I was just at the Connecting Up Conference in Adelaide, Australia. It has been fascinating to see the nonprofit ICT perspective here.

Australia has a huge NFP sector for its population of 21 million: the most often-cited figure is 700,000 organizations, but most are staffed purely by volunteers. [The numbers drop dramatically when you limit things to organizations that employ staff (380,000) or that have deductible status (20,000)].

Broadband Internet access is surprisingly low here. Overall, Internet access is at 68%, close to the US, but only about 28% of Internet users have broadband access. The cost of access is high compared to the US, and most care providers are older and don't have Internet access at home, so are not very comfortable with computers.

A lot of the focus here is on ICT for internal operations, with less focus on reaching activists, supporters, or clients. This is starting to change. One of the presentations was given by Brett Solomon, the Exective Director of GetUp, an Australian online network for progressive action, modeled on MoveOn. GetUp has seen rapid growth, and now has 80,000 members.

I gave a keynote presentation, looking at nonprofit technology trends in the US. The recording can be accessed below. Connecting Up Keynote.