If you missed the inspired, moving, and funny speeches of David and Melissa at the NTC, you can watch them now!

Other sessions are recorded on blip.tv as well and you can find all session materials from the conference here.

2007 NTC LogoWe just finished compiling all the evaluation results from the NTC - it was a red letter year! Our average session score rose from 4.22 to 4.25 out of 5 - our best showing ever. Of course, I would love to take all the credit, but the credit belongs squarely on your shoulders. Here are a few of the folks who deserve heaps of praise and my never ending gratitude:

Speakers with the highest rankings and at least 10 evaluations:

At the NTC earlier this month, we interviewed nonprofit techies to find out why they do the work they do. And they had some great answers. Click here to watch more video testimonials and listen to podcasts of techies for good talking about their work and vision

Video is a powerful way to communicate your message and cause. More and more nonprofits are using video to tell the story of their cause.

The NTC Video contest showcased some of the excellent videos out there urging people to act for social change.

Hats off to the Avaaz.org, the winner of the NTC Video Contest for this powerful video asking you to help “Stop the Clash of Civilizations.”

 

 

You can watch all the finalists’ video on DoGooderTV, and many of the great videos we received here.

Thanks to See3 for sponsoring the contest!

I had a great time at the NTC last week. When I wasn’t busy meeting the geeks (you know who you are) or collecting evaluation forms, I managed to find time to attend the "Not Your Mother’s Online Fundraising Campaign" session on Friday.

The presenters gave a lot of great examples of online campaigns that reach past the traditional get-an-email-address, get-that-person-interested, send-an-email-asking-for-money model (that would be Your Mother’s Online Fundraising Campaign, which is good, and the presenters hasten to add, still needed, it’s just "old skool").

This year was the first time I attended the NTC and one of my favorite jobs as your Special Project Fellows was getting to know the attendees and what they wanted to get out of the conference for our ‘Meet the Geeks’ feature in our onsite (printed) newsletter. I learned that one of the most important functions of the NTC for the people I talked to was the chance to meet and get to know other people working in nonprofit technology. For those of you who couldn’t attend (or those who did, but didn’t get to meet all the other 1,200 attendees) here is your chance to meet some of your fellow geeks. I hope that next year in New Orleans I’ll have the chance to meet many more of you.

Amit Asarauala, CompuMentor

What did you want to get out of the NTC?

The main reason I’m here is to connect with the people I’ve been I’ve been working with virtually for the last year. There must be 20 or 30 people I’ve seen in person. Coming here is a great way to meet them in person.

I had a great time at NTC - it was wonderful to see old friends and meet new ones. But I was struck by how much the same the problems are that nonprofits continue to face. I think perhaps we need to ask some deeper questions.

From the stories I've heard this week, small and medium-sized nonprofits still don't have in-house technology expertise to make evaluations about what directions to go in. They struggle mightily with software, no matter whether it's free/open source or proprietary, shrink-wrapped or custom-built, on their desktops or web-hosted. The technology has gotten more sophisticated - but the problems many nonprofits are facing are exactly the same.

"The old forms are in ruins. The benumbed world is shaken up, the old human spirit is invalidated and in flux towards a new form."

Over the weekend, I went to the Corcoran Museum in DC and found this quote by the founder of the Bauhaus Movement in architecture, Walter Gropius. I think it beautifully captures the spirit of this year's NTC. The nonprofit technology community is in flux towards a new form: becoming more accessible and inviting; having constructive and higher level conversations; celebrating our work; expanding the networks; flushing out the buzz from the bullet-proof; pushing and challenging technology assumptions and our business processes; and having a lot of fun while were at it. I was told by a Silicon Valley old skooler who attended for the first time that the NTC wasn't just a good nonprofit conference, but a great technology conference...period.

We are here at the NTC! See what everyone is up to on the NTC Twitter group, and create a profile and start twittering.

Here's some of what people are saying.

ruby: Hey the e-NC Authority won a Grasssroots Techie Award from grassroots.org. North Cackalacky reprezent!

barkingmoose: overheard in front of woodley park metro stop: "is that an elevator to the zoo?"

redrob: Having another meal while there is a speaker. So much for social networking at the tables.

ruby: Twittering the NTC awards. Because Madeline asked if anyone was Twittering the awards.

Japi14: When the session ends, I will have the privilege of meeting Beth Kanter, yeah!

gcorrin: Finished breakfast, watching plenary speaker Melissa Flournoy from Louisianna Association of Nonprofit Organizations.

elgreg: is at a session on video blogging for nonprofits

The inaugural issue of the Journal of Information Technology in Social Change, a quarterly, peer-reviewed, and theme-based journal is now available, and NTC attendees get a free copy! This issue features articles on ICT in the global south, lessons learned reporting in humanitarian work, the challenge of data integration, and other topics, and has more than 100 annotated resources from the Nonprofit Online News.

If you're at the NTC, order a copy now. And come by the session "Insights from the Journal of Information Technology in Social Change" today at 3:30 pm in the Calvert room to find out more.

The journal is published by The Gilbert Center and was put together in collaboration with NTEN.