Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 27, 2008

But I help them plan their technology initiatives (a new database, a new website, etc.,) help them find the vendors that will do the work by helping them craft good RFPs. I answer all of their tech questions, and solve pretty much all of their tech problems (mostly by helping them figure out who they should call.)

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 10, 2008

The other arm is learning. And I can’t stay a technology expert without continually learning. Be Helpful. The vendor is expert at what they do, but cannot always provide a channel of communication that the client can really work with. I provide that clear channel, so both sides benefit. at 6:06 am Michelle, I love this!

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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. Be Helpful. 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

We might be able to build the most wizz-bang amazing website ever (in a technological sense) but if we haven’t really thought about how we moved through the project, never evaluated how the project really went, and didn’t learn from the process, in the end, the project wasn’t the success it seemed to be. Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 16, 2007

Although he writes about the technology field as a whole, and seems very tapped into the for-profit world, he has lots of words of wisdom I think we can learn from. Be Helpful. We all don’t need to be on the bleeding edge to get stuff done. { We all don’t need to be on the bleeding edge to get stuff done. {

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 17, 2008

You don’t have to code to do what should be basic tasks using the tool (for instance, this eliminates a good time tracking program, which at some point I might blog about, but that you have to learn scheme[1] to get customized reports with any complexity. ) Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 30, 2008

Michele Martin talks about developing a personal learning plan. Be Helpful. David Geilhufe ponders how technology solutions split communities, and issues of a lack of strategic vision. It’s a great, thoughtful post. David is always a great source for thoughtful insights about open source.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 9, 2006

I’ve been learning about some interesting examples of the use of APIs in nonprofit organizations, as well as learning what vendors (both proprietary and open source) are thinking about the issue. Be Helpful. I’m looking forward to getting into the meat of the writing.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 20, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology News from NTC ‘08 March 20, 2008 I’ve been having a great time here at NTC – running into lots of folks I’m happy to see again, and meet, learning about new things, being involved.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 5, 2008

The interface is easy to learn, very clearly laid out, and there are lots of options. I like it because I can get fast technical help, and since I don’t have many people around me most days, it does provide a bit of a social atmosphere. Be Helpful. It’s also scriptable.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 25, 2008

What I learned about Linux back then was that it was a way (along with the help of a college) for a nonprofit organization to get on the web easily and relatively inexpensively. I’ve learned a lot about FOSS since then, of course, and the other aspects of FOSS have also come to be very important to me. Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 29, 2008

And, I’m learning a lot about what it’s like to be a leader of a small, struggling nonprofit with big ideas. What’s great is that although it’s true that there are sharks in the water, there are also lots of great dolphins to swim with, and I’m happy to be helping organizations find them. { Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 29, 2008

Like any powerful CMS, though, there is quite the learning curve in order to get a site up and running. This is where the role of nptech peeps like e-riders and so on can help support in an unbiased way to help groups to make the correct and informed choices (which is partly why I personally work with so many different apps).

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 7, 2007

Since I already was a facebook status addict, once I learned that I could basically make twitter my one-stop status shop (put it in my blog, on facebook, wherever I wanted) that seemed to make sense to me. Be Helpful. There are substantive conversations that happen, and real information gets shared. 1 trackback } Web 2.0

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 11, 2007

I think part of the answer has to be to provide the resources for people to become better providers – whether it be to help budding accidental techies get off the ground to become great IT staff or independent consultants, or helping individual and small consulting firms learn what makes really good nonprofit support.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 4, 2007

It seems to me that they could learn from the other successful projects out there – the really successful projects are supported by a wide variety of methods, whether it be a support model, a nonprofit foundation model, a hosted model, and others. Be Helpful. It has some things missing, for sure, but it has been useful to me.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 18, 2007

And today, I learned about two online tools written with Asterisk, which would have been impossible a few years ago. Be Helpful. Asterisk is the open source PBX application that works by using VOIP. I wrote a case study about it in the NOSI primer – it can allow for really great flexibility in building phone systems.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 30, 2007

Elgg is a very cool community-building and e-learning tool – it’s got the social networking combined with features like forums, etc. I could think of several interesting implementations in the nptech world that would be fun (like it would make a great e-learning platform for, say, circuit riders, or folks like that.)

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 17, 2007

What have I learned in all of this? What else have I learned? Just like how search engines allow you to quickly find anything you want, future technologies will help you easily connect with friends from anywhere. I hope this will help in understanding how it works. What my colleagues and friends do has influence.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 23, 2007

I haven’t read that blog (yet) because I’m not a librarian, although, I’ve always thought what Deborah said on the ISF list : “I have long thought that nonprofit techies should make a point of learning from and making common cause with tech-savvy librarians.&# Be Helpful. brilliant. 2 Clint Young 05.11.07

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 18, 2007

From both a business point of view and from the point of view of how our sector should work to heighten transparency in society at large, there’s no reason to limit the ability of coders to learn about and discuss the API at hand. Be Helpful. Those shine as industry-standard examples of how open API s need to be distributed.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 14, 2008

When will people learn that to be open, you need to really be open ? Be Helpful. Developers who code solutions that integrate with Kintera using their open API platform, Connect , can win $15,000 or $5,000 (not the $25 K their big logo seems to suggest – that’s just the total they will award.)

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JANUARY 19, 2007

I can’t help it.) How do I help people to dig deeper into the core of issues when we usually spend a lot of time on the surface? These are the questions on my mind, and as I think more, and learn more, I’ll write more here. Be Helpful. But I do want to spend more time thinking about this issue.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 9, 2007

2 trackbacks } Nonprofit Communications » Blog Archive » Learning from Your Mistakes @ the Carnival 10.09.07 2 trackbacks } Nonprofit Communications » Blog Archive » Learning from Your Mistakes @ the Carnival 10.09.07 Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 28, 2006

November 28, 2006 Well, both in the process of learning about all of the very cool web 2.0 Anyone going to help clean up? I think tagging posts w/ technorati can help w/ this to because it can be a way to submit a post to a certain planet… 5 katrin 12.14.06 Be Helpful. It’s a mess out there.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 15, 2007

. :-) I first started doing technology consulting for nonprofit organizations in 1996, with a project for a local public television station ( WGBY in Springfield, MA ), to design a technology center for teachers to learn about technology and the internet, so they could apply that in their classrooms. Want help figuring it out for yourself?

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 12, 2007

Now, there are many more, and traditional Windows shops are beginning to either add staff who know Linux, or learn it themselves. I’m really interested in helping technology providers get up to speed, so that the amount of support available for nonprofits using Linux (and open source in general) increases.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 19, 2007

I’m not leaving nonprofit technology, though, just this particular role – I expect to stay involved, keep connected, keep prodding and poking, and keep learning. Be Helpful. I have now realized I need to set it down for good. I expect, in one way or the other, to be putting on a nonprofit hat. 3 Beth 03.19.07

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 18, 2006

There’s so much to learn about blogging, but I am improving but slowly, very slowly. Thank you again for your help. Be Helpful. Thanks for any information you can provide. 4 admin 08.05.09 at 9:33 am I’ve never tried it, but here’s the answer: [link] 5 Dru 08.05.09 at 9:46 am Thank you so much!

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 27, 2006

It’s really nice to learn more about what people are talking about. Be Helpful. All of these articles were interesting and thoughtful. Amy Kinkaid, of Fundraising Breakthroughs , has some great advice about asking for money without shame. I’ll be posting the Carnival on Monday afternoon. {

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 15, 2007

I’ve had a fair bit of experience with Drupal – nosi.net is run on Drupal, and I’d done a Drupal install once, and helped with some now and again. CMSs do share that pretty serious learning curve – but I’m getting over it, slowly. Be Helpful. It’s the same, really, with Drupal, only different.

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Drupal Open Source NTC Open 100

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 24, 2008

Did you learn anything about how your computer works? You see learning GNU/Linux makes for a better windows admin and gives the client more choice. Be Helpful. I am sorry that you didn’t find your GNU/Linux experience to your satisfaction. I bet you did. 6 Stuart Ward 06.25.08 7 admin 06.25.08

Ubuntu 100

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 23, 2010

I’ve considered myself pretty successful at both helping clients navigate the tough waters of web development projects, as well as accomplishing web projects for them. The clients should not have expected to get slick 2009 functionality for a mid 5-figure budget. And walked away if they insisted. It’s that simple.

Project 146

Project Database Open Source Application 146

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 17, 2007

Here at ReadyTalk, I am the Account Manager who works with our Nonprofit Customers helping them save money increase their efficiency through using our audio and web conferencing services. I hope that information helps you in your analysis. This will help us make Dimdim better. Hope you can help me out! One last thing.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

DECEMBER 26, 2008

I use WP pretty much everyday, between my own blogs, and helping clients maintain theirs. I’m betting that in 2009, many folks will move from shared hosting to VPS servers. I love discovering new music, seeing what people I know are listening to, and learning more about what I listen to over time. Open Source Tools.

Tools 100

Tools Open Source Drupal Adobe 100

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 5, 2008

I also don’t like the overhead of learning YAML. Update: I learned that Yahoo and delicious have a huge investment in Symfony (which, I guess, might be why they have so many more developers.) { 2 trackbacks } rpsblog.com » A week of symfony #97 (3->9 november 2008) 11.09.08 tjs 4 Ariel Arjona 11.20.08

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 24, 2007

So what is it about a teacher-student relationship that we can learn from to provide really good technical support? Empowerment – as you help them with a problem, teach them about the problem, and ways to troubleshoot (or possibly solve) the problem themselves in the future. In my work people learn evaluative thinking from me.

Teach 100

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