managing technology
Basic Tips for Evaluating New Technologies for Your Nonprofit
[Ed. note: This is the second in a fantastic series of guest posts by the authors of Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission. This one comes to you from Kevin Lo of Techsoup Global.]
New applications and technologies
are being developed at a rapid pace. This brave new world of touchscreens,
aggregated data, and pastel AJAX-based social networking sites, is partly
fueled by consumers' desires for faster, lighter, and often cheaper
(if not free) technologies.
For hardware, the time that differentiates what is "new" and "passé" is becoming shortened. Your new iPhone is becoming old faster; your familiarity of the popular social networking app du jour may soon become obsolete. How, then, should a nonprofit professional learn about -- and selectively embrace -- new technologies, when it's hard to keep basic systems running?
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
IT Alignment Is Mission Alignment
[Ed. note: This is the first in a fantastic series of guest posts by the authors of Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission. For more of Steve's thoughts on the book, check out his blog: he's writing about each chapter over 11 weeks. Of course, we also don't want you to forget to register for the ONTC, where you can hear more from all the authors.]
Let's say you have a friend who talks to you about a race they're running in soon. You might ask them about how they're training, where the race is, are they running alone, or how many races they've run before. Then, since you know some things about running, you might offer some training advice, nutrition ideas, or cool clothes to wear.
And you may help them run the race faster. How cool is that?
But, unless you have a relationship with that person, you may never know if they're running the race to raise money for a cause, not to win. They may be running to help raise awareness, fight an illness, or stop some injustice. So, while you might have helped them run faster, you didn't help them accomplish their goal.
Technology is often a solution that does the same thing.
Every so often, Holly walks by my desk, says, "You need to read this article", and drops the latest 