New Look For This Blog

Thanks to Bryan Veloso for his theme ChaoticSoul!  Also thanks to Free Blog Headers for Theme Designers, Background Desktop Images

My mantra:  “A website should be as wonderful and up-to-date as a fresh baked loaf of bread!”  Using existing open source stuff helps to mitigate design and implementation costs.  Off-the-rack solutions may seem generic or unethical, but if we trackback and give due credit, we all win.  Besides, I am just gonna wanna change it again in a few weeks anyway…

Thanks again to the open source community at wordpress and beyond for your awesome resources!

EVERYBODY DO THIS:

The folks at Digtrends are able to offer this easy way to donate a little time to raise money for those struck by the Burmese Cyclone… Here is an excerpt:

“As part of our commitment to the people of Burma, Digital Influence Group will contribute $10 to the U.S. Campaign for Burma for each unique, non-spam comment or trackback to this post, up to $5,000 total. The deadline for commenting is May 31, 2008, because for Burma: It Can’t Wait…”

What a wonderfully simple and elegant way to inspire participation and raise funds to help! Tell a friend, please!

Is Your Organization Ready for On-line Social Networking?

GuideStar Article excerpt:

Now that user-generated content—blogs, video, discussion groups, chats, and so forth—is the norm and users expect their Web experience to provide interactivity in addition to information, many nonprofits are faced with deciding when and how to use on-line social networking as part of their Web presence.

The simple brochureware site (one that just contains information about the organization) and direct donation site of the past are no longer enough. Fortunately, it is not necessary to build your own on-line social networking site. But you do need to know how to become part of an existing community, and tie it to your existing Web presence, to use social networking effectively… Read the entire article here

OK… This is a good jumping off point for me to comment.  This article hammers it out plainly for all to see that a new paradigm of content creation and interactivity is now a mission critical approach for any organization wishing to grow; public, private, for-profit or not, its time for all of us to dedicate ourselves to creating interactive content at our websites.

This is going to be difficult for some of us.  As I said before, most people over the age of 45 that I talk to claim to have difficulty understanding the big picture here.  Although I urge them to punch their way out their paper-bag-learning-curve, some of the comments I hear rise to a level of technophobia–making it difficult to communicate and instruct people on what is really a simple concept:

Research other website content, tools and resources

Model the best examples in your approach

Trumpet your organization’s message in these ways

Share and post often

Adopt appropriate technologies to save time like RSS feeds and Feed Readers

If you pay attention and take it as it comes, eventually you will be a BlogStar!  Developing audience increasing participation and learning from other organizations will help your org improve possibility frontiers going forward.

Then again, you could always take the wait and see approach.  But trust me, doing this stuff really is fun and extremely helpful.

Searching for Friends and Finding Tragedy…

As the days turn to months and years go by in the flash of an eye, nostalgia can creep up on us and suddenly we are on a mission to find that old girlfriend or boyfriend or whomever. This morning I woke up from a dream in which a very good friend of mine (whom I hadn’t seen in nearly 10 years) was driving on a dangerous road and rammed into a freshly carved hillside. We weren’t hurt in my dream, but it startled me awake and so I plopped down in front of my computer and entered his name:

Fortunately Lyne has an unusual name so I could dispense with the Billiondy Gazzilliondy hits that Google often returns in a basic search.

Unfortunately, my friend has suffered a catastrophic loss of his daughter and wife 2 years ago. Here is the sad story as found at the first and only link relating to my dear old friend, Lyne {pronounced “Line”}:

Oakland Tribune December 20, 2006

Fifth-grader from Union City to be memorialized Saturday McKenna

By Linh Tat

UNION CITY — Holding a memorial service for his daughter just days before she was to turn 11 is not how Lyne Berry had envisioned celebrating her birthday.

Nor is it how he had envisioned observing his own birthday, which falls one day after the service, on Christmas Eve.

But that’s what he must do.

On Saturday, the Union City resident will hold a memorial service for McKenna Berry, a fifth-grader at Searles Elementary School, who died after a car accident east of Gilroy last weekend.

McKenna, who would have turned 11 on Dec. 26, was knocked unconscious when the vehicle her mother was driving flipped several times on Highway 152 near Pacheco Pass and ended up on the other side of the median Saturday afternoon, said Starlyn Berry, McKenna’s sister, who also was in the 1994 Ford Explorer. No other vehicles were hit.

McKenna and her mother, Ann Berry of Gilroy, were airlifted to hospitals in the area. McKenna died Saturday afternoon from blunt- force injuries, and her mother was pronounced brain-dead the next day at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, according to the coroner’s office in Stanislaus County.

Starlyn, 15, a sophomore at James Logan High School in Union City, sustained a fractured knee and bruises. Another passenger, Leonard Gutierrez, 38, of Gilroy, suffered major injuries and was taken to a hospital, according to the Gilroy Dispatch.

Starlyn said she does not know why her mother lost control of the car while driving in the fast lane. Alcohol was not a factor, and everyone was wearing seat belts, Lyne Berry said police officers told him. Lyne and Ann Berry divorced about seven years ago.

An animal lover, McKenna dreamed of becoming a veterinarian and had asked for more Littlest Pet Shop toy animals for Christmas to add to her collection of about 30 “pets.”

McKenna used to own cats and rabbits when she lived with her mother in Morgan Hill, and she helped take care of a snake at her father’s place. McKenna, who believed in Santa Claus, also loved swimming, riding her bicycle around the neighborhood, playing outdoors and meeting new people. “She would say hi to anybody. It didn’t matter who you were, what you were. If you were a person, you were her friend,” Lyne Berry said.

Fifth-grade teacher Vince Furia noted McKenna’s love of hula hoops and of animals — she had surrounded her desk with photographs of her cats earlier this year.

After some bumps in the road, when she first enrolled at Searles Elementary about 11/2 years ago, McKenna was starting to excel academically, Furia said.

“I was beginning to see how bright she really was,” Furia said. “She really emerged as a very strong reader, someone who just had a natural intelligence and who could give intelligent answers if she really applied herself.”

To help pay for medical and memorial service expenses, Berry has established the McKenna Berry Memorial Fund, account No. 603062639 at Bank of the West, 33301 Alvarado-Niles Road, Union City, 94587.

Any money remaining after bills have been paid will be donated to a local animal shelter in McKenna’s name, her father said.

Saturday’s memorial service will begin at 1 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 35450 Newark Blvd., Newark.

“She had this electric personality that grabbed you,” Berry said. “She’s going to be missed by everybody that knew her.”

Too Much of a Good Thing; Spamming Craiglist–WTF?

This woman and many others like her are spamming the job feeds on craigslist with promises of “wealth building” programs.

I am so sick of seeing this crap!

Does anybody ever fall for this crap?

Heres the thing: I could spend my time flagging everything but I really don’t have the time. The ironic thing is if people stopped spamming the site, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED TO RE-POST AS OFTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get a clue out there: Spam reduces visibility, impeaches credibility and creates a whole heck of a lot of wasted time!

Social Return on Investment

In the age of “accountability,” Return On Investment (ROI) is a crucial exercise. So I found this blog site and wanted to share it with y’all. Looking forward to learning more about evaluation methodologies for philanthropic enterprise… Click on the image below to visit Social Return on Investment:

Does Your Website Suck?

During a recent workshop I was asked: “How do you know if your website needs an update?”

[HA! I laughed to myself; of course it needs to be updated!]

Thats when I brought up a favorite site of mine: Web Pages That Suck

At that site you will see a couple of cool checklists if you want a source beside the one I provide below…

Website content should be as warm and wonderful to behold as a loaf of fresh baked bread. Not necessarily everyday updates (even though many sites update to the minute these days), but frequently enough to give your audience relevance to your mission, service and success. While most nonprofit institutions have not gotten savvy to the role of Social Media in trumpeting their mission; there are other concerns that might also interfere with delivering a message to new website viewers. Unfortunately, underfunded webmasters often don’t independently evaluate their design according to these standards:

Access for disabled users

Aesthetic appeal

Authority

Availability

Clarity

Completeness

Concise

Consistency in layout

Customizability

Error support

Engages Users

Freshness

Functionality

Interactivity

Intuitive Interface

Navigability

Organization

Practicality

Predictability

Readable

Scanablity

Subscribe-ability

User-Centered approach

If you use this list to guide you as you look at your site, you might become overwhelmed at the amount of work needed to refresh it–especially where it comes to have your audience interact with your site. Go through every link on every page and ask yourself: “Is this how to represent my organization in the best possible way?”

Don’t fret. Its all part of the ongoing struggle to attract people to your mission & service. Success will come if we all recognize the need to constantly question our digital identity. Now, let us break bread and celebrate your fresh, new website!

Go Go Google Gadgets!

Saw this and had an Aha! moment… Google just rolled out its Gadget Builder and the ease of use looks to be phenomenal! Use this simple technology to drive improvements in your organizations’ membership, participation, donations and traffic to your website. Totally cool and most importantly.. Easy to use! Click the image below to go directly to the Google Gadget Builder page ~ have fun!

Much Ado About Nothing; Obama Tells It Like It Is

I want to remain politically neutral at this blog site; this is mainly a professional resource for public consumption and I am not supporting any candidate publicly at this time…

So this whole big “controversy” about Obabma’s “elitist” comments has all of the marks of a true red herring!  Aren’t we all a little bitter right now?  Isn’t freedom of discourse one of the things that makes our country great?

Only weeks ago the Mass Media was accused of letting Barack Obama off easy; now they have turned like a rabid pit bull on the mildest of cynical comments.   My what a turnabout!  I don’t get it.

Here is my CyberSoapbox call to action:  let’s rocket past silly town and start focusing on really important stuff like instituting a humanitarian foreign policy, sound environmental and energy policy and waking-up from the American nightmare that is our current mortgage and credit crunch!

Once we have our house in order, I invite us all back to silly town for an extended stay if we wish.

Drafting a Blog Protocol

Normally I wouldn’t just copy and paste another blog as my own, but this time its appropriate because its instructive and I reference the author directly (plus I gave her a bunch of good stuff in her comments!). I make some comments next to the protocol in blue below

First I copied and pasted the protocol Beth’s Blog offers courtesy of her local Easter Seals Chapter:

“Easter Seals Internet Public Discourse Policy SECTION III PART I-9 Approved by board: July 14, 2007

The Internet Public Discourse policy applies to Easter Seals headquarters and to Affiliates.

Easter Seals has always encouraged staff and volunteers to be champions on behalf of the organization by spreading the word about Easter Seals’ work in providing life-changing solutions that help all people with disabilities have equal opportunities to live, learn, work and play. Smart approach!

The rapidly growing phenomenon of blogging, social networks and other forms of online electronic publishing are emerging as unprecedented opportunities for outreach, information-sharing and advocacy. HA HA they get it!

Easter Seals encourages staff members and volunteers to use the Internet to blog and talk about our organization, our services and your work. Our goals are: Excellent to state the goals always!

• To connect with and provide help and hope to children and adults with disabilities and the families who love them;

• To encourage support of Easter Seals’ services and programs; and

• To share the expertise of Easter Seals’ staff and volunteers.

Whether or not an Easter Seals staff member or volunteer chooses to create or participate in a blog or online community on their own time is his or her own decision. However, it is in Easter Seals’ interest that staff and volunteers understand the responsibilities in discussing Easter Seals in the public square known as the World Wide Web.

Guidelines for Easter Seals Bloggers

1. Be Responsible. Blogs, wikis, photo-sharing and other forms of online dialogue (unless posted by authorized Easter Seals personnel) are individual interactions, not corporate communications. Easter Seals staff and volunteers are personally responsible for their posts. Gatekeeper in force

2. Be Smart. A blog or community post is visible to the entire world. Remember that what you write will be public for a long time – be respectful to the company, employees, clients, corporate sponsors and competitors, and protect your privacy.

3. Identify Yourself. Authenticity and transparency are driving factors of the blogosphere. List your name and when relevant, role at Easter Seals, when you blog about Easter Seals-related topics.

4. Include a Disclaimer. If you blog or post to an online forum in an unofficial capacity, make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of Easter Seals. If your post has to do with your work or subjects associated with Easter Seals, use a disclaimer such as this: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t represent Easter Seals’ positions, strategies or opinions.” This is a good practice but does not exempt you from being held accountable for what you write. Great example!

5. Respect Privacy of Others. Don’t publish or cite personal details and photographs about Easter Seals clients, employees, volunteers, corporate partners or vendors without their permission. Any disclosure of confidential information will be subject to the same Easter Seals personnel policies that apply to wrongful dissemination of information via email, conversations and written correspondence. Fair enuf!

6. Write What You Know. You have a unique perspective on our organization based on your talents, skills and current responsibilities. Share your knowledge, your passions and your personality in your posts by writing about what you know. If you’re interesting and authentic, you’ll attract readers who understand your specialty and interests. Don’t spread gossip, hearsay or assumptions. This common sense reminder may prevent an embarrassing situation or liability.

7. Include Links. Find out who else is blogging about the same topic and cite them with a link or make a post on their blog. Links are what determine a blog’s popularity rating on blog search engines like Technorati. It’s also a way of connecting to the bigger conversation and reaching out to new audiences. Be sure to also link to easterseals.com Cool tech suggestion!

8. Be Respectful. It’s okay to disagree with others but cutting down or insulting readers, employees, bosses or corporate sponsors and vendors is not. Respect your audience and don’t use obscenities, personal insults, ethnic slurs or other disparaging language to express yourself. Common sense!

9. Work Matters. Ensure that your blogging doesn’t interfere with your work commitments. Discuss with your manager if you are uncertain about the appropriateness of publishing during business hours. Time management ought to be re-designed so that everyone has a chance to participate in the outreach that the Internet currently affords the organization.

10. Don’t Tell Secrets. The nature of your job may provide you with access to confidential information regarding Easter Seals, Easter Seals beneficiaries, or fellow employees. Respect and maintain the confidentiality that has been entrusted to you. Don’t divulge or discuss proprietary information, internal documents, personal details about other people or other confidential material.” Again, great reminders and thoughtfully communicated! All of the above points could apply to the function of other tasks and activities in the organization–whether or not one call’s it “blogging,” “Social Networking,” or “community outreach,” these are always important considerations for anyone who communicates on behalf of or relationship to a Nonprofit org.

[#7 include links might as well be "Site Sources."]

As a comment at Beth’s Blog I wrote:

Greetings Beth,

I just added you to my Google Reader & blogroll yesterday; Hope everything is well with your Washer..!

Last March 10, I delivered the keynote speech at my local North Valley Community Foundation Council Meeting Titled “Trumpeting Your Mission Service & Success; Web Technologies for North Valley Nonprofits.” (NVCF.org) Essentially it was a primer for blogging and Social Media aps that (when deployed appropriately) ought to expand philanthropic efforts for our regional charities. In our case, in Northern California, we are close to some prime urban areas like SF and Sacramento that get all the glory ~ in order to ‘bring fire to our cave’, our community needs to speak out, speak loud and share in our successes together… At least that was my call to action–so far our local Execs are slow to act upon the simple and wonderful opportunities that exist when Social Media is a part of the plan.

I was confronted by the very same concerns you mention above:

1 Do any nonprofits have a formal blogging policy?
2 How do you determine when a blogging policy is needed?
3 What kind of polices are there?
4 How do organizations create policies?

1) Do any nonprofits have a formal blogging policy?

Of course there is a “formal blogging policy” out there; its just changed names since it was first adopted: Its the “Newsletter” policy and/or the the “PR” policy. Although the technology is different, more dynamic in scope and immediate, blogging is essentially journalism on steroids. Now individuals and orgs have more power than a TV station to deliver and interact with messages & consumers. We ought to be mindful that the messages have not changed as much as our ability to deliver them in more artful and complex ways. Therefore, when modeling a “blog policy” (I will attempt to draft one in my blog in the coming days), I am certain it will look a lot like something we have all seen before.

2) How do you determine when a blogging policy is needed?

Common sense ought to prevail here. Of course, anything off topic and not related directly to an org’s mission should stay private. AND of course there are concerns that advocacy for a particular legislation or candidate may complicate nonprofit status; but again, these are concerns that existed BEFORE “blogging” became a thing. There are technological concerns like spambots sending links to pornography in the comments section–but a competent developer should be able to mitigate these concerns outright. For those orgs with limited budget and no developer to handle these things, self-teaching and research ought to help solve the problem. WordPress has an excellent solution built-in to its platform, other programs that one buys should also have these spam filters.

3) What kind of polices are there?

There are two kinds of policies out there: the ones that work and ones that don’t. IF an org is so worried about liabilities and controversy that they hesitate to join the parade of other orgs that ’see the light’ regarding Social Media they will simply have to wait and watch until their confidence level arises to the extent that they can take the risk. IF on the other hand some protocol is required by the board (like for everything these days) consider using an approach similar to the “gatekeeper” method in Journalism where an article is generated by the beat writer (anyone in the org with a mission-critical message to deliver) & passed on to an editor with responsibility and accountability (and hopefully a flare for great communication) to vet the content appropriately. Chances are there are people on staff that can wear these hats as needed. Again I urge common sense rule.

4) How do organizations create policies?

Well, we just created the policy together. Keeping in mind that Social Media applications such as blogging are new tools for the age old efforts in PR/Journalism/Advertising/Networking etc., we have cut through the “mystery” that surrounds these technologies and re-defined them in task terms. The approach to these communication tasks is based on a common sense approach that includes the guidelines you site above, but most importantly the tasks are mission-critical. To beat the horse dead: Anything that is not “mission critical” ought to remain a private post for a private person. I can imagine how a young staffer on facebook might wax on lyrically about love for a particular candidate. I can’t imagine how that has any place in a 501(c)(3)’s Internet Identity or blog. Separation between private and public is a line best drawn in absolute terms–again common sense prevails.

The mystery of these new Social Media technologies for Baby Boomers is a gap that needs to be closed. I can’t tell you how many times people’s confidence interferes with their understanding; on a daily basis I hear people say things like: “I am totally ignorant of..” or “I don’t have time to learn X/Y/Z..” If we (as consultants) institute a less jargon-y and more practical approach toward instructing about Social Media, Boomers will realize that they really can make it up as they go, its OK to learn on the job and every time they learn something new, they have added to the quality of their personal lives and that translates into improved organizational outcomes.

I would be re-miss if I didn’t let you know that Alexa Valavanis CEO of the NVCF.org is a HUGE fan of yours and without meeting her I wouldn’t have been turned on to your blog as soon. (I like to think I would have found you eventually!) But I too, have become a big fan. Cheers!