Resources

Here are a few of the web resources we find very helpful to nonprofit professionals seeking information technology resources.

TechSoup.org - for articles, discussions and discounted software

NTEN.org - for sector-wide technology dialogue, research and convening

Idealware.org - for software reviews and research

National Council for Voluntary Organisations's ICT Hub publications - planning guides

Network for Good's Learning Center - for web, email and online strategies

The Case Foundation's Social Media Tutorials for Nonprofits

If you're looking for resources on a specific topic, we suggest you go to our online bookmarks at http://www.delicious.com/highwayt.

WORKSHOP LINKS and RESOURCES

Social Media: Introduction to the Tools - January 18, 2011
View the slides online here
 
Social Media: Keep it Simple and Strategic Web Workshop - October 22, 2010
For the U.P. Nonprofit Conference sponsored by the Great Lakes Center for Youth Development
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Tech Essentials Webinar - October 19, 2010
View the recorded webinar here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Free and Low Cost Tools - October 6, 2010
For the Center for Nonprofit Resources in Toledo, Ohio
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Overview of Salesforce and Google Apps - September 15, 2010
For the statewide meeting of Volunteer Centers of Michigan in Okemos, Michigan
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.
Other resources mentioned included:
- Tools that show social information within email, such as www.rapportive.com,www.xobni.com, and the Social Connector for Microsoft Outlook.

Free and Low Cost Tools Webinar - August 27, 2010
For the Ohio Provider Resource Association
View the recorded webinar here.
View the chat transcript here.
Other resources:
http://www.smartsheet.com/

Free and Low Cost Tools - August 12, 2010
For the Ohio Society of Association Executives in Canton, Ohio
View the handout online here.

Social Networking for Nonprofits - July 21, 2010
For Nonprofit Conference held at Madonna University in Detroit, Michigan
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.
Other resources:
- Ning, Spruz and Groupsite all provide options for creating social networks for private groups.
- Two postings regarding LinkedIn use by nonprofits at WildApricot's blog. One on basic configuration, the other on more recent content-sharing features.
- Posting at John Haydon's site on "8 Simple Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile."

Basics of Social Networking - June 23, 2010
For the Center for Nonprofit Resources in Toledo, Ohio
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Free and Low Cost Tools You Can Use - June 23, 2010
For the Center for Nonprofit Resources in Toledo, Ohio
View the handout here.
Other resources:
Options for multi-platform password management tools include:
- LastPass
- 1Password

Getting Past Age: Managing Technology Changes - June 17, 2010
For Generations Conference sponsored by ONEplace in Kalamazoo, Michigan
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Social Media: Tools & Uses - May 14 and 21, 2010
For the Sloan Foundation in New York City, New York
View the handout here.
Other resources:
- Educational "vodcasting" info (the case study I'd mentioned is in the "Examples of podcasting in the classroom).
Things consider in proposals:
1. Data / Platform
How will the data from the project be shared? Is the data accessible via the web for others to manipulate, use and analyze? Is there an API (application programming interface) that simplifies access to the data or system(s)? How will the data be preserved? Are there any restrictions on the use of the data by others?
2. Promotion
How will social media be used to share and promote awareness of the project? Which social media networks make the most sense to leverage?
3. Process
Is the proposal constructed to enable as many people to engage in the process as possible? Are open systems a viable option (e.g., wiki environments or various crowdsourcing tools)? Does the project leverage existing tools or low-costcomponents where feasible (e.g., low cost mass storage systems, such as Amazon's Simple Storage Service)?
Social Media & Conferences
- The Backchannel, book and website by Cliff Atkinson.
- "More than just passing notes in class? The Twitter-enabled backchannel"
- "Social Media Enabling Your Conferences: A Tech4Society Case Study"
Social Bookmarking
- Example of tagging a set of sites with the tag "sloan":
http://delicious.com/highwayt/sloan
Basic Listening; Setting up a public set of RSS feeds for sharing
- "How to Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic" by Marshall Kirkpatrick
- "How To: Create a Listening Dashboard for Your Organization" by Amy Sample Ward
Suggested Reading for Broader Context
- "Disrupting Philanthropy: Technology and the Future of the Social Sector" by Lucy Bernholz with Edward Skloot and Barry Varela
- "Working Wikily 2.0: Social Changes with a network mindset" by Diana Scearce, Gabriel Kasper, and Heather McLeod Grant
Multitasking
- Brief article regarding study done at Stanford on multi-tasking.
- Blog post covering Linda Stone's talk on "continuous partial attention"
Collaboration Tools / Web meeting resources
- A recent handout from a workshop provides a wide range of resources for online collaboration and meetings.

Free and Low Cost Tools - May 12, 2010
For the Nonprofit Alliance in Coldwater, Michigan
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Accidental Techie Webinar - May 11, 2010
View the recorded webinar here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.
A few resources mentioned in the discussion:
- For Macs, take a look at utility software such as Yasu or Cocktail. Or, follow guides, such as the one linked to here.
- Norton Ghost is an alternative solution for disk imaging, and is available from TechSoup. More about disk imaging in the linked TechSoup article here.

Website Basics - April 28, 2010
For the Nonprofit Network in Jackson, Michigan
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Basics of Social Networking - April 22, 2010
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Collaboration Tools Discussion - April 21, 2010
For the Nonprofit Network in Jackson, Michigan
View the resource list for the discussion.

Practical Tech Tools - April 17, 2010
For PFLAG Meeting in Jackson, Michigan
View the handout here.

Tech Essentials Webinar - April 2010
View the recorded webinar here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Social Media - March 2010
For the Cook Family Foundation in Owosso, Michigan
View the handout here.
Additional resources from the session:
1. RedPen21 has several useful templates for planning communications.
2. Gavin Clabaugh makes some excellent points that I agree with regarding social media.
3. And, as if to prove my point that these tools are changing rapidly, during the time I was presenting:
- Twitter redesigned their homepage
- A Facebook memo was released signaling a change in the term "become a fan" to "like"
4. One additional person to follow, if you're interested in keeping up on "cutting edge" use of these tools is Steve Rubel.
5. For the people having issues with postings NOT showing up even though you're a "fan" of a page, two things to try:
- Re-fan the page
- Increase the number of feeds shown: "select "Most Recent" for your newsfeeds. there is an "Edit Options" link right at the centre bottom of your newsfeeds in your home page. Select the link and try to increase "Maximum number of friends shown in Live Feed" from 250 to 500. you should now see more recent newsfeeds.
hope this helps."
6. There are a couple of articles listing 20 and 10 commonly used hashtags for nonprofits.  
7. For a bit more info on how Facebook is gradually "opening up" and becoming less of a "closed garden", see this post at O'Reilly.
8. Michael Gilbert's post emphasizes the need to focus on the communication preferences of the people with which you engage.
9. Two useful posts on privacy practices: one on Facebook settings, the other on more general policies and practices from TechSoup. And a thoughtful recent speech by Danah Boyd on privacy issues. (And, if you really want to "geek out", an excellent piece by Don Norman pointing out that security is about much more than just well chosen passwords.)

How Social Media Changes our Work - March 19, 2010
For the Nonprofit Alliance in Battle Creek, MI
View the handout here.

Database Webinar - March 9, 2010
View the recorded webinar here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.
Additional resources mentioned included Idealware's "A Few Good Tools: Low Cost Constituent Databases" article.

Social Media overview - February 2010
For the Volunteer Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan
View the handout here.

Introduction to Social Media - February 19, 2010
For the Nonprofit Alliance in Battle Creek, Michigan
View the handout here.

Tech Planning and Essentials - February 17, 2010
View the handout online here.
Dry erase board image from the session.

Effective Virtual Meetings Webinar - February 9, 2010
View the slides online here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the handout here.

Website Basics for Nonprofits Webinar - January 12, 2010
View the slides online here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the handout here.

Choosing a Database - December 11 & 14, 2009
Battle Creek, Michigan and Webinar
View the slides online here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the handout here.
Link to database videos from MAP Techworks at YouTube.

Volunteer Management Tech Resources - December 9, 2009
For the United Way in Perrysburg, Ohio
View the handout here.
Additional Notes:
- MP3Tunes syncs local music files to the web.
- Remote access to systems can happen in a variety of ways.  Simplest is by installing software on the computer to be accessed, such as GotoMyPC.com or LogMein.com.  Many Microsoft operating system versions also support built-in remote access, using some form of "remote desktop" software. Third-party tools, such as VNC (virtual network computing), also enable remote access. Enterprise-level systems, notably Citrix, can "virtualize" entire systems, enabling virtualized desktops.

Free and Low Cost Tools Webinar - December 8, 2009
View the slides online here.
View the chat transcript here.
View the handout here.

Free and Low Cost Tools - November 18, 2009
For the Center for Nonprofit Resources in Toledo, Ohio
View the handout here.
Other resources discussed/mentioned during the session:
- OpenOffice.org is a free, open-source full featured office suite.
- Simple local hard drive backup device: Rebit.
- Online backup, with home and business versions: Mozy, including a discount for nonprofit organizations.
- Source for discounted software include TechSoup, CCBNonprofits, andCDW's Nonprofit services.
- Lots of website-related content can be found at Idealware.org.
- One additional tool for online document editing -- with amazing fonts -- is Adobe's Buzzword.
- Two additional tools for SMALL (3-person) web meetings that work really well are FuzeMeeting and Acrobat Connect.
- Also, there is not any way to edit Microsoft Publisher files online that I can find.

Website Basics for Nonprofits - November 13, 2009
For the Nonprofit Alliance in Battle Creek, Michigan
View the slides online here.
View the handout here.

Free and Low Cost Resources - November 2009
For the NASCO Institute meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan
View the handout here.

Accidental Techie Webinar - November 2009
View the handout here.

Database workshop - October 2009
For the Ohio Provider Resource Association meeting in Dublin, Ohio
View the handout here.

Website workshop - October 2009
For the Ohio Provider Resource Association meeting in Dublin, Ohio
View the handout here.

Social Media workshop - October 2009
For the Ohio Provider Resource Association meeting in Dublin, Ohio
View the handout here.

Facilitated discussion session notes - October 2009
For the Ohio Provider Resource Association meeting in Dublin, Ohio
http://www.infod.com/ - Document imaging
http://www.netsupport-inc.com/ - Remote assistance tool
http://www.zolved.com/ - on-demand, free, single-user support (based on VNC & firewall route-around complement)
http://www.gwi.com/Service-Desk-Software