APRIL 2007

INTRO: Tools, Trends, Strategies, and What's Next FEATURE: The Latest Communication Trends, Diversification FEATURE: The Merging of Technology and Marketing FEATURE: Show - Don't Just Tell - Your Story With Maps NTEN SPOTLIGHT: Techies For Good Talk About Their Inspiration HOW TO: Put Technology To Use THINGS WE LIKE COMMUNITY BUZZ

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TOOLS, TRENDS, STRATEGIES, AND WHAT'S NEXT

Thank you if you attended this year's Nonprofit Technoloy Conference. 1,200 of this community did - leaving us exhilerated and positively giddy at the energy and enthusiasm of this community. The three days of learning and networking were an amazing conversation starter. As a community full of prolific and enthusiastic bloggers, these conversations have continued online.

In this issue of NTEN Connect, we highlight a few of these discussions and trends that were discussed at the NTC. Jason Zanon mulls the next big thing in communications. Mark Sirkin explores the intersection of technology and marketing, and Ali Levine, NTEN's Special Projects Fellow, looks at how maps can tell the stories behind nonprofits.

At the NTC we launched a new series of 'videograms' - techies like you telling their stories about why they do what they do and why they are passionate about technology for social change. See a few profiles below and more here.

You can find more of the commentary from the NTC in the (beta) NPTech Pipe, and thank you to Sonny Cloward for his work building that tool. Happy Spring everyone, and keep the discussion flowing!

Best, Katrin Verclas

FEATURE: THE LATEST COMMUNICATION TREND, DIVERSIFICATION

Jason Zanon, Democracy in Action
Republished with Permission from DemocracyInAction.org

Almost any thematic takeaway for the NTC would be a plausible one, simply because there were just so many different ways to look into the kaleidoscope. My personal version of the theme - having hit sessions on screencasting, mobile, and radio both online and off - was multi-channel engagement. It feels to me that the sector is straining against this membrane, looking for the next ah-ha moment, the next breakout into open country. Can we get Internet everywhere? Can we mate it with television, telephones, voice, thought, shoe leather? Can the multiplying tools and gizmos combine and connect? Can it get from niftiness and even effectiveness to really game-changing?

We catch glimmers. A citizen video flips control of the Senate - hybridized data sets present the occasional but isolated dazzling perspective - rumors circulate of flash mobs on distant shores. The Twitter froth, I suspect, emerges fundamentally from its hint of gathering blogging, texting, and social networking into a bridge tenuously connecting meetspace and cyberspace identities.

FEATURE: THE MERGING OF TECHNOLOGY AND MARKETING

Marc Sirkin, The International Rescue Committee
Republished with Permission from npMarketing Blog

I've finally recovered from a solid NTC experience, my first ever. I will leave most of the commentary, notes, and reflections to the great round up on the NTEN blog and will instead talk about something that is happening to our industry (or may have already happened): marketing and technology are merging into one beast.

What was evident from the lack of marketing people in attendance (or so it seemed to me!) is that marketing folks either don't see how important this is, or have their heads in the sand. Why?

One reason could certainly be how the conference positions itself - The Nonprofit Technology Conference or NTC - which could certainly throw a marketer off. What marketer would possibly want to sit around with geeks all day talking about code and open-source software? A smart marketer would, that's who. The reason a smart marketer should attend these types of conferences is simple - but understated. While technology should never drive strategy, it most certainly does enable strategy.

FEATURE: SHOW - DON'T JUST TELL - YOUR STORY WITH MAPS

Ali Levine, NTEN Fellow for Special Projects

Storytelling is one of the oldest and most powerful communications strategies, but many nonprofits become so focused on providing facts, figures, and statistics that our communications and marketing becomes dry and tedious. We forget that what we really need to do to get people excited about our cause is to start with a compelling story. One session (materials here) at the NTC focused on the art of storytelling and how to do it well. Although many of the same rules apply, not all storytelling techniques are in a text-driven, once-upon-a-time format.

For example, there is something about maps that makes sense to the human brain. A good map has the power to get across a huge amount of information in just a few seconds, quickly and effortlessly giving a sense of scope and context. Interactive maps create a visual story and give an easily accessible starting place from which users can explore at their own pace based on their own interests. Many nonprofits have caught on and are telling their stories with online mapping tools like Google Earth.

NTEN SPOTLIGHT: THIS I CHANGE SERIES

In the This I Change series recorded at the NTC, we asked nonprofit techies to tell us what inspires them to do the work they do. Here's a few of their responses:

Jeff Slobotski, United eWay

"Being able to give back to the community through technology, and using technology for change for the greater good."


Phoebe Lee, United Nations Foundation

"The ability to share my passion for issues with a lot of other people."


Ryan Ozinek, PICnet

"To help the organizations we work with and make them utilize the tools they have to inspire change."


You can find out what inspires other nonprofit technies by watching video interviews and listening to podcasts in the This I Change series online.

THINGS WE LIKE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

News and buzz from people and organizations in the nonprofit tech sector. Read our posts on our blog.

AND THE PRIZE GOES TO...
Beth Kanter! Beth is the winner of the very first NTEN award, given for fantasticness in the nonprofit technology community. Congratulations Beth, and thanks for all that you do! You can read what one of Beth's colleagues has to say about her and watch two video interviews to find out what inspires her.

JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIAL CHANGE AVAILABLE
The first issue of this peer reviewed journal has been released and is full of great articles on ICT in the global south, lessons learned reporting in humanitarian work, the challenge of data integration, and more. You can order a copy here.

TAKE THE STOCKHOLM CHALLENGE
If you're involved in a project that uses technology in innovative ways to advance human development and bring about social change, apply for the 2008 Stockholm Challenge Award.

NEW VERSION OF UBUNTU SYSTEM
Congratulations to our colleagues at Canonical who have just released Ubuntu 7.0.4, a new version of the free Linux operating system. Rumor has it Michael Dell (yes, from that Dell) is even testing it out.

VOTES ARE IN FOR NETSQUARED'S FEATURED PROJECTS
The competition was tough, but NetSquared selected 21 outstanding nonprofit technology projects to honor and help advance. Go on over and see the amazing work your colleagues are doing. There has been some controversy about the voting and there is a lively discussion about it over at the Netsquared blog and in the NPTech Pipe.

NTC SESSION MATERIALS

Miss a session you wanted to attend at the NTC? Couldn't make the conference at all? Catch up on what you missed with the conference materials.

We're posting presentations, handouts, and notes from speakers from every session. You can also watch videos from the most popular sessions.

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Open Source Software You Can Use
Thursday, May 24
11:00 am PT / 2:00 pm ET
Presented by Michelle Murrain, Nonprofit Open Source Initiative

TAKE THE SURVEY

Help us find out what impact technology has on nonprofits' missions. If your nonprofit has worked with a tech consultant in the past two years, take our online survey. We still have a few prizes to give out!

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

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