Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 26, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology How to choose a CRM March 26, 2008 I’ll be doing a webinar on open source CRMs tomorrow. One of the fascinating things to me is how quickly the CRM space is evolving. Be Helpful.

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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. And, of course, nonprofits should be especially keen on being able to keep control of their data. This is, of course, great news. I’ll keep you posted, for sure.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 9, 2008

Now, of course, as a techie, and someone with a home network, and multiple computers, and varied projects, there is always a list like this. Needless to say, I did absolutely nothing to get it to work. Plugged it in, and it just worked. Of course with my mac, I opened up the system preferences, checked a button, and, voila!

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 17, 2008

I’m on the Evaluating Open Source panel, with Laura Quinn and Catherine Lane, which should be great. This year, I’m much more clear about the directions my work is going in, and what I’m looking for at NTC. And of course, there is Penguin Day !! I’m looking forward to it. Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 9, 2007

July 9, 2007 So I talk a lot about both open source software, and the preciousness of one’s own data. I tout the benefits of open source software. It’s not as bad as Thunderbird, except, of course, it doesn’t integrate with Thunderbird. Open source projects do get better.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 1, 2007

I have owned about a dozen Macintosh computers (or clones) over the course of 20 years. 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

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 14, 2008

And I get to highlight the work of some of my favorite bloggers, too. She suggests not to panic, and not to change course – keep steady, and keep communicating. Recently, in working with a number of our domestic violence organizations we came up with a logo for the message. Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 25, 2008

In fact, that experience, and the work I did around it with that organization, was the first step into this whole nonprofit technology field. 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. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

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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. In the last few months, I was involved in helping three organizations choose vendors for varied technology projects, and in the course of that time, I talked with almost a dozen technology vendors of one type or another.

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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. It may, depending on pricing, even give the open source CiviCRM a bit of competition. And make it reasonably priced. Be Helpful.

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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. Of course, it’s only a study of Convio’s clients – but it’s interesting nonetheless. { I wonder how many foundations will go for it, though. It looks very promising. I’m looking forward to reading it.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 30, 2007

First, some of you might know that the new version of the NOSI primer has been in the works. It’s new and updated for the realities of the nonprofit technology and free and open source worlds of 2007. I keep discovering new and exciting free and open source web platforms. One of which is called Elgg.

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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

SEPTEMBER 13, 2007

Of course, like all open source software, it is “free as in kittens&# – but this particular kitten is pretty grown up, and already spayed and litter trained. programmers work on OOo. They are having 35 (!) IBM’s reputation is bound to help increase adoption of OpenOffice.org. Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 5, 2008

Of course, there is a lot of buzz about Sprout. Think of Blist as a really interesting combination of really pretty Excel, with some very cool features thrown in from FileMakerPro, in a sweet looking interface, that works in any web browser. I am, of course, waiting for Beth to tell us. Have a look at the demo. Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 18, 2007

I looked over Allan Benamer’s post on the Convio and Kintera initiatives, I looked harder at the Convio Open and Kintera Connect docs, and I also had a chat with some Kintera folk. Of course, the API was only one part of Convio’s initiative, so I do still think they come out ahead, a bit. I have a few comments. Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 12, 2007

At least in Massachusetts, the majority of nonprofits work with network support people who don’t focus totally on nonprofit organizations (there are some wonderful exceptions, however, of companies that focus on the sector.) But since most Linux distributions are free (as in beer), that’s not really quite the way to look at it.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 13, 2008

Of course, I’ve been a wiki fan since the very beginning, and I haven’t lost the desire for true data portability , and open source alternatives to the current social networks. however, as you all know so well, I’m a realist. { at 10:54 am Recent Links Tagged With "millenials" - JabberTags 12.04.08 Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 24, 2008

I’ve basically switched to using my Mac mini for just about everything except the bit of systems admin and coding I do, because it’s just so much easier to set up things on Linux for that type of work. And, of course, there are plenty of peripherals that don’t work with Macs.) This is where Linux will shine.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 19, 2007

If ten similar nonprofit organizations came together to build a system that would work for them, they each would get 10 times the software that they could afford individually. But they are so busy living in that mentality of scarcity and competition, that they can’t do that kind of collaboration. This reminds me of a true story.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 6, 2007

So there was the saga of migrating my data from Apple’s proprietary address book to Evolution (and of course, dealing with the beast that Evolution is.) And, to top it off, I had to make things more complicated last week, because I decided to get a Palm PDA again. found a great, really cheap E2 on Ebay.) Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 24, 2007

Like many who work in this sector, I cared more about the missions of my clients than I did about my own income, although I also needed to put food on the table. and “We’ve designed Yugma to work seamlessly between Mac, Windows and Linux.&# I had good intentions, like virtually all software vendors do. But, I was myopic anyway.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 15, 2007

Open has 3 components, APIs, Database Connectors, and Extensions. They work by REST via POST, or JSON. Create and foster developer and user communities in the same way that Salesforce and open source communities do. What’s to lose? Both companies are making strides, but people want to look under the hood, fast!

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

NOVEMBER 28, 2006

Unfortunately, the nptech world hasn’t yet caught on to the “Planet&# phenomenon of the open source world (see Planet Ubuntu Women.) These are sites that are simply aggregators of the blogs of those involved in a particular open source project (like, in this case, women involved in Ubuntu ). Be Helpful.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 3, 2009

You might think that comparing four different open source packages that, in essence, do pretty the same thing (in a broad sense) would be a cakc walk. If it had been, we would have done a lot more work on how to measure security. Of course, I totally agree with you that more eyeballs on code leads to more vulnerabilities shown.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 17, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology The search for good web conferencing August 17, 2007 I decided, perhaps rashly, that one way of exposing people to, and training people on, open source software, was by doing web conferencing.

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Tech Soup

OCTOBER 23, 2015

It is a noncommercial site that has ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites, books, and music. We recommend this resource to libraries and any charity that works with children of any age. One we like that is oriented toward open source and also advocacy is the Library Freedom Project (LFP).

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 21, 2007

I picked it up by happenstance, I think because I had NOSI on my mind, and I was thinking about how to talk to people about open source and nonprofits. A very different context than I, or most people reading this work in, for sure. And, of course, the CEO, or CFO, or Manager that hires you is making six (or more) figures.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 27, 2006

Part III: Blogs, Podcasting and Vlogs September 27, 2006 When I start out these series, I seem to have an idea in hand about how to organize them, which, invariably, gets rearranged in the course of writing. Which, of course, is why many people and many organizations don’t need blogs. Such is life. That’s part of the point.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 27, 2007

That's because Michelle was in the Science Building on one end of campus, while I in the Music Building way on the other side. She is also the coordinator for NOSI - Nonprofit Open Source Initiative. Like many of us out there, you work as an independent consultant - so you are paid for your expertise and knowledge.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 14, 2008

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology The “Open Source Software is Free&# myth July 14, 2008 I had a startling realization a few days ago. No one would think that anyone thought that implementing open source software was without cost.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 24, 2006

But what about sites people who do the same kinds of work that you do, or like the same kinds of things that you do? I use furl to keep pages that have content that I absolutely want to keep, in case the site goes away (furl could go away, of course, so maybe I should save that stuff to my hard drive – they have a cool export feature.)

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 17, 2007

It is an internal assessment tool which helps organizations figure out what parts of their online strategy are working, and what parts might need tweaking. And in your case, as the head of a nonprofit open source organization, I think you’re going to find that not publishing site statistics will cause you more grief than you think.

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Connection Cafe

MARCH 11, 2010

The lounge will be the place to meet the best and brightest socially-conscious Geekeratti at SXSW and catch some unplugged local music. Built upon open-source tools, open standards, and best practices, this panel will highlight practical examples of initiatives from private, public and government sectors.".

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 18, 2008

As the author of a custom CMS (it did have the advantage that it was released as open source, but it never caught on, so it still counts as custom) I know what it is like to put my heart and soul (and time) into a CMS, and want my clients to get what they want. But, that was then, and this is now. But, that was then, and this is now.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

APRIL 24, 2007

Is this a problem that is critical to their work, or a “pebble in the shoe&# kind of problem – annoying, but not urgent? All of this works within whatever relationship you have with a client. Also, you remember how much work you got done when a substitute teacher came to class? What is going on for them?

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

OCTOBER 1, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Tasty nuggets October 1, 2007 A few things have come across my desk while I was on vacation, so I thought I’d collect them here: Of course, there are new Web 2.0 tools that come out every single day.

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