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News for May 2004
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 27 May 2004 |
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24 May 2004 |
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| Design Eye for the Usability Guy |
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As you probably know, I'm a long time fan of Jakob Neilsen. And if you have ever followed links to his work, you know that his ideas work well, but are not always beautiful. I agree with his fear of design for its own sake online, but I really enjoyed this response to his work: Design Eye for the Usability Guy.
Posted: 5/24/04; 1:52:28 PM # |
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20 May 2004 |
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| RSS: A Learning Technology |
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As part of my ongoing desire to educate folks about syndication and standards, I have frequently been a promoter of the RSS format as a flexible and powerful tool. Eva Kaplan-Leiserson makes a case for RSS as A Learning Technology.
Posted: 5/20/04; 12:51:04 PM # |
| Cyberspace seen as a Shared Resource |
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94% of respondents in a global survey said that cyberspace should be a common resource, equally available for all people. As part of the World Summit on the Information Society, ten specific goals were also assessed: 1. Connecting universities, colleges, secondary schools and primary schools with ICTs. 2. Connecting scientific and research centres with ICTs. 3. Ensuring that more than half the world's inhabitants have access to ICTs within their reach. 4. Connecting villages with ICTs and establishing community access points. 5. Connecting all local and central government departments and establish websites and email addresses. 6. Connecting health centres and hospitals with ICTs. 7. Connecting public libraries, cultural centres, museums, post offices and archives with ICTs. 8. Adapting all primary and secondary school curricula to meet the challenges of the Information Society, taking into account national circumstances. 9. Encouraging the development of content and to put in place technical conditions in order to facilitate the presence and use of all world languages on the Internet. 10. Ensuring that all of the world's population have access to television and radio services.
Posted: 5/20/04; 12:50:49 PM # |
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19 May 2004 |
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| The Context for Culture Now |
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I only recently came across this piece by Adrian Ellis. In The Context for Culture Now, Ellis looks at the surprisingly volatile world of major cultural institutions and how it's responding to funder pressures, globalization, and other pressures.
Posted: 5/19/04; 12:16:33 PM # |
| Political Friendster |
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One of the reasons I like to help people visualize communication in their organization is because it helps people be mindful of power and relationships. It's interesting to see people doing this in the realm of politics, where power and relationships have a profound effect on all of us. Political Friendster uses a social networking model to help us see who has power in the United States.
Posted: 5/19/04; 12:16:22 PM # |
| Definitions of Social Capital |
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We all know that there are hidden resources in communities and organizations that can be ignored or even destroyed if they remain hidden. Often these resources are described as "social capital". Bala Pillai offers a number of definitions of social capital that can help us understand this concept.
Posted: 5/19/04; 12:16:07 PM # |
| A conversation about online facilitation |
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David Wilcox describes a conversation he had with Nancy White about online facilitation. They explored some great issues, including the relationships and tensions between old school online communities and the emerging networks of weblogs.
Posted: 5/19/04; 12:15:54 PM # |
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17 May 2004 |
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| Information Cannot be Owned |
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In Information Cannot be Owned (PDF), Jean Druey at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society offers a rigorous analysis of why conventional ideas of property cannot functionally be applied to knowledge and information.
Posted: 5/17/04; 11:51:11 AM # |
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14 May 2004 |
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13 May 2004 |
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| 2004 Spring Forward Campaign |
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Over the years we have accepted donations in support of our work, and for a time we framed that as an annual donation of sorts, but we have never launched a genuine fundraising campaign in support of a particular goal. Those of you who have stepped forward over the years to support us, despite our quiet ways, have inspired us to launch a real campaign for improvements to Nonprofit Online News. Welcome to the 2004 Spring Forward Campaign!
Posted: 5/13/04; 11:59:10 AM # |
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10 May 2004 |
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| Understanding Organizational Stakeholders for Design Success |
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Much is made of attending to users in the design of new technologies and systems. In Communication Centered Planning, we take an even larger approach and map out all the relationships connected to the changes planned. In Understanding Organizational Stakeholders for Design Success, Jonathan Boutelle presents a framework for larger analysis of the parties and interests in a design process. When you think about all the factors that actually contribute to the success or failure of a project, you quickly realize the wisdom of this approach.
Posted: 5/10/04; 12:06:10 PM # |
| They Rule |
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One of the many reasons I'm fascinated by mapping as a thinking tool is the way it helps us learn about relationships and power in organizations and networks. One brilliant example of this is They Rule, an interactive Flash application that allows you to explore the relationships between the most powerful corporations in the world and their interlocking boards of directors.
Posted: 5/10/04; 12:05:53 PM # |
| The Art of Blogging |
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George Siemens made this presentation on The Art of Blogging at a recent Canadian conference on distributed learning. He presents a compelling case for seeing weblogs as part of a larger revolution in the patterns of communication that will benefit learning communities.
Posted: 5/10/04; 12:04:35 PM # |
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9 May 2004 |
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| Open Society |
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To better understand the position that I took in my editorial The Nonprofit Sector and the March Toward Tyranny, it would help to be familiar with some of the ideas in the book Open Society by George Soros. Despite my vehement opposition to right wing extremists, I am taking a very moderate position with regard to the sector, much as Soros does with regard to reforming global capitalism. Soros' book makes the case that we need to pay attention to the frameworks that allow an open society to thrive. His philanthropy in emerging democracies makes clear the important role of nonprofit organizations as both an indicator of the health of that framework and a means toward achieving it.
Posted: 5/9/04; 4:49:15 PM # |
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5 May 2004 |
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| The Nonprofit Sector and the March Toward Tyranny |
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It's been a few months since my last feature article. Although I have long had several others in the works, this one came to me rather suddenly over the weekend and elbowed its way to the front of the line. I think you'll be able to see why. In it, I argue that the United States is on a solid course toward tyranny and that this will undermine the very framework of civil society that makes the nonprofit sector possible. We all have to decide that, regardless of our organizational mission, this is everyone's business.
Posted: 5/5/04; 6:31:49 PM # |
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