Category — Tools
Nonprofits adopt social media - DMNews
According to a DMNews article, Nonprofits adopt social media:
Nonprofits have discovered the appeal of social networking applications, especially their ability to offer constituents better ways to communicate with one another and the organization.
For example, AARP, an advocacy and community group for people age 50 and older, will debut its new Web site to the public this month as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. In a first for the organization, the new site will include social networking capability.
…The Arthritis Foundation is also using social media to enhance its online presence. In August, the organization for arthritis sufferers added a social media platform from Web 2.0 services company ThePort Network. Additions include the ability for users to create RSS feeds, profile pages and blogs. According to Delia Carter, group VP of strategic communications at the Arthritis Foundation, the nonprofit felt that social networking might offer something useful to its members after discovering that discussion boards received the most traffic of any area on the site. In fact, many have adopted the blogs as a way to help them keep track of their progress, meet personal goals and get support from the community.
[Via : Marie Young, Twitter.]
It’s not entirely clear, but I’m guessing this refers to organisations in the US.
Meanwhile, last week at the Engage your Community conference Nathan Donaldson gave a very interesting talk about how The Quit Group use blogs to allow smokers to support one another in their journey to give up smoking.
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September 10, 2008 No Comments
Take Control of Podcasting
One way to get your message out these days is by providing sound or movie files that people download to their computers. They then listen or watch on their computer, or they transfer the files to a portable music device such as an iPod.
It’s really easy to create these ‘podcasts’ — talk into your computer’s microphone, record what you’re saying, and put the files online. But if the sound quality and production values are bad you may find your podcast doesn’t attract listeners.
Now the fine folks at Take Control eBooks have produced Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac (US$10 ebook in PDF format):
Read this ebook to learn the answers to questions such as:
- What types of microphones are best for podcasting?
- Which software should I use to record and edit my podcast?
- How can I find and use audio plug-ins to improve my podcast’s sound quality?
- What’s the best way to conduct a podcast interview?
- Should I record directly into MP3 format or encode later?
- How do I remove weird pauses or other glitches from my recording?
- How do I smoothly add music to the start and end of my podcast?
- What should I watch out for when choosing an Internet host for my podcast?
- What tools are available for publishing podcasts?
- Where should I promote my podcast to attract the most listeners?
- Can anyone create a podcast and list it in the iTunes Store?
The ebook is particularly aimed at Mac users, but Windows users would learn a great deal from it too. I’ve bought and read many of the Take Control ebooks and recommend them for their excellence and ease of use. Download a sample to see if you like this book, and then spring the US$10 if you think it is for you.
And if you do buy it, or you create podcasts, please add a comment here with your experiences.
To experiment with listening to podcasts open up iTunes on your Mac or Windows computer, go to the iTunes Store and select podcasts. Don’t let the word ‘Store’ put you off: most or all podcasts are free of charge.
There are thousands of podcasts available, from around the world and on every conceivable topic. Just be careful how many you download, especially video podcasts, to make sure you don’t exceed your monthly download allowance (gigabytes) through your ISP.
September 9, 2008 No Comments
The big book swap
For the last couple of years I’ve given away books through BookMooch. I grit my teeth a little when I have to pay for postage, but at least it gets the book off my shelf.
On the other hand, I sometimes ask for a book, and it’s a delight to pull the package from my letterbox without having paid a cent for it: no purchase cost, no postage cost — it’s just free.
BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books.
BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.
- Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you’ve read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.
- No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.
- Help charities: you can also give your points to charities we work with, such as children’s hospitals (so a sick kid can get a free book delivered to their bed), Library fund, African literacy, or to us to thank us for running this web site <grin>.
- World wide: You can request books from other countries, in other languages. …
[Via : BookMooch Overview.]
Could your organisation use thise service? How about giving away some of the books you produce (if you produce any)? Are there books you’d like to receive?
Do you have clients who could use thise service? As at September 2008 the statistics show Bookmooch has more than 500,000 books listed for giving.
How can you use BookMooch?
September 8, 2008 No Comments
EYC Facebook page
Remember we have an Engage your Community Facebook page where you can start and join in the discussion, and experiment with Facebook amongst friends. See you there!
September 4, 2008 No Comments
NZ rural libraries and broadband Internet
Recently Paul Reynolds talked with Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand National about Three community projects. He mentioned Kiva, a microfinance scheme; laptops for kids in Niue through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project; and a New Zealand group called Aotearoa Peoples Network:
The Aotearoa People’s Network is about providing free access to broadband internet services in public libraries so that all New Zealanders can benefit from creating, accessing and experiencing digital content.
Paul wrote in his blog:
I love talking about this project - which is tasked to deliver fast/free Internet access, plus new machines, plus some open source community story telling software, Kete, to a growing number of public libraries in New Zealand.
The current offerings are primarily rural. There is a blog, here, which tells some interesting tales. also, a map of the project libraries, here, plus the official site is here
[Via : McGOVERN ONLINE: Three community projects with Jim Mora - Radio New Zealand National.]
Paul has links to the mp3 file of his interview.
Side note: Radio NZ has many interesting technology ’slots’. Subscribe to the podcasts to stay well-informed about what’s going on with technology and the Internet.
August 29, 2008 No Comments
