{"id":772,"date":"2014-04-15T09:01:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T16:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=772"},"modified":"2017-05-16T17:04:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T00:04:03","slug":"phillytech4good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/04\/phillytech4good\/","title":{"rendered":"How I ended up at a Philly Tech4Good event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When I get to travel for work outside of my home near Portland, Oregon, I do a search on Google<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> to see what people and organizations might be worthwhile to connect with while in a particular area. I look for volunteer centers, international nonprofits, nonprofit development\/support centers, nonprofits focused on computers and the Internet in some way, and academics that have done research or teach regarding nonprofit management or international aid work. I write each of those organizations, departments or people and ask if we could meet, just so I can hear about their work and so I can offer any advice or resources, in an informal setting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes, my schedule fills up quickly, and I get to meet face-to-face with people I might never get to meet otherwise. Other times, I get confused email responses from people that find this old-fashioned \u201cnetworking\u201d idea as oh-so-strange.<\/p>\n

Last week, I went to Philadelphia to present<\/a> for the Mennonite Central Committee<\/a> (MCC)\u2019s \u00a0US National Thrift Shop Conference<\/a>, about trends in volunteer engagement. I also contacted a few nonprofits, university offices and government offices to see if they would like to meet. The organizers of Philly Tech Week<\/a>\u00a0said yes (thank you, Brian James Kirk and Corinne Warnshuis!).<\/p>\n

Philly Tech Week featured an event on the campus of Temple University while I was in the area: \u00a0Exploring Civic Volunteering With Technology<\/a>: Kickoff for Commit Service Pledge<\/a>. The event was to launch the Commitpledge.com web site<\/a> that asks Philadelphia-area nonprofits to post tech-related volunteering opportunities, and for volunteers to offer their expertise through the web site to help with those opportunities.<\/p>\n

The event also featured a panel discussion by Jeff Friedman<\/a>, the new Director of eGovernment Business Development at Microsoft and recently a part of the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, Mayo Nissen<\/a>, a New York-based designer who has been involved in urban improvement initiatives involving technology, and Anthony Pisapia, Associate Executive Director of Tech Impact<\/a>, the nonprofit behind npCloud<\/a> and VolunteerConnect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The panelists talked not just about how tech helps nonprofits, but also how it helps governments better engage and support citizens – too many of tech-for-good initiatives leave out government programs<\/strong>, IMO, so this was great to hear.<\/p>\n

Some good questions were asked, including:<\/p>\n