Tag Archives: tech4good

oh so much great tech info for nonprofits!

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I’m helping TechSoup Global through May with various tasks beyond my usual role just moderating the Volunteers and Technology branch of its online community. There are a lot of terrific, free resources and events on TechSoup that your nonprofit, NGO, or other community-serving organization should know about:

  • Nonprofit Accounting Solutions Fireside Chat with TechSoup – Wednesday, March 30, 11 a.m. Pacific/ 2 p.m. Eastern: Join TechSoup for a free, live-streamed, interactive interview with nonprofit financial experts to answer your questions and learn more about accounting software and online accounting tools for nonprofits. You will be able to see and hear the presenters, and type in your questions for their answers in real time. Ask about different software features, ask how a particular function works, get suggestions for training and online support, find out about a feature you didn’t know about yet on software you already have – ask any question you wish about accounting software for nonprofits! The event will last approximately 45 minutes. Register here. Disclaimer: there will not actually be a fire.

And there is so much more! Come join me – let’s talk! Ask questions, offer advice, or just lurk and read! And don’t be afraid to post – don’t think, I’m not a techie, I don’t even know the right words to ask my question! You know what challenges you are facing regarding computers, smart phones, the Internet and other tech tools, and you know what you need out of them; ask or comment in you own non-tech language!

Let all your employees and your volunteers know about this upcoming March 30 TechSoup online event and the oTechSoup community!

Civil Society 2.0

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Civil Society 2.0 is a US State Department initiative to assist non-governmental (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) in other countries in using Internet and networking tools to increase the reach and impact of their work. “Through specific regional events, we gather an understanding of the challenges CSOs face and engage the technology community to help solve them appropriately.” In November 2010, a Tech@State: Civil Society event introduced this idea, and its first application, TechCamp, took place in Santiago, Chile.

This initiative is engaged with many other initiatives, including government 2.0 Netzwerk Deutschland, Digitales Chile, Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) and Geeks Without Bounds.

To stay up-to-date on this initiative, join the Tech@State LinkedIn Group as well as the Civil Society 2.0 subgroup. You can also follow this initiative via Twitter, @TechAtState.

Let’s hope someone from the Civil Society 2.0 initiative realizes they are engaged in virtual volunteering and can join all of the many conversations about such, online and onsite! Would love if they contacted me for more information.

Update: this program has been eliminated by the Trump administration

Australian volunteers growing preference for online volunteering

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ProBono Australia reports that a new study finds Australian volunteers have a growing preference for online volunteering, more young people want to get involved, and there is an increasing interest in short term or project based volunteering. The study, commissioned as part of the country’s National Volunteering Strategy Consultation, polled more than 800 volunteering groups and found that traditional forms of volunteering remain popular, but new forms of participation are emerging and needed to be accommodated.

Hmmmm…. this sounds like what myself and some other volunteer management consultants have been saying since, oh, 1996?! These trends have been happing for a while now, in several countries. But we can never have enough reports like this, as so many people – and funders – seem to remain unconvinced.

Among the things I was very happy to see from the report:

  • one of the many things needed to help embrace these emerging trends is addressing the various costs associated with volunteering, both for volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations, which can be significant barriers to participation. Yes, that’s right: volunteering is STILL not free!
  • the affirmation that effective volunteer management helps improve the efficiency of organisations and increases their capacity to comply with and implement risk management strategies needed for successful volunteer engagement.
  • the affirmation that information technology, especially the internet, can be better harnessed by volunteer-involving organisations to make participation in volunteering more accessible.

Organizations that involve volunteers need to accommodate and encourage these emerging trends while continuing to cater for traditional forms of volunteer participation. It’s my long-held contention that embracing these trends will vastly improve the experience for traditional volunteers (people who volunteer long-term). They will also, ultimately, help managers of volunteers be better supporters of volunteers. Everybody wins!

I presented on these trends last year during three weeks of intensive workshops with volunteer managers in Australia (thanks again, Martin Cowling of People First – Total Solutions and Andy Cowling of OzVPM and both of Australia, for all you did to make that happen). Given the responses in this report, I suspect some of the workshop attendees, as well as those who were a part of the Australasian Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management that year, were contributors. That’s not me trying to take credit for what’s in the report; that’s me lauding Australian volunteer managers for being so aware of what’s happening in their sector.

ProBono Australia provides an excellent summary of the report. The report will inform the National Volunteering Strategy, which the Government plans to release later in 2011. The strategy is expected to outline the Government’s vision for volunteering over the next 10 years and will provide a framework which encourages volunteering. You can download the full report as well.

Tech Help for Nonprofits/NGOs *anytime*

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I frequently get asked — or see online — these two questions:

From nonprofits/NGOs: where do I get help with our computers and the Internet? I have all these questions about how to choose donor management software, or how to use YouTube, or how to write a proposal for the technology my organization needs. I don’t even know where to begin!

From individuals: I want to help nonprofits with tech issues. I want to answer questions about how to use social media, how to write a technology strategy, how to use Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro, how to choose Virus Software, etc. I’ll do it online, I’ll do it onsite. Where do I go?

My answer to both these groups: the online community forum at TechSoup Global. It’s a great place for nonprofits to get tech-related questions answered, and it’s a fantastic place for tech savvy folks to answer those questions. The TechSoup online community forum branches include:

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Networks
  • Viruses & Security
  • Web Building
  • Technology Planning
  • Accessible Technology and Public Computing
  • Volunteers and technology
  • Emerging Technologies
  • Digital Storytelling
  • Virtual Community
  • and more!

Here’s an example of a question on TechSoup that’s waiting for an answer right now

Hello all – my NPO would like to set up a webcam with a live feed inside an owl’s nesting box and have it available on our web site. I am the “accidental techie” in our organization so I’m trying to find out as much as I can, as quickly as I can.

We have a very limited budget with which to work with and will probably rely mostly on donated or borrowed equipment, if possible.  The only equipment we have so far is the nesting box with the mother owl preparing to lay eggs.

Although our location isn’t particularly remote (Grizzly Island, Suisun), cellular signals are practically non-existent. We do have an internet connected computer on site and I’m pretty sure its DSL. The location of the owl box is in a tractor shed which has a locked room available for us to place a laptop.

What kind of equipment are we going to need to set this up? What are our options, considering the little bit of info I’ve given? I realize these are pretty general questions, but it’s just a jumping off point and any feedback I get will help me to begin asking more specific, targeted questions.  

Much love and gratitude in advance to any who choose to tackle this very large question.

Answer it here!

Even if you don’t know where to post your question, don’t worry: if you don’t post in the right forum, the oh-so-helpful volunteer moderators at TechSoup will get your post to the right branch right away.

The TechSoup community forum has been engaged in microvolunteering long before the term was being used!

I’ve been associated with TechSoup since the early 1990s, when it was called CompuMentor and didn’t even have a web site! Back then, it was focused on recruiting and placing volunteers in nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to help with tech issues. The TechSoup online forum is an evolution of that service – join in! You don’t have to ask, or answer, right away: just lurk for a while!

And don’t miss TechSoup’s many free online events, to help build the capacities of volunteers and paid staff at nonprofit organizations to use technology to support its work. Subscribe to the TechSoup email newsletter By The Cup to know when those free online events are happening.

Also see:

    • Finding a Computer/Network Consultant
      What mission-based organizations can do to recruit the “right” consultant for tech related issues, one that will not make them feel out-of-the-loop or out-of-control when it comes to tech-related discussions.

Tech news that’s gotten my attention

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Today’s blog: pointing you to some interesting posts that have come my way regarding technology use in humanitarian efforts, at NGOs and nonprofits, and by government agencies trying to connect more effectively with the public. I promise that each item is very much worth your time to read:

    • Look at the philosophy, not the technology, yet another terrific blog entry by Paul Currion: “…don’t be distracted by the shiny packaging, but instead look carefully at the philosophical underpinnings of the product and (especially) the provider of the technology. If the match isn’t good with your needs at the outset, it will never meet those needs.”
    • Humanitarian Open Source, the focus of the December 2010 Open Source Business Resource (OSBR): The humanitarian open source movement seeks to create “IT infrastructure to support a wide array of goals for the public good, such as providing effective healthcare or microloans to the poorest of the poor… In this issue of the OSBR, “the authors from several open source software and hardware projects explore not only the global need for humanitarian open source projects, but also the business cases for humanitarian-focused ICT.”
    • If you are involved with an NGO or nonprofit, and would like to find out more about how Ubuntu could benefit your organization, this is the place to come. And on a related note: I was thrilled to get a document from a colleague in Afghanistan yesterday that was done in OpenOffice; further inquiry revealed he was now using Ubuntu as his operating system. Hurrah! I, too, use Open Source tools for most of my software needs.
    • Addendum: Tor software has been downloaded in huge numbers by Tunisians and Egyptians recently. It enables online anonymity, hiding information about users’ locations and other factors which might identify them. Use of this system makes it more difficult to trace internet traffic to the user, including visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms. The software is open-source and the network is free of charge to use. The name Tor originated as an acronym of The Onion Routing project.

 

Cell phones and handhelds in humanitarian, aid and development

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For the world’s poorest, cellphone technology provides access to information and resources few ever imagined possible.

Back in October 2001, I wrote an article for the United Nations (originally part of the UNITeS online knowledge base) on handheld computer technologies in community service/volunteering/advocacy. It was on both cell phones and stand-alone tech used for reference and recording in the field and then connected to a network later. It provided some of the earliest examples of volunteers/citizens/grass roots advocates using handheld computer/personal digital assistants (PDAs) or phone devices as part of community service/volunteering/advocacy, or examples that could be applied to volunteer settings.

Text messages and other mobile applications have created platforms for aid groups to reach the most remote farms and crowded urban slums of Africa, Asia and Latin America as well. This article back in September 2010 was the latest in profiling some of these activities.

I’ve continued to pay attention to this subject, though I haven’t been in a position to do any further in-depth research at all. Some web sites that keep me up-to-date on what’s going on:

A word of caution: cell phones and other hand held technologies also provide a way to instantly misinform. I touched on this back in 2001:

Hand held technology must be used with great caution, however. Musician and U.S.A. Green Party activist Jello Biafra noted in an article on Zdnet.Uk: “Be careful of the information gossip you get on the Internet, too. For example, late in 1997 I discovered out on the Internet that I was dead.”

More about how quickly misinformation can now be spread in this resource: Folklore, Rumors (or Rumours) and Urban Myths Interfering with Development and Aid/Relief Efforts, and Government Initiatives. Also lists tips on how to address widespread misinformation.

Incredibly sad news re: Gary Chapman, Internet pioneer

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Gary Chapman, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs who was an expert in the field of Internet and technology policy, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack while on a kayaking trip in Guatemala.

Gary was the director of the LBJ School’s 21st Century Project. He also was a prolific writer, authoring articles on technology and society for publications that include The New York Times and The Washington Post, and was a general editorial columnist for the Austin American-Statesman.

I am having such a hard time writing the word was about Gary. Gary was my friend. In my opinion, Gary never got his due regarding his pioneering contributions to the study of the Internet and the development of our understanding for the Internet’s potential to communicate and engage. All those hip things we say now about the benefits of online social networking and cloud computing and whatever else is in vogue to say now, Gary was saying many years ago about the potential of the Internet.

My former boss, Dr. Sarah Jane Rehnborg, broke the news to me just now, and among the many things she said was this: He was absolutely one of my favorite people here at LBJ. I so understand that sentiment. Gary was my immediate friend and colleague when I moved to Austin — he made me feel immediately welcomed. I could not count how many people I’ve referred to him in some way, and how many people and resources he has sent my way. He was a huge supporter of my work regarding online volunteering. I just reconnected with him a few months ago, and I remember thinking, Gary’s Facebook posts are always worth reading.

From what I understand, Gary was on a dream vacation. He had been taking kayaking lessons from a champion kayaker in preparation for this trip.

I am guessing that the LBJ School web site will have information on funeral arrangements and suggestions for expressions of sympathy in terms of donations. I can’t get on the web site right now.

Shocking, sad news…. many tears to shed…