Tag Archive for 'review'

Networked Nonprofit: Get the book!

Published in resources. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Beth Kanter and Allison Fine‘s book, The Networked Nonprofit, is now out and starting lots of conversations. But what’s everyone talking about? Below I’ve shared some excerpts and resources to get you started and ready to join in!

Getting Started

Let’s start at the beginning: what is a “networked nonprofit” anyway? As Beth and Allison explain:

Networked Nonprofits are simple and transparent organizations. They are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people in shaping and sharing their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize com- munities to provide services, or advocate for legislation. In the long run, they are helping to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place to live.

Networked Nonprofits don’t work harder or longer than other organizations, they work differently. They engage in conversations with people beyond their walls—lots of conversations—to build relationships that spread their work through the network.

Some of What I Like

Something that I think is incredibly important to talk about (because once we are talking about it, the next step is to DO it) is the opportunity we have now to truly focus work on movement building. Our campaigns, services, programs, and even visions can and should be opening up for other collaborators – whether they are individual, free agent supporters or other organizations – to make the biggest, lasting change possible.  As Beth and Allison say,  “But while social media power Networked Nonprofits, they aren’t the only reason nonprofit organizations need to shift their focus from their individual organizations to their networks.” There’s huge potential to be tapped by bringing together free agents and organizations working to build change through a movement.

One thing I always associate with both Beth and Allison is the term “resource.” They both have lots to share and are always looking for ways to contribute back to the community.  As such, I knew that their book would be a great resource and part of what makes it so is the inclusion of reflection questions for every chapter. If you’re reading the book, or if your whole team or organization is reading it, you have great questions to depart from for critical thinking and strategic planning.

One question I liked in particular reminded me of the presentations I’ve done recently focused on Community-Driven Social Impact:

Are there internal processes or conversations that would be appropriate to share for feedback at an earlier stage than you are sharing now?

This reflection questions comes at the end of Chapter 6: Building Trust Through Transparency. Something I discuss in my workshops is that you can’t simply “start” being community-driven, or communicating and expecting a two-way conversation to happen without having in a place the trust and transparency that if the community voices ideas, concerns or passions that they will be met by an organization prepared to respond and possibly act.

Plus lots more – I’m really looking forward to continuing conversations that emerge from the above topics and from The Networked Nonprofit!

Learn More

Review the slides below for an overview and introduction to The Networked Nonprofit. (Hint: remember to click on the “Notes” tab below the slides on SlideShare so you can see the speaker notes that go with each slide!)

Networked Nonprofit Slides

View more presentations from Beth Kanter.

You can learn more about the book on Beth’s blog or Allison’s blog – or visit the book listing on Amazon.com to read reviews, leave a review, and order the book today!

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I’m always honored and humbled to call Beth and Allison both friends and colleagues – it’s my pleasure to share a bit about this great resource they’ve contributed and hope you’ll share your ideas, questions, feedback and thoughts, too!

Published on July 30, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

Video Book Review of Social by Social by Grizzard Communications

Published in socialbysocial. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Earlier this year I presented at the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference and knew I’d have the chance to see many friends and colleagues again, and meet new ones! I also had just three hard copies of Social by Social left and thought I’d create a giveaway for Social by Social. One of the winners was Eric Pratum of Grizzard Communications. I wish I’d had more time to chat with Eric, but that was how I felt of everyone! (Speaking in a session every day meant there wasn’t much down town.)

In Grizzard’s new review series, Eric shares a video book review of the book! Take a look:

I’m so thrilled about his review and honored by the positive response! As far as the downsides he notes:

  • Beginner focused: It’s true; we were commissioned to create a handbook for organizations, communities and individuals just getting started with tools the wanted to keep the book as hands on for those at the beginning of the process as possible.
  • The size: Yes! I, too, was incredibly surprised about how big it was! The design concept was to mimic the orientation of a web page within the book, so you could have comments, information boxes and so on in the side bar with the main column acting as the main content on the page, just like a web site. I think that could have been treated to a slightly narrower product though.
  • The companion: As much as we wanted to give people straightforward and simple information, we also wanted to be sure they had options. The companion is also intended so that if someone comes across a tool that they are unfamiliar with, like vimeo for example, they can easily understand how it may work by seeing it listed as an alternative to youtube. Too much information – noted! We hope it’s still useful!

Thanks to Grizzard and Eric for sharing the review of the book. Check them out at: http://www.grizzard.com

And if you haven’t read the book yet, you can read it online (or buy-on-demand) at: http://socialbysocial.com

Published on June 13, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 3 Comments

Reviewing Tweetnotes from The Extraordinaries

Published in webtools. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Tweetnotes is one of the newest tools from The Extraordinaries. Between SXSWi and 10NTC, I’ve now used it a handful of times and do really like it. I also think it can be better! You can see the embeded versions of the tool on my blog here and here, or you can see examples on the original site for the SXSWi session, Net2 Open Space session, Community Building session, or the Online Campaigning session.

Here’s my list of things I like and things I hope can be improved.

I like it!

  • Embeds: I really like that the entire dashboard is embedable – helping keep the resources and value emerging from the community accessible and transportable.
  • Integration: I think that the ability to pull in a google document, slides, notes, and so on really adds to the value of the tool – it also separates it from many of the other tweet-pooling tools out there.
  • Voting: The functionality to vote on tweets, pulling out the ones that people find interesting, valuable or pertinent has the potential to add a special dynamic to the tweet pool.

I want to improve it!

  • Lag: As with many tools, especially during conferences, the lag can really impact a tool’s reception. I found that in most of my sessions, the lag meant tweets took far too long to show up in the dashboard and I was using Tweetdeck to follow what people were saying in real time – pointing them to the dashboard for all the resources and as a place to find the tweets after the session.
  • Tabs management: I wish that the administrators of a dashboard could create tabs (within reason) for separate resources so that you could have a separate tab for the slides or notes, and another for pulling in a google doc-survey, and another for a google doc for real-time notes or something.  I think the ability to separate resources by tab could really help.
  • Voting: I listed this as something I like because I see potential there. But, at least in the times I’ve used it, people weren’t voting because they needed to create an account and sign in to do so (not many people were going to take the time during a session or discussion to do so).  Maybe there is also another way to show tweets that the community likes, too – like most RTs or something.
  • Hashtag: I would love to be able to include multiple hashtags or search terms – especially if the dashboard is going to be used in non-conference settings where people may be using variations on a name or event, etc.

What I really like most about Tweetnotes is the potential use in a wide variety of situations. I’ve used it in conferences where you want to be able to pool resources, slides, and conversations into one place. But what about the use in emergency response or breaking news? We’ve already seen people come to hashtags or streams fairly quickly in reaction to global events – this could be an easy way to capture the streams, pull out resources, images, and news sources, and so on – in real time!  Or, for use in campaigns, either for those wanting to track a campaign or as part of the public-facing campaign map.

Have you used Tweetnotes? What do you think? Did you view or participate in the Tweetnotes dashboards from one of the above sessions? What would you improve and what did you like best?

Published on May 23, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 6 Comments