How do you keep up?
August 5th, 2008 | Published in Consulting, Nonprofit Tech | 4 Comments
I have been thinking for the last few days about what it means to “keep up” with the technology field, particularly ‘net technology. I’ve been helping a client hire a temporary project manager, and so in the interview process one of the questions I ask is how people keep up with change in the field.
In some ways, I have been blessed with the gift of osmosis. I’m a fantastic book learner, which means I’m a great blog/twitter learner, too. Also, one of the things I do is blog - so I regularly have to process and digest information to write decent blog posts. One of the prompts for this post was also that I’m preparing a post on “cloud computing”, just reviewing what it means, and what it is, and why it’s important - and that will undoubtedly help me to keep up with that whole set of things.
How do you keep up? And, in a bigger picture way, how important do you think it is for people who work with nonprofit organizations on technology issues to keep up? How bleeding edge do we need to be?
August 7th, 2008 at 7:16 am (#)
The question of how bleeding edge we need to be intrigues me. On the one hand, it’s important to kep looking ahead to know what’s coming, and build systems and processes for our nonprofits that will still be relevant next year. On the other hand, the day to day reality of nonprofits is that they AREN’T generally ready to adopt more cutting edge technologies. They don’t have the money, time, or culture for that kind of thing.
The other challenge is that technology now touches so many areas of nonprofits - not just the backoffice. So “keeping up” means so much more than it ever did before.
All I can say is that I am grateful that technology has also provided me with some answers for how to keep up. RSS readers, google alerts and blogs are so key to my existence these days!
August 7th, 2008 at 1:48 pm (#)
I don’t really have a good answer for this yet, because right now, I don’t think that I do keep up, not nearly enough. I’m starting to make a concerted effort to keep up, though. Like Holly wrote, blogs and RSS readers (I use Google Reader) are immensely helpful, and I’m trying to get into the habit of going through all of my tech blog feeds on a daily basis. Even if I just skim most things, it keeps me abreast of what’s big and new and important. I’m also trying to actually read each issue of my Linux Journal and (the somewhat less relevant though still useful) Wired subscriptions I’ve got.
As a nonprofit worker, I don’t think that being an expert on the bleeding edge is important because I’m unlikely to be using most of those technologies, anyhow. But it is useful to be aware of what’s happening on the bleeding edge, because at some point (probably soon) that stuff is going to be pretty standard.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:36 pm (#)
Great question. I echo Holly and Jack’s reliance on blogs/RSS readers, also twitter, friendfeed and professional groups and connections on Facebook. I’m never quite sure, though, that I ~am~ keeping up.
When I’m making my best efforts to try to keep up, I do it in waves, like so many other things I do. There are times when I couldn’t tell you the last time I sent a tweet, and there are other days when I tweet quite actively. I’m in an active phase right now (hence, the comment)!
I feel that the question of how ‘up’ on technology we need to be depends on your role in nonprofit. For me/my organization, it’s not critical that anyone be way out on that bleeding edge. We’re just not there yet. As Jack said, it is helpful and important for someone to be informed, but we don’t have a real need for an expert (yet). I try to be more than just informed, though, for my own reasons- namely that I find it all fascinating and fabulous- but I have to be able to make the time for it. (Plus I hope to be that expert, or close to it, when the time does come!) ;)
August 10th, 2008 at 11:34 pm (#)
I don’t feel like I have to — only look for patterns. Hmm, I feel a blog post coming on.