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News for September 2003

28 September 2003

Open Source Democracy
	Douglas Rushkoff's book Open Source Democracy: How Online Communication is Changing Offline Politics (70 page PDF) is available online. I recommend all of Rushkoff's work, but in this case I particularly enjoy his insights about the role of networks in a democracy. Posted: 9/28/03; 11:07:14 PM #

25 September 2003

Free Speech Under Fire

Not so long ago, I pointed to the case of a man who was arrested for carrying a sign opposing the policies of George W. Bush. It turns out that the suppression of dissent is a pattern with the current secret service and the ACLU is filing suit. Free Speech Under Fire: The ACLU Challenge to "Protest Zones" is the document that describes many of the most outragous examples. Does your organization oppose Bush in some way? Sorry, you have to stand over here behind this bus.... Posted: 9/25/03; 4:08:35 PM #

Publicize the Internet
	In Publicize the Internet, Britt Blaser argues that the Internet is quickly becoming a critical forum for civil society and free speech and that the massive trend toward its privatization must be reversed. Despite the awkward useage of the word "publicize", I agree wholeheartedly. Posted: 9/25/03; 4:08:18 PM #

19 September 2003

A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

I've spent most of my career as a communication and management consultant to nonprofits or, in other words, as an organizational shrink. I got into computer mediated communication because of what it reveals about the behavior of groups. So it was with great pleasure that I read Clay Shirky's A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy, in which he leverages the insights gained from looking at "social software" to the behavior of groups in general. Superb stuff! Posted: 9/19/03; 11:38:30 AM #

Watching the Watchers
	In Watching the Watchers, Steven Johnson looks at the Government Information Awareness project that I pointed to recently. Johnson is the author of Emergence and Interface Culture and is always worth reading. Posted: 9/19/03; 11:38:07 AM #

18 September 2003

The Corporate Mystic

An entrepreneur whom I greatly admire gave me The Corporate Mystic, by Hendricks and Ludeman as a gift, on the condition that I read it. I am deeply suspicious of what I see as a genre of slightly perky, anecdote laden, rather thin books for business executives, but I kept my end of the bargain. I was pleasantly surprised by the book's focus on the practical power of integrity. It had one major flaw for me, in the form of an ironic integrity problem: The glaring disconnect between the admiration for the values of certain executives interviewed in the book and the deplorable acts of some of the companies led by those same executives. But the principles and practices explored in the book -- integrity, intuition, inspiration -- are powerful indeed and I highly recommend it. Posted: 9/18/03; 1:04:49 PM #

Strengthening Nonprofit Performance

The Amherst Wilder Foundation and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations have published Strengthening Nonprofit Performance: A Funder's Guide to Capacity Building. I'm not a funder, but the book seems well geared to the cultural and bureacratic sensitivities of foundations. From my own perspective as someone deeply concerned about infrastructure and capacity, I admire the way the book combines a respect for the fuzziness of the field, along with some excellent models and tools for imposing discipline on the program development and grantmaking process. Posted: 9/18/03; 1:04:37 PM #

17 September 2003

Keystrokes Seattle Workshop

We are starting to incubate some new projects at The Gilbert Center. Because I'm a writer, I understand the need for planning and discipline for large writing projects. (At least, I'm not a writer who can produce without that.) So, we've started a pilot project called Keystrokes. It's a two part workshop on developing and keeping to writing plans for book length projects, followed by a year long support group. The first workshop is in Seattle. Posted: 9/17/03; 5:13:25 PM #

14 September 2003

Open Source a No-Brainer for Developing World
	Dan Gillmor extolls the value of open source software for the developing world. He looks at the efforts to promote truly open choice in software. His arguments apply to nonprofits in developed nations too, I believe. Posted: 9/14/03; 11:31:54 PM #

Net Savvy Voters
	The Online Publishers Association (OPA) and the Center for Survey Research & Analysis at the University of Connecticut have published a report on the Internet habits of voters in the United States. People seem remarkably savvy, but I wonder about the biases of self reporting. Posted: 9/14/03; 11:31:36 PM #

12 September 2003

Realizing the Promise of Open Source Software
	Jonathen Peizer, the Chief Technology Officer of the Open Society Institute, has written a paper entitled Realizing the Promise of Open Source Software in the Nonprofit Sector (PDF). It serves both as an introduction to the topic and as an opening to a number of key issues and challenges. Posted: 9/12/03; 4:07:36 PM #

Grantmakers Information Technology Survey Report
	The Technology Affinity Group has released the Grantmakers Information Technology Survey Report in which they surveyed the progress of 315 foundations in the realm of successful use of new tools. Posted: 9/12/03; 4:07:26 PM #

Using Surveys to Improve Copy
	Marketing Sherpa looks at using surveys to improve copy and, consequently, the performance of various components of an online communication campaign. Posted: 9/12/03; 4:07:13 PM #

5 September 2003

Nordic countries promoting open source
	On Thursday 28 August, the Nordic Council of Ministers launched a joint Nordic website from which private and professional users can download open-source programmes. It's good to see multilateral government initiatives of this kind. Sometimes I hope Europe will save us from monopoly computing by launching the software equivalent of Airbus. Posted: 9/5/03; 12:35:00 PM #

E-Democracy, E-Governance and Public Net-Work
	In E-Democracy, E-Governance and Public Net-Work, Steven Clift explains why well connected citizens are having such a powerful impact on electoral politics. Posted: 9/5/03; 12:34:51 PM #

Emerging Alternatives - Blogworld
	Matt Welch writes about weblogs in the Columbia Journalism Review. Sometimes it's a little disorienting for me to attend to the current interest in weblogs as a publishing model, since I've been running one since 1997. But this is a very thoughtful piece from a journalistic perspective. Posted: 9/5/03; 12:34:40 PM #

2 September 2003

MIT Open Courseware update

In MIT Everywhere, David Diamond gives us an update on the wide ranging emerging impact of the Open Courseware initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was the university's decision to make all their course material freely available online. I'm delighted and fascinated by something I consider a sort of dream come true. I hope that others follow in this path. Posted: 9/2/03; 12:44:44 AM #