Posts from — September 2007

If you’ve wondered about Second Life and would like to get a sense of it, watch the video Second Life: Big Avatar on Campus from KQED Quest. The video is about 7 minutes long (80 Mb).

It’s a virtual world, but the transactions are real. Go inside Second Life, an online game where millions of people are creating digital personalities called avatars and are living virtual lives — meeting other avatars, going to events, and even buying property with real money.

BTW: also read about the Education & Non-Profit Organizations | Second Life Grid:

Second Life’s growing community of residents coupled with the ability to create interactive virtual content has attracted various non-profits and educational institutions to establish a presence in-world. …

Non-profits have utilized the Second Life Grid’s technology by building in-world facilities to promote their cause, for instance the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) have a facility that provides interactive educational demonstrations about the ocean and weather. Visitors can ride submarines, experience a tsunami, or check out real-time weather maps.

The page has links to non-profit organisations that are using Second Life.

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The most creative nonprofits kept their eyes open, looking for inspiration in how to apply technology. — That’s the paragraph that most impressed me from a report I just read. The 18 page report, dated July 2007, makes extremely interesting reading.

The University of San Francisco interviewed 28 nonprofit organisations in California, then came up with a report: Successful Technology Use in Small Grassroots Nonprofits (220Kb PDF).

This research examines how small nonprofits use technology and what it means for a nonprofit to use technology successfully.

All the nonprofits in this study had less than $1 million in annual revenues, in most cases considerably under this amount. The missions of the organizations varied widely – some were involved with the rights of immigrant communities, some with farm workers and some with people with disabilities.

[Thanks to : New Report: Successful Technology Use in Small Grassroots Nonprofits | TechSoup Blog for the link.]

Of course, in this blog we aim to provide some of that inspiration.

In composing this post I wanted to quote extensively from the report, but I’ll refrain and limit myself to the following few snippets.

While the staff of the smallest of the nonprofits we talked to might still primarily operate out of their homes, all had access to computers, printers, e-mail and the internet. … technology advances that as recently as 10 years ago were seen as luxuries are now standard.

The most successful nonprofits did their research. Technology was a part of their strategic plan. They knew it was necessary and they budgeted time to discover the best solution.

The simple lesson of this research is that nonprofits can no longer survive using staff members’ personal email and internet connections, old computers that are not networked, and rudimentary phone systems. Technology requires continual investment if nonprofits are to be most effective in accomplishing their missions. All the nonprofits we surveyed, including those who struggled with technology, were doing interesting and important work. None of them could do it without the assistance of technology.

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YouTube’s new Nonprofit Programme isn’t available to us here in New Zealand, unfortunately, but these things do sometimes turn up for us later.

YouTube write in Broadcast Yourself.:

Does your organization have a compelling story to tell? Do you want to connect with your supporters, volunteers, and donors but don’t have the funds to launch expensive outreach campaigns?

YouTube can help. Video is a powerful way to show your organization’s impact and needs, and with a designated “Nonprofit” channel on YouTube, you can deliver your message to the world’s largest online video community.

The programme offers (trimmed quote):

• a free nonprofit specific YouTube channel where they can upload footage of their work, public service announcements, calls to action and more.
• A premium channel on YouTube that serves as a nonprofit’s hub for their uploaded videos. Through the channel, people can connect with a nonprofit via messages, subscriptions, comments and more. Nonprofits will also receive enhanced channel branding features and increased upload capacity.

• Designation as a “Nonprofit” on YouTube that clearly identifies organizations as a nonprofit for YouTube community.

• a Google Checkout donation button on their channel and video watch pages, allowing people to quickly and securely make a contribution directly from YouTube..

• a centralized area on YouTube, making them and their videos more easily discoverable.

[Via Have Fun • Do Good: YouTube Launches Nonprofit Program.]

YouTube is increasingly popular with all kinds of people in all age groups. This initiative for US non-profits will increase public perception that non-profits have something to say and that YouTube is a valuable hub for non-profit messages.

Kiwi organisations may not (yet) have the specific channels and benefits, but we can still participate. Try a small project — maybe some 30-second videos made on a cellphone. Experiment. Just start somewhere and see what happens. What’s to lose?

Does your NZ community group already have material on YouTube? We’d like to hear about it. Leave us a note in the Comments.

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Novel, and brave:

New Zealand’s current Police Act is nearly 50 years old. It is widely seen as due for an overhaul. … A new web site wiki.policeact.govt.nz has been launched to allow people to suggest wording for the new Policing Act. It uses similar wiki technology to the popular user-generated site Wikipedia.

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Webstock is delighted to be able to offer some full scholarships to our main conference. If you win a scholarship you can:

• attend the two days of the conference proper
• hang out at the sit-down dinner and festivities on the closing night
• network and mingle with web professionals from all over NZ
• enjoy all the other assorted goodies of Webstock.

We realise that not everyone can afford Webstock. But we want to spread our message and the Webstock experience widely. We see the scholarships as one way to do that, as well as to support and encourage future web talent.

The scholarships are aimed at those who might otherwise be unable to afford Webstock, and at those who are under-represented in our industry.

What we pay for

We cover the registration fee for the Webstock Conference. Note that if you wish to attend any workshops, you will need to pay for these yourself.

What you pay for

Travel to Wellington and accommodation costs are your responsibility.

Conditions

Present a case to us that you’d benefit from attending Webstock. Factors that will help your application are that you would otherwise struggle to attend and/or that you may be from a group in society that is under-represented in the industry.

Applications will be entirely decided upon by the Webstock organisers. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. We’ll let you know if you succeed or fail in your application.

Applicants ordinarily resident in New Zealand or the South Pacific will be preferred.

Applications are open now and close 4pm Friday 3rd November, 2007.

How to apply

Send us an email! A plain text email telling us why you’d benefit from the scholarship. Feel free to link to any supporting material, but the email is what counts.

Interested in offering a scholarship?

If you’re interested in supporting what we’re doing here, please contact us to talk further.

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