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News for June 2001
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 28 June 2001 |
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27 June 2001 |
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26 June 2001 |
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| Think Visually |
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When it comes to design of nonprofit infrastructure, sometimes it helps to think visually. Denham Grey and others have compiled a list of online resources and tools about the role of visualization in knowledge work.
Posted: 6/26/01; 10:23:37 AM # |
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24 June 2001 |
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| Things That Make Us Smart |
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We're discussing Powerpoint on one mailing list I'm on and the thread addresses the question of whether we should hold technologies accountable for the uses to which they are inevitably put. It seems apropos to recommend one of my favorite books: Things That Make Us Smart by Donald Norman. He has a wonderful sarcastic saying: "It probably won an award". It's derisive and spot on, in my opinion, capturing the tension between genuinely empowering tools and tools that win awards, mostly for looking pretty. This is one of the seminal modern books on the subject of human relationships to
technology. Anyone working in the field of the Internet and nonprofits should read it.
Posted: 6/24/01; 6:18:54 PM # |
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22 June 2001 |
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| empty |
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My family and I turned our lights out in the evening last night, in solidarity with others doing the same to express concern about emerging U.S. energy policies.
Posted: 6/22/01; 11:07:20 AM # |
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21 June 2001 |
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19 June 2001 |
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18 June 2001 |
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| good tips on burnout |
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Once upon a time I taught workshops on preventing burnout. Every now and then, I could use a workshop like that myself. Fried Social Workers has a few good tips on burnout.
Posted: 6/18/01; 10:41:55 AM # |
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17 June 2001 |
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| guide for doing FAQs right |
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Frequently Asked Questions lists are in the front line of knowledge management, but they are often abused and turned into a dumping ground of promotional information. Jodi Bollaert offers us a guide for doing FAQs right.
Posted: 6/17/01; 2:46:08 PM # |
| Good Network, Bad Data |
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I am thrilled by this kind of thinking about network effects. In Good Network, Bad Data, Michael Schrage looks at how networks can exaggerate bad channels of communication.
Posted: 6/17/01; 2:45:21 PM # |
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15 June 2001 |
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| how to get in legal trouble with your web site |
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I am finding more and more web sites out there that are framing Nonprofit Online News within their own site. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Sometimes it can add value, by providing a single context for outbound links. But when other sites start putting advertising on top of my content and the content of thousands of others who provide it commercial-free, then I start getting upset. That's when I start looking at articles like this one, on how to get in legal trouble with your web site.
Posted: 6/15/01; 8:23:45 AM # |
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14 June 2001 |
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| Three Myths of XML |
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The intersection of technology and nonprofits creates interesting tensions. One of them, thank goodness, is a challenge to the irritating myth that technology is somehow "neutral". Kendall Grant Clark issues one such challenge in Three Myths of XML.
Posted: 6/14/01; 9:53:24 AM # |
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13 June 2001 |
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12 June 2001 |
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10 June 2001 |
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| The Metaphysics of Web Advertising, Part One |
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In The Metaphysics of Web Advertising, Part One, David Schultz says there are four good results of donation systems to support content: (1) they force better quality content; (2) they make editors responsible for their actions in ways that ads do not; (3) they transform the nature of visitor in ways ads cannot; and (4) they entail certain rights, obligations and responsibilities between the parties which ads do not.
Posted: 6/10/01; 10:11:24 PM # |
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8 June 2001 |
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| series of luncheons |
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To my delight, I'm getting to meet readers of Nonprofit Online News at a series of luncheons on The Future of Nonprofit Technology. The next one is in Seattle on June 22, 2001.
Posted: 6/8/01; 12:18:01 PM # |
| The Timeless Way of Building |
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The traditional approach to technology planning resembles the traditional approach to architecture, which is to say, not very people oriented. That's why I love The Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander & others. You've probably heard of these books. They are the critical first two volumes of Alexander's human oriented and systems focused theory of architecture. Some programmers have adapted many of Alexander's ideas
for use in the development of software. Similarly, I believe that we can adapt the ideas for organizational design.
Posted: 6/8/01; 12:17:15 PM # |
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7 June 2001 |
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| Help-Seeking in an Electronic World |
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Some of the most interesting and challenging knowledge management work that I've done has been in the public library system. I'm excited to see this new report, based on two years of research by the University of Michigan School of Information and the University of Washington Information School, on Help-Seeking in an Electronic World.
Posted: 6/7/01; 10:45:14 AM # |
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5 June 2001 |
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3 June 2001 |
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| Permission Marketing |
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It surprises me how few people I speak to have read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin, but every time I describe it, people ask for a pointer. This is one of the two books I mention most often in my workshops in the last year. (The other is The Cluetrain Manifesto.) It's a very simple book, in many ways, but that is one of its strengths. It clearly lays out how to build one on one relationships online, with an appropriate emphasis on email. This is a critical text for nonprofits thinking about how to use the Internet.
Posted: 6/3/01; 2:04:15 PM # |
| Infodrome project |
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The Infodrome project is a two year Dutch intitiative to do some deep thinking about the impact of the information revolution on civil society.
Posted: 6/3/01; 2:03:00 PM # |
| Spam and Bulk Email |
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Ever since the Email Manifesto, various nonprofit mailing lists have been full of conversations about the successful use of email. The NPTalk list has archived some pieces on the important topic of Spam and Bulk Email.
Posted: 6/3/01; 2:02:24 PM # |
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