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News for July 2005

29 July 2005

Mapping Emotions

For nonprofits, I regard the Internet's potential for "scaling up listening" (in the form of understanding our stakeholders) to be even more important than its ability to "scale up talking" (in the form of broadcasting to them). But it's not always clear how to systematize the listening process. One bit of advice can be drawn from new marketing concepts such as Mapping Emotions. Using some simple two dimensional grids to track people's feelings over time can give you some deep insight into the feelings of your stakeholders. The examples in this article are commercial, of course, but the lessons are crystal clear nonetheless. Posted: 7/29/05; 11:02:03 AM #

Nonprofit Quarterly: Infrastructure Issue
	If you haven't already read it and studied it, it's not too late to take in last Fall's Infrastructure Issue from the Nonprofit Quarterly. The full issue is available as a PDF, as are the individual articles. My favorite is "Why Every Foundation Should Fund Infrastructure". Posted: 7/29/05; 10:56:29 AM #

Patterns for Personal Web Sites
	In 2003, Mark Irons published an elegant analysis entitled Patterns for Personal Web Sites. As it becomes increasingly clear to nonprofits that personal voice and relationship building (in contrast to corporate voice and broadcast) are keys to online success, these guidelines should assume great importance to the people in charge of nonprofit websites. Posted: 7/29/05; 10:49:04 AM #

28 July 2005

To Be Heard Above the Din: Communication, Nonprofits, and Spam

My friend and colleague Samantha Moscheck has written a great feature article for us, entitled To Be Heard Above the Din: Communication, Nonprofits, and Spam. She covers all the core issues, including how spam threatens nonprofits (both individually and as a sector) and what we can do about it. I am particularly pleased with her specific recommendations to funders. This is a must read for anyone doing online relationship building. Posted: 7/28/05; 6:23:05 PM #

26 July 2005

21st Century Fundraising Resources, 2nd Edition

Twenty First Century Fundraising resources has predictably been one of our best selling publications. Since it was published in April of 2004, we have significantly deepened our understanding of how online fundraising is evolving, and so today, we are proud to announce 21st Century Fundraising Resources, 2nd Edition. It's been substantially expanded to contain six in depth feature articles, five of those new, and a total of 105 carefully annotated resources, in categories such as Community, Email, Design, Principles, and Websites. Take a look at the table of contents to see just how rich and practical a book this could be for you. Posted: 7/26/05; 4:35:12 PM #

24 July 2005

Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow
	Martha Lagace's Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow reflects the growing interest in collaboration that has come with the growth of the Internet. The article looks at the research of Jane Wei-Skillern, which supports the idea that networking between organizations is a vast untapped tool for nonprofit effectiveness. Posted: 7/24/05; 11:41:45 PM #

Evolving Communities of Practice: IBM Global Services Experience

I have worked on community building throughout my career, but the Internet has allowed me to affordably test many of my ideas at a large scale. The same has been true of organizations far larger than mine. The IBM Global Services experience with Evolving Communities of Practice, as documented by Gongla and Rizzuto in 2001, remains one of the best descriptions of how the kinds of communities I work with most often grow and change over time. Posted: 7/24/05; 11:35:59 PM #

Conversation Mapping
	Bruce McKenzie's guide to Conversation Mapping (8 page PDF) provides one of the better step by step instructions for using visual mapping to help track and understand a complex conversation. If visual thinking appeals to you, this is a nice little resource to consider. Posted: 7/24/05; 11:26:51 PM #

Tipping Point - Net Version

If you haven't already read Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point and you don't plan to, you might be interested in Robert Patterson's three page paraphrase, currently making the rounds on various link lists. The Tipping Point - Net Version is also entitled "How to Start a Revolution" and covers all the main concepts of the book. Worth a review if you're thinking about networks. Posted: 7/24/05; 11:21:25 PM #

Virtual Volunteering Guide

Published originally back in 2000, I'm surprised I haven't recommended this sooner. The Virtual Volunteering Guide (138 page PDF) is a superb handbook by the two acknowledged experts in online volunteerism, Susan Ellis and Jayne Cravens. The free ebook covers every issue, including online recruitment, designing online volunteer projects, online project and relationship management, including people with disabilities, and dealing with the idiosyncrasies of online communication. Posted: 7/24/05; 11:14:52 PM #

Community Networking as Radical Practice
	In the current issue of Community Informatics, Garth Graham looks at Community Networking as Radical Practice. As certain parts of the digital divide are bridged, what is it that makes community networking a social change strategy? Posted: 7/24/05; 10:59:48 PM #

23 July 2005

Individualistic Networks and Networking Individuals in Tango Argentina

Some of you may know that I fell head over heals in love with tango last year. Most of you know that I have a passion for understanding human systems and how they grow and thrive. With a rare opportunity to combine these passions, let me recommend this research by Celine Kuttler and Ralf Blossey entitled Individualistic Networks and Networking Individuals in Tango Argentina (12 page PDF). It looks at very generalizable issues such as what makes mentoring a successful strategy for growing a community. I want to look at how this might apply to donors and activists. Posted: 7/23/05; 7:35:15 PM #

HBS Working Knowledge: Social Enterprise: Why Nonprofits Have a Board Problem

I have for years felt that the classic corporate governance model might not be the right one for social service and social change work. Few people seem willing to go that far, but some are taking a hard look at the division between governance and leadership that seems to be the standard response to board problems. In the form of an interview, Richard Chait looks at Why Nonprofits Have a Board Problem and calls on us to look at things a little differently. Posted: 7/23/05; 7:28:17 PM #

Jillaine Smith - Tools

Jillaine Smith has combined a razor sharp intelligence and great compassion in her roughly 20 years of work on nonprofit communication and technology. It's been far too long since I have pointed to her work. Take a look at the three tools that she makes available on her web site: a technology checklist for nonprofit leaders, a checklist for building online communities, and a one page web site checklist. They are the work of a fine people focused technology evangelist. Posted: 7/23/05; 7:21:52 PM #

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Forum: The Ratings Game

For years, I have been deeply skeptical of universal, numerical ratings of nonprofit organizations. Then, when money started pouring into such metrics, I started to grow increasingly alarmed, since we tend to pay attention to the things we measure, even if the measurements are bad. That's one level of problem when we pay too much attention to web site hits, but when we start making nonprofit ratings systems too important, then the whole sector is in trouble. Back in December, at the Stanford Social Innovation Review Forums, in a post titled The Ratings Game, Bruce Sievers said as much. The conversation that followed has been great. Posted: 7/23/05; 7:16:52 PM #

15 July 2005

Start with People

John Craig and Paul Skidmore's book Start with People is available in full at the Demos web site. (Demos is based in Britain and describes itself as a "think tank for everyday democracy".) The book, based upon thoughtful and recent research, examines the critical role of community organizations in preserving and sustaining public participation and democratic processes. Posted: 7/15/05; 4:53:12 PM #

Collaborative Working
	The British National Council of Voluntary Organisations has prepared a site called Collaborative Working on the subject of cooperative ventures in civil society. Although the site's navigation is somewhat confusing, I have found enough gems in there, such as the checklist on whether a partnership is working for you, to merit a recommendation. Posted: 7/15/05; 4:46:48 PM #

Panel on the Nonprofit Sector: Final Report

Some American grantmakers and large nonprofits, with the input of a great many others, convened over the course of the last nine months as the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, studying the issues of nonprofit governance, transparency, and accountability, with the goal of preparing recommendations for the U.S. Congress. I don't pretend to understand all the subtle politics that went into preparing them, but I have been intrigued by the conclusions and directions in their Final Report (116 page PDF). Posted: 7/15/05; 4:42:20 PM #

14 July 2005

A Practical Approach to Collaboration

I have been paying a lot of attention to models of cooperation and collaboration between organizations recently. In A Practical Approach to Collaboration, I share one insight and a related example. The example is a very successful campaign I ran a number of years back. The insight is this: The only agreement you have to have to collaborate is an agreement on what you are all going to do. That's it. Posted: 7/14/05; 6:34:38 PM #

13 July 2005

Nonprofit Online News Journal - July 2005

The diversity of our monthly Journal contributors is continuing to expand. In this month's issue, I'm very pleased to have a provocative piece by my colleague Michael Soper on how to take responsibility for wanting to keep relationships with stakeholders alive by providing alternatives to unsubscribing. We have a long and thoughtful exploration of the nature of social software by Lee Bryant. Nick Gleason and Zach Rosen issue a call for renewed commitment to open standards. Adina Levin provides a practical perspective on the issue of decentralizing activism. Cause Communication gives us a solid primer on communication planning. Finally, in response to consistent interest in the subject of email chaperoning, I offer a one page Chaperoning Quicksheet, with five steps to an alternative to list rental. As usual, we have organized our news items and resources into a useful taxonomy, with 32 resources this month, in 28 categories. We also have five book reviews and ten listings from our classifieds section. At eighty six pages, this is our longest issue of the Journal yet! Posted: 7/13/05; 7:38:49 PM #

12 July 2005

Buddha

I have enjoyed Karen Armstrong's magisterial books on western religions, so it was with some eagerness that I read Buddha, her bestselling look at what we know about the historical Siddhatta Gotama. I'm interested in what makes for successful radicals, particularly peaceful ones and so I found myself paying attention to the Buddha's ability to speak in terms that made utter sense to his audience, the consistency of his message, and the the religious order that emerged around him. Posted: 7/12/05; 10:39:28 AM #

Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography

I'm fascinated with institution building and social change and thus I am interested in historical figures who have played a role in such things. John Dominic Crossen is a renowned biblical scholar and his Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography eschews myth in favor of giving a powerful picture of the historical Jesus. A Jewish peasant with distinctly radical notions about the politics of the body, he is vividly portrayed by Crossen's unflinching honesty. Posted: 7/12/05; 10:39:19 AM #

8 July 2005

Communities of Practice and Networks

In Communities of Practice and Networks (15 page PDF), Sarah Cummings and Arin van Zee look at how new theories about knowledge management are starting to come together with older ideas about networking on the ground, with the particular example of agricultural networking and local development. This is an excellent peer reviewed paper on a key concept in real life knowledge work. Posted: 7/8/05; 12:38:33 PM #

POWERING ICT: An Energy Solutions Toolkit for ICT Projects

In a great example of looking at more than one system at a time when making technology decisions, the Powering ICT Toolkit helps communities and planners working in developing regions take both information technology and energy technology into account when proposing local solutions. It puts energy and ICT on an equal footing, rather than having the latter be central. I would like to see that approach applied to other settings, with equal footing given to human systems. Posted: 7/8/05; 12:27:23 PM #

AdvocacyDev: Advocacy Technologies
	Activists and developers will gather this week in Oakland at the second meeting organized on the subject of advocacy software. For an overview of the state of that field, I suggest a look at the AdvocacyDev wiki, where participants have compiled a list of Advocacy Technologies. Posted: 7/8/05; 12:23:43 PM #

7 July 2005

Trust in Knowledge Management and Systems in Organizations

I find that the organizations I work with rarely talk candidly about the question of trust. Of course, by its very nature, it's a challenging concept to be open about. Maija-Leena Huotari and Mirja Iivonen, two Finnish academics, have edited a book on the subject, entitled Trust in Knowledge Management and Systems in Organizations. I highly recommend this book for anyone working on knowledge sharing or collaboration. The chapters on trust building as a management strategy, trust in technology partnerships, and the self-organizing emergence of trust in complex networks are of particular importance. Posted: 7/7/05; 5:51:25 PM #

Knowledge Mapping and Management

Don White's Knowledge Mapping and Management is a collection of articles that take a largely social approach to the challenge of knowledge management. There are a few gems in here, particularly for knowledge intensive organizations such as foundations, who might be interested in exploring the barriers to knowledge sharing and creation that exist within and around them. I liked the pieces on collaborative information seeking, the role of argumentation, and the laws of information. Posted: 7/7/05; 5:45:41 PM #

6 July 2005

It's About the Community Plumbing: The Social Aspects of Content Management Systems
	In It's About the Community Plumbing, Charles Lowe and Dries Buytaert look at the social aspects of content management. They start from the same position that I start with: An emphasis on content (even in the name "content management") is a strategic mistake. The emphasis should be on the people and their relationships. Posted: 7/6/05; 10:41:49 AM #

SPIN Project: SPIN Academy 2005
	The SPIN Project's Academy 2005 is a five day training program in nonprofit strategic communication, to be held on August 17 - 21, 2005. Ninety percent of the costs of the program are covered by outside funders, so you have to apply to get enrolled. I'm a fan of the organization and I think the agenda for this academy is solid. I wish I were teaching there, actually! Posted: 7/6/05; 10:41:45 AM #

Sharing Nicely
	In Sharing Nicely (86 page PDF), Yochai Benkler explores large scale, effective practices of sharing, such as carpooling and distributed computing, along with their social, economic, and political implications. I particularly enjoyed the analysis about peer based content development. Posted: 7/6/05; 10:41:40 AM #

Knowmore.org

The use of collaborative online editing has proven very successful with Wikipedia, so it's being tried in some narrower domains of knowledge. Knowmore.org is described as a "corporation watch search engine" and basically it's a wiki designed for helping people track corporate misdeeds. I'm not sure how many corporations they have profiled. Exxon and Coca Cola are in there. Microsoft and Boeing are not. It will be interesting to see if this is a good use of the collaborative editing model. Posted: 7/6/05; 10:41:33 AM #

Software Patent Bill Thrown Out
	In a bit of good news for nonprofits and others in Europe, it seems that the matter of software patents has been resolved. The European parliament voted overwhelmingly against such patents, which means that we won't be seeing for-profit companies in Europe seizing ownership of nonprofit business processes any time soon. Posted: 7/6/05; 10:41:18 AM #

5 July 2005

Nonprofit Technology Planning and Implementation

For several years now, I have been an advocate for mindful planning of nonprofit technology projects, with a focus on human communication issues. We have captured a great many of those lessons in our upcoming series of briefings on Nonprofit Technology Planning and Implementation, to be held online on August 9 - 11, 2005. The series will cover Communication Centered Planning, conflict resolution and synergy between technology and communication staff, and organizational change management techniques that work particularly well with new technology. Among other concepts, we spend a lot of time on resistance to change and how to turn it into an asset. Posted: 7/5/05; 3:34:23 PM #

4 July 2005

The Nation - What is Patriotism?
	For my American readers in particular, since today is U.S. Independence Day, I highly recommend this collection of observations on What is Patriotism?, originally compiled by The Nation in 1991. One of the points made that make these thoughts as relevant today as ever is that patriotism is not the same as nationalism. Posted: 7/4/05; 10:48:28 AM #