by gregoryheller | Oct 29, 2008 | Uncategorized
It goes without saying that we at CivicActions have been watching the presidential race with a passion that borders on addiction. We have also been excited by recent developments and new uses of technology in the service of civic engagement (which was, in part, what our company was founded on 4 years ago). One technology that I am totally psyched to see in action is microblogging, specifically the work that TwitterVoteReport.com is doing on real time election/voting condition monitoring. If you are a twitter user you should definitely check out the site and get involved. If you were looking for a reason to try out twitter, well here it is! You also might want to read my blog on organization-based use of Twitter. One of our newest clients, VoterAction.org is also monitoring the election and asking people to phone in their election report. They will have on the ground operations in a number of states, and they will be posting some of the vote report calls on their website. We have been working with them to make some last minute updates before the election and also consider how they might use some new technology like Twitter or SMS to receive vote reports. I recently saw (via Twitter from Beth Kanter) a really great survey of how social media has been used in the 2008 elections and what non-profit organizations can learn from those experiences, which had this to say about Twitter: Twitter gives you 140 characters to make your point (“tweet”) to an international community of people interested in following your comments. Election 2008 searches the endless stream of...
by gregoryheller | Oct 18, 2008 | Uncategorized
Amy Sample Ward at NetSquared posted the following question for the Net2ThinkTank: What are the key questions nonprofit orgs should ask to help them determine how to prioritize social media training and experimentation as they do their technology and organization-strengthening planning? I provide Social Media Training and Coaching to our clients. While there are many good reasons to make social media a part of an organization’s overall internet strategy, there are plenty of wrong reasons too. Organizations that are unfamiliar with the social media landscape (the majority of organizations) are often initially motivated by the wrong reasons (eg: the executive director heard a story about twitter on CNN, and wants some). We work with clients to explain the how they may benefit from a social media strategy, and often do that in session that can offer a survey of the available tools and also help answer some common questions that the organization may have before going all in and setting up trainings for staff. I am the first to admit that social media is not for every organization and we can often figure that out throug an initial session in which we answer the following questions: Goals – Identify the goals of the social media strategy. What do you hope to accomplish by going on Twitter? or FaceBook? Can those goals even be achieved on the sites you are considering using? Who – Who in your organization is going to be responsible for coordinating your social media efforts? Are you willing to budget for their time and commit it for a long enough period for the efforts to pay...
by gregoryheller | Oct 16, 2008 | Uncategorized
What does Free Software have to do with ending poverty? More than you probably think. It is not just at the core of consumer products like the Android loaded G1 phone from HTC, or the One Laptop Per Child XO. Linux operating systems like Ubuntu are deployed by community technology centers around the globe providing access to the internet, and all the information, data and resources that come with it. The Free Software (while having $0 in licensing costs) also reduces the cost of hardware, and allows programmers to improve upon it, and share their improvements without fear. It is not just desktop software, gigabytes have probably been spilled on the benefits of free software running web sites and web applications. Indeed Free Software is at the core of our business: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and Drupal. Our engineering team is regularly contributing to the Drupal Project through patches and modules. Recently, many have been working on i18N (internationalization and multi lingual support) compatibility for a number of modules important modules. The work that we do on these and other modules can (and likely will) be leveraged by countless organizations including NGOs working to erradicate poverty. In turn, we leverage the contributions of thousands of other developers to deliver functionality for our clients working on issues including Human Rights (Amnesty International and Witness) and the environment (Rare Conservation – forthcoming). Other consulting firms like Development Seed work with similar clients including the United Nations Millenium Campaign’s Stand Against Poverty. Together we all can build a toolset that is within the reach and meets the needs of organizations working on...
by gregoryheller | Oct 13, 2008 | Uncategorized
During a recent client meeting, I had the opportunity to explain Twitter to an organization with very little social media experience. I think my explanation may be of use to others who are just starting to consider using Twitter or other micro-blogging platforms (though I would argue that Twitter is where the people are and thus is where any organization looking to jump in should be. The Basics of Twitter Posts are limited to 140 characters and can be made via the web, sms (cell phone text message) or a variety of 3rd party desktop applications. My favorites among them are those based on Adobe Air, and right now I am vacilating between TweetDeck and Twhirl (not to be confused with Twurl from Tweetburner which also lets you post to Twitter via a bookmarklet in your browser and will shorten urls for you too!). Twitter is a broadcast medium. This is important: unlike email, it is not an imposition, people choose to tune in or not. You can “follow” other people on Twitter and others can follow you. When you follow someone, you will recieve their Tweets. Tweets can be protected or unprotected. If they are protected all followers must be approved and only approved followers can see protected updates. Twitter is ephemeral. People rarely go back more than a few hours to see tweets they have missed, though you can search Tweets using Twemes or Summize. Twitter is instant. Many tweeters (or tweeps as some people say) have the website or a twitter client up and receiving a constant stream of tweets all day long when they are...
by gregoryheller | Oct 2, 2008 | Uncategorized
<p>this is pretty neat. would be great if it could do audio and video!<a target="_new" href="http://www.utterli.com/u/utt/u-ODAxMTg5Ng">Mobile post</a> sent by <a target="_new" href="http://www.utterli.com/gregoryheller">gregoryheller</a> using <a target="_new" href="http://www.utterli.com">Utterli</a>. <a target="_new" href="http://www.utterli.com/u/utt/u-ODAxMTg5Ng"><img border="0" src="http://www.utterli.com/u/reply_count/u-ODAxMTg5Ng" alt="reply-count" /></a> <a target="_new"...
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