Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

(That’s Brit/Canadian for odds and ends, if you were wondering.)

I’ve been a bad blogger over the past couple of months, I know. I haven’t been posting near as much as I’d like, mostly because I’ve been rather busy. It’s not just consulting work, but other varied happenings in my life as well. I don’t know what the next couple of months will bring, but I’ll try to generate some pithy blog posts for y’all.

I’ve been re-reading a book that I read early in the decision-making process about becoming a consultant way back in 1996. It’s called The Consultant’s Calling, and it’s really a book about consulting as a calling, a vocation. One of my favorite quotes about vocation is from Frederick Buechner, who said that a vocation is where “the worlds deep need and your deep gladness meet.” There is a new updated version of the book. It’s really worth a read.

I’m convinced that I have a sense of humor. Really, I am. Except, well, I just don’t get this LOL* pheonomena. I have to admit I’m a sucker for cute pictures of kittens. But I have to admit the bastardized language thing (”hai, I iz doin stuf”) just isn’t funny to me. I am glad some people are enjoying themselves. And LOLnptech seems to have quite the following (just not me.)

I’ve been writing a series of articles for LASA’s ICT Knowledgebase. The first article, on Mac database options, just got published last week. One on Open Office, and FOSS on the Mac are forthcoming. It’s enjoyable writing them, and also writing them for a non-US audience (although I’m sure plenty of US folks take advantage of their amazing resource.)

This will be my last tech blog entry until at least August 6th. I’m taking time off to work on science fiction writing!

In the process of reworking and updating the NOSI (Nonprofit Open Source Initiative) primer that was first written in 2004, there are several things that have emerged that have dramatically changed from then. First is the wholesale movement toward the three major open source CMS platforms/frameworks, Drupal, Joomla and Plone. Second is that Linux servers seem to have made very serious inroads into nonprofit organizations, such that they are becoming almost commonplace. Third, almost everyone uses Firefox, or at least knows about it. The fourth, and very interesting development, is the relationships that have been developing between nonprofit-focused technology providers of all stripes and open source developer communities (at this point, primarily CMS projects.)

There will be detailed case studies in the new primer, but what’s been striking to me is how many examples of this there are out there. Technology providers are beginning to really invest in free and open source platforms, and it looks like everyone is benefiting - the organization, the clients, the developer communities, and, by extension, then, other providers and users of those projects. And so the feedback cycle keeps going.

This may be where the gift economy rubber meets the road. Providers seem to be surviving (or thriving) with this model, free and open source software projects are getting the support they need, and clients are getting the software solutions they need. This is a model that is impossible with proprietary software. It’s a model I hope spreads beyond the CMS space, into other areas. There are all sorts of worthy candidates!

Michelle Martin has a great post this week on Facebook. It introduced me to a new blog, called Read/WriteWeb, which I’m liking a lot. They have a roundup of what they are calling the 10 best Facebook apps for work. In the last few weeks of using Facebook, I’d already realized how it’s fitting into my workflow in ways that no other social networking site does. I haven’t tried a number of these apps yet. I don’t intend, for instance, to start putting my calendar on Facebook, but it’s interesting to see how much is happening, and how fast.

I’ve also noticed how most people in the nptech world who experiment with this stuff have moved over to Facebook. One of my questions is whether or not they dedicate any time to LinkedIn, or other networking sites anymore, or has Facebook become the one they spend most time on.

I never did start a MySpace page, and I don’t imagine I ever will. I was pretty doubtful about the general usefulness of content-less social networking sites (as distinct from those that are content-driven, like flickr and del.icio.us) but it seems that Facebook is becoming a platform, and has ceased to become simply a social networking site.

One of the great things about the Facebook platform is the way that it can integrate online data. I’ve got my flickr photostream up there, my del.icio.us bookmarks, and all of the varied data on the varied Facebook apps. But there isn’t an easy way, for instance for me to see other’s data without actually clicking through to their profile. But I’m sure the interface will improve over time.

But, still, although Facebook has been fun to play with, and many of my colleagues are using it, and it doesn’t take away from my workflow - it hasn’t actually helped me do much work. That’s the next question - will my presence on Facebook help me find clients, or help clients find me? Will it help my work with clients? These are questions that are yet to be answered.

Part of the process I’m going through of “eating my own dogfood” that is, using free software (open source) tools whenever I can includes taking myself off of proprietary platforms whenever possible. One such platform was Typepad. Typepad is a paid service based on Movable Type, a very popular blogging platform, that is proprietary. They are going to release an open source version later this year, which is wonderful, but I also would have had to pony up another $149 for a year of a Pro account, and that seemed excessive, since I could just as easily set up a Wordpress blog on the host I’m already paying for.

This migration, unlike the Mac OS -> Ubuntu migration, has been completely painless. A few tweaks (mentioned in the previous post,) and I was up and running with all posts and comments intact. Add a few important plugins, and I’m back to where I was just a few days ago on Typepad.

Two and a half years ago when I moved off of the blogging platform I wrote, I wanted a platform that would allow me to concentrate on writing, and not on tech. Two years ago, there wasn’t a platform that was really ready for that. Now, there is. Actually, there are several. There is no question in my mind that free software has won the CMS/Blogging race, hands down.

As you will have undoubtedly figured out - this blog moved! I’ve moved it off of Typepad, and onto Wordpress. I’ve been rather impressed by how easy Wordpress was to set up and use, and how easy the migration process was. I’d recommend it to anyone.

To recap, I took the following steps:

1. Set up my blog on a different domain (in this case, it was zenofnptech.com.)
2. Choosing a theme
3. Migrate the posts and comments (exporting it from typepad, importing into wordpress - all web gui based, very easy.
4. Modifying a few things (see this link.) There are a few changes. Wordpress now uses dashes instead of underscores, so that’s something you don’t have to worry about. All importing requires now is just going to the Wordpress import tool and specifying the file. That’s all. You don’t have to worry about using mod_rewrite at all.
5. Getting the varied blogrolls and badges, etc. copied over.
6. Letting people know
7. Changing the DNS of the old site (and changing the site on wordpress.)
8. Done.

The feed should stay the same. If, for some reason, yours stops working, try this feed.

Michelle Murrain received her B.A. in Natural Science and Mathematics from Bennington College, and her Ph.D. in Biology from Case Western Reserve University.  She first started to work with nonprofits and technology in 1996, when she assisted a local women’s health organization with a Linux server that provided email and a website. That was also her introduction to open source software, which she has used consistently since that time.

Michelle has been involved in developing content and applications for the web, specifically for organizational, research and educational purposes, since 1994. In 1996, Michelle started a consulting practice that served the non-profit and educational sectors, primarily in the areas of developing database-driven web-sites, the implementation of Open Source software, and strategic technology planning. She has worked with a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, mostly in human services, women’s health and education. From 2003 until 2005, she worked with Database Designs Associates , based in Boston, MA. She was on the board of Aspiration , an organization that fosters software development in the nonprofit/NGO sector, and she presently is on the board of NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network.

In 2005, Michelle took a sabbatical from nonprofit technology work to get her Certificate in Theological Studies at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. She is currently Coordinator of the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI), and she does some strategic technology consulting as well. She blogs on other issues in her personal blog, Metacentricities.

So I talk a lot about both open source software, and the preciousness of one’s own data. I rail against vendors who promote lock-in. I tout the benefits of open source software. So, here is a real life example of someone with a measly 195 records in her contacts database.

As you might recall, I migrated from a Mac desktop to a Linux desktop a month and a half ago.  There are still some, shall we say, hanging chads. One big one was my address book. I used to have this great system where I used the Mac Addressbook, which would nicely sync with my cell phone. It also integrated well with Mail.app and iChat. It was great.

First problem: Linux address books … suck. I hate to be so blunt, but it is true, at least in comparison to the ones on the Mac. There are basically three options. 1) Since I’m using Thunderbird as my email client, I could use that as my addressbook. Except… it sucks. Really it does. Not enough fields, not a good ui. Ick.  2) KAddressBook. It’s not as bad as Thunderbird, except, of course, it doesn’t integrate with Thunderbird. It’s just a bit more polished. More configuration, more options, but still not good. 3) Evolution. It would mean switching my email. It might be worth it. But the last time I tried Evolution, it was a horrible experience. But, that was 4 years ago. Open source projects do get better.

Actually there is a fourth option. I could dump all my addresses into one big flat file, and use grep. Right. Errr. NOT.

So my next task is to really try out evolution, and see how it works for me. I’ll keep you posted.

But, there is more…

In order to use one of these address book options, I have to get my data out of Apple’s addressbook. Turns out, there’s no "export" menu item. Yeah, talk about lock-in! There is, luckily, a handy-dandy tool that will do it for you. Otherwise, you have to either write your own, or, worse, hand enter all those addresses again.

<Insert sound of Michelle chewing on Purina Dog Chow.>

Deborah, is, as per usual, diplomatic in her discussion of the site "Sustainable Nonprofit", which is a new(?) website that is designed to: "create a unified place for nonprofits and experts to share their experience, pain, achievements, and discoveries."

I love the idea, really, I do. The site is beautifully designed, and engaging, with some good information and tools, as well. It’s so nicely done, I wish it could indeed become that unified place. Except…

Everyone wants their site to be the unified place. Wishing, unfortunately, won’t make it so. "If we build it they will come" only works in the movies.

In a conversation with a colleague over some wonderful Asian fusion lunch, we both agreed that in fact, the problem that nonprofits faced in the 90s, lack of good information, was, in a broad sense, mostly solved (there are, for sure, areas where there are gaps, but overall, the coverage is quite good.) In fact, we agreed we are getting toward overload - too much information in too many places. OK, so here is yet another website providing information that nonprofits need to be sustainable.

I think the time has come to think differently. Let’s stop for a while throwing new websites at problems, and think more deeply about why those problems exist. When it comes to nonprofit sustainability, my hunch is that as wonderful as the intention is, a new website isn’t going to make a dent.