Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

I’ve been really happy to be involved with Aspiration and PICNet in organizing Penguin Day DC, right after NTC. Please do come - it will be great. There are some amazing breakout sessions planned, and there will be wonderful energy. Here’s the official blurb:

Please join us for Penguin Day in DC, right after the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC)! We’ll explore the potential and the role of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in nonprofit organizations, in sessions designed to answer your questions and curiosities!

Recent agenda additions include leaders of the Joomla Team discussing FOSS communities, a passionate Plone practitioner from NetCorps sharing skills, and Beth Kanter, who will lead a discussion on Open Content.

Penguin Day DC is taking place Saturday, April 7th, from 9am to 5pm at:

Josephine Butler Parks Center

2437 Fifteenth Street, NW

Washington, DC 20009

Map Link: http://tinyurl.com/2tj5a3

Register now at http://www.penguinday.org!

The Parks Center is about 1/2 mile from the NTC at the Omni Hotel, and a shuttle will be available from the NTC hotel to the Penguin Day venue.

See the latest Penguin Day DC Agenda at http://penguinday.aspirationtech.org/index.php/Penguin_Day_Agenda. Feel free to add your session ideas!

If you are going to the NTC, come to Penguin Day!

Penguin Day DC is organized by Aspiration, PICnet and NOSI.

What is Penguin Day?

Are you passionate or curious about the reality, the potential and the role of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in nonprofit organizations? Do you want to learn about latest free and open web publishing tools and technologies? Would you like to meet other like-minded and passionate participants, including developers, activists, and nonprofit “techies”?

Penguin Day DC will bring together nonprofit technology staff with free and open source software (FOSS) developers for a day of learning and conversation.

We’ll explore and explain open source for nonprofits, frankly address the challenges of developing open source tools for nonprofits, and celebrate strengths and successes of open source in the nonprofit sector. Leading open source innovators in the nonprofit sector will share their stories and knowledge, and focus on answering your questions!

If you are curious about open source software for your nonprofit organization, Penguin Days are for you!

Register at http://www.penguinday.org

Technorati Tags: 07NTC, nptech, opensource, linux

Just today, I received in the mail some Sony Vaio Picturebook laptops, courtesy of Gavin’s regular potlatch program. My goal was to bring them to the Linux geek out at NTC, and have people play with Linux installs on them. But, I realized that I had somewhat of a challenge on my hands.

Linux is supposed to be easy to install and use. And, in most situations, it is. And, if I had a USB CD-ROM drive, it would be, since it seems from the BIOS of the Vaio’s that they can boot from USB external devices. But, the computers are networked, so it would seem - there must be some easy way, right?

Debian comes to the rescue. They have a site, with the URL: http://goodbye-microsoft.com, which is a link to a windows .exe file, which is a simple, sweet Debian installer. It works pretty well (at this moment, I’m now downloading and installing the base system.) The one snag I hit (not unusual) is that originally, I was using the wireless cards for networking, but the basic Debian system didn’t recognize them. So I switched to the very standard ethernet PC cards that Gavin so thoughtfully included, and bingo - everything works.

My next step, after installing the basic Debian system, is to switch the install to Ubuntu. That’s easier than it sounds. Changing one file (/etc/apt/sources.list) and running a few commands, should do the trick. We’ll see…

Anyway, if you’ll be at NTC, come by and see where I got to. The geekout will be on Thursday at 3:30.

Technorati Tags: 07NTC, nptech, linux

I continue to be fascinated with Twitter, and one of the primary drivers of the phenomenon known as Web 2.0: social networking. There have been some rather searing commentaries on Twitter lately from Nicholas Carr, and Kathy Sierra, among others. I’m not going to rehash their interesting and cogent arguments, but I’m going to ask some more fundamental questions about all of this.

In general, I have to admit that I have found very little usefulness in Web 2.0 social networking tools. Yes, I have an account on del.icio.us, digg, ma.gnolia and LinkedIn. I even had an orkut account years ago. There have been some interesting useful tidbits (I talked with an Apple recruiter, helping her figure out the best way to find people likely to be a good Genius for the new Holyoke Apple store, I’ve found a few links now and again,) but for the most part, I have gotten back way, way less than I invested in signing up, linking, etc. I’m sure this experience is different for different people, but I wonder whether people really feel like they’ve gotten useful concrete benefit from the effort they’ve put in. I’ve gotten much more benefit from tools that are heavy on content, and light on networking (like H2Oplaylist, which actually isn’t a social networking tool, per se, although it has some interesting functionalities in that regard.)

In all of this, I’m reminded of Barbara Ehrenriech’s new book, which I’m going to read soon. It’s called Dancing in the Streets, a History of Collective Joy. Her premise, as I understand it, is that modern culture has slowly but surely decreased our collective activities that connect us, and allow us to express and share joy. I also can’t help but think about that oft criticized, but interesting book, “Bowling alone” about the reduction in social capital. It is pretty clear that we as a society we’ve become more and more compartmentalized - each of us in our own little world, with our own little TV and internet connection - and we feel the need to connect with other people.

Back to nonprofit technology - a colleague and I wondered aloud together about the sheer boredom that nonprofit technology can be sometimes - and do new things like Twitter, or Second Life, or what have you, relieve some of that boredom? The boredom of databases, and networks, and accounting and … But certainly, one could argue that connecting with other people around a particular social issue is useful for nonprofits. Finding ways to tap into, for instance, the vast network that is MySpace could be an avenue to find constituents, donors and volunteers. So I don’t want to write off social networking, but it’s also true that “old-fashioned” social networking via email lists is still going strong, and there seems to be no substitute for a real, live face-to-face gathering.

But also a push-back to nonprofit technology - if social networking tools like Twitter seem to be band-aids to help heal the wound of a disconnected society - what about the wound itself?

Technorati Tags: socialnetworking, twitter

Beth Kanter interviewed me for Blogher recently, and one of the questions included “… you work as an independent consultant …” Well, those days are numbered. I decided several weeks ago, for a variety of reasons, to retire my independent consultant hat. I’ve been doing this work for more than 10 years now, full time for about seven of those years. It’s been an important part of my life for all of this time. I had decided to leave it two years ago to go to seminary, then, when I left seminary, I picked it up again briefly. I have now realized I need to set it down for good.

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. I expect, in one way or the other, to be putting on a nonprofit hat. For right now, I’m the part-time coordinator of NOSI. Whatever emerges next, you’ll hear about it, for sure. (In other words, no I don’t exactly know what I am doing next, yet.)

Being an independent consultant was, for me, a way to feel like I was using my skills for the greater good. I got to be a geek, and feel like I was really making a difference in the workings of organizations, and, hopefully, in people’s lives. And, I think I did that. And I also spent lots of time wrestling with the demons of consultancy and for-profit-hood (or “for-little-profit-hood” as one consultant once put it.) If I had it to do over again, I would have started a nonprofit technology organization 10 years ago. Although it certainly could be argued that would have just involved different demons. Perhaps I’m now more ready to wrestle those.

In any event, I have a lot of other skills and knowledge besides databases and coding: skills and knowledge in teaching, in writing, in working with organizations, in facilitation, in religion and spiritual practices, and in working with people, that I want to use now. I want to more directly work with people and organizations, primarily focused around faith and spirituality. I want to see people’s real faces, and hear their real voices. I want to smell the sweat of working for change in our society, from the inside out.

I know most of you aren’t surprised, but I’m not the Richard Stallman of the nonprofit technology community. And it’s not just because I’m female. I’ve never been dogmatic. I’ve always known that when it comes to implementing free and open source software in the sector, pragmatics are important. (And, no, don’t even think about comparing me to Eric Raymond!)

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Web 2.0 - and how that changes the equation for nonprofits. There are now three choices for many applications: proprietary, open source, and web-hosted. The web-hosted applications aren’t software, they are a service. One could argue that whether or not they are open source is about as relevant as whether or not Google is open source.

Of course, there are all sorts of other reasons for people to choose open source software over hosted software. Data privacy and security is one really important one. (Some organizations with some kinds of sensitive data, like reproductive rights organizations, should always host their own data.)

But is open data a good substitute for open source? If a proprietary web-hosted service (most are) has lots of open APIs, providing free and easy access to data for an organization, is that OK? Is that enough? I’m tempted to say “absolutely.” Of course, the best web-hosted alternative is one that is both open source and open data - these exist, but are few and far between.

This is, of course, from one single organization’s point of view. From the sector’s point of view, open source is better. One single organization certainly isn’t going to be in the position to do anything if, for instance, if Salesforce.com open-sourced their code. But, a group of nonprofits who do particular kinds of work could potentially modify a codebase like that to create something that worked really well for them.

So, I’m pragmatic. I want the best quality, most open (data and source), and least expensive solutions for nonprofits. I’ve come to realize that can come in different kinds of packages.

Technorati Tags: nptech, openAPI, opensource, web2.0

Kudos to Michele Martin who brings up a sticky issue: the scarcity mentality. Her perspective is that the scarcity mentality of nonprofits (the idea that there is only one pie, and we only get our small slice) helps keep nonprofits from taking full advantage of social media (i.e. Web 2.0). I’d argue that it also keeps nonprofits from collaborating together to produce amazingly good open source software projects (or, even closed-source, for that matter) that will help solve their issues and keep them from being captive to either predatory vendors, or vendors whose products, whether it be because of bad design, or not enough resources, promote data lock-in.

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. So it doesn’t happen. Web 2.0, collaboratively developed software, and, really, collaborations of all sorts are limited by this mentality.

This reminds me of a true story. A long time ago (in web years) I was working with a certain CEO of a certain chapter of a certain very-big-nonprofit (whose role in life is to fund other nonprofits - this kinda gives it away, but it’s necessary for the story.) We were talking about whether or not this certain nonprofit, who had mondo resources, should help facilitate web development for their client organizations. They had realized that if they did that, the client organizations could begin to raise money themselves, instead of depending so heavily on this certain nonprofit. So, guess what? No web development help. I was, of course, surprised (that’s mild, I was frankly horrified - wasn’t it the mission of this certain nonprofit to help the client nonprofits raise money? Wouldn’t helping them raise money themselves fulfill their mission?) But that’s scarcity thinking for you. Even though this very-big-nonprofit was rolling in money, they thought the pie was finite, and that if the money didn’t go through them, they’d get less. So the scarcity mentality isn’t just for small, struggling nonprofits. It’s very widespread.

Technorati Tags: nptech, opensource, web2.0

I promised updates on Satellite internet, and here are my impressions so far. In general it works well. We’ve been getting download speeds from 1.5 Mbps (the advertised) to 300-400 Kbps during peak moments. The latency isn’t too much of an issue for email or the web. It makes shell sessions basically impossible for all but the simplest stuff. FTP seems to work fine, as do streaming video and audio. I haven’t bought anything from the ITunes store, yet, or tried skype for a voice call yet either.

The one caviat to all of this is what is called “FAP” or “Fair Access Policy.” In this regard, satellite broadband is fundamentally broken for any of the data heavy applications that many people want out of broadband. Basically, FAP is a threshold, and once you reach the threshold, your bandwidth is throttled down to what they say is dial-up speeds, but in fact, is much worse. If you recall my last post on this - what I had experienced was FAP. On my plan (the highest plan), if I try to download more than 400 MB of anything “at one stretch” (this is the term I was given by a tech support person) I’ll get throttled. On the “home” plans, the threshold is a measly 175 MB.

Here’s my (minorly edited) transcript of my chat with tech support:

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:13:34 PM): Michelle, I have been through your usage data.

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:14:38 PM): I have learnt that, you are subject to FAP, because you have downloaded 71MB,122MB and 211MB of data at a stretch.

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:15:30 PM): The sum results to 404MB, which is greater that 400MB.

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:15:56 PM): that’s over 3 hours …

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:16:35 PM): is there a way that you can exclude necessary software updates?

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:17:02 PM): I thought it was 400 over 1-2 hours

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:17:14 PM): I am sorry. There is no way that we have that option for excluding the software updates.

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:17:39 PM): I am sorry. You should be able to browse after 8-12 hours.

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:17:44 PM): So over how much time do I have to space the dowlnloads then?

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:18:07 PM): 404 over 3 hours is too much. What about 404 over 4 or 5 hours

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:18:20 PM): Your download should not exceed above 400MB at a stretch.

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:18:42 PM): at any one stretch? How long is a stretch?

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:19:22 PM): If you try to download any data which is above 400MB at one go, you will be subject to FAP.

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:19:55 PM): so if I wait, say, 20 minutes between downloads I should be fine?

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:20:07 PM): but then doesn’t regular web browsing add into that?

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:20:50 PM): like if I download a 50 M file, then browse, then another 50 M file, an hour later, I might still be in trouble?

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:20:49 PM): I am sorry. If you try to download any data which is above 400MB at one go, you will be subject to FAP.

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:21:35 PM): If you stop downloading data before it hits the Download Threshold, you will not be subject to FAP, irrespective of the time taken to download.

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:21:46 PM): but if I am using the net constantly, that’s one go, isn’t it?

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:22:22 PM): no matter whether I’m downloading files or doing email or browsing the web?

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:23:28 PM): After your account has been restricted by FAP, you need to wait 8-12 hours for the FAP to be lifted.

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:23:43 PM): Logging off of the HughesNet satellite network does not remove the FAP from your account, it should cause it to be lifted sooner.

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:23:49 PM): I do totally understand why this policy exists, but the truth is, there has to be some way to distinguish between people who are downloading music and games and such, and people who are downloading necessary software updatees, which, unfortunatley, get bgger and bigger every year.

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:24:57 PM): I understand your concern over this issue. I will try my best to forward this concern to the concerned.

Taylor(Mar 6 2007 4:25:30 PM): You should be able to download the 211MB update once you have been uplifted from FAP.

Michelle(Mar 6 2007 4:26:22 PM): yeah, but then once I download the update, I have to pretty much stop everything for a while. Sigh. OK, thank you very much for your time.

Notice, 400 MB is smaller than a Linux ISO. It’s smaller than any movie, and is about as big as one TV show video at decent resolution. It’s smaller than the sum of the Apple software updates I had to do. I have to plan my downloads carefully, and downloading an ISO requires a download manager I can pause and resume.

Am I happier with satellite? Sure. Because nobody these days designs websites for dial-up. 20% of websites didn’t load at all. Another 40% were so slow I could go make tea and come back. It just wasn’t going to be viable in the long term. Someone who also lives out here said that with dial-up, the internet feels broken. That’s certainly true. But, satellite isn’t really broadband. I hear it’s improving, but it will never really be the broadband everyone else has.

Technorati Tags: broadband, hughesnet, satellite

I read Beth’s recent blog entry on Twitter, and of course, the neo-luddite in me said “waste of time!” But then I had to think about it. What is it about Twitter that seems so, well, besides the point? Why aren’t I Twittering away, like so many of my nptech colleagues?

One of the potential uses of Twitter is as a “back channel” for events and the like. So a conversation is happening, in a session, or in a plenary, and people are talking about that on another channel. IRC has always seemed to me to be one of the best ways to do that, but IRC is, well, passé these days, it seems. But why not add another channel to the back channel happenings, for instance, at NTC? Sounds like a reasonable idea.

But why don’t I sign up for a Twitter account, and, well, Twitter? First off, it doesn’t fit into my workflow. My workflow does involve the web, for sure, but I can only keep up with so many social networking sites of varied uses (social bookmarking, social networking like Linked in, community blogs etc. etc.) before I’m spread far to thin, and Firefox starts piling the tabs into a menu. Then there is the overhead of signing up for an account, and then inviting people, and linking, and blah blah, just so I can tell people what I am doing at the moment. Huh?

And then there is data. We all talk about information overload. Give me tools, like Yahoo Pipes, or other kinds of things, that help me to whittle down the information I’m taking in - make it more useful, help me find things faster and easier. I love my friends and colleagues. Really, I do. But, for the most part, I really don’t want to know what they are doing right now. I need less, and better data, not more.

And there is more: it might keep me at my computer longer. It will use up server resources at some server farm which uses electricity (which means, probably burning dirty coal, or natural gas). Using servers that took a huge amount of energy and water to manufacture. All this so a bunch of people can tell each other what they are doing. And, I’m sorry, but “Insert_web.20_new_thing to change the world!” just doesn’t cut it for me.

Wanna know what I’m doing? Check my Skype status. Or IM me. Those windows are already open, and I use them everyday. But sorry, I’m not Twittering.

Technorati Tags: nptech, ntc2007, twitter

As you know, nonprofit data management has been a really important issue for me for a long time. So I thought it would be a great subject for the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants hosted here today.

There are some great posts for today:

• First, Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog has a great post with an article from Cheryl Gibson about implementing a CRM system in a nonprofit. It’s chock-full of information about what you need to start, different strategies, and potential pitfalls. My favorite quote: “A mutual understanding between the nonprofit organization and the database implementer that converting a database involves organizational change, and this can be stressful and threatening for employees. Both the database implementer and the nonprofit organization will need to establish in the project plan the metrics and deliverables that comprise success.” I wish all nonprofits understood this!
• IDI’s Blogger Relations has some good ideas and resources on data management - they suggest, and I agree that it is critical to managing fundraising strategy.
• Michelle Martin, over at The Bamboo Project Blog, talks about two cool web 2.0 tools, i-Lighter and Google Notebooks for managing online notes and such. I’m a fan of Google Notebook myself, but I’ve never heard of i-Lighter - I’ll have to check it out.
• Kivi at Nonprofit Communications, talks about how to keep track of the kind of data that writers need to keep track of - editorial calendars. I want to do more and more writing, and doing this sort of thing might be pretty helpful for me.
• Beth has some advice for dealing with too much data - write it down (er, on a wiki that is.)
• Finally, if data management stresses you out, here are some tips!

Keep track of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, no matter which blog is hosting, by subscribing to the Carnival feed.

Technorati Tags: carnival, data management, nptech

Next Monday, I’m hosting the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. The topic is “Nonprofit Data Management: from slips of paper to CRM” As you all know, I’ve been thinking about data management issues for years, and it would be great for people to share their ideas and knowledge.

So, submit those posts by Sunday evening!

Technorati Tags: data management, npcarnival, carnival