Inside ASI-AP

Flickr Photo: gin_ableI had a hard time watching all of the RNC Convention this week, and am just catching up now, watching all the speeches online.  I could say that I was so busy with work I couldn't keep up, but I'll confess that it's mostly due to the fact that 90210 and ANTM premiered this week.

Anywhoodle, I did manage to keep up with a lot of the convention as it happened, and there's now a nice archive of convention activity in the social media world:

• Tweetscan: following all tweets with "RNC2008" in them
• YouTube: videos tagged "rnc2008"
• Technorati: blog posts tagged "rnc2008"
• Flickr: images tagged "rnc2008"
• FriendFeed: what all my friends are saying about the RNC

BTW - You know Brenda's being all nicey-nice now, but Kelly should totally watch her back.

We at NTEN love us some Google Grants. After a little trial and error, our complimentary AdWords account now provides nearly 5% of our total site traffic, almost all of it new to our community. Okay, a lot of trial and error. And some grumbling. And maybe a little cursing. If only we scheduled our webinars to meet our internal learning needs!

Our upcoming webinar series on Google Adwords, to be presented by members of the Google Grants team, promises to take a lot of the mystery out of a system that only appears simple.

> Learn more and register today!

Participants who attend the entire 5-part-series will develop:

• A firm understanding of the Google Grants program, including its benefits and requirements for grantees.
• Solid optimization skills for building and maintaining a successful AdWords account, including how to maximize keywords, ad text, and campaign structure.
• Knowledge of how and why to evaluate account performance, using various AdWords tools.

If you don't have time for the full series, you can register for one or more individual webinars. Sessions include:

• Setting Yourself Up For Success With AdWords (9/11/2008)
• Optimizing Keywords in AdWords (9/19/2008)
• Optimizing Ad Text in AdWords (9/26/2008)
• Managing Multiple Campaigns (10/10/2008)
• Evaluating AdWords Performance (10/17/2008)

> Learn more and register today!

Flickr Photo: phil hWhat music inspires you to make the world a better place?

That's the question that Echoing Green is asking. They're holding a contest called "Bold Songs": share your social change playlist via iTunes, 8tracks.com, or just as a text comment in their blog post, and you could win an iPod.  

I used iTunes to create my playlist.  They didn't have ALL my picks, but here's a short rundown:

• I Hope / Dixie Chicks
• Let Go / Frou Frou
• Authority Song / John Cougar Mellencamp
• Things Can Only Get Better / Howard Jones
• I Need More Love / Robert Randolph & The Family Band
• What Light / Wilco
• War on War / Wilco

Flickr Photo: Simon CrowleyWelcome back from vacation! How did I know you were on vacation?  Well, you're weren't blogging, tweeting, or uploading pictures to Flickr.  That can only mean you were wearing white for the last time this year -- and maybe doing some grilling, right?

We Are Media is back from vacation too, and we're talking about listening this week. Beth Kanter, who is curating We Are Media with us, would like us to share our listening stories. 

If you've been involved with NTEN for very long, you know we try our best to be good listeners in many "traditional" ways: we take a lot of surveys, actually encourage people to phone us, and don't mind when you call us on our mistakes or have a helpful suggestion.  Well, most of the time.  

Listening used to be very hard work for NTEN, and frankly, it could be kind of a pain for you.  We were constantly asking you to tell us what was going on, what we should care about, what you thought of our work.  How many times can you ask someone questions before they get sick of you? (I know my personal limit is 23.  My three year routinely tests this.)

We still pester, maybe still too much.  But we're weaning ourselves away from question asking by using social media to find the answers ourselves. 

I spend a good part of each day checking in on the conversations you're already having. I created a tab in Netvibes that lets me track a few key things:

• NTEN Tweets: I watch all the tweets that Tweetscan picks up with "NTEN" in them.  This lets me see which programs people get excited about, as well as when folks register a complaint via Twitter.  This gives me a better idea of what people really like, and where we may be dropping the ball.
• Technorati search for NTEN/Google Blog search for NTEN: Here, I can see all blog posts that mention NTEN.  Again, I can see what messages, ideas, and programs resonate with folks, and also what you aren't responding well to.  This also gives me the chance to thank bloggers, respond to posts that are inaccurate, or defend a position, if need be.
• delicious.com items tagged NTEN:  I am now aware that people do NOT want to forget about the 09NTC.  That's heartening!
• Flickr photos tagged NTEN: This is mostly for fun.  I love seeing the NTC and 501 Tech Club photos you post.
• Google alerts: I subscribe to alerts about NTEN specifically, but also on a variety of general nptech topics.
• I also read our blog comments pretty religiously and try to respond to as many as possible.  Seeing what people have to add to the conversation gives us new ideas all the time.

Of course, in addition to wanting to know what people say about NTEN in particular, I want to know what's going on in the larger nonprofit technology world.  I need to keep track of content for a wide variety of audiences, from communications to IT staff, so we can bring you the webinars, research, blog posts, and NTC content you want.  To keep on top of all this, I:

• Use NetVibes as my RSS reader:  I created a tab for each of NTEN's main audiences and skim through feeds related to each audience every morning.  Now I know what you're talking about. (Right now: Google Chrome!)
• Watch Twitter: Keeping an eye on the Twitter stream each day, even for a short while, tells me a lot about the challenges you face (building buy in) and what obsessions you can't feed fast enough. (Chrome!)
• FriendFeed: This is a new one for me.  Increasingly, I'm using FriendFeed to watch all the different kinds of social media inputs our community creates.  Again, I'm seeing what you're nervous about (Comcast bandwidth limits?) and what you're delighted with. (Chrome!)
• Our own lists: I try to scan through the posts on our most active lists a few times a week to take in the conversations there, as well.

Since NTEN is in the business of community, we have no choice but to be better listeners.  It's a lot of work, but it's worth the hour or so a day I put into listening.  The outcome for us has been the launch of one nifty new program -- Office Hours -- and a blog and webinar strategy that is incerasingly relevant and important to you, or so the steadily climbing numbers tell us.

Of course, all this social media listening does not mean I'm hearing everything.  Not all of our members are blogging, tweeting, posting to our lists.  Social media is not the ONLY way our stakeholders -- or yours --  are communicating.  So we still have to ask.  We have to run surveys and start real conversations with people.  But we know a lot more now than we ever did before.

Winning Workplaces, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to help small and medium organizations "create great workplaces," is presenting a conference next month -- and NTEN members are invited.

Technology staffing -- along with IT staffing investment benchmarks and strategies for the nonprofit sector -- is one of NTEN's core issues. Our origninal research on the subject is probably what caught the attention of Winning Workplaces: the conference will address issues of employment retention, strategy, and investments unique to smaller organizations.

Because you're a member of NTEN, you're not only invited to attend the October 14th conference in Chicago, you'll also get a $100 discount on registration:

1. Learn more and register here.

2. Use your NTEN discount code: ntendisc01

3. Tell them you heard about it from the NTEN Connect blog

This Spring, Blackbaud announced that it planned to acquire Kintera. Since then, the "i's" have been dotted, the "t's" have been crossed, and the real work of integrating the two products has begun in earnest.

Lots of Kintera Sphere users have questions about what the acquisition will mean in terms of functionality. Blackbaud's CTO, Shaun Sullivan put together a screencast that demos some of the integrations they're working towards, leveraging the APIs in both systems. You can see a demo of Kintera Sphere and Raiser's Edge sharing data, as well as a Sphere/Infinity integration.

WARNING: It's not for the faint of heart. Words like API, Metadata, and parameter are thrown around with abandon! But if you're the geek DBA at your org in charge of Kintera Sphere, you should check it out.

More details about the Blackbaud/Kintera inegration are spelled out in plain English on Steve McLaughlin's blog.

Flickr: Si1veryEarlier this summer, our 501 Tech Club friends in Austin, TX helped organize a Tweet-up blood drive with the Austin Social Media Club with great success: new folks made their way to donate blood after hearing about it through Twitter.

They're at it again this month -- September is Hunger Action Month -- helping to organize education and donation opportunities for the Austin community in the first ever Ham-Up Tweet-up.

Using Twitter like this reminds me of the Bat Signal -- but probably has even more potential for organizing support around a community need (since the signal just summoned one man in tights).

We're so glad to see local foodbanks and change-makers putting social media tools in action for social good! You can read more about the Austin Ham-Up here and here.

Want to join the 501 Tech Club in your area and support these kinds of initiatives in your community? Find out more, or start connecting in our online community.

Yesterday morning, Hurricane Gustav made landfall on Louisana's southern coast. Like much of America, you may have paid close attention to whether the devastation and logistical breakdowns of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago would be repeated.

You may not have known that there's a nonprofit organization using technology to connect those who want to help with those who can deliver the help to the impacted communities. The Aidmatrix Foundation -- launched in 2000 and established as a nonprofit organization in 2004 -- connects donors, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations in an online virtual network, so that aid and information can be organized and accessed in a more effective way.

The Aidmatrix is in full swing with Hurrican Gustav. You can find out more or donate to hurricane relief efforts through the Aidmatrix Network.

We're very pleased to announce that, for the first time ever, NTEN is opening up the agenda planning process to you, our NTEN members! Starting today, you can submit your session ideas for the 2009 NTC in San Francisco.

New Agenda Planning Process for 2009
Here's how it will work:

• Submit a Session (see below): Now until September 12.
• Vote on Sessions: The week of September 15 through October 3, the community will get to vote for the sessions they like best. NTEN will use this to determine the final agenda for the conference.
• Agenda Announced/Registration Open: December 1. Register early for the biggest savings on the conference.

Are you interested in submitting a session?
Panel Submission will be open from now until September 12, and we look forward to your participation. This is the first time we have opened up to allow for session submission, so there are a few things to note:

• The Steering Committee has recommended major themes and session ideas that we want to cover in each track. We will definitely look for sessions that include these themes and ideas. You can find the themes and ideas summarized on each session page.
• You do not have to lead a session to suggest it. If you have an idea of something you would like to see on the agenda, please share it with us, even if you aren't prepared to present it.
• Submission of a session does not guarantee that you will be chosen as the session designer. You will be considered for the role if you indicate your interest in leading the session on the survey. All sessions and session designers will be chosen by NTEN staff. Priority will be given to NTEN members.

Submit a Session (you will have the opportunity to submit multiple sessions) to any of the following tracks:

• Communications
• Fundraising
• IT Staff and Consultants
• Leadership
• Program

We look forward to seeing what you contribute to the agenda!

A monthly roundup of our favorite nonprofit tech resources. Read more posts on our blog.

1. Need a metaphor for the power of aggregation? The Japanese practice of uchimizu calls for people to sprinkle water on the street in front of their houses when it's really hot out.
2. Using Twitter for something other than letting people know what you had for breakfast: NTEN Member David Neff's video about the Tweet Up Blood Drive in Austin is a great example of social media in action.
3. Poll Everywhere lets you ask your audience a question, collect responses via text message, and update the results in real time. Just don't ask, "How many of you are critiquing my session on Twitter right now?"
4. Free T-shirts! Oh, and the guide to permissible voter engagement activities for 501(c)(3)s that comes with them. That's cool, too. (And, of course, you saw our webinar on the subject, right?)
5. The "Possibly Related Classroom Projects" plug-in for WordPress from Social Action Labs. They may hedge their bets when they name things, but they're doing excellent work.
6. Speaking of education, Stargazer offers tech-based services that improve school safety. They also inspired us to learn a new word: omphaloskepsis, the opposite of stargazing.
7. charity:water is asking everybody born in September to forgo birthday presents and help fund wells in Ethiopia, with support from a very well-designed website.
8. Free kittens! Everybody loves kitties. But, as Michelle Murrain points out, you should be careful when using them metaphorically.
9. Apparently, Canada has faster broadband than the U.S. Sheesh. Robin Williams, take it away...
10. The City Of Boston has a nifty map showing the locations of alternative energy sources in the area.
11. Portland-based Shizzow hopes to underline the social in social media by leveraging tech to help people stage improptu face-to-face gatherings.
12. Free markets! How can you not like the fact that faith-based dating site BigChurch is owned by Penthouse? (Yes, the link is safe for work.)

Flickr Photo: tankgirlThe big DNC Convention kicks off this week in Denver, CO. While I'm super jealous of my colleagues who are there, I also hate crowds. Luckily, there is a bevy of social media at my fingertips to help me feel like I'm right in the midst of the action. Here are just a smattering of ways to follow the action from your own desk chair:

• Tweetscan: following all tweets with "DNC" in them
• YouTube: videos tagged "dnc2008"
• Technorati: blog posts tagged "dnc2008"
• Flickr: images tagged "dnc2008"
• FriendFeed: what all my friends are saying about the DNC

I especially love the pictures in Flickr: I feel like you get such a different representation of what's going on. Here's a slideshow of these DNC2008 pics:

So tell me, how are YOU tracking the DNC this year?

(P.S. - looking forward to doing the same for the RNC and comparing notes!)

You may be familiar with the local groups in the Nonprofit Technology Network, called NTEN 501 Tech Clubs (as in, 501c3). These are informal groups for nonprofit technology professionals who want to share information and resources and connect at the local level.

Our newest 501 Tech Club, organized by Jeanette Russell, is in Missoula, Montana. Jeanette is successfully bringing together nonprofit staff and other cause-minded techies to learn about each other's activities and share tips and best practices for incorporating technology into their work. Nice job, Jeanette!

Jeanette blogs about her local group's activities, and she took this video at their last meeting:

NTEN Office Hours is gearing up for Fall! We're looking forward to connecting more of you to the experts who can answer your nonprofit technology questions.

We had a great set of NTEN member volunteers hosting Office Hours this summer, and now we need you!

Though many of our summer hosts are returning, we're looking to expand the program this fall. So, we want you to share your expertise with the NTEN community. Learn more and sign up for Office Hours.

We can't guarantee you'll be able to answer every question that comes your way, but we can guarantee that you'll have some fun and meet some great people. Plus, you'll be making a great contribution to the NTEN community.

I started this week by chauffeuring my mom and her dog to and from various medical appointments for the both of them -- in the 110 degree heat of Phoenix. Just getting from the car to the front door of any building made me feel like something was sucking out my brains. I'm still recovering, so I haven't had the time to read and think as much as I might like to, and that makes blogging hard!

Several interesting things did show up in my inbox/reader this week, though, and I want to share them with you:

• It Sucks Because Its Good. Doc Searls questions the merit of "taste" when it comes to site design. I have to wonder what Nina, Michael, Heidi and Tim Gunn would have to say.
• Free the White Spaces. Spectrum policy isn't something that keeps most of us awake at night, but it IS the thing that made all our wireless gadgets -- and my ability to buy as many versions of "Bold As Love" on the bus as I want -- possible.
• iPhone Cut and Paste. I'm really THAT excited.
• Related Ways to Take Action. Social Actions is back at it, this time with a new widget that helps your readers find actions they can take related to the topics on your blog or site.
• Vote for me! I'm a week late on this, but voting has begun for the 2009 SXSW Interactive panels. There are oodles of nonprofit panels to vote for, including several that Beth has dragged NTEN into. (And by "dragged" I mean that I begged to be included and Beth was nice enough to agree. :)

John Merritt, YMCA of San Diego County

In every successful recipe there are key ingredients. Too much of one ingredient or too little of another can have very interesting effects on the outcome of the dish.

It’s no different when it comes to technology. In today’s world, business is driven by technology; the days of seeing technology merely as a necessary evil have long passed.

Networking technologies are used to move and access information quickly, we analyze our stored data to make sound decisions, websites & eCommerce focus on bringing convenience to our customers, email systems allow us to communicate around the world in the blink of an eye, we track vehicles via satellite, cell phones keep us in touch -- the list goes on and on.

Take a moment to think of what it would be like to do your job in today’s world without technology. How efficient would you be?

The recipe for technology contains 3 key ingredients: Alignment, Relationship and Transparency. Each of these, in balance, can assist in making technology a useful, functional and invisible tool within our organizations.

The ART of technology is not about the PC on your desk or the server in the backroom. The ART of technology is about our interaction with systems, processes and one another as we work toward efficient business operations and fully meeting the mission. Undoubtedly, the cycles of budgeting, planning, purchasing, implementing and maintaining technology is very important too, but for now, let’s focus on the ART of Technology.

Alignment

There is an urgent need for convergence between business agendas and IT agendas. You could argue that alignment is an outdated concept because, in today’s world, you can not think of business without technology. But when you consider the rapid evolution of technology and the cost to keep up, keeping a separate IT and business agenda is not an option.

Alignment ensures that the technology decisions we make are focused on the business and mission. Don’t do technology just for the sake of technology: measure technology against the mission to ensure fiscal responsibility and business focused solutions.

Alignment also works toward strategic planning and the use of technology to support current and future initiatives. Technology goals should be the same as, and supportive of, the enterprise. Think of technology as merely a tool to support business processes and achieve business strategy.

Relationship

Technology erodes relationships.

Relationships function best when there is clear, open communications – person to person. Technology staff work in a unique environment that, in most organizations, transcends barriers and bureaucratic layers to give direct access to staff.

Technology staff should constantly think “partnership” and ask, “How can I work with my team to ensure technology supports the vision?” It’s the synergy of people and technology that creates solutions. Seek out partnerships with staff; get to know their frustrations, needs & challenges. Listen first, then work together towards solutions and improved business processes.

IT staff should constantly reinforce the “work smarter, not harder” concept. Put down the cell phone, don’t send another email, and take the time to talk, in person, to your colleagues and coworkers. Yes, it takes more time to “get with the people” but the chances of building a better, lasting relationship are greatly increased.

The relationship is everything.

Transparency

It’s not about technology; it’s about the business and the mission. Technology should work like a light switch; with little or no thought. It’s about working smarter, not harder.

Poor business processes can often highlight nontransparent technologies. Map your business processes and find ways to leverage the efficiency of technology by making the technology disappear. Making technology transparent is about helping people become comfortable with technology. If staff spend time trying to make the technology work, they are not focused on the organization's mission.

One common failure of technology staff is “over-complicating” technology. Over-complication leads to negative attitudes towards technology and technology staff. Positive technology integration starts with addressing negative attitudes. Seek ways for staff to reach for technology as easily as they would a pencil and never assume that staff, young or old, understands technology.

Whenever possible, reach out and help others to understand the technology tools used to support your organization. There are no dumb questions. There is a transparent technology solution to just about every business process: find it and leverage technology to erase the rough edges. After all, technology doesn’t matter –- solutions and good business process are what get the CEO’s attention.

It’s no coincidence the ART of Technology is built on three key ingredients. Like a triangle, the ART of Technology is about balance. Build your strategic technology goals to align with the business and mission of your organization: focus on the ART of Technology.

Achieving this balance is a journey and there will always be much to accomplish. It’s not about the priorities of the technologist, it’s about the priorities of the organization. If you want to make technology part of your organizations priority list – use the ART of Technology.

Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb

It can be hard to convince leadership that working with social media doesn't mean they've been paying you to catch up with friends on Facebook. You've probably heard some of the objections. But there are ways you can respond. Here's a list of common objections, along with suggestions for countering them:

1. I suffer from information overload already.

Possible replies:

• Try just skimming messages in some fora. You may need to look closely at every email you get but you don't have to look at every Facebook friend's update.
• The right tools for you will feel helpful in time. Experiment for awhile with new tools and stick with the ones that deliver you the most high-quality information, whether those tools are high-quantity or not. (Thanks to Aaron Hockley and Ruby Sinreich for these thoughts.)
• Check out tools like AideRSS and FeedHub -- just two examples of services aiming to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
• Times change and so do information paradigms. Get used to it. The amount of information you had access to 3 years ago was infinitely more than people at any other point in history and we're in the middle of another huge leap right now.

2. So much of what's discussed online is meaningless. These forms of communication are shallow and make us dumber. We have real work to do!

Possible replies:

• Much of it is not meaningless, but if you feel overwhelmed with meaninglessness, try subscribing to a search for keywords in a particular service and using that as your starting point for engagement.
• Having a presence and starting a conversation is rarely a bad thing. Bring quality conversation to a space and you'll find others ready to engage. (Thanks to Banana Lee Fishbones, obviously a fan of open, non-anonymous public communication :) for this articulation.)
• Personal information can be very useful in understanding the context of more explicitly useful information.
• If learning how the market feels about your organization, engaging with your customers and driving traffic to your web work -- all very realistic goals for social media engagement -- aren't work, then I don't know what is. Even in the short term, strategic engagement with online social media will have a clear work pay-off.

3. I don't have the time to contribute and moderate. It looks like it takes a lot of time and energy.

Possible replies:

• If you aren't going to eat that lunch of yours, I'd be happy to, thanks.
• With practice, familiarity, and technology fine-tuned with a little experience, you'll find the time required will decrease.
• You might consider this time spent on marketing or communication with your existing customer base. Perhaps there's something else in that department that isn't working well and could be replaced with online work.

4. Our customers don't use this stuff. The learning curve limits its usefulness to geeks.

Possible replies:

• You might be surprised to learn how many of your customers do use these new tools already. Even more will do so in the future.
• The best designed tools are designed like good games: you can get small rewards right away and then learn more advanced skills to win bigger rewards. Among online services that are intended for general audiences, only poorly designed ones are too geeky.
• Many of these tools provide value vastly disproportionate to the literal number of people they reach. These are like high-value focus groups where you'll gather information and preparation to engage with the rest of the world.
• Try asking someone near you to give you an in-person demonstration of one of these tools. You'll find it much easier to learn once you've seen the right paths taken to show what it can do.

5. Communicators [bloggers, tweeters] are so fickle, it's better to stay unengaged than risk random brand damage. We don't want hostile comments left about us on any forum we've legitimized.

Possible replies:

• If you need to, you can require that any comments left on your own site be approved before they appear. This slows down the conversation but if it makes conversation possible for you, then do it.
• There are far fewer people who will take the time to say hostile things, even on the internet, than you might imagine.
• Engage. You'll be appreciated more for it. People are going to say what they are going to say. You can either let any criticism go unanswered or you can be the bigger person/brand for responding well.
• Conversations are going to happen online. It's better to be engaged than to have it happening behind your back. (As articulated by Rick Turoczy.)
• It's OK, no one believes that anyone is perfect anymore. Swing for the fences sometimes. You might strike out, but sometimes you'll hit a home run.
• Even if you're not responding publicly, you should watch closely so you know what people are saying. Maybe you don't have a blog, but subscribe to a blogsearch feed or alert for your company's name. Maybe none of your people are on Twitter, but you can subscribe to a feed for a search via Terraminds.

6. Traditional media and audiences are still bigger. We'll do new stuff when they do.

Possible replies:

• They already are, from blogging to online video to social networks to mobile to microblogging. Big, established brands are already doing all of it. They may be experimenting, but they will bring all their market dominance into the most useful social media sectors as soon as it suits them. Will that be too late for you? It might be.
• Traditional media audiences are also more passive. Online audiences can engage with, rebroadcast, and otherwise amplify your communication efforts.

7. Upper management won't support it/dedicate resources for it.

Possible replies:

• A lot of technology adoption has for some time had to happen despite this reality. People adopt new tools on their own at work, without permission. They discover powerful ways to solve their problems and then they share them horizontally.
• Compared to other expenses, meaningful engagement with new online technology does not have huge costs.

8. These startups can't offer meaningful security. They may not even be around in a year. I'll wait until Google or our enterprise software vendor starts offering this kind of functionality.

Possible replies:

• The skills you build and the connections you make will remain with you, though. This is a paradigm shift underway more than it is about any particular tool.
• Chose your tools carefully. Expect data export as an option so you can back up or switch services whenever you need to. This isn't widespread yet but the best tools allow it.

9. There are so many tools that are similar. I can't tell where to invest my time so I don't use any of it at all.

Possible replies:

• A little experimentation goes a long way.
• Try asking people in your field who have some experience what tools they are using.
• Try searching for keywords related to your work in various sites. You'll find out that way which sites are best suited for you.

10. That stuff's fine for sexy brands, but we sell [insert boring B2B brand] and are known for stability more than chasing the flavor-of-the-month. We're doing just fine with the tools we've got, thanks.

Possible replies:

• Some of these things -- RSS and wikis, for example -- aren't passing social fads: they are emerging best practices and the state-of-the-art.
• ROI is very hard to measure, but try allocating a little energy over time to experiment and see what kind of results you get. From connections between people and projects, to search-friendly inbound links, to early access to important information, the benefits of engaging in new social media go on and on.

Conclusions

There are no conclusions. This is just a conversation. Please feel free to add your thoughts in comments and check out the comments to read what others suggest as talking points when faced with these objections.

[This article was originally published, in expanded form, on ReadWriteWeb. Read the original article.]

Michaela Hackner, World Learning

So, you think you've figured out the best way to use new media in your organization -- that blog you've always daydreamed about, or that Facebook fan page that's just got to be made. You're ready to take this new media blitz public and make your website the one that everyone on Progressive Exchange and Twitter is talking about.

You think you've got the perfect proposal... but you know the reality of the nonprofit technology world, and all those grubby little externalities that periodically throw a wrench in your idealism. To help ensure your new media ideas succeed, you might consider the following before committing to a technology strategy (and Tweeting the idea to your boss).

Senior management buy-in

As most nonprofit technologists have discovered, the best way to avoid bottlenecks from your web strategy is to get buy-in from organizational staff members, particularly senior management -– those who know technology and those who don't. Most times, you’ll find folks have heard about these technologies, but what you might not be aware of beforehand are the bias and preconceived ideas they might have about the technologies in question. Making a strong case upfront to stakeholders will help ensure proper funding, internal ownership, and the diffusion of the technology across the organization.

If you’re part of a communications team distinct from the IT department, make sure to keep IT aware of what you’re planning and make sure it’s feasible from their perspective. They’re there to help support you and manage resources.

Dedicated Time and Human Resources

Supporting media and developing web content doesn't happen in a vacuum. People in non-profits wear several hats and hold multiple responsibilities. The role of media owner/contributor shouldn’t be ancillary to someone's job: it must be made a priority by their managers and, whenever possible, written into their job description.

To help prepare for this, anticipate how project content will be developed and redeveloped over time. Relevance in search engines and repeat visitors usually come from frequently changing, compelling content. Make sure you can identify at least one person -- and an alternate, in case that person’s on vacation -- and confirm that they are interested and willing to participate. Even if you’re primarily banking on user-generated content, someone will need to edit, approve, and manage it.

If your staff isn't intrigued by the type of technology you're using (or familiar with how to use it), it's unlikely they'll be able to generate new content or that they'll truly own the project. Be creative and run with it!

Institutional Capacity

Ensure that project owners are successful and feel empowered by the technology and strategy you choose by considering their capacity to maintain the initiative. One of the challenges nonprofits face when rolling out cool web tools is a staff that isn’t comfortable using them.

Identify several technologies in your strategy that are realistic for your organization, considering the above factors. At the end of the day, people want to feel like they have control over their work and are empowered by the things that they do. Technology should help them do their job in a more effective and efficient way. You’ll know you’ve identified a strong technology candidate when implementers have the capacity to share their excitement for and champion its potential both within and outside the organization.

You can design the coolest online campaign in the world, but if you don't have the funds to keep it going, or the human resources to maintain it, or the content to keep it new and exciting, you might be better of with something more simple and easier to maintain. Success isn't directly proportional to the type of technology you employ, but rather the creativity and enthusiasm drummed up by your staff.

Sustainability

If your social media staff/representative leaves, do you have a contingency plan? Don’t bank all of your technology strategy on one person or an organizational mascot. Diversify project ownership and identify multiple authors for your content.

You can help encourage ownership and participation by continuing to build buy-in across the organization even after your technology initiative is in motion. Building up and sustaining momentum will help create an incentive for institutional redundancy. Others will have equal stakes in the success of your project, and they’ll be able to help you identify and motivate others to become your backstop team.

Technical Resources

Finally, spend some time creating a plan for the technical resources your strategy requires, including those necessary for initial project development and ongoing maintenance. Whether the project involves in-house developers or outsourced consultants, it’s important to know how the organization will be able to make changes to the technology and how tech support will be provided. Software needs to be updated periodically, a graphic may need to be altered, and someone will need to be available to troubleshoot any issues that arise.

Elissa Perry, Leadership Learning Community

"When knowledge gained somewhere doesn't move elsewhere, that's not a learning organization; that's just a bunch of projects." - The Saratoga Institute

It can be difficult to encourage new ideas and innovation from people who aren't in positions with leadership titles or much technical authority. People fear speaking up for reasons tied not just to personal style, but also -- and perhaps more commonly -- to organizational culture. There are a number of challenges as well as supports that can limit or open the space for learning and exchange in an organization.

You should start by fostering and supporting a culture of learning and innovation.

There are a great many theories out there about the subject at hand. Some talk about listening organizations, some talk about openness, some talk about flatness. Some have 7 principles, some have 10, some have 12.

There are stool analogies, triangle analogies and iceberg analogies. We all talk about action research, communities of practice, and authentic assessment, systems perspectives, feedback loops, etc.

Basically, at their root, all of these schools of thought agree that learning entities -- people, organizations & systems -- that seek and apply and promote information sharing and the development of knowledge and understanding are successful.

The styles or models of leadership that work well in cultures of learning also have several names (Facilitative, Shared, Strategic, Collective, Collaborative) but are, in general, more shared, flat, and collaborative. This does not mean that there is no hierarchy. It means there is transparency and trust with clear lines of communication and accountability and fewer levels of hierarchy.

Simply put, learning organizations cultivate generative and synergistic relationships among people who bring diverse experiences, resources, skills, talents, and a commitment to a common purpose or vision. Therefore. hierarchy must be technical and with as few levels as necessary -- and no social hierarchy that would prevent this diversity from being in the same room as teachers and learners.

What it Takes to Support a Learning Culture

• Leader as Designer

  • Make innovation an expectation: reward, support and integrate it into processes.

  • Fund learning. Make it an organizational priority written into budgets and work plans. And, make it accessible.

  • Pay attention to all “levels”/functions within the organizations -- with respect, trust, communication and personalization.

• Leader as Teacher

  • Lead by example. Ask questions, be vulnerable.

  • Use internal blogs or other regular and easily shareable and updatable format.

  • Participate in task forces.

  • Be willing to be a learner when it’s not your area of expertise.

  • Diversify teaching/learning methods and opportunities.

  • Encourage risk-taking and stretch-goals.

  • Focus and build on gains instead of focusing on running from losses.

• Leader as Steward

  • Staff development should be prized.

  • Institute an open staff development policy (document it and write it into planning and funding).

  • Measure the return on investment, not just using the individual as the unit of measure ,but also the processes and networks she touches.

Questions to Ask

• What’s the history of multi-directional communication in your organization? Have there been repercussions for contributions in the past?

• Where are we and what have we gained? (Instead of, "What have we lost?")

• What needs to change in the organizational policies, systems and structures to encourage and support learning and innovation?

• What needs to change in my leadership style to foster more of a learning culture? When and where should I practice being a learner?

Things to Consider

• Hierarchy is not inherently a problem.

• Technical hierarchy not social hierarchy.

• Acknowledge power & power dynamics. The more open this is, the less it will be a subtext of interaction.

• Be in the role of teacher, when the authority in a particular skill or situation, and of learner when not.

• Trust, trust, trust. Trying to control everything accomplishes the opposite.

• Communication. Encourage interaction among different organizational functions.

• Documentation. Document learning in one area or project such that it can be shared with other areas and projects.

More Information

http://leadershiplearning.pbwiki.com/learning-culture-resources

Dahna Goldstein, PhilanTech

You’re a leader of an organization, about to begin a new technology project. Getting buy-in for a technology change can be essential to the success of the initiative. Here are some things to think about when approaching a technology change for your organization:

Set a clear direction from the top.

All too often, technology changes are seen as the purview of just the technology staff (or accidental techie). People in the rest of the organization can feel disconnected from tech changes. The first important step in creating buy-in for technology changes is to set a clear direction from the top of the organization, as well as from the outset of the initiative. Seeing that top management is committed helps convey the importance of the change.

Tie tech changes to mission.

You probably work with some very dedicated people. They believe in the organization and are committed to its mission. If the technology change you’re proposing is clearly tied to furthering the organization’s mission, most staff will get on board .(And if the tech change isn’t helping your organization’s mission, you may want to question whether it’s an initiative you should be undertaking to begin with).

It isn’t enough for you to know that the new technology will support the organization’s mission – you need to communicate it clearly to your staff, as well.

Communicate early and often.

It’s easier for people to feel bought-in when they know what’s going on. Good communication is always important in an organization, but it’s even more important when undertaking a change initiative.

Communication must be frequent and flow in all directions. While it’s important for you to communicate your vision and plan for the technology change, it’s equally important to encourage communication at other levels in the organization. Staff should feel encouraged to communicate with you and with other change leaders, and should be encouraged to talk amongst themselves as well as with their managers.

This accomplishes several things:

• frequent communication from you helps people feel involved;
• a route to communicate back to you helps people feel like their opinions are heard;
• a safe environment in which to communicate with each other helps staff mitigate some of the anxiety they might be feeling about the impending change;
• and, finally, sometimes some great ideas can come from people on the organization’s front lines that can significantly benefit from the change initiative or highlight potential pitfalls before they occur.

Involve and empower staff.

Generally speaking, it’s easier to get people bought-in to an initiative when they feel they have a say, rather than feeling like the initiative is being thrust upon them. Involving people who will be directly affected by the change early in the process helps them feel they have some influence and encourages them to provide feedback and make suggestions.

It is frequently impractical to involve every staff person at every stage of a change initiative, so consider:

• who will be most directly affected by the proposed change;
• who will be indirectly affected by the proposed change;
• at what point broad input would be most valuable to the decision-making process;
• at what key points input can be solicited;
• how input will be solicited (from forming cross-functional teams to focus groups to one-on-one meetings and anything in between);
• how to solicit input on an ongoing basis, even once decisions have been made.

Tech changes need champions and influencers.

In addition to a change leader, a change champion is someone who can help bring others along with the change. You need to be a champion for the change, and other change champions in the organization can help.

It is important to know who the key influencers are in your organization. Getting them involved early in the process can help generate buy-in across the organization. When people see that a key influencer is bought-in and involved, they are more likely to get on board themselves.

Recognize that change causes anxiety, and work to mitigate it.

In our personal lives, we tend not to like change, particularly changes over which we feel we have no control. The same is true in organizational changes.

People may be concerned about how a new technology will affect their jobs or day-to-day work life, or may be worried about their ability to learn the new technology. The most important element in mitigating anxiety related to organizational changes is to understand that it exists.

Anxiety can also be mitigated through good communication, involvement and empowerment, creating opportunities for feedback, and allowing people to voice their anxiety in a safe way so that they know that the anxiety they feel about an impending change is understandable, normal, and manageable.

Access to the Internet is one of the issues we care about most here at NTEN. The United States is a lowly 15th in the world when it comes to broadband access, and that's almost certainly having an adverse effect on how thousands of nonprofits are able to serve their clients and stakeholders.

It's so bad, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps has admitted, "America's record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country."

What are we going to do about it?

As a pretty competitive person, I was motivated by the Communication Worker's of America's newest campaign, Speed Matters. The campaign tests your Internet connection and compares it to the communities around you, as well as the rest of the world.

Turns out, I have better access than most others in my state (Oregon), but my speeds were slower than -- *gasp* -- Canada! First the Canadian dollar beats ours, and now this? As much as I like the Canadians I know, I don't like them beating me at anything. (Except hockey. That only seems fair.)

All kidding aside, this is an issue that communities across the country are trying to address. It would certainly help if the federal government had any kind of strategy. So take the speed test, then learn more about what you can do to address the issue in your own community and across this country. The Canadians can clearly take care of themselves.