In this section you'll find materials and presentations from all sessions targeted at people in leadership positions.
We've gathered presentations and handouts from every session at the NTC, and also have videocasts of the most popular sessions. Browse through the list of sessions below and click on the ones you're interested in for more information and materials.
Everyone is mad for collaboration these days – within orgs, with outside partners, and with funders too. That means you’re often working with lots of different folks, in many places, with tons of information and documents to share. Online collaboration tools now make it possible to bridge those distances through ‘virtual offices’ that can provide more meaningful interactions as well as record your work together. But how do you manage all those communications, make them useful and most important, deliver results? This session will briefly review the best online collaboration tools today, but will focus mostly on strategies for adoption and specific practices that can make those tools most effective.
Net Neutrality may sound like political jargon, but it's actually one of the most important technology policy issues facing the country today. The Internet was founded on the principal that all information would be treated equally; yet in the aftermath of the BrandX Supreme Court case, federal legislation is now required to keep the Internet free from content discrimination. Without legislation, your clients and stakeholders might not always be able to access your website, receive your emails or put their own voices online as easily as before, because of new barriers being put in place by ISPs. This session will outline the net neutrality issue and give you the resources you need to take action.
Since technology began to find its way into nonprofits in the 1980’s, budgeting for it has been a problem. Many nonprofits still have no distinct IT budget or budgeting process, let alone separate capital, operations, and support budgets. This presentation argues that preparation of an IT budget is a critical step both toward controlling IT costs and increasing the usefulness of IT systems. Through the use of standards, templates, and industry experience, nonprofits can develop IT budgets with relative ease, and should.
Meeting your organizational mission doesn't always mean that you are actually feeding hungry people, ensuring cleaner water, or winning an electoral campaign. Technology planning usually involves identifying a set of metrics for your organization, but do those metrics contribute to your mission, or distract you from it? This session will explain the difference and provide you strategies and tools to craft an IT plan that will help you make social change.
Municipal Wireless projects are starkly different from other broadband offers in that part of their design intent is to create a community benefit. While the projects underway in cities, states, counties and neighborhoods vary radically in approach, local nonprofits are leveraging community wireless to create social change. This session will include a survey of how major programs are redefining Digital Inclusion and developing a program structure for social change. Catherine will take a deep dive into the Minneapolis Wireless program where local stakeholders created an outstanding Community Benefits Agreement that became part of the contact and we’ll look at two local projects that have been using wireless access as part of broader programs. Corey will talk about how the People’s Emergency Center in Philadelphia has integrated PC training and WiFi services into programs that support low income families and victims of abuse. Jennifer will discuss the Bay Area Video Coalition’s WiFi Anywhere Project which offers teens new outlets for creative expression.
The art of pulling off a Web project is in knowing what to anticipate before it happens. Your success, then, is rooted in good planning. In this session, we will talk about what elements should be included in your plan, as well as reasonable expectations for time and money. We’ll also explore a few case studies to see what happens when things don’t always go according to plan, and look inside a few actual project budgets. This session is designed for techies and non-techies alike.
There's a lot of talk these days about community driven technologies. Blogs, wikis, MySpace, and YouTube are all at the forefront of a trend that won't stop anytime soon. As individuals demand more opportunities to engage in their communities, what will this mean for the nonprofit sector? What strategies and tools can you implement now? What questions about your organization's culture will you have to address? And, will you ultimately lose or gain control in this age of openness?
Who knows which software and web sites will be important 5 years from now? We can’t predict the future, but we know that technology will continue to evolve. Where our supporters go, we must follow – if not lead! Come to this session to learn more about some emerging tools and current trends in online community-building.
What do Intranets, VoIP, outcome measurement software, Wikis and smart choices about your network have to do with feeding hungry people or cleaning up the environment? A lot, actually. Decision you make about what technology to incorporate into your organization and how you go about doing it can have a direct impact on the way your staff can accomplish their jobs. If done right, the end result is that you and your colleagues can better deliver the mission of your organization. In this session, three nonprofit organizations will share their own case studies for how their technology efforts are paying off every day for their staff.
Make the most of the time that Executive Director’s devote to thinking about technology. Discuss strategies for creating appropriate technology solutions that have potential to reduce costs and increase capacity. Leadership is crucial to the successful use of technology in nonprofits, learn how to foster it. Talk with seasoned consultants and real-life practitioners about what they find to be the essential (and non-essential) elements of this task. This interactive session is most appropriate for anyone interacting with ED’s and other leaders around technology.