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Asking the Wrong Questions

I have long been frustrated by the technocentrism inherent in most nonprofit technology planning. I jumped at the chance to write about this for N-TEN in January and I'm pleased to share my thinking with you here in the form of a new feature article entitled Asking the Wrong Questions: Challenging Technocentrism in Nonprofit Technology Planning. In this article I look at three issues: What should planners in general ask? What are nonprofit techies (to the best of my discernment) asking? And how can we fix this (move away from asking technological questions that yield technological answers)? I have long worked with methodologies that are tightly focused on nonprofit communication and business processes, but I am definitely interested in the methods that others use. If you have examples, please let me know. Posted: 3/2/06; 6:04:50 PM #

A Message Crushed Again

The growing oppression of dissent in the United States has profound impacts on civil society and here is another example: Plans to bring a successful play about the life of Rachel Corrie have been cancelled by an American theater. Rachel Corrie, you may recall, was a young American activist crushed by an Israeli bulldozer at the age of 23. Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner edited her letters into a play, which had two sold out runs in London and has won several awards. It seems the political climate in the US frightened the New York Theatre Workshop into withdrawing their support. Posted: 3/2/06; 12:12:24 PM #

Ten Tips for For Social Entrepreneurs
	The Times Online offers ten tips for social entrepreneurs, which include: be hard-headed, know your market, keep it local, make a change, and challenge propositions. Good generalizations, of course, but the value of this short piece is in the explanations. Posted: 3/2/06; 12:05:42 PM #

Alternative Measures of Well Being

In my never-ending quest for concepts, strategies, and metrics that will bring civil society organizations into closer cooperation, I have always had a certain fascination with apparent irrelevance of many economic indicators to the work of organizations. A new report from the OECD on Alternative Measures of Well Being (58 page PDF) collects and critiques other social indicators to measure the happiness of the people of the world, its nations, and communities. Posted: 3/2/06; 11:58:13 AM #

SANGONeT NGO Web Awards 2006 Finalists

The ten finalists for the SANGONeT NGO Web Awards 2006 have been announced. I recommend that you read this announcement for the rationale presented, as much as for the great web sites and NGOs that are being honored. It was interesting to compile some of my thinking on this subject, in the process of offering my advice on these awards, and I've learned even more in the process of reading their synthesis. Posted: 3/2/06; 11:46:52 AM #

Power to the People: The Power Commission Report

The UK Power Commission report on the future of democracy has been published. Entitled Power to the People (175 page PDF), it is the result of the work of a politically diverse commission tasked with questions such as: How can democracy survive when we feel politicians don’t listen? How can politics be revived when fewer and fewer of us support political parties? How can voting be encouraged if millions see elections as a charade? The conclusion: The problem is not apathy. Widespread participation in civil society organizations proves otherwise. The problem is the political system and the commission proposed serious reforms. Posted: 3/2/06; 11:32:18 AM #

Ten Common Mistakes in Selecting Donor Databases

Laura Quinn and company are doing some very important work over at Idealware and I hope you will support them in whatever way you can. Today, I read Robert Weiner's article on the Ten Common Mistakes in Selecting Donor Databases and clapped aloud at the list: 1. Letting Techies Make the Decision. 2. Wishful Budgeting. 3. Prioritizing Price above Everything Else. 4. Randomly Looking at Demos. 5. Falling in Love with Cool Features. 6. Falling in Love with the Salesperson. 7. Buying More Than You Need. 8. Confusing Highly Functional Software with Highly Trained Staff. 9. Hoping That the Database Will Install Itself. 10. Leaving the Database to Fend for Itself. Posted: 3/2/06; 11:23:09 AM #