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News for November 2003

17 November 2003

Incentivizing Practice
	Incentivizing Practice (PDF) is a terrible title for an interesting paper by Paul Duguid on the subject of building knowledge in communities and organizations. Posted: 11/17/03; 10:41:05 PM #

Cyber Insecurity: The Cost of Monopoly
	I'm working on an article on the role of Microsoft's technology funding on the nonprofit sector. I'm coming across all sorts of interesting things in the course of my research, including Cyber Insecurity: The Cost of Monopoly (PDF), a detailed analysis of the impact of computer monoculture on data and system security. Posted: 11/17/03; 10:40:48 PM #

Intro to World Summit on the Information Society
	David Wilcox gives a nice (both short and reasonably critical) introduction to the World Summit on the Information Society, the next major conference of which will be held in Geneva next month. Posted: 11/17/03; 10:40:28 PM #

11 November 2003

How Design Creates Society
	In How Design creates Society, Ann Light reviews a workshop that asked the question "Can there be a social movement or civil society informatics?" Posted: 11/11/03; 11:51:09 AM #

Putting Process Owners in Charge
	For years now, I have been teaching a model of technology planning called Communication Centered Planning, because I don't feel that software vendors are the right people to be designing nonprofit business processes. In Putting Process Owners in Charge, Phil Wainewright argues this case. Posted: 11/11/03; 11:48:23 AM #

6 November 2003

Media and Democracy in the Digital Information Age
	In Media and Democracy in the Digital Information Age (PDF), Mark Cooper takes an in depth look at strategies for promoting a diversity of voices in an age of media consolidation. The only nonprofits who can afford to ignore this issue are those who have no message. Do you know any of those? Posted: 11/6/03; 1:41:01 PM #

Mind map of social software
	Tom Smith has developed a mind map of social software (PDF), which he defines in this case as "software that enables a new form of group interaction that then alters the behavior of the group and the individual". This is the sort of thinking that helps us plan new strategies for organizing people around the causes we support. Posted: 11/6/03; 1:40:42 PM #

US Will Deny Aid to Countries That Refuse Court Immunity
	When I published my piece in opposition to the war in Iraq, I was criticised by some readers for having no compassion for the Iraqi people. It's in that context that I put forth the newest requirement for aid from the United States: immunity from war crimes prosecution. As far as I'm concerned, this is unethical donor behavior on a gargantuan scale. Posted: 11/6/03; 1:39:59 PM #

NP Action

I'm impressed by a few of the resources I have discovered at OMB Watch's NP Action site supporting capacity building for nonprofit advocacy. But I find the interface confusing, I'm really not sure if I am finding the best stuff, and I wish there were some system (email, RSS feed) for notifying me of new content. Maybe it's there and I just can't find it. I know they are doing some interesting aggregation. Posted: 11/6/03; 1:39:41 PM #