Idealware: Resource Roundup 5/11

from Idealware: Resource Roundup 5/11:

A couple of interesting resources:

"10 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Blogs and Bloggers to Support Their Cause (Rory Gale Diary)
Useful advice on how to work the blogosphere for PR purposes"

"Online PDF Conversion Tools: A Mini-Guide (Kollabora)
A roundup of tools that allow you to convert any document into a PDF file"

full article >>

Bridging the Innovation Divide: An Agenda for Disseminating Technology Innovations within the Nonprofit Sector

via Idealware by laura

from PolicyLink a national research and action institute that works collaboratively to develop and implement local, state, and federal policies to achieve economic and social equity.

Overview

Nonprofit organizations form the backbone of civil society and are at the forefront of efforts to build healthier, more vibrant, and more inclusive communities. They are being called upon to take on expanded roles and responsibilities in service delivery and community revitalization in a time of increasing social inequality. In response, they have become major innovators, continually creating new programs and policies that grow the social, economic, physical, and civic infrastructure of disinvested neighborhoods.

Technology plays an important role in enabling nonprofits to respond to social needs at this critical moment. The rise of information and communications technologies (ICTs) has created unprecedented opportunities for nonprofits. Computers and the Internet allow nonprofit organizations to perform fundamental functions—research, communications, public education, advocacy, fundraising, and program development, and service delivery—with ever-greater speed and efficiency.

The“early adopters” of emerging technologies offer compelling evidence that ICT innovations can strengthen the nonprofit sector. Unfortunately, such success stories are too few and far between. While many nonprofits have entered the 21st century with access to computers and some form of Internet access, many ICT innovations remain concentrated among a handful of organizations with high technology capacity.

Bridging the Innovation Divide: An Agenda for Disseminating Technology Innovations within the Nonprofit Sector (download pdf) examines this divide, presents findings from the field, and pushes forth a targeted, strategic, and creative agenda for closing it.

This looks to be a very useful template for thinking about developing more effective use of ICT in non-profits. The report attempts to answer three questions:

(1) What are the causes of the innovation divide?
(2) How and why do nonprofit organizations adopt
new technology innovations and assimilate them
into their work?
(3) What can be done to speed up the diffusion of
innovations within the nonprofit sector?

Worth a look to see how they do and how we might apply their answers to our experience. I'd be interested to see what readers think about this article.

Google Reader (100+)

Google Reader (100+): "Apr 6, 2007 (16 hours ago)
Google Launches Free 411 Service
from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

Google threw a new product called Goog-411 into Google Labs today - a free telephone based information service that could replace toll 411 calls. About 2.6 billion 411 calls are made in the U.S. each year, and it is a $7 billion/year market.

Goog-411 can be accessed by dialing 1-800-GOOG-411."

read the full article

This looks like a great service but for the US numbers only.

Buried in the text is a link to the Google local business search service "Businesses that want to add or correct data can do so here." which allows organizations to create detailed information about their services for users who find them through Google.

Nonprofit Online News: Current News

Nonprofit Online News: Current News:

"Long Hours, Low Pay Turn Off Young Nonprofit Workers, Study Finds


Caroline Preston covers the recent Young Nonprofit Professionals Conference and reports on the groups recent study, which finds that Long Hours, Low Pay Turn Off Young Nonprofit Workers. More than 70 of young professionals surveyed say they never expect to serve as an executive director and more than half don't think their next job will be in the nonprofit sector. The most painful quote from the conference: 'All I do is fund raise.'

Posted: 4/2/07; 12:32:59 PM #"

Reading the full article fills me with worry about where the non-profit sector will end up.

Resource Roundup 3/22

via Google Reader (100+):

Laura from Idealware gives us another great list of resources for non-profits. I'm only going to post 3 of them here follow the link for the whole article.

Resource Roundup 3/22

from Idealware by laura

It's been a good week for great software resources!

ICT tools to support collaborative working (ICT Hub)
A fabulous guide to different software tools for collaboration and their pros and cons in various environments.

A great guide for new users of collaborative software tools.

Why We Chose Our Blogging Tools (World Grows Wide)
A very detailed and useful look as to why one organization chose to setup a blogging system, what software they chose and why, and how they're using it

This is useful for those unfamiliar with blogging and how it might fit with their work.


A First-Time CRM Buyer's Guide (DemocracyInAction)
A useful overview of what to consider when looking for a constituent relationship management tool, though it's strongly weighed towards tracking online rather than offline interactions. This isn't shocking, as it was written by DemocracyInAction, an organization that sells an online CRM tool

Not a bad overview of a very confusing issue.

Jayne Cravens on Keeping Things Simple

Jayne Craven reminds us on how important it is that we embrace clean and simple presentation to ensure that our content is available to the widest possible audience.


<> Keeping the Door Wide Open

As many of you know, I'm in Kabul, Afghanistan through
August, on an assignment with the United Nations. I've
posted more about this assignment on my web site.

This experience in a developing country regarding the
Internet has lead me to believe, more firmly than ever,
in the importance of NOT overloading a web site with
graphics and photos and java script and flash and
whatever, preventing millions of users from really being
able to use a site. To sit here with a relatively new
computer, with supposedly the latest versions of browsers,
and broadband (when it's working), and to still not be able
to access certain extremely high end sites, in order to
find the vital information I need to do my job, is beyond
frustrating.

full article>>

VERSION: March 2007

TECH4IMPACT
a monthly email update to help nonprofit organizations /
civil society/ nongovernmental organizations(NGOs) /
government initiatives/ grass roots initiatives
(mission-based organizations) use computer /
Internet / networking technologies to benefit
people, communities and the environment.

produced by
Jayne Cravens
www.coyotecommunications.com

Moving to Blogger

I've been having problems with VCN bcyk-tech.net server and I think that the Non-Profit Technical Information List will be more easily managed over here at Blogger.