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NComputing - Shared Computing Simplified
Here at TechSoup, we are often on the lookout for simple but effective technology that organizations can use to bring greater access to their constituents. NComputing is one of those companies that is heavily invested in that mission, and their technology has the potential to make an impact in bridging the digital divide in both developed and developing parts of the world.
Constructive Disruption: Advancing Social Change Through the Cloud
Jane Meseck, Microsoft Corporation The technology scene today is distinguished by the growing connectivity among devices, mobile phones, the PC, and the browser, which enable people and organizations to access information, communicate, and collaborate in more powerful ways. This convergence is being driven by widespread penetration of mobile devices (up to 4 billion people now have access), advances in software innovation and powerful applications, and the maturation of the internet providing a gateway for "cloud" computing where data and applications sit and run over the web. ...
The Social Sector Cloud
Lucy Bernholz, Blueprint R+D Once upon a time, just a little more than a century ago, every factory that wanted to run its systems on electricity had to build its own electrical generating system. Thomas Edison and a few other entrepreneurs put an end to this by building an electrical grid - so factory owners could focus on making shirts or chairs or widgets and not on running their own electrical plant. Cloud computing offers us all the same freedom for our information infrastructure. Most of us now host all of our applications and our data and our email systems documents/spreadsheets, ...
Charities in the Cloud: Why the Hype Might Not Be Quite Hypey Enough
David Geilhufe, NetSuite, Inc. Simply put, the cloud by its very nature offers you better, more effective software solutions while saving your organization time, money and effort. Cloud solutions increase the probability of success and reduce the costs of failure. They support and extend the larger trends that are shaping both charity and business operations -- whether those trends are flex time, impact measurement, real time data, or open APIs -- and allow you to gain the benefits of those larger trends without really having to think about it much. My own organization (a cloud ...
Cloud Computing for Small Nonprofits: Lessons Learned from 5 Years in the Cloud
Judi Sohn, C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition When C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition started in 2005, cloud computing wasn't the buzz word it is today. It was simply the only way we could operate and build the organization. I was first touched by colon cancer in 1998 when my father was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. When he died in 1999, I connected with a community of colorectal cancer patients, caregivers, and family members online. In the years since, we were spread out across the country, working on various cancer-related projects and interests. Nancy Roach, a cancer survivor and ...
How to: Getting Your Head (and Org) into the Clouds
Rob Jordan, Idealist Consulting So you may have already heard all the great things that happen when you move your technical solutions into "The Cloud": Automated back ups; ability to forgo networks; automated upgrades; ability to intermingle hardware; lower maintenance; virtual office space, thicker hair and better dating life (well, most of those anyway.) Idealist Consulting specializes in moving and supporting organizations that are interested in "getting into the cloud" and with over 180 clients we have a good idea of what it takes to get there. In roughly ...
How Telecommunications Is Changing Work for Nonprofits
Jacob Griscom, BetterWorld Telecom [Ed. Note: This article was originally published in a slightly different form on TechSoup.] Thanks to advances in communications technology, the daily commute to work for many people has transformed from a stressful car ride through heavy traffic to an easy stroll to the home office. This growing trend, often described as telecommuting or e-commuting, reflects a fundamental change from the traditional concept of work (performed in an office, on a nine-to-five schedule) to a more adaptive, results-based one. Telecommunications -- including Internet, ...
Get a Special Rate on the 2nd International Fundraising Conference
The 2nd Annual International Fundraising eConference is coming up May 11-13, and simply because you're reading this blog, you qualify for 25% off. Register by April 13th to attend for just $199! > Register for the 2010 IFC Online here "Why should I attend", you ask? Because you -- and everybody at your organization, for that matter -- can learn the latest and greatest fundraising techniques from some world-class speakers without leaving the comforts of your own office, beachhouse, or bedroom. That's right: the registration fee is for a site license, so your entire staff ...
QR Codes: My Favorite SXSWi Find
Being the nerd that I am, nothing tickles me quite like data moving around magically (unless it's a bacon chocolate bar or the sound of my kid & hubby laughing). By now, you've all heard me say that data and our ability to manage, manipulate, visualize, and generally tame it will be the greatest challenge for our sector in the coming decade. So I was delighted to get to SXSWi and discover QR Codes. Think of a QR Code as a bar code on steroids. The acronym stands for "Quick Response" Code and the great thing about them is that they can store almost any kind of data -- and ...
Free Webinar on March 25: Is Salesforce CRM Right for Your Organization?
Salesforce.com is a popular cloud computing customer relationship management (CRM) database that’s used by tens of thousands of companies around the globe. Nonprofits are utilizing Salesforce CRM to manage donors, activists, community members, contacts and more. Through the Salesforce.com Foundation product donation program, qualified 501(c)(3) organizations are able to receive a donation of 10 Salesforce CRM licenses. If you want to learn more, join us for this upcoming free webinar. Is Salesforce CRM Right for Your Organization? Thursday, March 25, 11 a.m. Pacific time (2 p.m. Eastern)In ...
Guest Post: Next Generation of Donors Meet the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leadership at NTEN
Tad Druart, Convio Anecdotally and intuitively, you know that changing demographics and technology are driving a shift in your engagement with donors, volunteers, event participants and other people your organization relies on to fulfill your mission. That's one of the reasons you soak up all NTEN has to offer about technology and engagement. Do a Google search and you can find a great deal of research on virtually all aspects of interests, attitudes and aptitudes for Gen Y, Gen X, Boomers and the Matures. What has been missing is information that how different generations learn about, ...
One of Many: Tenderloin Technology Lab Offers a Chance to Reboot
This post is part of a series highlighting TechSoup member organizations' achievements. "The same way there's this whole food network around feeding people who are hungry, technology is now almost as basic a human right as food." That's coming from Karl Robillard, manager of San Francisco's Tenderloin Technology Lab, in a discussion we had recently about the lab's role in the community. Formed from a partnership between the nonprofit St. Anthony Foundation — which actually serves up food to 2,600 people every day — and fellow nonprofit San Francisco Network Ministries, the lab provides ...
5 Questions: Data Data Everywhere: Drowning in a Sea of Analytics (Part 2)
Ed. Note: As we prepare for the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we wanted share a wee bit of the wisdom our speakers will be serving up, so as not to overwhelm you when you get to Atlanta. We're asking them all to share their answers to five very important questions. Speaker: Marissa Goldsmith, Beaconfire Consulting Session: Data Data Everywhere: Drowning in a sea of Analytics 1. What's the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010? Analytics integration and interpretation. A web site is no longer your only (and in some cases, primary) presence on the Internet. To ...
5 Questions: Data Data Everywhere: Drowning in a sea of Analytics
Ed. Note: As we prepare for the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we wanted share a wee bit of the wisdom our speakers will be serving up, so as not to overwhelm you when you get to Atlanta. We're asking them all to share their answers to five very important questions. Speaker: Dan Michel, Feeding America Session: Data Data Everywhere: Drowning in a sea of Analytics 1. What's the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010? Integration. All nonprofits have had presences in many different tools serving different audiences. The next step is to integrate all tools and ...
No Trees Were Harmed in the Making of This Conference
A green IT travel reduction practice that has been getting more and more adoption lately are virtual conferences. NTEN, for instance, is starting to do more of them. Virtual conferences are basically talks or presentations streamed over the web to be watched or heard in real time or sometimes at viewer convenience. They're usually in the form of a string of presentations over the course of a few hours to as much as a full day. They can also include virtual exhibitors. It's a relatively new medium, so reviews on them are mixed, for instance Judith Hurwitz's "What's the future of the virtual ...
What the Third Sector Can Learn from the Public Sector
Flickr Photo: h.koppdelaneyTransparent. Participatory. Collaborative. Those are the values President Obama cited last December in his Open Government Initiative. Are those words you usually associate with your government? Even non-conspiracy theorists would likely have a hard time summoning up "transparent" as one of the top three adjectives to describe our government. We would all likely agree that it's a shame: our government should be transparent. Now let's think about our sector. Transparent. Participatory. Collaborative. What do you think? Do those words describe ...
5 Questions: Anatomy of a Video
Ed. Note: As we prepare for the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we wanted share a wee bit of the wisdom our speakers will be serving up, so as not to overwhelm you when you get to Atlanta. We're asking them all to share their answers to five very important questions. Speaker: Michael Hoffman, See3 Session: Anatomy of a Video: Confessions From Organizations Big and Small 1. What's the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010? The widespread adoption of social media is clearly the most important trend for nonprofit technology in 2010. While there are still ...
Update from CDI Mobile Telecentre and How You Can Help
Earlier this week, we told you about TechSoup partner CDI Chile's plan to restore connectivity to Chilean NGOs. The CDI Mobile Telecentre is now on the road, connecting individuals to loved ones and connecting NGOs to resources helping them get back on their feet. Today, the telecentre is in Lota, one of the poorest cities and Chile and one of the communities hit worst by the earthquake. CDI director Javier Figueroa reports: Thanks to the rapid response from CDI Chile's team and the initial funding from the Canadian Embassy, 10 days after the earthquake, the community of Lota has been the ...
5 Questions: Bringing Community Organizing Into Online Campaigns
Ed. Note: As we prepare for the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference, we wanted share a wee bit of the wisdom our speakers will be serving up, so as not to overwhelm you when you get to Atlanta. We're asking them all to share their answers to five very important questions. Speaker: Debra Askanase, Community Organizing 2.0 Session: Bringing Community Organizing Into Online Campaigns 1. What's the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010? To sum it up: the rise of mobile technology. I think that the rate of smartphone adoption worldwide will continue to grow tremendously, ...
New ESRI Products and GIS Resources
Today's big news is that ESRI is expanding its donation program to include four new products (ArcGIS Publisher, ArcGIS Network Analyst, ArcPad, and ArcEditor) and an updated version of its ArcView software. ESRI is also letting us loosen its donation restrictions: qualified organizations can now request two donations of ArcView and ArcPad a year, with no limit for other products. In case you're not familiar with ESRI, it's a software company that makes professional geographical information systems (GIS) software. Broadly defined, GIS refers to the use of a map format to collect and analyze ...
