Posts from — July 2008

We recently had a heat pump installed. I was absolutely amazed when I went to pay the bill ‘within 7 days’ that I was unable to pay this business online. I searched out the cheque book and saw the last cheque I had recorded was written a tad over 2 years ago.

I wrote out the cheque, with difficulty — it had been so long I’d almost forgotten what to do — and emailed them to suggest they allow online payments.

But it’s not just businesses. If your organisation likes to ‘collect’ money — donations, fees, sales, whatever — then you should make it as easy as possible for people to hand over the funds. The easier it is to give, the more likely you are to receive.

Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry has just revealed that they now accept PayPal donations. Good show!

Now anyone that heads to the DCM website at www.dcm.org.nz will find a PayPal donation button at the bottom of the page they can click to make a donation.

DCM Director Stephanie McIntyre says, “We’re rapt about getting this function up online. Our supporters are a generous lot and this provides an easy and safe way for them to financially contribute to our work.”

PayPal, the world leader in payment gateways, was chosen to host the donation function because it gives people a safe way to make financial transactions online.

… As a reminder, people are still able to donate in person, by sending in a cheque, over the phone, or by setting up an automatic payment through their bank.

[Via : Donate to DCM – Online.]

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As most of you know I use Google Apps to run MiramarMike.co.nz and thoroughly enjoy the freedom that I have when it comes to accessing and using my company information from wherever I am in the world (Wellington mostly) - as long as I have a good connection to the World Wide Web :-)

A little aside before I plough on. For those that thought Google was only a search site you might find the rest of this article a tad, “Wow, I never knew that”. To find out which of the many Google products and services (above and beyond search) that may work for you visit their Prouduct Help Page (A-Z version) … and I’ve just discovered something called Google Radio Automation and Knowledge Seach that is only available in Russian, who knew!?!?

Google Apps is “cloud computing” at it’s finest (in my opinion) and there are many advantages** to running everything via a web browser such as the applications are constantly improving without me having to download a single thing. I am always* running the latest version.

This is a much faster and reactive environment than the slow, monthly security updates from Microsoft and is in another universe when it comes to PC product releases (be it Microsoft or Apple). Of course this means it can be quite a task to keep up with the updates, new features and general tinkering around that the Googlers release to us.

Having said that, you don’t actually need to keep up-to-date with all the updates - most are bug fixes, making things work slightly better than they did or making them work with other services (be they Google’s own or others out there on the Web). The big releases are the ones you want to be made aware of.

Tip: Keep a look out for the red ‘New!‘ top right on the main page of your Google App. It’s where the big stuff gets announced.

Thee rest of this post is a pointer to the big items that Google have released to Google Docs, GMail, Calendar and Sites over the past few weeks .
Oh, and because I didn’t see the need to give all my money to NZ Vodafone and haven’t bought an iPhone there is a lot of mobile features/updates that I won’t be listing - but I’m sure you know where to go to find them.

Google Docs [Create, share and collaborate on documents in real-time - official blog]
Biggest new thing here is the many (300+) templates you can use to start your document, spreadsheet or presentation from. With the previous update of using CSS to control the formatting of your documents this was always on the cards but I am still a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of templates to choose from, and it’s only going to grow - check them out!

Also you may not know that Google Docs now supports PDF - upload your PDF file and view or share it on-line.

Publish a Google Doc to everyone and you’re adding a page to a web site (and the reasons for using Google Docs blurs/merges with Google Sites) to which you’ll probably want to get some visitor stats - now you can with Google Docs/Analytics integration.

And finally, everyone should be able to use Google Docs offline powered by Google Gears.
Yes, you can now edit your documents without having to have an Internet connection and it’s all synchronised when you next plug back into the Web.

GMail [Email with up to 25 GB of storage per custom email address, mail search tools and integrated chat - official blog]
Whilst nothing big has been released out into the wild world since their big upgrade, late 2007, there have been movements with their tidying up of how Contacts are handled (not everyone is chucked into your contact list just because they pass through your InBox - takes 5 goes before it’s automatic).

Another feature I, as a nomadic consultant around town, love is the ability to see where I’ve left myself logged in and, if I want, log myself out remotely. Very handy for those on the go.

They have also released a GMail Labs set of functionality which you can ’suck and see’. These are obviously features that the GMail team think are probably useful but not sure … and I suspect they also want to see how much information then can glean from them before letting them lose on the world.

And on that note I’d keep an eye on new features coming to the Chat that comes with GMail as I see Google taking a very smart path down a let’s keep all types (Chat, Talk etc) the same which will mean (I think) more features for the GMail version.

Google Calendar [Coordinate meetings and company events with shareable calendars]
Biggest feature I newly discovered is the ability to tell Google Calendar your mobile phone number and then choose to have reminders txt’ed to you - awesome! In fact I now answer the question, “Where are you off to next Mike?” with, “Don’t know yet, Google hasn’t told me”. Here’s how you set up your calendar to send SMS so you can chose which of the v important events it txt’s (note: they say it only works on Vodafone here in New Zealand but I’m sure I had it working on my Telecom mobile)

Not a lot of other news - a little bit of updating with the printing of calendars (good for my non-iPhone/PDA run down the street to my next appointment)

Oh, and I’ve set-up an unofficial Worser Bay School calendar (iCal) so we can all keep a track of the their productions, holiday times and parents visits.

Google Sites [One-stop sharing for team information - official blog]
Still the baby of the team at Google Apps but already starting to get it’s own cool features.

The number one feature for me (when it comes my way*) is the ability to customise the Sites URL (”web page name”) of a site - instead of http://sites.google.com/miramarmike/clientA I can now have http://clientA.miramarmike.co.nz … much nicer.

Not far behind that is the integration with Google Analytics - you can now track your visitors to your Google Sites.

Start Page
The “start page” is the Google App version of iGoogle which is a customised “web desktop”. iGoogle recently had a major release* which I really like but unfortunately this hasn’t been reflected in Google Apps - it will come, I’m sure.

…………………..
And that’s it for the Google Apps updates that I’ve noticed. However the Google suite is much more than that although you may need a different login for the following (much to Ben’s annoyance :-)

Google Reader [Keep track of your favourite websites - official blog]
I have the sense that this mainstay in my on-line life is morphing beneath my feet as it starts to connect me with people that I share things with and with content around the web - watch this approach start to appear in other Google products (GMail and Calendar …)

For me the top news is the ability to share items that haven’t come through from a feed - very handy (if usually unremembered) and could, maybe, start to encroach on my use of Delicious.

Google Maps [official blog]
Apart from being used find where my meetings are being held and then linked to a calendar entry the only other thing to note is that Google Maps is opening up it’s content. YOU can put whatever you like onto a map, you can even edit other people’s … like a Wikipedia on the world stage.

Blogger [official blog]
News of note - ability to create scheduled postings, I love it and I wouldn’t be able to blog as much without it.

Feedburner [official blog]
Two big releases:

1. AdSense in your feed - you knew it was coming!
2. Create your own ‘networks’ - I’ve joined Mauricio’s Technozone network, be interesting to see how it goes

Google everywhere
And nearly everything Google owns has had one small but significant change - the wee icon (called a ‘favicon’) displayed in your browser next to most Google products has changed - read all about the new blue lowercase ‘g’

*phew*, what did I miss?

* not quite true - Google, like most large scale Web service providers, can target roll-outs of their applications by geography, language and the like. Not everyone may have the very latest at any given time … but you know it is only a matter of time before it’s served out to you.

** there are disadvantages to running applications via a browser with the most notable being you nearly always have to be connected - no connection, you have nothing. There are also other “emotional” issues such as going against the way it’s done, generating a level of trust so that you are comfortable allowing someone else to store your information and believing that there will be no “leakage” of information.

This is a cross posting from Mike’s work blog: MiramarMike.co.nz

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I’ve skimmed through, and trashed, my share of incredibly boring newsletters in my time. I fact, these days I try to avoid newsletters as much as possible. But if organisations followed the advice Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog has uncovered the world would be a much better place.

After all, community organisations do great work, making real change in peoples lives. Their newsletters should be don’t miss material. Here are some edited highlights of what Katya says, but read her post for the full monty, all details exposed:

So what’s a nonprofit to do?  How do we take our newsletters from snoring to soaring? … here’s what trainer, writer and newsletter guru Kivi Leroux Miller of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com had to say. 

Katya:  Why are there no stories, or only milquetoast stories, in so many newsletters?  What gives?

Kivi: Two reasons, I think. First, people are afraid that they can’t pull it off. When you say “storytelling,” most people envision either someone like Mark Twain or Toni Morrison or a wild-haired grandpa on a stage at some mountain storytelling festival spinning some yarn – someone with way more creative juices flowing.  Or they simply don’t think they are good writers, and the thought of writing something that qualifies as a “story” is just too daunting.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Nonprofits have tons of great stories. Finding material in the nonprofit sector is never a problem.

Kivi: You just need to learn some basic storytelling patterns. …

Kivi: The Challenge Plot is your basic three–act structure that practically every Hollywood movie is based on. These are your classic underdog stories, against all odds stories. …

Kivi:  Creativity stories are those with the “aha!” moments and those “what if we . . .” stories that work out in the end. …

Kivi: [the Connection Plot] is a little harder to pull off without sounding sappy or forced, but once again, with the right elements, it’s easy. These are the bridging the gap stories and big meaning in small events stories. …

[Via Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: How to fix boring newsletters.]

Oh, and the medium doesn’t matter: print, web, email, video, audio, posters — they all need their stories.

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Karaitiana Taiuru wrote recently about realising that his cellphone has become his most important gadget for connection, information and communication:

…i had misplaced my cell phone for 90 minutes. I was about to walk into a meeting when i realised my cell phone was not in any of my suit pockets. The over-powering sense of loss and displacement that i felt for that 90 minutes was peculiar and overwhelming.

At that point i realised that i did not know how to ring my business colleagues, dial any one of the many phone conferences i regularly participate in nor did i know how to ring any of my family. All of the phone numbers were stored in my cell phone along with other encrypted files that i require on a daily basis.

It makes me realise that if i was to have only one item for an extended time i would choose my cell phone second and my laptop first. Both items are my main communication lines to the world.

[Via Karaitiana Taiuru - Blog: Importance of a cell phone.]

So, if the cellphone is more important even than a laptop, how does that affect how community organisations might choose to connect with volunteers, funders, sponsors, ‘clients’ and the general public?

Does your website work for a cellphone user? Are your emails appropriate for cellphone users? Can people contact your organisation via txt message, or receive information via SMS?

How do cellphones play a role for your organisation?

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Stephen Blyth has blogged about Ross Himona’s comments on the opening up of domain names and the possible impact on indigenous peoples:

The recent decision to open anyone to create any internet domain name has been widely reported as starting a potential boom on the Internet.

What has been little reported is the opportunity the new name structure allows indigenous people to assert their identity. The NZ Maori Internet Society is delighted at the outcome.

[Via : .tangatawhenua, .hapu, .temea - coming our way.]

See too: All the new domain names.

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