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Trouble at Kookaburra Hollow: How Media Mediate

The latest issue of the Journal of Community Informatics is out. My favorite paper so far is a case study by Arnold, Shepherd, and Gibbs entitled Trouble at Kookaburra Hollow: How Media Mediate. Essentially it looks at a public conflict in a housing estate and how four different media - a community intranet, hand-made signs, public and private meetings, and a television broadcast - mediated the actions in the dispute. They also lay out three factors as accounting for the differences between each medium: the medium's domain, it's "register", and it's patterns of circulation. Posted: 5/13/08; 5:03:39 PM #

What Does a Nonprofit CRM Implementation Cost?

Although the blog is SalesForce focused, NonprofitCRM's Anand Sethupathy's recent post on the cost of a CRM implementation is worthwhile reading for anyone thinking about planning such a project. All the major cost factors are described, including: Business Functions, Business Process Re-engineering, Iteration Cycles, Training & Documentation Needs, 3rd Party Applications, Consultant, Custom Code, Systems Integration, Web Integration, Data Migration, Reporting Requirements, and Do It Yourself costs. Posted: 5/13/08; 4:57:30 PM #

Journal of e-Media Studies Launches
	The new Journal of e-Media Studies has published its inaugural issues. Published and supported by the Dartmouth College Library, the papers are available in full online. The first issue includes pieces on e-poetry, an examination of FolkVine, and a review of Fred Turner's excellent From Counterculture to Cyberculture. Posted: 5/13/08; 4:44:33 PM #

IssueLab Research Closeup on Veteran's Health

This month's research theme at IssueLab is on Veteran's Health, a timely topic that is in desperate need of sober assessment. It opens with an editorial by Vanessa Williamson of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I like the very fact that there is an editorial involved. It's the multiple frames of reference here which reflect that, even though we must strive for quality in the specifics of our methods of investigation, research is not a socially or politically neutral phenomenon. Posted: 5/13/08; 4:38:47 PM #

The A Spot, an Advocacy Blog from the Institute for Sustainable Communities
	Teresa Crawford and Matthew DeGroot of the Institute for Sustainable Communities have launched a blog on advocacy called The A Spot. So many helping organizations fall into the trap of being patronizing, but the ISC has worked hard to avoid that. The blog, with its motto of "Change, not Charity" reflects this strategy. Posted: 5/13/08; 4:30:56 PM #