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September 2005 Edition

Nonprofit Online News Journal

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	Sept. 14th, 2005: We prepared this issue of the Journal in the context of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans. To avoid the hazards of haste, we are not including any resources or commentary related to that disaster or its vast implications for civil society. Please pay attention to our regular news updates for much more on Katrina this month. In the meantime, like you, our hearts are with the people of New Orleans and the Gulf States. Once again, we've produced an issue that is larger than the ones before it. We have six fantastic articles by some truly insightful contributors. We have 48 annotated resources, 50% more than last month and eight book reviews. Take a look at the table of contents for more details.
I myself have only one piece in here this month, but it's something people have requested of me for many years. What exactly does it mean to design a website around an email strategy? Read this month's Quicksheet to get a snapshot of the answer, as well as a tiny preview of our upcoming briefing series on The Modern Nonprofit Website.

Table of Contents

Letter From the Editor ... 7
Contributors ... 8
About the Journal, & Subscriptions ... 10

Articles:

Myths About Online Volunteering ..... 11
By Jayne Craven
This thoughtful and well-research piece documents what does, and more importantly what doesn't, distinguish online volunteering. My favorite insights relate to how online volunteering is far less exotic and disconnected than many people think.

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom ..... 15
By Gene Bellinger, et al
The distinctions between data, information, knowledge, and related terms are often useless cliches. Rather than remaining philosophical, this pithy exploration of the differences focuses on what certain types of understanding allow us to do.

Conversation Mapping ..... 19
By Bruce McKenzie
This provides one of the better step by step instructions for using visual mapping to help track and understand a complex conversation. This is a great resource for both support and analysis of conversations and ideas spaces.

Community Networking as Radical Practice ..... 24
By Garth Graham
As certain parts of the digital divide are bridged, what is it that makes community networking a social change strategy? The author looks at essential aspects of social relationships and identity formation in the context of the international community networking movement.

How Citizens? Groups Destroy Themselves ..... 38
By Charles Dobson
This accurately reflects the nature of many dysfunctional organizations and movements. Many of his key observations suggest that the very structure of the nonprofit sector contributes to the demise of organizations.

Software Comparison Report ..... 40
From: Bridges.org
This report carefully explores software issues in public computer labs in Africa. Their findings indicate that it is the human costs, such as software support, that are the biggest issue and they place some hope in more maintainable, thin-client computing models.

Other Resources:

Website Requirements Quicksheet ... 57
News ... 58
Book Reviews ... 90
Classifieds ... 93

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