Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 7, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Please take the NOSI survey January 7, 2008 In my work with NOSI (the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative,) I’ve become really interested in how FOSS is used in nonprofit organizations.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 12, 2008

In general, the phone actually works quite well. But getting them onto the iPhone, or getting them to work, is sometimes a pain. The iPhone 3G had some compelling features and 3rd party apps (like Pandora , which, I have to admit, is about 1/2 the reason I got the phone.) So, I got one, about two weeks ago.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 26, 2008

It’s cross-platform (available on all platforms) and works really well (the old player was a bit buggy, but those have been really smoothed out, of late.) You can search YouTube, Google video or about 10 other video sites, and make those searches a new channel. It’s a pretty amazing tool.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 8, 2008

Thanks to twitter (hat tip to marshallk ), I learned about today’s big news: Google, Plaxo and Facebook joined the Data Portability working group. Freelance Switch Gavin’s Digital Diner Idealware Jon Stahl’s Journal Lifehacker LinuxChix – Be Polite.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 1, 2007

Things “just work&# (for the most part – apparently Leopard has been having issues.) Music converters: [link] [link] [link] 3 Gordon Montgomery 11.20.07 Music converters: [link] [link] [link] 3 Gordon Montgomery 11.20.07 Music converters: [link] [link] [link] 3 Gordon Montgomery 11.20.07

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 17, 2008

This year, I’m much more clear about the directions my work is going in, and what I’m looking for at NTC. Last year I was just re-emerging from having taken a break to go to seminary, and not quite exactly sure what I was doing. And of course, there is Penguin Day !!

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 11, 2007

Some nonprofits fit into this category, but most nonprofits that I work with don’t. Think big companies, lots of bucks, lots of boxes. I think sometimes, interesting things come out of that watching. For instance, Gartner’s top 10 technologies to watch in 2008. I really do hope that the CIOs of the world pay attention. {

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 17, 2008

BlueAvocado is a new online blog/magazine/website specifically for folks who work in and with nonprofits. I wonder how many foundations will go for it, though. I started a little Twitter conversation about it, and people seemed intrigued. It looks very promising. I’m looking forward to reading it.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 9, 2008

Needless to say, I did absolutely nothing to get it to work. Plugged it in, and it just worked. It took me a couple of frustrating hours or so to configure samba (editing the samba.conf file and testing) so that I could share my home directory, with music and video, with my other computers, and share my printer.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 18, 2007

Asterisk is the open source PBX application that works by using VOIP. Oh, and did I mention – it works really well as a generic PBX – something lots of nonprofits need. { Oh, and did I mention – it works really well as a generic PBX – something lots of nonprofits need. { What is Asterisk, you ask?

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 7, 2007

There are a number of factors at work. I have said many times that I wouldn’t Twitter. I’ve critiqued Twitter and social networks in general. So what’s the story? Michelle twittering? So, if you want to follow me on Twitter, please do. { 1 trackback } Web 2.0 So, if you want to follow me on Twitter, please do. {

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 30, 2007

Jobs understands that DRM doesn’t work, and doesn’t help sell music. There are better sites for music and there are adequate players for 1/5th the price. What Apple did do correctly is allow users to submit their own podcast and homemade music on the itunes website. The iPod is a rip off.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 26, 2008

Idealware has a great article on CRMs, and how they are different, and how you can begin to figure out what might work best. Of course, all nonprofits already have a CRM (even if it is a spreadsheet) – the issue is, generally, migration to a new system, or integration with what they already have to add new features.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 25, 2007

So, no blog posts from me here until I get back to work on October 1st. Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Forgot to say … September 25, 2007 I’m on vacation/fiction writing retreat this week. at 1:17 pm Happy writing!

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 17, 2008

Have an active user and developer community I know I can get my questions answered from the community are good enough so that you can get real work done using the tool (in fact, under most circumstances, you could do mission-critical work with it, if your mission called for it.)

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 18, 2007

They say, among other things: Gutsy Gibbon is certainly easier to install and set up than Windows Vista, and it’s very close to matching Mac OS X when it comes to making things “just work&# out of the box. I’m in the middle of moving, otherwise, I’d be checking it out immediately.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 17, 2008

Leverage the power of the open platform of Salesforce.com, and do the work that nonprofits (and consultants) have been having to do to bang Salesforce.com into shape as a donor database. Of course, the proof will be in the pudding – we’ll find out over time how this app works, and whether organizations like it.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 27, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Michelle, the consultant March 27, 2008 Someone mentioned to me that from what I write on my blog, she wouldn’t know what it is that I actually do in my consulting work. Gotta work on that.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 11, 2008

Cloud computing just doesn’t make any sense, or work in any reasonable way without it (have you ever tried to use Gmail on dial up?) Just wanted to mention that we’re working right now on a tighter integration service to Gliffy that should allow developers to embed Gliffy diagrams in a wide variety of applications.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 13, 2007

They are really putting their money where their mouth is, in terms of working toward more openness. But in any case, it should work on all generic hosting environments, and it looks easy to install. I’m liking Six Apart more and more these days. They’ve been supporting open standards for years.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 5, 2008

There is a port of XChat called XChat-Aqua , that works natively on Mac OS X. I know that for people who work in real offices, with real other people, IRC is a difficult tool to use – because it takes you away from the environment you are in, and makes it hard to be a part of multiple conversations. It’s also scriptable.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 24, 2008

It is another of those open source software applications that “just works.&# Keep up the good work! Anyway, WordPress is a blogging tool (in fact, the one that runs this blog.) It is a great blogging tool. Installation of WordPress is scarily easy. WordPress is expandable with tons of plugins. I doubt you’ll look back. {

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 20, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Last minute tidbits December 20, 2007 This will be my last post of 2007 – I’m taking some days off from work and blogging, and won’t return until the beginning of the year.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 10, 2008

A theory of practice, in my mind, outlines the methods and ideals behind how I get work done with clients. This theory includes the following elements that I think are key to my work: Listening. The vendor is expert at what they do, but cannot always provide a channel of communication that the client can really work with.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 16, 2007

Most of the 10 are applicable to nonprofit organizations (I’d skip the “Offshore work&# tip.) The one I love the best: Procrastinate. We all don’t need to be on the bleeding edge to get stuff done. { Freelance Switch Gavin’s Digital Diner Idealware Jon Stahl’s Journal Lifehacker LinuxChix – Be Polite.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 10, 2008

But I have really come to believe that the way that we work with people is as important as the “final&# outcome. One question I asked all of them was about whether they had a process of reflection and evaluation of their work, as it was going on, and when the project was coming to a close.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 17, 2008

Now, it’s one of a very few choices that work on Linux – and it’s the best by far. I used Inkscape to draft a poster a while ago — a total of probably 30 hours’ work — and about halfway in I really hit my stride with the software. GIMP is a very full-featured image manipulation program.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 1, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Varied and sundry June 1, 2007 It’s been a week of mostly not work, which is a nice rest. Flash (and, therefore, YouTube) is working, as is Java. That feels good.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 6, 2008

.&# I think as nonprofit organizations begin to work more and more using Web 2.0 I think as nonprofit organizations begin to work more and more using Web 2.0 I think as nonprofit organizations begin to work more and more using Web 2.0

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 19, 2007

On the theme of this week in the US – Thanksgiving day, Elisa, of Nonprofit Congress, is thankful for her work. She’s thankful for both the practical, and more abstract ways her work sustains her. It was an open call, so there are a wide variety of posts to talk about. I wholeheartedly agree.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 31, 2008

at 2:51 pm There’s a great free Firefox plugin for students & researchers who need to manage citations and bibliographies, not to mention organize all those PDFs…Zotero is wonderful, and works perfectly with Word (for those of us still hooked on some Microsoft programs). I’ll be using it long after I graduate.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 3, 2008

Generally, Thunderbird falls into the category of free and open source software that “just works.&# I use it every day, nay, almost every waking minute, since email is such a critical beast. It’s easy to set up accounts, move mail around, and do sophisticated filtering of mail, and such.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Work doesn’t get done. Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Computerless February 20, 2007 My laptop is in the shop. I’ll spare you the details. It’s truly a practice in patience to live without a computer. 2 Pamela 02.27.07

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 30, 2007

But, I have been following Michele Martin’s work on The Bamboo Project Blog with some interest. at 6:50 pm Michelle, I like how you differentiate between the mission of your blog and the mission of your work. Not because I don’t want my blog to be better, it’s just that I don’t have the time right now.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 30, 2007

at 2:31 pm There was an effort by some folks from Debian (not officially Debian) to work on a distro for Bhutan which uses a language similar to Tibetan. Lots of food for thought for NOSI and the future. { 1 comment… read it below or add one } 1 Kevin Mark 11.30.07

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 10, 2007

Although the breaks I take during my work day don’t look like this, I liked this cartoon. &# O’Rielly has a new online series about Women in Technology , with some really great articles. Worth a read! AgencyByte has a great article on how to prevent scope creep.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 18, 2007

So we’ll see how it works. I’ll keep you posted. And, if you’re already on facebook, add me as a friend. Freelance Switch Gavin’s Digital Diner Idealware Jon Stahl’s Journal Lifehacker LinuxChix – Be Polite.

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