blog
  about the exposure MoveSmart.org has received since entering the
  Challenge:

  "For anyone considering entering the competition, all I can say
  is go for it. It is now clear to me that many people are paying
  attention to the competition. Even if we're not selected, the
  exposure MoveSmart.org has gotten so far is worth much, much
  more than the 46 minutes (or so) it took us to apply."

  Read his whole post here:
  http://www.netsquared.org/blog/justinmassa/amazing-exposure

  3. 14 Net Tuesdays Need Speakers and Co-Organzers

  * New Net Tuesdays started in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles
  and Vancouver this month.

  * Chris Limerick would like to start a Net Tuesday in "The
  Triangle" (Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill) area of North Carolina
  and is looking for co-organizers. If you're interested, contact
  him at chris_limerick AT yahoo DOT com.

  * Net Tuesday Atlanta is looking for co-organizers too. You can
  contact Timothy Moenk through Atlanta's NetSquared Meetup Group,
  http://netsquared.meetup.com/8/ , or on Twitter via @tmoenk.

  * All of the Net Tuesday groups are looking for speakers. If you
  are interested in presenting, contact the organizers through
  their Meetup groups, http://www.meetupalliance.com/netsquared ,
  or email net2@..., and we'll put you in touch with
  them.

  4. Reminder: Net2 Mashup Challenge Deadline is March 14

  Excited about the Google Hackathon on March 7th? Inspired by the
  exposure MoveSmart.org has received? Don't delay in submitting
  your entry to the NetSquared Mashup Challenge before the March
  14th deadline: http://www.netsquared.org/mashup .

  Questions? Shoot us an email at net2@....

  5. Jobs and Internships

  Blog Network Managing Editor
  Change.org
  San Francisco, CA
  http://www.idealist.org/en/job/267191-329

  Campaign 08 Social Media Co-Curator (paid and volunteer)
  Public Radio Exchange / BallotVox
  Virtual
  http://ballotvox.prx.org/archives/14/like-to-be-a-co-curator

  Event Coordinator Internship (paid)
  Women Who Tech TeleSummit
  Washington, DC preferred. Virtual is possible
  http://www.WomenWhoTech.com
  Interested? Email Allyson@...

  Online Organizer and Web Developer Internship (paid)
  Genocide Intervention Network
  Washington, DC
  http://www.genocideintervention.net/network/jobs

  6. Questions, Comments, News You Want to Share?

  Do you have news, jobs, events, or calls for submissions that
  you'd like to share with the NetSquared Community, or
  suggestions and ideas for the NetSquared Team? Email us at
  net2@...
  --------------------------------------------------

  Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

  http://ga0.org/join-forward.html?domain=netsquared&r=EdA_EDp1Z6Xa

  If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
  NetSquared at:

  http://ga0.org/netsquared/join.html?r=EdA_EDp1Z6XaE

  --------------------------------------------------

I couldn't agree more with what my colleagues have said.  I always refer to
myself as someone who is a development person capable of understanding
technology, which is a highly sought after commodity, but also one with
pitfalls. Recently, my boss decided that they needed to get an administrative
assistant into the office because my time was being spent on doing basic excel
and word tasks because other individuals couldn't do them. In my current
capacity I emphasized that I wasn't an "administrative assistant", I am a manger
and just have no time to do basic basic IT stuff for individuals. Unfortunately
instead of encouraging individuals to learn, they are hiring someone else to do
the jobs. Which is a solution but I think it is better to encourage people to
learn rather than keep putting it off.  I think this problem also has to do with
generational conflicts and individuals who view their jobs in silos. Today's
workforce requires multi-tasking, and that is a hard concept for some people. 
My solution, I really wish there were more seminars and workshops emphasizing
management effectiveness and efficiency and issues dealing with generational
conflicts, because from my experience the problem aren't going away but getting
worse.

Tory

Thank you for the mention of World Computer Exchange, Christine.  World Computer
Exchange also collects used working computer equipment in other areas of the
country where we have volunteer teams, including WashingtonDC/Baltimore,
Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland, OR. 
For those individuals not near a collection site, equipment can be shipped to:
WCE, 936 Nantasket Ave., Hull, MA 02045.  We are finding that the equipment we
ship has an additional 5 or more years of useful service with our overseas
partners.  And we are developing a public education campaign overseas about how
to responsibly dispose of ewaste when it is no longer useful.  So please keep us
in mind...

Pamela Cooney
Director of Operations, World Computer Exchange

www.WorldComputerExchange.org is a global educational non-profit that provides
services and computers to help to help connect more youth in developing
countries to the resources, opportunities and understanding of the Internet ~
while keeping working computers out of landfills. We have shipped over 26,000
computers to help connect 2,500 schools, libraries, orphanages and community
centers. WCE's 700 volunteers also offer online consulting in project planning,
partnership development, fund raising, shipping logistics, technology support,
telecentre management, digital libraries, e-waste disposal, sister-schools &
distance learning.

Please Donate Now:
www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org/ma/2006/world_computer_9799.htm
http://www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org/dc/2006/world_computer_9967.htm
http://guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood//donate.jsp?ein=04-3529016

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dear Colleagues,

Check out this article from "Mass High Tech," which is a regional tech
journal here in New England:

"SCI boosts civic action with websites"
<http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2008/03/03/story11.htm\
l>

Rock on, Social Capital Inc!

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>

Dear ISF Colleagues,

Which will you endorse:  cats or penguins?

<http://lolnptech.blogspot.com/2008/02/penguins-ready-to-challenge-feline.html>

:-)

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>

Dear ISF Colleagues,

Have any of you used eHope as an online tool for coordinating support
for a gravely ill person?  What do you think of it?

<http://www.ehope.nu/>

It looks very good to me - but I'm concerned that it's another silo,
and doesn't mash up well with other online tools and networks.

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>

Dear ISF Colleagues,

Beth Kanter explains why March is our month, in terms that women who
blog can appreciate:

<http://www.blogher.com/march-non-profit-technology-month>

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>

Thanks for the info about cron.php - I really appreciate it.  Once the craziness
of Easter is over (I work at a church), I'll read up on configuring it and
everything I should be doing with it.

~Rosemary Schmidt
Communications Coordinator
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Seattle WA



-----original message-----
>> Hi Rosemary, Part of what cron.php does on a Drupal site is clear out old log
messages, stale cache entries and other statistical data in the database which
is regularly wiped from the system.  You can view the INSTALL.TXT file that
comes with Drupal installs to see how to configure this file early on. >>

I wanted to pass this one to all of you. Feel free to pass it on to any
colleagues that may be interested.

Best,

Megan

***************************************************************

Megan Keane
Online Community Manager, TechSoup
435 Brannan St., Suite 100
San Francisco, CA 94107
Voice: 415-633-9474
Email: megan@...

Google's engineers, product and project managers want to bring your idea for a
mashup with social impact to life!

NetSquared, a project of TechSoup, is awarding a share of $100,000 in prize
money, and a trip to the NetSquared Conference, to the top 20 winners of the
NetSquared Mashup Challenge http://www.netsquared.org/mashup.  On March 7th, a
group of Google engineers, product and project managers have volunteered to help
Challenge applicants think through their ideas and start building their mashups
during a Hackathon at the Googleplex.

If you're wondering what a mashup is, it's a web application that combines data
from more than one source into a single integrated tool. For example,
ChicagoCrimes.org <http://www.chicagocrime.org/>  is a browsable database of
crimes in Chicago that lets users see information displayed on a map.

To register for the Hackathon, you need to submit your idea for a mashup with
social impact to the NetSquared Mashup Challenge.  Challenge submission forms
are available at http://www.netsquared.org/mashup.  The application process is
just that, a process. Fill out what you know, and begin soliciting feedback from
others to move your idea to a completed mashup. Submit your application soon, as
the deadline to submit your project application to be eligible for the voting
that determines the top 20 projects for the conference is March 14 at 5pm
Pacific Time.

Space is limited for the Hackathon, so submit your project idea, and register
for the event ASAP.

For more information about registering for the Google Hackathon, go to:
http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/march-7-google-hackathon-nets
quared-mashup-challenge

If you have questions about the NetSquared Mashup Challenge, contact
net2@....

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

NOSI has finalized the report on the survey we did early last month.
There are some interesting results, and it is worth a read. The summary:

"The sample here (or Our sampling) wasn't sufficient to allow us to draw
firm conclusions about software choices in the nonprofit sector as a
whole, but our responses did come from a broad range of organizations.
These groups are diverse both in size, mission and their use of free and
open source software, and it is clear from their responses that FOSS is
actively used in the nonprofit sector. FOSS is common on web servers,
and while FOSS desktop operating systems are still uncommon, many
nonprofits use free and open source applications on proprietary desktop
operating systems. Many people in the sector use FOSS everyday, or at
least quite frequently. Nonprofits do have a clear understanding of the
strengths of FOSS, and at least some organizations have made
organizational commitments to open source and open standards."

Find it on the NOSI website: http://nosi.net/projects/survey

Peace,
Michelle
--
Michelle Murrain
Coordinator, Nonprofit Open Source Initiative
michelle@...
http://nosi.net

This was an interesting topic to me as well. I've run into the same issue at
both non-profit organizations and small businesses I've worked for. I frequently
find myself doing simply or repetitive tasks just because they involve some
element of technology. Because of my background/training, I probably do learn
software programs faster than other volunteers/staff members, but I agree that I
would not be doing the organization any favors by just doing the tasks myself.

Therefore, we made IT training one of my main responsibilities in my current
role. Sometimes I'm training on basic tasks like setting up email accounts or
embedding links in documents, other times we are writing SQL queries or adding
modifications to php files. I keep a catalogue of each of these training topics
that I try to write in common terms along with links to outside sources, so I
have them to share with each person as needed. I just think most people respond
better to personalized training than seminars, online demos, or booklets. Yes
it's time consuming, but it's the only approach we have found that works.

Also on occasion it's really paid off to have me specifically working at such a
detailed level. Having to do these tasks myself often turns out to be the
perfect incentive to find a way to eliminate repetitive tasks by writing a
custom macro, script, query, or report, or finding a ready-made solution that
can. That would never have happened with someone else doing it because I knew it
was possible. I've personally benefited too, having a chance to try graphic
design, setup RSS feeds, do SEO tasks, or use high-end publishing software.

One of the challenges with non-profits is that almost every staff member has to
wear multiple hats to get the job done. Whenever I find myself doing tasks that
might not be the best use of my skills, I just streamline it to the best of my
ability, write a short training document for it, and search out another
volunteer or staff member who is open to learning something new. Sometimes I
even have to break it into pieces and let them grow with the project before they
are doing all or at least part of it.

This approach can be a quick way to sort the jobs out too. If I have 4-5
volunteers/staff members in a row who, let's just say, don't succeed with the
project, then I know it may require a level of IT skills that are not realistic
to expect at this point in time or using the tools we have now. (I may need to
tweak my training documentation too.) I don't think of that in terms of enabling
them though because I work with a variety of professionals, who like me, only
have time to do tasks that are most related/suited to their background.

As technology continues to permeate the day-to-day tasks of almost everyone's
job, it's just going to be a challenge to draw those lines. I agree with you
that the key is quality training (too often viewed as a luxury) that gives
everyone the incentive to master the necessary technology tools and addresses
the reasons why they are reluctant to use them. Frequently technology issues
just come across as intimidating which only makes the problem worse. I know our
group still has a way to go, but we're trying!!

Lauretta Shokler
Technology@...
Supporting Multiple Birth Families...Every Step of the Way
Celebrating 20 Years of Service!




-----original message-----
>>I couldn't agree more with what my colleagues have said. I always refer to
myself as someone who is a development person capable of understanding
technology, which is a highly sought after commodity, but also one with
pitfalls. Recently, my boss decided that they needed to get an administrative
assistant into the office because my time was being spent on doing basic excel
and word tasks because other individuals couldn't do them. In my current
capacity I emphasized that I wasn't an "administrative assistant", I am a manger
and just have no time to do basic basic IT stuff for individuals. Unfortunately
instead of encouraging individuals to learn, they are hiring someone else to do
the jobs. Which is a solution but I think it is better to encourage people to
learn rather than keep putting it off. I think this problem also has to do with
generational conflicts and individuals who view their jobs in silos. Today's
workforce requires multi-tasking, and that is a hard concept for some people. My
solution, I really wish there were more seminars and workshops emphasizing
management effectiveness and efficiency and issues dealing with generational
conflicts, because from my experience the problem aren't going away but getting
worse.>>

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2260070,00.asp>

-----original message-----
>>I was looking for number 2 (of those you listed) of any "partnerships" between
a for-profit and a specific nonprofit. ...>>





Education Assistance Ltd http://inventorydonations.org/ had a partnership with a
national insurance company a while back.  EAL takes surplus inventory (mostly
related to physical plant) and places it at colleges around the country with the
agreement that the college will award a scholarship for the fair market value of
what they received.  There's some other fees involved, but you get the picture. 
For full disclosure I'm a member of the board.

Technology, particularly PCs, were a good deal in the very early days of this
century.  We could take large lots and equip library and computer labs and what
not for next to nothing, particularly when we could match local inventory with a
nearby school.

Then three things happened: HIPPA, SOX, and dropping prices and shortened life
cycles.  Unusable technology could be sold in bulk to cover our operating costs.
However, the bulk technology market is very tough these days - almost no margin.
Then privacy and security issues arose and we could get machines, but no hard
drives.  Then, in order to keep costs down on disposal (and with a residual
value of nil) companies stopped taking the hard drive out and, I may have this
wrong, but it's a great image, taking a nail gun to the insides to make sure
that the HD platters were destroyed.

So, that line of business is very small these days, but when you can source bulk
PCs for under $500 and demand for general access machines is very low (everyone
wants wireless access with their laptops on campus) it's not a big issue for the
colleges.

Lemme know if you want a list of vendors that accept electronics.

hth,

Tim Mills-Groninger

Tim Mills-Groninger
219-616-5886
timmg@...

Laura's contribution can set the bar on good practices. Good job and great
suggestions of how to bridge the divide between the techie's and non-techies. We
always forget that something that is easy for us is not so easy for others.

Trudy

Trudy Beaulne
Executive Director
Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo/
Community Information Centre of Waterloo Region
300-151 Frederick St.
Kitchener ON N2H 2M2
Phone: 519-579-1096 Ext. 3006
Fax: 519-578-9185
Email: spckw@...
Community InfoLine: 519-579-3800
Outside Waterloo Region, call: 1-877-579-3859
Website: www.waterlooregion.org
Cultivating community knowledge to advance social justice.






-----original message-----
>>This was an interesting topic to me as well. I've run into the same issue at
both non-profit organizations and small businesses I've worked for. I frequently
find myself doing simply or repetitive tasks just because they involve some
element of technology. Because of my background/training, I probably do learn
software programs faster than other volunteers/staff members, but I agree that I
would not be doing the organization any favors by just doing the tasks myself.
Therefore, we made IT training one of my main responsibilities in my current
role. Sometimes I'm training on basic tasks like setting up email accounts or
embedding links in documents, other times we are writing SQL queries or adding
modifications to php files. I keep a catalogue of each of these training topics
that I try to write in common terms along with links to outside sources, so I
have them to share with each person as needed. I just think most people respond
better to personalized training than seminars, online demos, or booklets. Yes
it's time consuming, but it's the only approach we have found that works.>>

Dear ISF Colleagues,

Here's a grab bag of links that are potentially interesting to the
nonprofit sector:

A Stack of Problems: Five Ways Tech Projects Fail
http://news.gilbert.org/5WaysTechProjectsFail

Women Who Tech: A TeleSummit for Women in Technology
http://www.womenwhotech.com/

mFundraising: Fundraising on Mobile Phones
http://nten.org/blog/2008/03/04/mfundraising-fundraising-on-mobile-phones

Nonprofit IT Staffing: Budgets, Salaries, Training and Planning
http://nten.org/research/nonprofit-it-staffing-budgets-salaries-training-and-pla\
nning

Act.ivi.st
http://act.ivi.st/

Please feel free to comment on any or all of these.

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>

Dear ISF Colleagues,

Many thanks to Allan Benamer* for this breaking news, and to
TechSoup.Org for cutting the deal!

"Flickr for Good just launched!"
http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/flickr-for-good-just-launched

Best regards from Deborah

P.S.  Also known as Abe.

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>

(Dear ISF Colleagues:  This looks like an excellent tool, not just for
nonprofits that think of themselves as policy advocates, but also for
nonprofits that have questions about government funding for direct
services that they provide.  Best regards from Deborah)




------original message------
From: CNCPundit <mwittstock@...>
Date: Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 8:05 AM
Subject: Check out www.askyourlawmaker.org
To: berkman sunlight <berkman-sunlight@googlegroups.com>

Folks -

If you haven't already, please check out the new widgets from Capitol
News Connection that let citizens directly interact with their
lawmakers in Congress.

'Ask Your Lawmaker' lets users ask and rank questions they want CNC
award-winning public radio journalists to ask, and reporters -
microphone in hand - track down lawmakers in the corridors and
committee rooms of Congress and get user questions answered. Audio MP3
is uploaded back to the site and widgets - for users to listen to,
comment and share. We provide auto-generated embed code for the
answers, and means to track your questions.

The widgets are customizable by topic or state, question or answer.

It's been just two months, but the widgets are being used by several
hundred sites (mostly public radio websites and bloggers), but we want
to get them out to more of you. There is tremendous power (and
accountability) in being able to say to the Speaker or Majority
leader, "this question comes to you from 7,925 people in 28 states"!

Please help us get the word out!

(We're a small nonprofit with little in the way of a marketing budget
or staffing capacity to really push this! So we need to rely on
you...blog about it, tell your friends, twitter, whatever...and please
give us your feedback!

We want to make improvements and further customizations, and are keen
to know what direction(s) you may want us to go! best

  Melinda Wittstock
  Capitol News Connection | Ask Your Lawmaker
  (CNC brings politics 'home' to 200+ public radio stations with
  localized and interactive news from Congress)

-----original message-----
From: Andrew Sherry <asherry@...>
Date: 9 Mar 2008 20:46:13 -0000
Subject: [progressiveexchange] FW: Help Us Invite Innovative
Non-Profits to Web 2.0 Expo
To: discuss@...



Excerpt below from a newsletter about the upcoming (April 21-25) Web
2.0 Expo in San Francisco; a great place to pick up ideas and get your
message in front of different but  sympathetic audience. Even if you
don't have the travel budget I'd recommend pitching anyway; if they
want this enough we may be able to get O'Reilly Media to provide
additional support, if not here, then at the NYC conference in
September.  - Andrew Sherry, SVP Online Communications, Center for
American Progress


===

One kind of company we don't have many of at the moment is
non-profits. Help us fix that! Non-profits are using the principles
and technologies of Web 2.0 to do amazing things, and we've set aside
10 spaces to give away to organizations that are using the web to
change the world. If you know of a company who should be there, leave
a comment on the Expo blog
<http://web-2-0-expo.p0.com/u.d?NnHlH-igPc-_EXJZg4=1341>, and we'll
use your feedback to provide free exhibit space to 10 innovative
charitable and activist organizations.

===

Hi, my name is DeLayne Hudspeth from Austin, Texas. I am currently President of
the Lambda Retirement Community, Inc., a non-profit corporation in Texas with
IRS tax-exempt status. We are in the process of developing a self-governing,
green-oriented and healthy facility for men to retire and grow old as slowly as
possible. Please see www.lambdaretirementcommunity.org for additional
information.

I seek help from this group for on-line software recommendations that we can use
to collect market information. We tried one commercial package that didn't work
well. We would consider creating our own engine if the opportunity were
presented. Your suggestions and ideas will be much appreciated. Thanks in
advance for your help.

DeLayne Hudspeth  delayne@...   (512) 832-9388

Dear ISF Colleagues,

I'm just waking up to the existence of the Twitter hashtag phenomenon.
  Big props to Ruby for cluing me in to the homepage
<http://hashtags.org/>! I've located the #nptech homepage
<http://hashtags.org/tag/nptech/>.

My next question is about whether anyone has written a good lucid
cheatsheet about Twitter hashtags for distraught technophobic
nonprofit professionals.

Many thanks and best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

"Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature
like a Mixture of some Frailties.  It is by them
that we are best told, that we must not strike
too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by
the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our
censures."
-George Savile (1633 - 1695)

-----original message-----
>>My next question is about whether anyone has written a good lucid cheatsheet
about Twitter hashtags for distraught technophobic nonprofit professionals.>>



IMHO, a distraught technophobic nonprofit professional shouldn't go near Twitter
in the first place, let alone use hashtags. ;-)

There isn't much to them, really.

1) Make sure hashtags is following you, by following them :
http://twitter.com/hashtags

2) whenever you send out a tweet that is significant and connected to a
particular thing, then use the '#' symbol (a hash) and the tag. Like if you were
tweeting about NTC use #08NTC. Use #nptech for some things. The tags are the
same as general tags you'd use for blogging and bookmarking, except make sure
there is a '#' sign in front of it.

3) Tag a pretty small minority of tweets - it's not like blog entries - be
judicious - stuff you really want people to see.

4) Follow hashtags in your feedreader of choice by grabbing the feed URL from
http://hashtags.org (you can do this without using Twitter at all!)

Peace,
Michelle
--
Michelle Murrain
http://www.zenofnptech.org

Skype: pearlbear
AIM: pearlbear0

For us to help, could you explain what "collect market data" means? spell out
exactly what data you want to collect from who and how you want to collect it.



-----original message-----
>>I am currently President of the Lambda Retirement Community, Inc., a
non-profit corporation in Texas with IRS tax-exempt status. We are in the
process of developing a self-governing, green-oriented and healthy facility for
men to retire and grow old as slowly as possible. Please see
www.lambdaretirementcommunity.org for additional information. I seek help from
this group for on-line software recommendations that we can use to collect
market information. We tried one commercial package that didn't work well. We
would consider creating our own engine if the opportunity were presented. Your
suggestions and ideas will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your
help.>>

-----original message-----
>>IMHO, a distraught technophobic nonprofit professional shouldn't go
near Twitter in the first place, let alone use hashtags. ;-)>>






Dear Michelle,

I love the way that you make this perfectly good point, and then go on
provide a pretty damn good cheat sheet after all!

Seriously, I get asked all sorts of questions about the latest cool
tool by nonprofit executives, and I want to be sure that I've done my
homework.  An executive director who thinks that a 25-person staff can
get by with an unpaid part-time college intern as a chief technology
officer probably has bigger challenges to confront than Twitter
hashtags, but he/she still has the right to be curious about the
latter.

Warm regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

"Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature
like a Mixture of some Frailties.  It is by them
that we are best told, that we must not strike
too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by
the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our
censures."
-George Savile (1633 - 1695)

Twemes tracks topics across Twitter

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/08/twemes-tracks-topics-across-twit ter/

Twitter hashtags for emergency coordination and disaster relief

http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/10/22/twitter-hashtags-for-emergency-coo
rdination-and-disaster-relief/

Hashtags For My Followees

http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2007/12/18/hashtags-for-my-followees /

TechFold

Bold tech & web commentary

http://techfold.com/2007/12/

Another Tag Silo - Twitter Hashtags

A few days ago, I riffed on how the failure of user-powered tagging was what was
driving the need for a semantic web - that jumbled, discontiguous tagging
implementations had created a plethora of tag city-states who's inability to
talk on a "national" level had reduced the tagging movement to a curiosity.

Today, another entrant in the form of Hashtags - tags for twitter post. Again,
useful within the silo of the twitter-verse, but clunky to extend outwards. You
can read more on hashtags via stoweboyd, or stephanie booth, or check out full
coverage.

The stated purpose of hashtags is to all one to follow a topical twitter-stream,
as was useful for those techies fleeing the SoCal fires this past year. But how
much cooler would it be if you could stitch together Twitter content, Flickr
coverage, posted videos, blog posts, and news, into a single realtime view of a
given situation? That would look a lot like the output of a semantic
application.

To do so now would require onerous hard-coding of proprietary hooks into each
services API (twitter, flicker, youtube, etc.), with more custom coding to parse
out time and geo-relevance data. As I mentioned in my previous article, a
two-tiered tagging system composed of machine and human tags, shared in a
consistent format, and conforming to common baseline standards would enable
this.

What does # mean in a twitter post? All about octothorpetags.

http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2007/11/what-does-mean-.html

Making the most of hashtags

http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/12/23/making-the-most-of-hashtags/

Tracking vs. #Hashtags

http://colbypalmer.com/index.php?/colbyworld/blogEntry/twitter_tracking_
vs_tagchannels/






-----original-----
>>I'm just waking up to the existence of the Twitter hashtag phenomenon. Big
props to Ruby for cluing me in to the homepage
<http://hashtags.org/ <http://hashtags.org/> >! I've located the #nptechhomepage
<http://hashtags.org/tag/nptech/ <http://hashtags.org/tag/nptech/> >.
My next question is about whether anyone has written a good lucid
cheatsheet about Twitter hashtags for distraught technophobic
nonprofit professionals.>>

Hi everyone-

Just a reminder-this Fri. March 14th at 5 PM Pacific Standard Time is the
deadline to submit mashups for social change for the NetSquared Mashup
Challenge. Don't miss out on the change to win $100, 000 and put your mashup
ideas for social change into action.

Best,

Megan

************************************************************************

Do you have an idea for how a mashup could be a tool for social change?

Can you imagine a way to combine data from more than one source into an
integrated tool that would increase awareness around an issue?

NetSquared, a project of TechSoup, is awarding a share of $100,000 in prize
money, and a trip to the NetSquared Conference, to the top 20 winners of the
NetSquared Mashup Challenge.

Submit your idea for a mashup with social impact by March 14, 2008 at 5 PM PST. 
Submission forms are available at http://www.netsquared.org/mashup.

There are three parts to the Challenge:

1. Application

You don't have to have the tech skills to create your mashup, just the idea. 
Your application will explain the change that you are trying to make, as well as
the information/data sources that you believe can be married to help create that
change. It is a short application form that we estimate will take you less than
an hour to fill out.

2. Recruiting and Specification-Building

The NetSquared Team will reach out to web-savvy collaborators to help translate
your idea into a Mashup Project.

3. Mashup Development

Teams of developers will start building your mashup.

The week of March 17th, the NetSquared Community will vote for the mashups they
think are the most innovative, and that will create the greatest social impact.

On March 24 the top 20 mashups will be announced, and the winners will be
invited to attend this year's NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) in San Jose, CA May
27-28, 2008. Each of the top 20 mashups will get an allowance for travel
(including airfare to and from the Conference, along with a hotel room for two
nights).

At the Conference, project teams will have an opportunity to display and discuss
their mashups, and attendees will vote to select the top three. All twenty
projects at the Conference will receive a share of $100,000 in prize money. The
share will be determined by voting at the Conference.

To submit your project, go to http://www.netsquared.org/mashup

*Help Us Spread the Word*

1. Share our YouTube video about the Challenge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QXxtJ_tn7o

2. Post a NetSquared badge on your blog or web site:
http://www.netsquared.org/share/how-participate/scouts/toolkit/buttons-b adges

3. Write about the NetSquared Mashup Challenge on your blog, or share it with a
list serv. Tag it "net2mashup".

4. Print out our "46 Minute" postcards to pass out to your community:
http://www.netsquared.org/share/how-participate/scouts/toolkit/46-minute
s-video-postcard

5. Subscribe to the NetSquared Newsletter, Blog and Twitter feed, and join the
NetSquared Facebook group to keep up on the latest news about the NetSquared
Mashup Challenge.

NetSquared Newsletter: http://www.netsquared.org <http://www.netsquared.org/> 
(sign up on our home page) NetSquared Blog: http://www.netsquared.org/blog
NetSquared Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com/NetSquared NetSquared Facebook
Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6605274106

For more information, go to go to: http://www.netsquared.org/mashup or contact
net2@....

If you are a developer who wants to help build the mashups, email Billy Bicket
at bbicket@...

***************************************************************

Megan Keane

Online Community Manager, TechSoup
435 Brannan St., Suite 100
San Francisco, CA 94107
Voice: 415-633-9474
Email: megan@...

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi all,

Please forgive the cross-posting.

Beth Kanter, John Kenyon, Eric Leland, and I are holding a workshop at the NTC
called "So You Want to Be a Consultant?"  (Unfortunately, Michael Stein, who
designed the session, won't be able to attend).  It will be held from 10:30 -
noon on Thursday.  The description is at http://tinyurl.com/2qa24b

Although the session is geared for people who are planning to become a
consultant or have recently entered the field, we also welcome established
consultants and those who are just consultant-curious.

Please bring your questions about marketing, client management, self-management,
planning, systems, and thorny problems.  We'll spend time in large and small
groups tackling them.

Robert
__________________________

Robert L. Weiner Consulting
Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions
San Francisco, CA

robert@...
415/643-8955

www.rlweiner.com




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Just wanted to let you know about the Idealware online seminars coming up over
the next month or so. Each of these online seminars is $40 per participant, and
all you need is an internet connection and a phone line to participate.

Here's the course schedule:

This Wednesday! Tools to Manage a Website Without Technical Skills Introduction
to Content Management System

Wednesday, March 12th, 1:00 - 2:30 EST http://tinyurl.com/2mbyvg If you need a
way to update your website, but you're not sure where to start, this is the
session for you. We'll talk about what content management systems are, and look
at various affordable options for updating your website text and images,
including using What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get software like DreamWeaver and
Contribute, website-in-a-box tools like Homesite, blog tools like WordPress,
open source tools like Joomla and Drupal, and more.

Introduction to Website Analytics Wednesday, March 26th, 1:00 - 2:30 EST.
http://tinyurl.com/37xel6 How many people visit your Web site every day? What
are visitors doing when they get there? Which features are most popular? We'll
talk through the tools and strategies you can use to get the answers to these
questions. Through demos of free tools such as AWStats and Google Analytics,
we'll look at what these tools can tell you about your site, and what the
statistics mean. We'll close with a discussion of when more advanced statisics
packages - such as ClickTracks or WebTrends- might be useful.

Creating the Constituent-Centric Nonprofit: Nonprofit CRM Thursday, April 3rd,
1:00 - 2:30 EST. http://tinyurl.com/3589mc If you're storing data about your
constituents in many different places, it's costing you in time, lost revenue
and decreased impact. Paul Hagen, who's helped organizations such as Goodwill,
VolunteerMatch and Jewish Teen Alliance develop their Constituent Relationship
Management (CRM) strategy, will talk through the practical steps, processes, and
software that can help you to get a better handle on managing and building your
relationship with each constituent.

Choosing eNewsletter Software Thursday, April 10th, 1:00 - 2:30 EST.
http://tinyurl.com/37vlgd Email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch
with and grow your audience, but it can be complex to send and track thousands
of emails. In this seminar, we'll walk through what you need to know in order to
setup, send, and track eNewsletters effectively, and talk about some of the
reliable and affordable tools most commonly used for mass emailing, such as
EmailNow, ConstantContact, NPOGroups, CampaignMonitor, Vertical Response, Emma,
Topica, and more.

Understanding Data Integration Thursday, April 24th, 1:00 - 2:30 EST.
http://tinyurl.com/2avsqq Are you wondering what it would take to integrate your
various software packages to allow them to share data? In this session, we'll
talk through the high level options and key considerations, and then dive into
some of the technical terms and concepts that will help you understand what
would be involved in programming an automatic connection between software
packages. We'll discuss possibilities in integrating the software you already
have, and what features you should look when choosing new software to prevent
integration woes.

Check out www.idealware.org/online_seminars for our whole schedule of webinars
through May, or to purchase recordings of any of our past seminars for only $20
each.

Know people who might be interested in rounding out their knowledge in one of
these areas?  Please pass on this email!

Laura

--
Laura S. Quinn
Idealware
Candid Information about Nonprofit Software
www.idealware.org
718-208-8172

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

(Dear ISF Colleagues:  The Nonprofit Times TechnoBuzz bulletin is free
- albeit with ads. I've snipped out the latter.  If you want to
subscribe, just go to
<http://ga0.org/nptimes/join.html?r=PpAxQ371s9tcE>.  Best regards from
Deborah)




------original message-----
From: NPT TechnoBuzz <newsletter@...>
Date: Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 1:23 PM
Subject: Nonprofit IT Staffing: Budgets, Salaries, Training and Planning
To: Deborah Elizabeth Finn <deborah_elizabeth_finn@...>


(snip)

March 11, 2008

In this issue:

Exclusive Research

NTEN And NPT Survey Shows Tech Budgets Average $40,658

Semi-Tech

Using technology for good, understanding its other implications

Making Your Code Uniform (Relatively)

(snip)

Exclusive Research

NTEN And NPT Survey Shows Tech Budgets Average $40,658

Staffing the information technology (IT) function is frequently a
challenge for nonprofit organizations. Financial resources are
typically limited and hiring managers often feel overwhelmed and
under-educated when it comes to IT. Determining where IT should fit
into the organization, how many IT staff people are needed and what
those people should be spending their time doing can be difficult
decisions.

To shed some light on these questions NTEN and The NonProfit Times
teamed up and created the Nonprofit IT Staffing Survey. We began this
effort with the 2006 survey? the first of its kind. We repeated the
survey in 2007, and plan to continue doing so annually, so that we can
provide a long term view of nonprofit IT staffing.

This report, the second on the findings, covers IT salaries, budgets
and evaluation in the nonprofit sector. The first report, published in
January of 2008, covered the nature of IT staffs and departments at
nonprofit organizations.

Click here for the full story:

http://ga0.org/ct/SdAxQ371SrSP/

(snip)

Semi-Tech

Using technology for good, understanding its other implications

By Tad Druart

There's no doubt that technology has changed our lives, sometimes for
the better, sometimes maybe not so much. And, it's this not so much
category for which technologists and nonprofit executives should be
prepared.

I get excited about how technology is making a practical impact today.
As director of corporate communications at Convio, I'm not a
technologist, so it is not the speeds and feeds that excite me.
Today's technology can spark the same fear as the printing press in
its early application. Many "in power" were threatened by the ability
to spread information quickly and consistently, particularly if it was
contrary to their views. Others were concerned that unscrupulous
people would use it to "misinform" and cause anarchy.

Technology, or invention, is not good or bad by nature. As
professional communicators in the nonprofit sector we need to examine
the challenges that can exist when we develop strategies that leverage
technology.

Click here for the full story:

http://ga0.org/ct/S7AxQ371SrSQ/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making Your Code Uniform (Relatively)

To make your organization's simple HTML e-newsletter appear
(relatively) alike across platforms, one tip from the experts: code
like it?s 1999. This means:

1. Decide which email clients are a priority. One expert prioritizes
Outlook, Thunderbird, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, and recommends against
prioritizing Lotus unless your organization uses it ("It's a pain in
the neck to standardize."). Set up email accounts with each of the
email clients to test your email.

2. Also for seamlessness, use tables for layout, not cascading style
sheets, or CSS. Many email clients don't understand CSS.

3. Again, don't depend on CSS. Use inline styles. This means going
back to the old-school style of formatting: putting tags for color,
font, decoration, margins, etc., directly on links, paragraphs and
images. (Example: <a style="text-decoration:none; color:#00ff00;
font:Arial">.) According to one expert, you can put styles into the
header, but make sure to define them in the body of the email as well.

4. Don't use Javascript, Flash, video or anything a 1999 Web browser
couldn't handle.

------------------------------------------------------------------

***

TechnoBuzz Whitepapers http://ga0.org/ct/SpAxQ371SrSR/

***

--------------------------------------------------

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://ga0.org/join-forward.html?domain=nptimes&r=PpAxQ371s9tc

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for The
NonProfit Times Newsletter Subscriptions at:

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--------------------------------------------------

-----original message-----
>>Beth Kanter, John Kenyon, Eric Leland, and I are holding a workshop
at the NTC called "So You Want to Be a Consultant?"  (Unfortunately,
Michael Stein, who designed the session, won't be able to attend).  It
will be held from 10:30 - noon on Thursday.  The description is at
http://tinyurl.com/2qa24b   Although the session is geared for people
who are planning to become a consultant or have recently entered the
field, we also welcome established consultants and those who are just
consultant-curious.  Please bring your questions about marketing,
client management, self-management, planning, systems, and thorny
problems.  We'll spend time in large and small groups tackling them.>>




Dear Robert, and other esteemed colleagues:

Thank you ever so much for this heads-up!

I hope that every member of the Information Systems Forum who is
leading a session will post here about it.  Please don't be shy!

While I will not be leading any structured presentations, I will be
facilitating the Information System Forum's first-ever affinity group
meeting at the Nonprofit Technology Conference!  More details are
available here:

<http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/10/3516023.html>
<https://www.ntenonline.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=SesDetails&ses_key=578\
76a9d-468d-488e-b7f8-2190143099e4&hide=1>

If you're planning to attend the conference, please add your name to
this database of ISF members who will be there:

<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Information_Systems_Forum/database?method=re\
portRows&tbl=5>

Even if you're not able to attend the ISF affinity group meeting, I
hope to schmooze with all the ISF members possible at some point
during the conference.

Many thanks from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn@...
www.cyber-yenta.org

"Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature
like a Mixture of some Frailties. It is by them
that we are best told, that we must not strike
too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by
the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our
censures."
-George Savile (1633 - 1695)