If you are a Facebook user, or read any of the news media online, you will know that someone a few days ago put up a poll of Facebook users to ask whether President Barack Obama should be killed. The egregious racism and fascism of the people who did it and voted yes is one thing, but the point I want to focus on here is how internet technologies are changing the pathways for, and the scope of, information available to us all.

The various media have treated the story from various angles, but not one has bothered to contact the person who is responsible both for writing the polling application that was used and for policing it.

How do I know? Because he frequents a blog that I check regularly and he posted the whole story there. Facts from the developer of the Facebook Poll Application

Hey everyone.  I'm the developer of the Facebook Poll Application that hosted the "Should Obama be killed?" poll.  You can read about it here.

I'm sure you have all sorts of assumptions about me, my application, and how this went down, but I want to start by listing a series of facts followed by an open-ended Q&A.

The news media places itself between the community and the story, that's why we call it the media. But the Internet disintermediates, it connects the buyer not with the retailer or the wholesaler, but with the maker of the product, and it connects us all with the people who participated in the event who get to tell their own story in their own words; all of it, not a summary produced by a third party who was not there at the time, is necessarily less well-informed about the issues and the facts and who very probably has a bias about what the story means.

One of the great complaints from NFP organisations is that it is so hard to get the truth of the story out. But there is no longer any excuse for that. How well do you use this tool to make sure that whole story, all its facts, all its perspectives are available to anyone who might need them?

What is the biggest hurdle to doing that effectively? Comments please.

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Alan Benamer at  Non-Profit Tech Blog has a fascinating look at why you should enable your supporters to create their own blogs on your website. Why Your Nonprofit’s Volunteer Base Should Blog for Your Nonprofit

... there’s a high correlation (.945) between the number of blog entries and the level of site traffic. There’s also a high correlation (.820) between the number of blog entries made per month and the number of Google searches that drove users to the site.... The lack of external events makes this data set almost the perfect illustration of a pure SEO play.

Properly tagged blog entries with good metainfo will basically cause Google to better index your site. In turn, it will drive more traffic to your site, thus generating more loyal readers.

... Think of Google as a way to give your website a shot at presenting itself to new users. In effect, each new blog entry complete with tagged keywords, is a way to hook more visitors into your site. The more attempts you make, the more likely you’ll be able to snag users into your traffic stream. And the more likely you can add these users to your blogging community.

.... As long your posts conform somehow to already mentioned guidelines for building out your site, I’m pretty sure that if your nonprofit has the resources to post 2 or 3 times a day with its own people that it could eventually manage a similar growth pattern.

Here’s the kicker: most nonprofits don’t have the resources to post two or three times a day to their website. However, their volunteer base does.

[...] Of course, the harried nonprofit manager will probably say that you’ll end up with new headaches as your try to fit your new bloggers into your existing communications strategy. Agreed, but first things first. Which problem would you rather have? The problem of managing of thriving a blogger community for your nonprofit or the silence that accompanies your nonprofit’s web initiatives? I opt for the noise.

The internet has always been a tool for dissolving control over both the message and the information on which it is based. Those who embrace that process have a better chance of success than those who try to resist it.

In fact there's a case to be made that those who want to resist it, like many newspapers, would be no worse off if they had no web presence at all.

But what about you? How is your organisational message managed? How do you enable others to support it? Do you have a policy, a practise or has your board of governance even considered it yet?

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There's another entrant in the race to provide online resources for the Voluntary and Non-profit sector, The People's Times is a project of the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and e-learning specialists Flexible Learning Network. The initiative is supported by seed funding from the 2007-8 round of the New Zealand government's Community Partnership Fund.

Disclaimer, The PeoplesTimes republishes webguide news.

Their pitch is that there are thousands of active clubs, societies, associations and community groups up and down the country but the majority of our small groups are yet to make the leap online, usually because of a lack of money or expertise.

The site tries to fulfil into three overlapping objectives, the first being Communities with free homepages for groups with some networking tools and online storage and the NoticeBoard – searchable, community-oriented free listings.

Where it differs from others is its stated aim of being a ‘citizen journalism’ platform: anyone can submit original articles and pictures or link to stories elsewhere. [Read more →]

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This one should be worth attending if you can arrange to be in Sydney next month, or can rustle up the funds for some of those super cheap airfares we keep hearing about. via Connecting Up 2009

Technology is changing the way nonprofit organisations operate, communicate and engage with stakeholders.

Connecting Up 09 conference offers the opportunity for you to explore technology applications and possibilities, the issues and challenges for nonprofits, and the practical steps and solutions for planning through to implementation.

• When:11-12 May - Conference
• 13 May - Full day Workshop

Where: Novotel Sydney [Read more →]

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You spend a lot of time producing material for your blog or website and, like any publisher, you find that the work has a limited life unless you create it specifically with other uses in mind.

The first problem is that it is constantly replaced by newer material, in a few days it falls off your home page and probably disappears forever into the pile of "Previous" posts. [Read more →]

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