Varied and sundry before a brief break
posted in Nonprofit Tech, Technology Zen |I’m taking a brief 4 day weekend - not that it would be that noticeable on this blog, since I don’t always post consistently. That is actually one of the things I’m going to try and change - to set up to do a post every weekday. We’ll see how that goes.
Before I took off, I wanted to mention a few things that have been on my mind (and on my plate.) 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. The primer, which will show up in just electronic form, also has a very cool implementation of a great open API that we’ll be crowing about soon (my lips are sealed right now.)
I keep discovering new and exciting free and open source web platforms. One of which is called Elgg. Elgg is a very cool community-building and e-learning tool - it’s got the social networking combined with features like forums, etc. And further, there is an amazing integration of Elgg with Mediawiki. I wish I had an excuse to install and test it - but it really requires a purpose for bringing community together. 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.)
Laura Quinn has a great blog entry about software “satisficing” - that is that sometimes we want to maximize the features that a particular software package has, instead of finding the one that works for us. It’s very zen, and a great read.
I’ve been doing a lot of technical writing - I just put the finishing touches on my third of three articles for LASA’s ICT Hub Knowledgebase, I’m writing an article on Open Office Base for the next issue of Linux Identity Magazine, and, of course, I’ve been busy writing the NOSI primer. I also have been doing some interesting client projects. So I’m very busy, and enjoying what I’m doing a whole lot!
Oh, and my consulting practice has a new logo, done by the fabulous ALR Design!
