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News for March 2006

30 March 2006

The Right to Communicate

This APC review of the digital divide issues raised at the World Social Forum in Venezuela represents a critically important change in the terms of the digital divide issue. For a long time, I've heard most digital divide conversations framed in terms of access to information, education, and services. But as this piece points out, it's far more powerful to speak about a Right to Communicate. Posted: 3/30/06; 11:37:43 PM #

ENTECH's First 50 Assessments
	Milwaukee's ENTECH (Empowering Nonprofits through Technology) program has published a review of their First Fifty Assessments (14 page PDF). They don't entirely escape the trap of technocentrism, but their approach has a certain revealing rigor nonetheless and is well worth the read. Posted: 3/30/06; 11:31:21 PM #

Investing in Ideas
	Chip Berlet's June 2005 article on Investing in Ideas is a short and painful documentation of the failure of the funders and organizations of mainstream civil society to develop the intellectual resources needed to fight the radical right, highlighting in particular some decisions made in the mid-nineties. We're now paying the price of that failure. Posted: 3/30/06; 11:25:17 PM #

Realistic Review of Web 2.0
	With all the hype, even in the nonprofit sector, it's great to have a realistic review of Web 2.0 by Paul Boutin. Although I have long been an advocate of many of the ideas that are being claimed as part of this new term, I share his perspective that it is imprecise and does more harm than good. Posted: 3/30/06; 11:20:31 PM #

19 March 2006

South African NGO Website Awards of 2006

I'm not normally enthusiastic about web site awards, but I was pretty excited last week when I watched SANGONeT announce the South African NGO Website Awards of 2006. The thing that pleased me was to see how presenting the awards along side of the criteria will help influence the practices of other organizations. The five criteria, which in part followed some advice of mine, were communication centric: (1) Objectives: What are the communication objective of the website and are they expressed? (2) Accessibility: Is the language and site accessible? (3) Marketing: How does the website capture the attention of the first time visitor? (4) Cultivation: How does the website retain the attention of the return visitor? (5) Tone: What is the tone of the language on the website. Posted: 3/19/06; 11:09:51 PM #

The Power Shift and the NGO Credibility Crisis

In the most recent issue of The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law, James McGann and Mary Johnstone have an important article on the global role of civil society organizations, entitled The Power Shift and the NGO Credibility Crisis. The authors make an appeal for increased transparency and examine six factors contributing to that need: 1. Democratization and the Civil Society Ideal. 2. Growing Demand for Information, Analysis, and Action. 3. Growth of States, Non-state, and Inter-state Actors 4. Improved Communications Technologies. 5. Globalization of NGO Funding. 6. Paralysis and Poor Performance of the Public Sector. Posted: 3/19/06; 11:01:43 PM #

Dynamics of Power, Inclusion, and Exclusion

The Dynamics of Power, Inclusion, and Exclusion (22 page MS Word document) is a great primer on power relation analysis by Just Associates. It presents several useful taxonomies of social power relations and takes a good look at different expressions and contexts of power differences. The ultimate purpose of the document is to serve as a tool for social justice activists, but this sort of thinking is valuable in a great many situations. Posted: 3/19/06; 10:47:19 PM #

17 March 2006

Flipping the Funnel

Seth Godin's latest free eBook is called Flipping the Funnel (18 page PDF). It's a clear and compelling description of the three stages of fundraising (or marketing, if you want to look at other editions of the eBook): (1) Turning strangers into friends. (2) Turning friends into donors. (3) Turning donors into fundraisers. The focus is on the last element, and is part of the whole trend toward permeability. I recommend this not so much because it is new, but because it is explained in Godin's delightfully clear and compelling style. Posted: 3/17/06; 2:19:46 PM #

Movement Action Plan by Bill Moyer

During the first ten years of my work, I was heavily influenced by the work of Bill Moyer and others with Movement for a New Society. I continue to have the utmost respect for the analysis, values, and strategies that have come out of that cluster of activists and organizations. I want to share with you Moyer's Movement Action Plan (41 page PDF), a compelling strategic framework that describes the eight stages of successful social movements and the actions that are required at each stage. If you see your work and your organization as part of a larger movement, then I highly recommend this framework as a tool for loose collaboration and planning. Posted: 3/17/06; 2:19:26 PM #

On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking About the Fundamentals

Robert Helvey's book On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking About the Fundamentals (189 page PDF) is available as a free download from the Einstein Institute. Funded in 2002 through a grant from the U.S. Institute of Peace, the book is a powerful primer in one of the most important and powerful unifying strategies of modern times. It teaches rigorous thinking about power relations and provides clear guidance for those who are seeking an effective sense of direction in these troubling times. Posted: 3/17/06; 2:18:57 PM #

16 March 2006

Nonprofit Online News Journal: March 2006 Edition
	The March 2006 Edition of the Nonprofit Online News Journal is now available. We have articles by Putnam Barber, Kumi Naidoo, Michael Blanding, Glenda Eoyang, Katie Delahaye Paine, and Bishop Gene Robinson. Our topics include insightful questions about trust, complexity and emergence, global civil society, and the nature of giving. Posted: 3/16/06; 7:32:14 PM #

10 March 2006

Second Annual SANGONeT Conference | Newspaper Day Two

The newspaper from day Two of the SANGONeT Conference (8 page PDF) is available online, as are those from the other two days of the conference. This particular issue has some coverage from two workshops that I taught on the first day of the conference, along with articles on community radio and the difficult situation concerning telecommunication access in South Africa. Posted: 3/10/06; 12:41:24 AM #

Highway Africa News Agency
	The Highway Africa News Agency (free registration required) was responsible for a daily newspaper during this week's ICTs for Civil Society Conference. They have a number of articles on their website that they published in print form during the conference. You can also read a little about some of my presentations at the conference. Posted: 3/10/06; 12:21:03 AM #

8 March 2006

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

A Force More Powerful has published Gene Sharp's list of 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, divided into several useful categories, including: Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience, Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government, Communications with a Wider Audience, Drama and Music, Economic Intervention, Honoring the Dead, International Governmental Action, Multi-Industry Strikes, Ostracism of Persons, Psychological Intervention, Rejection of Authority, Withdrawal and Renunciation, and Withdrawal from the Social System. The great thing about this list is that all of the methods are based upon historical effectiveness. Posted: 3/8/06; 7:37:18 AM #

3 March 2006

Storytelling: Branding in Practice

I was telling a colleague yesterday my thoughts on how branding, organizational focus, and story telling are intertwined, and about the power of blogging to enroll others in your story. So, it seems like a good time to recommend Storytelling: Branding in Practice by Fog, Budtz, and Yakaboylu. The book is best consumed whole, but some of the most interesting chapters include: Authentic Raw Material for Story Telling, Story Telling in Management, When Story Telling Becomes Dialogue, and Tearing Down the Walls. In addition to its role in branding, organizational story telling is the key to my own communication planning methodologies. It's an incredibly powerful way to identify the key strategies and strengths on which you want to build both ICT and new tactics. This book is both wise and practical and I recommend it to anyone who has to think about the big picture of their organization. Posted: 3/3/06; 11:15:10 AM #

Taxonomy for the Technology Domain

Lawrence Tomei's Taxonomy for the Technology Domain has as its purpose the design of a comprehensive framework for teaching new technology. I don't think we'll know if he succeeded until this is applied in the field, but I do find his model compelling. The book is intended for teachers and I see it as being relevant to anyone working on digital divide issues. He defines technology as a fourth domain of learning, with cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills and knowledge being the first three. He then presents six levels of technological learning: literacy, collaboration, decision-making, infusion, integration, and, as the final level, something he calls tech-ology. (This highest level refers to the ability to judge the impact, values, and implications of technology use.) I recommend this book to anyone designing or funding programs that involve helping people up the technological ladder of skills and knowledge. Posted: 3/3/06; 11:14:59 AM #

2 March 2006

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 #