Web 2.0 and NCCWCSL

Posted on by
Reply

From Nancy to contacts involved in state student advisory councils and NCCWCSL, 5/16:

Audrey, Lynn – have the topics of SecondLife, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. come up with any of the student advisory council folks?

Terri – is this something that’s going to be touched upon at NCCWSL (I know in 2005 there was a blogroll developed but things have moved pretty far beyond that).

From Andrea Minkow, 5/17:

For this years conference we have utilized facebook as a tool for organizing and outreach.  It has been successful for the SAC students and their cohort to communicate about the conference.  It is going to be my recommendation that we expand this type of communication/outreach effort for next years conference.

We are also planning on having a cyber cafe on site at the conference.  We want students to be able to blog, etc.  I like the idea of posting tweets, but I am not sure how to work this from the back end – maybe you can help me set this up?  Any additional recommendations on how to enhance this part of the programming are more than welcome!

Other ideas:

  • Encourage attendees to tag conference related web info with “nccwcsl” (or whatever the current style guide says) in del.icio.us. They could tag their blogs with this if they’re comfortable with making those addresses public to those who know about the nccwcsl tag.
  • Setup accounts (and perhaps a special board) at http://discuss.aauw.org for the attendees — so that those who don’t have their own blog would have somewhere to put comments/questions and connect with each other after the conference.
  • Podcasting short interviews (or longer sessions) with the attendees. Would require someone with facility as an “interviewer”.

All of these  are hypothetical at this point — and the attendees themselves may have better ways to use the ‘net to share what’s happening at the conference, to both build community among the attendees, share the excitement with those who may wish to attend next year, and make the whole thing “real” to the AAUW members who may be convinced to increase their support.

If any of these ideas “work” for NCCWCSL, perhaps there’s still time to apply the best of them to the AAUW Convention in Phoenix. See, in particular, the podcasts from the STC (Society for Technical Communications) conference: techwritervoices.com

Wake up call?

Posted on by
1

On the Information_Systems_Forum@yahoogroups there was this exchange as part of a longer thread on Management Approaches to Non-Profit Technology:

Dave Pentecost

I’m sure that there are non-profits which are inefficient and wasteful, endangering their mission. But I would weigh in on the idea that many non-profits also run on intangibles – an inspiring leader, a savvy development person. From bitter experience I can say that when the business experts (often on the board of directors) decide that it is time to make the organization more serious and efficient, that organization runs a great risk of losing its way.

This seems to happen around the 10-year mark in an organization’s history. Board members who previously thought “what a lovely little organization I’m part of” suddenly decide they know more about non-profit management and service than the people who created it.

Having survived a year in which the efficiency experts and their proxies failed to raise any funds (you must have good ideas and know your constituents and funders, things the business people may lack) and exhausted reserves. Only the nerve and dedication of the founders pulled things back on track.

Deborah Elizabeth Finn

To that I would add, “and pick your battles carefully.”

I dislike being a defeatist, but sometimes an organization is so badly broken that it can’t be fixed by one nonprofit techie. In that case, it’s a heartbreaking waste of time, effort, and talent to hang in there hoping you can realize your vision for the organization.

Unfortunately, the same virtues that draw people into mission-based organizations can the ones that impel them stay in dysfunctional situations rather than moving on.

As the poet said (in a very different context), it’s an “expense of spirit in a waste of shame.”

Are my ears burning?