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News for September 2009

29 September 2009

UNDP Handbook on Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation

The United Nations Development Program has published a free Handbook on Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluating for Development Results (232 page PDF). Fully half of the handbook is devoted to monitoring, which is one approach to integrated evaluation or what they call "results-based management". I am also impressed by the templates and forms they include, though in some cases they are a bit too related to UNDP processes. This is a valuable resources for any organization, whether you see yourself working on development issues or not. Posted: 9/29/09; 5:05:35 PM #

14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media

I am not a librarian and I'm not in the K-12 school system, but neverthless I really enjoyed Joyce Valenza's 14 Ways K-12 Librarians Can Teach Social Media. There are a lot of environments in which to apply these ideas: (1) New fun with intellectual property. (2) Documentation doesn't have to be a miserable task. (3) Moving beyond one-trick, single-search mode. (4) Pushing information and working with widgets. (5) Searching yourself. (6) Scouting and networking. (7) Transparency and the research process. (8) Organizing tools. (9) Survey tools for research and learning. (10) Connecting with authors and experts. (11) Communicating research and telling new stories. (12) Rethinking collection. (13) Reading 2.0. (14) Intellectual freedom extends to Web 2.0. Posted: 9/29/09; 4:48:06 PM #

When "Best Practice" is Bad Practice

Here's one more article I've been meaning to write for years that I can strike off my list because someone else has done such a good job of it. When "Best Practice" is Bad Practice, by the wonderful Hildy Gottleib, addresses three key reasons why this phrase and concept are so problematic: (1) It teaches us to look for answers outside ourselves and our communities of practice, (2) Who says it's best and what is it best about?, (3) Often, these so-called "best" practices are actually terrible. Are you often looking for some expert just to tell you what to do (rather than how to build toward your own methods)? Read this and be open to the bigger messages. Posted: 9/29/09; 4:33:45 PM #

The 5 Types of Social Capitalists
	Nick O'Neill says there are 5 Types of Social Capitalists: the Bricklayer, the Hustler, the Pundit, the Socialite, and the Party-goer. Although I'm really not sure that "capitalist" is a useful word in this context, I am pretty sure I would be the third kind. Though from time to time in my career I'm also been the second. What about you? Posted: 9/29/09; 4:19:11 PM #

24 September 2009

Getting At Impact: A Beginners Guide to Program Evaluation

I don't know how I missed this, but I've only recently come across Paul Clement's level-headed article on Getting At Impact: A Beginners Guide to Program Evaluation. If some of my more in-depth material just seems like too much at times or if you're really still completely new to the idea of assessing the impact of your work, this is a nice piece. Even better would be to use it as part of your own internal advocacy for better and more integrated evaluation. Posted: 9/24/09; 8:14:03 AM #

22 September 2009

Now Available On Demand: Seminar on Using Twitter, Flickr, and Other Microcontent for Engagement

It's been a few weeks since we added a workshop to our growing catalog of seminars available on demand. Today, I'm pleased to announce a new one: Small is Beautiful: Using Twitter, Flickr, Microblogging, Links, and Other Microcontent for Engagement. This isn't yet another 101-level workshop that packages up a few anecdotes and tips and calls them "best practices". This workshop gives you a clear methodology for choosing the right media amidst all the hype, along with low-risk ways to stage your microcontent efforts. As with all our on-demand sessions, it comes with a 30 minute consultation for you to use to ground the ideas in your own needs as an organization and get traction with implementation. Posted: 9/22/09; 6:19:31 PM #

21 September 2009

Purchase an Introductory Consulting Session at a Steep Discount (Week 2)

We're in our second week of offering our introductory consulting sessions at a very steep discount. It's 60% off this week, and the price will climb slowly back up to normal over the next few weeks. In other words, if you think you (and your team) could benefit from a very disciplined 30 minute conference call with me (Michael Gilbert), you can now do that for $50. Follow the link for more detail! Posted: 9/21/09; 5:43:51 PM #

OneWebDay

Tomorrow is OneWebDay, the Internet's equivalent of Earth Day. It's a broad ranging, world-wide set of activities designed to assert public, grassroots leadership over the increasingly dominant infrastructure of civil society - computer mediated communication. This is a particularly interesting year to participation in OneWebDay, since it was founded by Susan Crawford, who is now President Barack Obama's technology advisor. Posted: 9/21/09; 5:25:14 PM #

Why Seth Godin Is Wrong (About the Nonprofit Sector)

I'm so pleased to see Tom Watson taking on Seth Godin's recent claim that nonprofits are afraid of change. I find the "afraid of change" accusation annoying and shallow at the best of times and when an entire sector is described this way, it gets under my skin. Are there conservative dynamics in the sector? Absolutely. Is there less innovation than in other sectors? Controlling for size, age of organization, and other factors, I rather doubt it. Plus, to describe it as resistance to change paints it with an obscuring coat of irrationality that's impenetrable to useful analysis. A fundamental change management principle is to respect and understand the dynamic forces involved and Godin, whose ideas I often respect, does the opposite here. Thank you to Tom Watson for pointing this out. Posted: 9/21/09; 5:22:30 PM #

Toolkit on Disseminating Research Online
	The Global Development Network has published a Toolkit on Disseminating Research Online that I recommend to anyone who is planning a research project or has findings to share. The annotated resources are full of practical suggestions, analysis of different approaches, and research into different strategies and tactics. Posted: 9/21/09; 5:17:54 PM #

16 September 2009

Online Fundraising: You're Doing it Wrong! New Seminar on Oct 28, 2009

I've been doing a lot of very rewarding high-impact consulting intensives lately and some new transformational strategies have started to emerge. As much as I like to lay careful, strategic groundwork for all my clients, sometimes the most powerful motivator is just to see what we're doing wrong. And you know, we sure are doing a lot wrong! The first new workshop to emerge from this framework will be delivered live online on October 28, 2009. Predictably, its called Online Fundraising: You're Doing it Wrong! It's a single ninety minute session focused on giving you as many things to fix about your current online fundraising programs as you can absorb, with the idea being that you will get some very high return on your investment over the course of just three months. Check it out! Posted: 9/16/09; 6:02:22 PM #

15 September 2009

Exploring the Science of Complexity: Ideas and Implications for Development and Humanitarian Efforts

Our mental models for change and service are often very simple, if they exist at all. Often they are driven by narratives that we share with others who support our cause, but they may not reflect how the world actually works. In Exploring the Science of Complexity (89 page PDF), Ramalingam, Jones, Reba, and Young do a fantastic job of opening our minds to reach beyond these narratives and to see things from a systems perspective. We often hear the word "complex" and immediately think that means "difficult". But in fact, seeing our work from the perspective of complexity can often make it much easier! This paper will show you how that's the case. It looks at ten major concepts in the field of complexity and applies them to humanitarian work. These include: interconnection, feedback processes, emergent behaviors, nonlinearity, the role of initial conditions, and others. They make four delightful recommendations to us as practitioners: adopt an openness to new ideas, respect the limitations of our approaches, practice humility about our efforts, and show courage when the implications of complexity are revealed to us. Posted: 9/15/09; 6:19:45 PM #

Foster a More "Giving" Identity to Rouse Donors and Volunteers

Alice LaPlante previews some upcoming research on the role of "identity" in giving decisions. In Foster a More "Giving" Identity to Rouse Donors and Volunteers, she makes it clear that we have to take into account the performance and creation of people's sense of themselves in our fundraising strategies. Yet another piece of research showing how much we have to learn about how our stakeholders relate to each other, rather than just to us. Posted: 9/15/09; 6:08:05 PM #

Value Chain Analysis in Ethiopia

I've been teaching the use of logic models for many years and more recently have been helping organizations who are interested in integrated evaluation methods to expand their logic models into frameworks for metrics, especially through the use of Value Chain Analysis. Carlo Kuepers and Agnes Luz explain how this tool was applied to their work with farmers in Ethiopia. It's a short article, but if you are interested in connecting and valuing the various activities of your projects, this would be worth a quick review. Posted: 9/15/09; 5:49:59 PM #

What Value do Users Derive from Social Networking Applications?

Larry Neale and Rebekah Russell-Bennett have a paper in the latest issue of First Monday asking this question: What value do users derive from social networking applications? This is a qualitative, exploratory study, so I would use it to develop further tests of your own, rather than make large scale extrapolations. One important insight appears to be that social networking tools need to be functional. Social or emotional value both contribute to adoption, but functionality is key. Another insight that seems useful to those of us who are looking for a magic bullet or overarching generalization, is that there are no global solutions as to what sort of tools will be widely encouraged and used. Finally, there is an intriguing recommendation that we invest primarily in understanding our users, given how many tools display "symmetry" - where the same tool can encourage some users and discourage others. Posted: 9/15/09; 5:44:20 PM #

9 September 2009

Purchase an Introductory Consulting Session at a Steep Discount

For the next four weeks we are offering our introductory consulting sessions at a very steep discount. It's 80% off this week, and the price will climb slowly back up to normal over the next four weeks. In other words, if you think you (and your team) could benefit from a very disciplined 30 minute conference call with me (Michael Gilbert), you can now do that for $25. Follow the link for more detail! Posted: 9/9/09; 6:16:07 PM #

8 September 2009

7 Principles For Cultivating Communities of Practice

Sylvia Currie's presentation on her 7 Principles For Cultivating Communities of Practice (an annoying Slideshare page) is definitely worth a look. Although you really can't get that much out of a deck of slides, you'll learn a little about each of her principles. They are: (1) Design for evolution. (2) Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives. (3) Invite different levels of participation. (4) Develop both public and private community spaces. (5) Focus on value. (6) Combine familiarity and excitement. (7) Create a rhythm for the community. Posted: 9/8/09; 5:21:22 PM #

Manifesto for Community Philanthropists

The Community Foundation Network's Manifesto for Community Philanthropists (cover page for Word document download, unfortunately) reads less like a manifesto and more like a collection of interesting ideas. These include: using new government equity in financial institutions to influence banking policies, funding seed capital for the IT infrastructure to support giving, nurturing a culture of giving in the schools, and funding children's gift accounts (to give them real world experience with giving). The document is aimed at government in the UK, but the ideas are useful anywhere and at almost any scale. Posted: 9/8/09; 5:14:49 PM #

Cloud Intelligence
	Sessions from the recent Ars Electronica Symposium on Cloud Intelligence are now available online. Sessions include: Stephen Downes on collaboration, the African diaspora, "slacktivism", and mapping. Posted: 9/8/09; 5:04:54 PM #

Thinking Systemically

In Thinking Systemically, Bob Williams offers a great overview of the role of a systems approach in capacity building. He touches on inter-relationships, dynamic systems, nonlinear systems, massive entanglement, along with various methodologies, such as Systems Dynamics, Soft Systems, Activity Systems, boundary analysis, and Critical Systems Heuristics. But the most important thing about this overview is the essential frame of reference: Capacity building without systems thinking is like poking around in the dark with a stick. Posted: 9/8/09; 4:49:40 PM #

3 September 2009

Networks of Trust: Reframing How We Think About Stakeholder Relationships
	Small scale improvements can often come from repeatedly asking our usual questions. Large scale, strategic success is more likely to come from asking new questions. In Networks of Trust: Reframing How We Think About Stakeholder Relationships, I suggest that we take a different look at what it means to build trust. Posted: 9/3/09; 10:16:56 PM #

2 September 2009

The Shrinking Generational Digital Divide

Whenever people ask me about "what seniors are doing online" or whether "young people will respond to email" I always give them the same answer: Demographic aggregates are no substitute for paying attention to your actual stakeholders! Find out what they do! Ask what they want! Listen to them, with all tools and media now available for that purpose. I think sometimes we crave generalizations in our insights and near anonymity in our cookie-cutter communication, when the world just doesn't support that any more. That said, I was pleased to read Sami Hassanyeh's article for NTEN on The Shrinking Generational Digital Divide, with its focus on a recent study by the Center for the Digital Future, in conjunction with AARP. The short, over-generalized conclusion? In many ways, seniors are more active participants in new media than society at large. Posted: 9/2/09; 3:17:23 PM #

World Press Freedom Declines in 2008

The basic enabling foundations of civil society continue to erode around the globe. (No, I'm not talking about the corporate model or tax exempt status or discounted postal rates.) For the seventh straight year, world press freedom declined again in 2008, according to a Freedom House study. There are plenty of specific problems I have with the Freedom House study's criteria. For example, oligopoly private control of the press seems to be regarded as "free", while government control over diverse press voices is not. (This is a common American problem in such political analysis.) Nevertheless, there are trends here that are still disturbing. In 2008, for example, only 17% of the world's populace lives in countries with genuine freedom of expression. Posted: 9/2/09; 3:03:09 PM #

The 10 Bona Fide Best Sites for Sharpening Your Critical Thinking Skills

The communities of practice that comprise civil society are heavily influenced by fuzzy thinking. We think that answers to surveys are accurate descriptions of behaviors. We believe cherry-picked heart-moving stories rather than trying to discover the aggregate of all stories. We look to our peers rather than to our outcomes for guidance. We are not alone in this regard - indeed, I suspect we are overall pretty decent critical thinkers compared to many - but most of us could use some work. To that end, I recommend Jeff Cobb's selection of The 10 Bona Fide Best Sites for Sharpening Your Critical Thinking Skills. He includes descriptions of the Critical Thinking Quiz, the Internet Detective, The Argument Clinic, and seven other excellent sites. Some of these would be really fun staff or board exercises, but even if you just want to brush up on your own skills, I recommend you take a few minutes to browse through these. Posted: 9/2/09; 2:29:07 PM #

The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle

I am increasingly convinced that sometimes the most important thing you can do is give something a name. Now, I can't say whether this name will capture the attention of funders and others, but I sure hope so. In The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle, Ann Goggins Gregory and Don Howard describe a dynamic that almost everyone realizes is going on: The chronic underfunding of the basic infrastructure and capacity of civil society organizations. Posted: 9/2/09; 7:43:23 AM #