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News for August 2006

28 August 2006

Strategic Communications Audits

Julia Coffman's Strategic Communications Audits (10 page PDF) is a superb tool. It is solidly grounded in high-level concepts about communication practice, but at the same time presents usable tools for assessment. You would get more out of this through having it implemented by an experienced strategic communication consultant, but it's a good starting point even if it's self-administered. Posted: 8/28/06; 11:54:34 AM #

The Public Achievement Teacher Guide
	The Public Achievement Teacher Guide is a fantastic resource for educators and others who have an interest in encouraging engaged citizenry among young people. I would love to see this presented side by side with business-oriented programs of this nature. Posted: 8/28/06; 11:48:15 AM #

Flash FreeMind Browser

If you like concept mapping as much as I do, you'll be pleased with the progress that's been made on the Flash FreeMind Browser. This allows very smart and snappy web-based interaction with mind-maps created by the open-source Freemind tool. Of course, it's essential to use this for it's intended purpose -- conceptual mapping and exploration -- rather than for unnecessarily elaborate website design. Posted: 8/28/06; 11:45:13 AM #

A Taxonomy of Public Communication Campaigns

Back in 2002, the Berkley Media Studies Group published a Taxonomy of Public Communication Campaigns (40 page PDF). Occasionally I think of writing a new, Internet-savvy edition of the Campaign Cookbook (a public communication manual I wrote back in the nineties) and I would probably draw upon this taxonomy to provide a frame of reference. But I would go further and recommend this sharp analysis to anyone doing campaign planning. The case studies and planning methods related to the purpose, scope, and maturity of a campaign are all very valuable. Posted: 8/28/06; 11:26:56 AM #

24 August 2006

Toward Network-Centric Philanthropy: Some Insights from the RSS Grants Survey
	Two weeks ago, we completed a survey of our readers and of the members of a couple of other organizations involved in broad civil society work. We're sharing some of the results of that survey today in a new feature article entitled Toward Network-Centric Philanthropy: Some Insights from the RSS Grants Survey. Posted: 8/24/06; 11:10:48 AM #

21 August 2006

Liberating Voices! A Pattern Language for Social Change

I've had the pleasure recently of serving as an advisor to a student who's conducting an independent survey course of social change strategies. It's a revitalizing endeavor. If you're interested in taking a step back from your own change models to see where they fit in the broader scheme of ideas, you might want to look at Liberating Voices: A Pattern Language for Social Change. It's far from complete and still very much a creature of this moment in history, but it's a good jumping off point for a broader exploration. Posted: 8/21/06; 8:54:06 AM #

The Physics of Friendship

As you probably know, I have an interest in the visualization of social systems and networks. As it turns out, the field of visualization has inspired a bridge between social scientists and physicists. The empirical data about community structures, clustering and evolution of social connections can to a large degree be modeled as though individuals were physical particles. Take a look at this short article on The Physics of Friendship for an overview. Posted: 8/21/06; 8:41:42 AM #

Collaborative Learning Environments Sourcebook

The Collaborative Learning Environments Sourcebook is a great collection of resources for those who want to build online communities of practice. I can't tell for sure if it's being maintained, but I'd be surprised if you didn't find something new here nevertheless. The sourcebook is organized into resource categories including: Links & Portals, Concepts & Models, Assessment, Tools & Technologies, and Institutional Repositories. Posted: 8/21/06; 8:37:02 AM #

15 August 2006

Co-operatives in South Africa

Twenty years ago, I laid out a series of reasons why the corporate model is not appropriate for civil society work and I'm thrilled to see some very constructive conversations in the last few months about the available alternatives. Diane Babak of SANGONeT writes about Co-operatives in South Africa and offers a number of resources for using that model for community based work. It's great to see such an alternative reaching the level of promotion and implementation. Posted: 8/15/06; 1:06:47 PM #

Websites that Changed the World
	In honor of the recent fifteenth anniversary of the web, the wonderful John Naughton lists the fifteen Websites that Changed the World. The list is a mixture of the obvious, the interesting, and the idiosyncratic. Posted: 8/15/06; 1:06:31 PM #

The Greatest Software Ever Written
	Charles Babcock's take on The Greatest Software Ever Written is interesting as much for the reasoning involved as for the actual code selected. The social analysis used here is the same as we need in the world of nonprofit capacity building. Posted: 8/15/06; 1:06:17 PM #

Hoarders vs. Deleters: What Your Inbox Says About You

Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal has written an article called Hoarders vs. Deleters: What Your Inbox Says About You. It might also be suitably entitled The Varieties of Email Addiction. You will see yourself in there, I assure you. I have all my online correspondence on my hard drive, going back in to the 1980s. I barely use folders at all. Instead I use tags and saved searches. What does that say about me? Posted: 8/15/06; 1:06:01 PM #

The Nonprofit Capacity Conundrum

Jonathan Peizer is leading an excellent conversation over at Social Edge on the subject of The Nonprofit Capacity Conundrum. He's asking five questions: (1) What viable ways exist to provide support to nonprofits so they can use technology effectively in this type of support environment? (2) Are technology support organizations like NPower, Compumentor, etc. the answer and can they meet the needs of nonprofits of all sizes and issue areas? (3) Are there technologies like ASP's that can allow nonprofits to leverage technology without as significant a need for technology support? (4) Are there different ways nonprofits can invest in their technology capacity in the early stages and maintain that investment? (5) Is mission-based support using technology best done through other institutional or networked arrangements and not nonprofits? Posted: 8/15/06; 1:05:30 PM #

14 August 2006

Murray Bookchin, 85, Writer, Activist and Ecology Theorist, Dies

Murray Bookchin, a man I regard as my intellectual grandfather, died last month at his home in Burlington. He brought together a rigorous synthesis of ecological, economic, and social theory, which rejected authoritarianism in all its forms, whether found on the right or the left of the political spectrum. He continued to write into his eighties and, while I will never match his output or his acuity, I hope to at least match his longevity. His ideas are more relevant now than ever and I encourage you to read his work. Posted: 8/14/06; 11:52:27 AM #

7 August 2006

The Blackboard Patent

The patent disaster is closing in on the nonprofit sector. Stephen Downes is documenting the issues related to The Blackboard Patent, wherein one company has been awarded patents that cover most of the field of elearning. I'm wondering when major nonprofits and funders are going to notice how this affects the sector, let alone the fact that something similar has been quietly happening for several years in the field of online fundraising. Posted: 8/7/06; 10:15:23 AM #

Given Enough Minds...: Bridging the Ingenuity Gap

Hassan Masum and Mark Tovey examine two case studies in their First Monday paper entitled Given Enough Minds...: Bridging the Ingenuity Gap. I don't share the common belief that more people automatically lead to smarter outcomes, but I support any effort that helps us make it so. The authors are looking specifically at how to make a problem solving architecture so much fun that it draws a quality of participation that elevates the collective result above that produced by experts who are in the employ of interested parties. Posted: 8/7/06; 9:54:57 AM #

Hiroshima and the WWW
	Yesterday was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the creation of the World Wide Web. For many years, my hope has been that the latter will help us better learn the lessons of the former. Now I'm not so hopeful, but I do observe them both. Posted: 8/7/06; 9:48:40 AM #

3 August 2006

All Day Seminar on Email Newsletter Marketing

I'm very excited to announce an all-day (well, five hours or so) Online Seminar on Email Newsletter Marketing. This seminar is timed to be accessible to people in about half the world's time zones. It covers all the core strategies and tactics that we've been teaching in these sessions, but delivers them in a new form. In addition, we're offering two other innovations: (1) Logistical changes on our end will make me, as the instructor, far more available for questions and answers throughout the seminar. (2) Transcripts of the sessions will be available soon after the seminar. Posted: 8/3/06; 7:19:04 PM #