Web/Tech
Ask the Expert: Drupal Edition
Do you have questions about Drupal? If you're looking to learn more
about Drupal, or even if you're a Drupal veteran with some really
technical questions, this edition of NTEN Ask the Expert is perfect for
you. Join us online at 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern tomorrow:
to ask your questions of David Geilhufe and Kerian Lal of CivicSapce Labs.
We know you have questions, and we've found a way to make it easier for you to get answers. About once a month we're bringing
Lights, Camera, Action!
We're happy to announce the start of the first ever NTC Video Contest.
We invite you to send us your videos, animations, and mashups that show
technology at work for social change. Participants are vying for the
grand prize - an all expenses paid trip to the 2008 Nonprofit
Technology Conference in New Orleans.
Our contest theme is From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Engage Constituents and Make the World a Better Place. So start thinking up ways that you can portray this visually, pull out your cameras, and start
Citizen Powered Data Entry
Updating contact lists can be a major headache for organizations and
often the only way to get the work done is to hire an intern or a temp.
Green Media Toolshed came up with a different solution.
With its Media Volunteer Center, GMT asks people to go online and update a few contacts in its database. But what's really neat is that the website makes this so easy it's hard to resist. Really. There are three types of information you can update - a reporter's contact information, a media
Celebrate the Web
Tomorrow people all around the world will celebrate the internet and
its impact on their lives in the first ever global holiday for the web
- OneWebDay.
In New York City people will gather to hear internet celebrities like Craig Newmark from Craig's List and Drew Schutte from WIRED speak. Los Angeles,
Report on Using Technology for Community Organizing
A report has just been released on how organizers are using technology
to bring about social change and how they could be using it better.
After getting input from more than 400 social change groups, technology
providers, and nonprofit technology capacity builders, dotOrganize pulled their findings together into the report Online Technology for Social Change: From Struggle to Strategy.
In something that I'm sure is no surprise to many in the field, the
Webinar Series on Choosing Software
NTEN has teamed up with Idealware
to offer a series of webinars that will help nonprofits make better
software choices. These online seminars will provide detailed product
comparisons and analyses and will give you the knowledge you need to
buy the best software for your organization.
Quick Tech Tips
Who doesn't want a few fast tips on how they can better use technology? I've been at the ASAE and the Center's conference for the past few days, and one particularly fun session consisted simply of an expert panel giving tech tips. Here are the ones I found most useful.
- Use Skype for free VOIP phone calls anywhere, and if you want to record your conversations, to make a podcast for example, try HotRecorder.
- If you or your organization wants to sell video content, consider Payloadz. It allows you to upload content and sell it through PayPal.
- Want to know everything that goes on the
Supercalafragalistic- technodeterministic
We had a very interesting 501 Tech Club last night here in SF. Topics ranging from Beverly Hills 90210 to ethanol usage in sugar producing companies to my current obsession, Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat."
I can't remember who said it (claim credit
Do As I Say...
Ruby Sinreich (I adore you!) accused N-TEN of being un-web savvy the other day in her post about our new ED, Katrin Verclas. I think she's a little right and a little wrong. She's wrong in that we're not un-savvy, we're just a staff of 3, which makes it hard to prioritize a lot beyond the "what I need to get done to make it through the day."
She's right in that it just shouldn't matter. I've been running
around the Bay Area opining to any friend who can still stand to listen
to me about how the world has changed and we better wake up and smell
the globalization, and to borrow from
$2000 a year
Seth Godin
points out that the typical family in the US spends $2000 a year on
telecommunications. While long distance costs keep dropping, people are
paying for landline, cellphone, dsl, etc., etc.