Back in the day, I remember great debate over the future of a newfangled software delivery mechanism - the Internet. Lots of us in the community wondered out loud about the security implications and the performance issues. That argument seems awfully silly now. As Michael Stein (contributor to this blog and the N-TEN newsletter) points out, there are an amazing array of online tools for nonprofits to

Seth Godin is full of ideas. They're not always relevant to nonprofits, and they're not always (IMHO) on the mark, but they're always provocative. And, Seth's been relating more and more of his thinking to the noprofit sector. His latest e-book is called Flipping the Funnel, and he's crafted a version specifically for nonprofits.

The folks at Idealware have published a helpful article entitled A Few Good Tools: Low Cost Constituent Databases, which looks at low cost ways to track volunteers, donors, partners, and other constituents. They asked thirteen nonprofit technology professionals what tools have worked well for them,

I'm super excited that once again, a Penguin Day will take place in conjunction with the NTC. This year, it's hosted by Aspiration and PICnet.

An Open Source Forum for Non-Profit Technology Staff and Developers Saturday March 25th, 9am to 5pm, in downtown Seattle

Intel has announced that they will market a rural PC in India before year's end. The price-point is sub-10,000 Rs ($255). The computer will be dust-, insect- and water-resistant, with low power requirements. It can be powered from a car battery when line power is unavailable. The pc is being tested at 10 locations around India.

This is quite a different approach from the MIT project: introducing commercial products that are specifically tailored to non-traditional markets such as rural India, rather than a single model aimed at mass government purchases.

Jeffrey Zeldman, who has seen it all and done most of it, brings his good sense to web 2.0, feeding it a much-needed chill pill, and looking at what is valuable beneath the hype. He's decided to beat the rush and move on to web 3.0.

In another take, Paul Graham says he hates the term "web 2.0" but is starting to

Driving home from work last night I heard a story about Mashups on All Things Considered, my second favorite NPR show (have you heard Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!?). I thought it was a great story for helping people understand what a MashUp is, and what the potential is. You know soemthing is

We're starting off the year by looking forward, and envision a year filled with innovation and collaboration. We asked nonprofit techies from across the country what predictions and hopes they had for the upcoming year, and got an earful of ideas and attitude. Here are our the best responses:

> Nick Allen, Donordigital
"Advocacy groups and groups that respond quickly to news and other events will see the greatest gains online."

"Groups that are putting time and money into their online work will continue to see online revenue increase as a share of total revenue from individual

Asking the Wrong Questions: Challenging Technocentrism in Nonprofit Technology Planning

By Michael Gilbert

In every domain in life, the questions we ask shape the responses we get. Our questions reveal our frame of reference and impose that frame on our answers. As a result, much is revealed by examining the assumptions, the reasoning, and the logic models of our questions.

I believe

"A Mercifully Brief Real World Guide to Raising Thousands (if Not Tens of Thousands) of Dollars with Email" is the title of Donordigital president Madeline Stanionis' first book, published by Emerson and Church. It's a spellbinding guide to fundraising online, which delivers strategy and attitude in equal doses.