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News for January 2003

29 January 2003

Frictionless Fundraising
	Our first feature in a great many months is a good one. Frictionless Fundraising: How the Internet can Bring Fundraising back into Balance is my treatise on how we can avoid the false turns of both technocentricity and old media thinking, and realize the genuine promise of online fundraising. Posted: 1/29/03; 6:10:35 PM #

Open Networks, Closed Regimes

In Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule, Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor Boas describe how repressive regimes have not been undermined by the internet, unlike many of us hoped. It has been said that the internet "routes around censorship" the way it routes around any other sort of damage, but has not come true. Further, it's disturbing to read about the extent to which American and European companies have "fallen over each other in their eagerness to sell the latest surveillance gear and software to China and Saudi Arabia". Posted: 1/29/03; 2:06:34 PM #

23 January 2003

Vertical media consolidation threatens your communication
	Dan Gillmor gives us an orientation to the threat of vertical consolidation in the internet access market. Will your nonprofit's content be harder to reach if you don't have a deal with the ISP used by your prospects, donors or volunteers? Posted: 1/23/03; 11:53:07 AM #

Are Email Recipients Better Direct Mail Givers?
	Rick Christ and his colleagues have done some email research of their own, indicating that prospects who receive an email newsletter are more likely to give in response to a direct mail (postal) solicitation than those who don't. Posted: 1/23/03; 11:52:02 AM #

22 January 2003

Internet Stokes Anti-War Movement
	In Internet Stokes Anti-War Movement , Leander Kahney writes "This weekend's anti-war protests were the first mass demonstrations in memory to occur before a conflict, a testimony to the organizing power of the Internet". Posted: 1/22/03; 11:41:24 AM #

Leader to Leader Institute
	The Drucker Foundation is now the Leader to Leader Instititute. They are continuing their focus on leadership development and collaboration. In combination, I consider these to be a visionary strategy for the sector. Posted: 1/22/03; 11:41:14 AM #

20 January 2003

The Failed IT Revolution
	Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley says the IT revolution has failed because it consistently overpromised and underdelivered, at least as far as business performance and productivity are concerned. But it's really a personal rant with organizational implications. Posted: 1/20/03; 8:42:33 AM #

SBC "internal link" patent suits
	Here we go again. Now SBC is claiming to own a patent on navigation used on countless web sites. They seem to be pursuing the small organizations first. Do you use internal links on pages of your site? Posted: 1/20/03; 8:39:54 AM #

17 January 2003

Impact of ICT on Volunteer Management
	Vic Murray and Yvonne Harrison have published a 16 page report on The Impact of Information and Communications Technology on Volunteer Management (PDF file). One pleasant and predictable conclusion: 95% of respondents state that e-mail was "useful" or "very useful". Posted: 1/17/03; 3:41:24 PM #

An Introduction to Weblogs
	In An Introduction to Weblogs, Sarah Hawkins just starts to scratch the surface of the potential of this tool for nonprofit organizations. Posted: 1/17/03; 3:41:13 PM #

Funder-Mandated Data Collection in Human Services
	Lisa Radcliffe asks how we should deal with Funder-Mandated Data Collection in Human Services. Posted: 1/17/03; 3:41:04 PM #

Librarians and the 'PATRIOT" Act
	Librarians are struggling with the free speech implications of law enforcement investigation of your reading and browsing habits, says a report by the Library Research Center (PDF). Posted: 1/17/03; 3:40:54 PM #

16 January 2003

The State of Nonprofit America
	Lester Salamon's The State of Nonprofit America has just been published by Brookings. I was particularly interested in the chapter on "Infrastructure Organizations" by Abramson and McCarthy. Posted: 1/16/03; 10:07:35 AM #

15 January 2003

The Growth of an American Surveillance Society
	The ACLU has published Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society. It's a report that is required reading for any organization wanting to protect its communication with its stakeholders. Posted: 1/15/03; 5:52:16 PM #

14 January 2003

Personal Knowledge Sharing
	The simple revolutions are the best ones, something I know I truly need to remember. In Personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research Sebastian Paquet of the University of Montreal explores one such revolution. Posted: 1/14/03; 1:49:41 PM #

Collaborating Within - not Through - Email
	Collaborating Within - not Through - Email is an IBM research report that looks at how shared mailboxes form an interesting collaboration tool. Posted: 1/14/03; 1:49:32 PM #

13 January 2003

Volunteering in the United States
	The U.S. Department of Labor has released a thorough study on Volunteering in the United States. The impacts are eye opening. Posted: 1/13/03; 11:20:09 AM #

Free for All
	Peter Wayner's book, Free for All is available as a PDF under a Creative Commons license. It is an entertaining read about the open source movement. Posted: 1/13/03; 12:12:28 AM #

Asia and Linux
	Not long ago, I wrote about the emerging success of open source software in Africa. Robin Miller reports that Asia is a hotbed of Linux and open source success. Posted: 1/13/03; 12:12:12 AM #

Pulse: Mental Health Provider weblog
	PULSE is a weblog of news and information (not unlike Nonprofit Online News) from the Centre for Community Change International. It focuses on the needs of mental health providers. Posted: 1/13/03; 12:11:58 AM #

3 January 2003

Association Works donates nonprofitnews.org domain

As you may know, one point of pride we have at Nonprofit Online News is that we are the top ranked site for the search "nonprofit news" at Google. Now, thanks to John Paul of Association Works, nonprofitnews.org points to us. A long time subscriber of ours and a respected consultant to the sector, John Paul donated the domain this week. We encourage you to pay his site a visit. Posted: 1/3/03; 12:46:38 PM #

FCC to allow massive consolidation of media control
	The US Federal Communication Commission is about to issue a series of rulings that are predicted to massively accellerate the consolidation of control of the flow of news and information, including over the internet. Posted: 1/3/03; 12:46:29 PM #

1 January 2003

Public Interest Registry
	As of today, Verisign no longer operates the .org domain registry. It is now operated by the Internet Society, under the name Public Interest Registry. Nominations are being accepted to their Advisory Council. Posted: 1/1/03; 4:11:06 PM #

What Should I Do With My Life?
	I used to teach workshoops and do career counselling for people who wanted to do work that meant somthing to them. I might do that again some day. In the mean time, I recommend this excerpt from Po Bronsen's book What Should I Do With My Life? Happy New Year to you! Posted: 1/1/03; 3:43:46 PM #