The More Things Change...You Know the Rest
Flickr Photo: dominocatWhere were you in 2001?
It was just a few short years ago, but those of us who have worked in nonprofit technology since then probably all feel the same way: it was eons ago. In 2001, I was running around the country working with women's organizations on some really high-tech stuff -- like convincing their fundraising staff to move donor data into a database, off of three by five cards.
We've come a long way as a sector since then. More nonprofits are embracing technology than ever before. We do less evangelizing and more teaching. So I was surprised when a board member suggested that I should re-read a paper Andrew Blau wrote in 2001 for the Surdna Foundation. What could a paper about technology investments written in 2001 mean to any of us in 2008? In today's information driven world, data from 2001 seems terribly old.
Turns out, it's still 100% relevant, and very much worth another read. There are a few key themes from "More than Bit Players" that we talk about in the NTEN community repeatedly. Here's a sample:
The real payoff will come for those who capitalize on how information technologies affect whole organizations (and their relationships with the organizations around them), not just functions within organizations.
In other words, technology is not just a cost center, technology should be part of your strategy. It's more than productivity, it's program. Is this the way your organization views technology? As an IT staff person, what are you doing to promote this view of technology in your organization?
Technology requires change to produce change. Recent research suggests a crucial but often overlooked factor for organizations seeking to benefit from IT...the greatest benefits of computers appear to be realized hen computer investment is coupled with other complementary investments; new strategies, new business processes and new organizations all appear to be important in realizing the maximum benefit of IT.
I used to say that my life as a tech consultant was 10% technology, 90% psychology. The hardest part about a database conversion was never the data, it was understanding how staff did business before, and how they wanted to do it after -- and then helping them actually create new work habits once the database was in place. The people part is the hardest part.
...the problem for anyone trying to mount an online project isn't getting access to a network with millions of users; it's getting access to the attention of any one of those millions.
This point has only grown more true. How do you get people to listen? That's why we're so interested in social media these days, I suspect: we know that people listen to their peers, so once we tap into that, we may have something that works.
We can question a few things in the report -- the E pluribus unum section? -- but the vast majority is incredibly powerful reading for anyone wanting to explore how their organizations view technology.
