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Current News

A Few Good Email Newsletter Tools

IdealWare continues to produce well considered articles on nonprofit software. Considering how opinionated I can be about email, I approached their piece on A Few Good Email Newsletter Tools, cautiously. But, with the exception of having left Zookoda off the list (a well conceived system for building newsletters from blogs), this article lives up to the Idealware reputation. You can be comfortable recommending this to people considering new email applications. Posted: 4/16/06; 10:49:03 PM #

An Adoption Strategy for Social Software in Enterprise

Suw Charman's adoption strategy for social software in enterprise lays out ten steps toward adoption, five to be taken at the grassroots level and five to be pursued with management. Her steps toward fostering grassroots adoption are: (1) Identify key user groups. (2) Identify and understand key users. (3) Convert key users into evangelists. (4) Turn evangelists into trainers. (5) Support bottom-up adoption and emergent behaviours. And her steps with managers and team leaders are: (1) Lead by example. (2) Lead by mandate. (3) Lead by reminding (4) Ensure there is adequate support. (5) Ensure personal and business benefits reflect each other. Posted: 4/16/06; 10:43:41 PM #

Lifelong Kindergarten

There are a lot of projects at the MIT Media Lab that I like, but the one that's made me smile the most is called Lifelong Kindergarten: "We develop new technologies that, in the spirit of the blocks and fingerpaint of kindergarten, expand the range of what people can design, create, and learn." Take some time and play with what they are doing. If you have a kids program looking to extend the reach of your work, then take an even closer look. Posted: 4/16/06; 10:36:54 PM #

Beyond Broadcast 2006: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture
	For the last several years, I've taken an interest in public broadcasting. Beyond Broadcast 2006 is a conference being put on by the Berkman Center on May 12 & 13, 2006. The focus of the conference is captured by its subtitle: Reinventing Public Media in a Participatory Culture. I wish I could be there. Posted: 4/16/06; 10:34:35 PM #

Intel's Got (Too Much) Mail

The web seems full of tips about email and most of them are just fine, but contain the same basic ideas. Nathan Zeldes at Intel has ten ideas, several of which I haven't seen before: (1) Don't use your inbox as a catchall folder. (2) Set up a folder that deletes its content automatically after five weeks, as a repository for certain messages. (3) Assist colleagues' inbox-filtering efforts by agreeing on acronyms to use in subject lines. (4) Send group mail only when it is useful to all recipients. (5) Ask to be removed from distribution lists that you don't need to be on. (6) To cut down on pileup, use the "out-of-office" feature of your email. (7) When possible, send a message that is only a subject line, so recipients don't have to open the email to read a single line. End the subject line with < EOM> , the acronym for End of Message. (8) Graphics and attachments are fun, but use them sparingly. (9) Put large attachments on the web. (10) Be specific. Posted: 4/16/06; 10:32:10 PM #