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Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems

One of my concerns about nonprofit technology funding and many nonprofit tech projects is how they fail to take a systems approach to nurturing innovation and leveraging resources. Thinking about nonprofits and nonprofit technology in ecosystem terms can be a very powerful alternative to winner-take-all vanity projects. A strong example of that kind of thinking is provided in the Berkman Center's Roadmap for Open ICT Ecosystems (45 page PDF). For example, the Openness Maturity Model promulgated in this report is a particularly valuable approach to judging nonprofit tech projects. Posted: 5/14/06; 6:11:06 PM #

Copywriting 101

In addition to my own writing, I have a long history of working with other writers. (Stay tuned for new projects related to that this year, by the way.) Every now and then, I come across some guidelines for writers that I think are particularly useful or timely. Brian Clark's Copywriting 101 is an excellent ten part tutorial that is well suited to the demands of online writing. Posted: 5/14/06; 5:59:10 PM #

Five Minute Flowchart

If you follow my work, you will know that I am a believer in the power of flowcharts to describe systems. There are lots of great software applications for building such charts, but the collaborative tools are expensive or awkward. So, I was pleased to see a low tech option: The Five Minute Flow Chart is a word template that you can use to print out flow chart elements and use them in a group exercise on a table top. Posted: 5/14/06; 5:50:57 PM #

Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters

John Grohol has written a great article entitled Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters at A List Apart. Although he doesn't deal with the value of anonymity in authoritarian contexts, he does an excellent job explaining how persistent identity (even if it's pseudonymous) contributes to an online community. I agree with his essential premise of Membership as a Filter and his Six Steps to Better Online Community are sharp and provocative: (1) Know thy users. (2) Simple registration is not a burden. (3) Segment your registration system. (4) Address issues of user email verification. (5) Provide a rating or reputation system. (6) Keep the communication flowing. Posted: 5/14/06; 5:41:04 PM #