Welcome and thanks for joining us, Gabriela!
I see that you've posted some links to the Weblogs you like section. I'm looking forward to clicking through them (and probably adding them to my own Bloglines feed; I, too, am addicted).
I'm looking forward to reading and having an opportunity to discuss your ideas.
-webb
Joined on 05-28-2004
TechSoup Member
Hello there,
I'm Karen Zgoda and currently organization-free. While I do some contract-based technology work for nonprofits, my main focus these days is school. I'm currently working on my PhD in
Social Work at
Boston College and plan to focus on how technology tools can be used for empowerment. My main goals are to improve the conditions of the underserved, particularly the poor, and contribute to the social work knowledge base.
I found out about this weblogs event via the
Information Systems Forum email list. I hope to learn how others are creating and using blogs for the purpose of advancing the mission of nonprofits and the clients they serve.
Looking forward to the discussion.
...Karen
hi all:
I'm mike harttrup from guelph, ontario. I work at the
university of guelph as a distance learning specialist and was introduced to blogs from Stephen Downe's OLDaily and I have enjoyed Jeffery Hiebert's
headspace j.
My interest lies in finding a right blend of formalily and informality of blogging that I may embrace for my work situation. I underestimated the amount of time required and the need for some sort of purpose with my attempts at personal blogging in the past!
mike
Joined on 08-18-2004
TechSoup Member
I'm Dennis Fischman. In my spare time, I'm on the Board of the Organizers' Collaborative, which helps grassroots groups and nonprofit organizations use technology to achieve their missions (
Organizers' Collaborative).
I work at the anti-poverty organization in Somerville, Mass. We have a local area network so that all staff in the main office have e-mail, but teachers in classrooms do not. Not all the staff who have e-mail use it. We have no agency web site. The Head Start component has its own web site,
CAAS Head Start, but it's years out of date.
We're starting almost from a blank page where online presence is concerned, then. As Chairman Mao used to say, however, there are advantages to being poor and blank! We can make our web site anything we want, once we decide to do it. My question is whether blogging has anything to offer an organization where only a few staff are techno-savvy and where most of the clients have no personal copmuters. Thoughts?
Hi Karen,
Welcome to the event and thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself. It's particularly helpful to me to know how you found out about the event, so I appreciate that information.
Look forward to seeing you online,
Sarah
Welcome, Mike.
The point that you bring up is a good one. As I mentioned in my own introduction, I was introduced to blogs as an informal writing space. Of course, I still enjoy blogs to that end, but I think the balance between you mention is important.
Look forward to further discussion,
Sarah
Welcome, Karen.
I see you've already joined the discussion. I'm looking forward to your contributions.
-webb
Hi Mike and welcome to the event.
The informality of blogging, something I've heard referred to as natural voice communications, is one of its pleasures and draws. I think
Tim Bray of Sun has done an excellent job of outlining the
benefits/drawbacks from his (and presumably Sun's) perspective.
-webb.
Welcome, Dennis.
You wrote: My question is whether blogging has anything to offer an organization where only a few staff are techno-savvy and where most of the clients have no personal copmuters. Thoughts?
Well, I do think that blogging (particularly with some of the tools) has a very low barrier for entry. If you can use a word processor, you can blog. However, if you are blogging for your clients and they don't have Internet access then it doesn't make sense. It may be, however, that your organization has other reasons to blog. Maybe, you are blogging to raise awareness of the work you are doing, related policies issues and news in attempt to engage a supportive (whether in time, resources, or money) audience.
-webb
Joined on 04-04-2002
TechSoup Member
Hi,
I'm John Kenyon a long-time technology consultant and internet strategist for small and medium sized organizations in the SF Bay Area.
As Marnie knows, I am skeptical at best about blogs, so I am here to advise caution. I understand some of their utility, but I have a hard time seeing how nonprofits can derive any substantial benefit from them. I see so many nonprofits with few resources jump on bandwagons such as these with no real positive impact on the organization. "It's the latest thing and everyone is doing it" is of course a terrible rationale for expending resources, but it happens everyday.
I look forward to reading the other posts here and hearing about how they are useful. I'll also be at Friday's N-TEN conference for Marnie's presentation.
-John
Welcome to the discussion, John.
John and I sit, enthusiasm-wise, on opposite sides of the weblog spectrum. John, you might consider posting some your cautions to the
Wait! Why should I start a weblog in the first place thread? In addition a few blog authors answered some questions about the challenges and benefits of blogging in
Profiles of Nonprofit Weblogs.
It would also be nice to know about
Groundspring's blog and your organizations reasons for starting one.
-webb
Finally getting to this event. Looks good.
I'm Sheldon Mains, now a consultant working with nonprofits on a variety of strategic technology issues. I'm located in Minneapolis but do this nationally (about half-way through our winter, I need an excuse--any exucse to get to someplace warmer).
Last week I was at the Alliance for Nonprofit Management annual conference in DC where Compumentor and Oceana (http://www.oceana.org/). Oceana's examples are what got me to finally decide to start two blogs (one professional and one political/personal). I will also be recommending that one of my current clients start using blogs to get increase the exposure of their great policy experts.
Joined on 08-19-2004
TechSoup Member
i am stephen miller with the garment worker center. part of my job is to serve as the web admin for the gwc. we employ weblog technology (using nucleus) for the backbone for our website. i am curious to see how other orgs are using this technology as we are on the verge of a significant revision/upgrade of our site (www.garmentworkercenter.org).
Sheldon! Sorry I missed you in DC but it's good to see you here. So August and it's still half way through that Minneapolis winter, eh ;-)
I'm interested in hearing what, in Oceana's example, inspired you to start a weblog.
-webb
Welcome to the discussion, Stephen!
So how do you like working with Nucleus?
-webb