In most cases, the audience wasn’t asking about money: they were asking about time. As one woman put it, “spending time on this means time staff isn’t spending on other work.” So in the interest of hers, yours, and everyone else’s time, here’s a rundown on what I see as the real time costs of a variety of Web 2.0 On Monday, David Klevan (from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum) and I spoke at the MAAM Creating Exhibitions conference about Web 2.0 and museums.

Below are 11 great holiday gift programs that benefit nonprofits and make the world a better place: From ornaments to stamps to wildlife adoption, the Defenders Marketplace is a good place to start your holiday shopping. Buy a gift for family or friends and help Save the Children at the same time. If you are reading this now, then of the world’s 6.8 billion people , you are likely one of the lucky ones.

Recently, Thomas Gensemer who led online communications for the Obama campaign said nonprofit email newsletters are “ a waste of time and effort and should be ditched ”. Their high quality emails present donors with vivid accounts of their work, share successes, and place a significant emphasis on thanking donors. They will from time to time ask donors to take action – in their He instead urged organizations to send “short, personalized emails to supporters giving clear instructions for participation”. For the Obama Campaign, “fundraising

It will take a long time for Haiti to dig out from this disaster, and the long-term volunteering needs will become more apparent as the month (and years) pass." The most important thing to remember is that even if you can only give a little bit of time, or money, it will make a difference. Cross-posted from BlogHer.com . Image credit: Haiti Earthquake uploaded by United Nations Development Programme When I posted about How to Help Haitian Earthquake Survivor s on Tuesday evening, there wasn't much information out yet about how to help, but now there are lots of posts and articles with lists of organizations you can donate to like: Helping Haiti . . .

Yesterday, the Real Time Web Summit hosted by Read/Write Web took place in Mountain View, CA.  What's the Real Time Web?  Here's a good basic definition from the introductory post on the Read Write Web Blog: Real-time information delivery is fast emerging as one of the most important My colleague, Marshall important elements of our online experience. No more waiting for the Pony

While one site may count a view every time the play button is clicked, another viewership data to allocate ad inventory or place viral videos has no comparative comparative ability at this point in time. until standards are in place. This points to why certain metrics just don't make sense for social media (and video too). Source: Flickr User Lynetter I'm tracking social media metrics for a variety reasons.

Earlier this year Molly posted 7 quick tips to taking action quickly in times of need and numerous other resources and learnings have been put out since with the issue at top of mind for nonprofits and charities around the world (see: 5 Social Media Lessons From the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort by Geoff Livingston, Helping Haiti: Places to Donate, Creative Fundraising Ideas and Being a Smart Donor by Britt Bravo, How to Communicate in the Shadow of Disaster -- Guidelines for Respectful but Effective Outreach by Nancy Schwartz , The Social Media Response to Disaster in Haiti by Amy Sample

Britt Bravo: Where did the idea for the Freecycle Network come from? DB: Well, I was working with a recycling nonprofit at the time, and we would give guys jobs out of shelters and help them move into apartments and whatnot. My boss at the time said, "You need to get rid of this stuff." I was a member of my neighborhood association at the time, This summer I've been interviewing the innovators behind the 21 Projects that went to the NetSquared Conference (N2Y2) this year (I'm the Community Builder for NetSquared). It's pretty amazing what these folks have created, like Dan Newman, the Executive Director and Co-founder of MAPLight.org , a non-partisan non-profit that illuminates the connection between money and politics (you can read my interview with him here ).

If I am ever in any kind of disaster, natural or otherwise, Twitter will be the first place I turn. ...Tags: Tags: social media real time emergencies Twitter social responsibilit Watch what's going on around Hurricane Gustav and the power of social media for connecting news sources and "real" people on the ground. Andy Carvin creates a Ning group for alerts and information .

Betty Christiansen's book, Knitting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time , captures 28 stories of people and organizations who are using knitting to comfort, empower and heal. I was so inspired by how you can warm up someone's life with knitting, in more way than one, that I've signed up to be notified the next time my local knitting store offers a beginner's knitting workshop. When I was growing up, every Christmas I would get a bumpy package with a card that said, For: Britt, From: Barbara Gould in criss-crossy handwriting. Barbara worked