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December 2005 Edition

Nonprofit Online News Journal

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	Dec. 15th, 2005: This is the last issue of the Journal in 2005. We've made it through the entire year, with our readership steadily increasing, more authors excited about contributing, and growing critical acclaim for our content. Thank you for being part of it all. This issue has a couple of new forms of content. Michael Gilbert's article on the "Logic of Learning" starts our first series, this one on Nonprofit Knowledge Management. Jonathan Peizer has contributed an advance excerpt from a forthcoming book, in which he explores the role of early adopters in nonprofit communities. I'm intrigued by his contribution because his case studies are a reflection of technology advocacy, an approach I feel often backfires. He definitely has some successful methods to share.
Rashmi Sinha presents a useful methodology in her exploration of "A Cognitive Analysis of Tagging", the metadata editing method that has become so popular recently. We implemented tags in a product called InWeb about eight years ago, but it ran headlong into users' conventional thoughts about folders. So familiarity may be a factor in cognitive costs as well. Lester Salamon and Alan Abramson's analysis of "The Nonprofit Sector and the Federal Budget" goes much deeper than my frequent assertions about this connection. It's also very timely, considering recent congressional actions that resemble nothing so much as the most recent onslaught in a class war. In "Power of the People", Chris Richards presents a taxonomy of the defining strategies of nonviolent action. These stories, such as the 1943 Rosenstrasse protest by gentile women that brought about the release of 1500 Jewish husbands, are the kinds of stories we need today. Finally, I am very pleased with my latest Quicksheet, a "Decision Tree for First Time Nonprofit Blogging". As usual, we bring you book reviews, news and resources that are tagged and organized for convenient reference, and the classified ads for the month.

Table of Contents

 
Letter From the Editor ... 7
Contributors ... 8
About the Journal, & Subscriptions ... 9

Articles:

The Logic of Learning: Nonprofit Knowledge Management, Part 1 ..... 10
By Michael C. Gilbert
The first in a series of articles on the practice of knowledge management in the nonprofit sector, this article explores the underlying problem of knowledge management -- the vagueness of the term and the corresponding lack of disciplined thinking around it -- and presents some ways to lay a foundation of success instead.

Early to Adopt, Early to Succeed ..... 17
By Jonathan Peizer
In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Jonathan Peizer describes his experiences at the Open Society Institute working with early adopters of new technologies and how he leveraged their leadership to enroll others.

A Cognitive Analysis of Tagging ..... 22
By Rashmi Sinha
Tagging of content is all the rage right now. This article looks at how tagging is popular because of the lower ?cognitive costs”, in essence meaning that there are fewer mental steps required to assign the metadata. The diagrams are particularly helpful.

The Nonprofit Sector and the Federal Budget ..... 26
By Alan Abramson & Lester Salamon
Current budget projections indicate that there will be billions cut in programs of interest to nonprofits and, at the same time, likely increases in the demands for the services of those nonprofits. As we go to press, congress has moved forward with these cuts, in conjunction with comparable reductions in taxes of the rich.

The Power of the People ..... 37
By Chris Richards
On one level, this article just summarizes some key concepts that have been applied in successful nonviolent social movements, but on another level, these are stories of brave people coming together to fight oppression without becoming oppressors themselves. It is humbling and inspiring.

Other Resources:

Quicksheet: Decision Tree for First Time Nonprofit Blogging ... 43
News ... 44
Book Reviews ... 66
Classifieds ... 68

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