Since this group has been quiet for a while -- and since we've just
got a little spate of new members -- I thought it might be nice if
folks introduced themselves.  So, please, chime in with what you're up
to, what you've been up to, and anything else you might want to share
about yourself or your work.

I'll start: I'm Marnie Webb and I've worked at TechSoup (http://
www.techsoup.org) for the last eight years.  I've been closely
involved with our NetSquared project (http://www.netsquared.org). I'm
particularly interested in the ways that web-based applications and
the things that tend to go with them (metadata, APIs, various kinds of
semantic markup) can be used to help nonprofits and other social
benefit causes build connections between the various people and
communities that can help move their work forward.

Okay. Now it's your turn...

best,
:mw

 Dear Marnie, and other esteemed colleagues:

Thanks for asking for intros!

My name is Deborah - sometimes known as the Cyber-Yenta.  I'm a consultant
who works with nonprofits and philanthropies to bring needs and resources
together seamlessly, usually through information and communication
technologies.

Among other things, I serve as a special advisor to the Stargazer Foundation
(http://stargazer.org) which has developed some free tools for emergency
preparedness that can be used from desktop and mobile computing devices.

Stargazer is looking for allies, since no one tool or team of folks can do
everything.  They want to give what they have away, in the hope that other
people will run with it.  The larger goal is to save the world with online
tools for social good, but Stargazer is starting with emergency
preparedness.

I arrived in San Jose last night, and am eagerly looking forward to
attending the NetSquared conference.  (Stargazer has sent me to represent
them, but their launch is not my only topic.)  After NetSquared, I'll be
going on to San Francisco for a couple of days, where the San Francisco
NPtech Center (http://www.sftechcenter.org/) will be my base of operations.
I'd love to meet members of this group from the Bay Area in person, so
please be in touch if you'd like to do that!

Best regards from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_f...@post.harvard.edu
www.cyber-yenta.org
Skype: Deborah909
Twitter: Deborah909
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah909

"Nothing softeneth the Arrogance of our Nature
like a Mixture of some Frailties. It is by them
that we are best told, that we must not strike
too hard upon others....They pull our Rage by
the sleeve and whisper Gentleness to us in our
censures."
-George Savile (1633 - 1695)

  On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 7:55 AM, webb <marniew...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,

I'm Beth Kanter and have been working with nonprofits and technology
for a number of years, most recently social media.  .  I work as an
independent consultant or "go solo" as they say - a lot training,
speaking, and consulting..   I write a blog (http://beth.typepad.com)
about nonprofits and social media.   Been a member of the Netsquared
Community since it started.  I am particularly interested in
organizational change as it relates to adopting social media, how to
deploy the tools effectively, training, social media metrics, and how
one can leverage personal networks for organizational goals.

I just got back from a stint in Australia, arriving in Santa Clara and
slept for 14 hours!  Thank god there is a starbucks in the lobby!

Beth

On 5/26/08, webb <marniew...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

Beth's Blog: http://beth.typepad.com
Nonprofits and Social Media

Thanks for the prompt, Marnie!

I'm Ruby Sinreich, I've been alternately a nonprofit tech practitioner
and consultant since 1996.  I didn't plan it that way, but going back
and forth gives me a lot of useful perspective.  I live in North
Carolina but telecommute all over the country.  I currently work as the
Co-Director of Communications for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an
interfaith organization working for peace and justice through active
nonviolence. (We have an amazing history dating back to 1915 and
including organizing the first freedom ride in 1947.) I would share the
URL, but I haven't had the time for the web site overhaul we very badly
need.

Previously, I was a consultant specializing in social network analysis
and network-centric advocacy, which I still do presentations about for
anyone who will have me. I've also worked in online field organizing at
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and as a web developer for
countless NC nonprofits.  This will be my first year NOT attending
NetSquared in person (partially b/c of the realities of working for an
impoverished nonprofit) but I will be eagerly following along via
Twitter and Second Life.

I really miss the opportunity to see nearly all of my favorite
colleagues in one place, but am also enjoying the relaxation of not
having to travel.  More about me at http://lotusmedia.org...

= Ruby

--
Ruby Sinreich
=============
"Instead of hating the people you think are the warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed, but hate these things in yourself, not in another."  -Thomas Merton
=============
http://lotusmedia.org
http://OrangePolitics.org

Deborah, Ruby and Beth,

Thanks for chiming in with your introductions.

Others?  It would be great to hear more about you all.

:mw

--
Marnie Webb
blog: http://ext337.org | twitter: webb
m: 415.710.6688

I posted this yesterday...used the wrong address...sorry.

To echo Ruby, thanks for the prompt Marnie.

As a co-founder of this netx forum with Marnie, I've recently been trying to
figure out what purpose this list serves over other list-servs (wow...double
list serveness).  IMHO, we've had some great high level conversations that I
think are missing from the other lists (more philosophical as opposed to
nuts and bolts) and would be great to somehow transcend to F2F meetings like
at NTC (which i will go out on a limb and say I think those formal high
level conversations are missing from as well).  It would be great as part of
this introduction if folks could way in to the value (or hoped for value)
that netx brings to them.

So...who am.  I've been doing nptech work for 11-12 years now.  Started in
fundraising, found myself an accidental techie, and ran a program in VT
funded by the Surdna Foundation that provided Tech Capacity Building
resources to nonprofits.  In the last 3 or so years I've found myself not so
much a tech generalist, but specializing in data management systems for
nonprofits...specifically built on the Salesforce.com platform. I now work
for NPower New York, but work remotely from VT.

I still casually dabble in web2.0 tools and social media best practices for
nonprofits.  When given the chance I try to write the occasional blog post (
nonprofitcrm.org and sometimes on NTEN's blog).

My drive is to help nonprofits access and leverage enterprise level business
tools that provide minimal cost of ownership at the highest possible value
to the organization and their constituents.

Look forward to more conversations and intros.

~S

--
............................................................
Sonny Cloward
CRM Project Manager
NPower NY
www.npowerny.org

sonny.clow...@npowerny.org | sonny.clow...@gmail.com
work: 646.688.3665 | cell: 802.371.9558 | fax: 641.453.5578
Y! | AIM | skype | gtalk | twitter: sonnycloward

--
............................................................
Sonny Cloward
CRM Project Manager
NPower NY
www.npowerny.org

sonny.clow...@npowerny.org | sonny.clow...@gmail.com
work: 646.688.3665 | cell: 802.371.9558 | fax: 641.453.5578
Y! | AIM | skype | gtalk | twitter: sonnycloward

Hello everyone and thanks for this opportunity to introduce myself.
I work in emerging technologies, ( RFID, Nano, Wireless, Etc.,  creating New
Discovery Labs in cities around the world which help
demystify new technologies, break urban poverty and address where possible
environmental  problems deploying new solutions.
So if you have a technology solution / service which deserves global
recognition please write to me at reilly.derm...@gmail.com.
The Labs are friendly informal places where everyone wins: consumers,
vendors, knowledge transfer agents and citizens everywhere.
Best regards and hope to hear from you :)
Dermott

2008/5/26 webb <marniew...@gmail.com>:

Ruby - you're everywhere!

I'm Mike Nutt. I'm a multimedia technician in the UNC-CH Communication
Studies Department. I'm currently pursuing a nonprofit management
certificate through the UNC School of Social Work. My interest in this
group is mainly in trying to keep up with how nonprofits are using new
technologies. I'm not currently involved with a nonprofit, but I hope
to be in the not too distant future. My long term goals include
graduate school with a focus on digital storytelling and community
informatics.

I'm also the creator of http://wikumentary.net, where I'm trying to
develop community documentary ideas that could be replicated easily
and inexpensively in various nonprofit settings. If anyone is
interested in what happens when wikis and documentaries have babies -
and the possibilities that wikumentary might offer for nonprofits -  I
invite you to be a part of the community. Registering allows you to
post to the blog and participate in the forum there. We could
certainly use some activity there!

Thanks,
Mike

Long time lurker...first time poster.  (is that the new phrase for
listservs like on talk radio?)

A self-proclaimed accidental techie, I tend to be the answer man for all
things technologically-related for our nonprofit members in New York
City.  I am on a bunch of listservs and read a bunch of blogs, and only
co-author a zombie blog (not quite alive, not quite dead) on the New
York Nonprofit Congress.  I've been in the nonprofit sector for all 13
years of my working career, starting in fundraising and dabbling on the
techie side of things throughout that time.

Although I haven't been to an NTC in a couple of years, I've always kept
an ear to the ground on what are the topical issues. I agree with Sonny
that NETX would be good for the more philosophical issues, as opposed to
the nuts & bolts, i.e.. how tech fits into a strategic plan or things of
that nature.

Craig Weinrich
Membership, Outreach & IT Director
Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York
1350 Broadway, Suite 1801 | New York, NY 10018
(212) 502-4191 x.30 | www.npccny.org <http://www.npccny.org/>

About Us <http://www.npccny.org/aboutus.htm> | Join NPCC
<http://www.npccny.org/howto.htm>  | Member Benefits
<http://www.npccny.org/member.htm> | Government Relations
<http://www.npccny.org/govern.htm>  | Workshops
<http://www.npccny.org/workshop.htm>

Okey-doke -
I'm Steve Hanson.  After years of working as a systems administrator
here and there (FERMILAB, Honeywell, a few state universities, and
consulting to a lot of companies) I decided to settle down and spend
some time on our farm.  So I now live on a 160 acre farm in Wisconsin
and do consulting work to nonprofits.  Mostly I do content management
system designs with Drupal and sometimes CiviCRM.  I also do web
hosting, mostly for my own sites (have a few servers colo'd in
Minneapolis) and also am starting a remote backup service. My company is
Cruiskeen Consulting LLC (http://www.cruiskeenconsulting.com).  I've
started a web site for people learning Drupal from an end-user
perspective -- Drupal For Users - http://drupalforusers.com

I have designed the web sites for a number of nonprofits, and am
currently working on a new site for the Center on Media, Crime, and
Justice.

I'm also a political blogger and will be covering both the National
Conference for Media Reform and the Democratic Convention and run a
state wide political group blog - http://www.uppitywis.org

In my spare time I make beer, wine, mead, cider, and -- well if it
ferments, I probably make it.  I also do battle with living in a really
old Wisconsin farm house, and am at the moment trying to put something
resembling walls and ceilings in the place.

We live in an odd mixture of the old and new -- I just got done talking
to the people from our rural phone coop which is in the process of
running fiber to my house - whoohoo!

Life is really busy, but somehow I'm still broke???

--
Steve Hanson
Cruiskeen Consulting LLC - http://www.cruiskeenconsulting.com
We Make The Web Simple

My name is Peter Campbell.  I've been managing technology professionally and
as a somewhat obsessive hobby since the mid-80's.  From 1989 to 1992, I ran
a popular San Francisco Bulletin Board System (BBS) that turned into an
active online community (with annual off-line get-togethers at Golden Gate
park).  The BBS was a member of Fidonet (an early, international email
network), and I served as email coordinator for Northern California.  I shut
that down in order to focus more on my career, working my way up to IT
Director at a mid-sized SF law firm.  In 1995, I registered the domain
Krazy.com and put up a site devoted to my favorite classic cartoon strip.
In 2000, I left the law firm and joined S.F. Goodwill, in a very intentional
career move to find more meaningful work.  1997-1999 were also big years for
me, in it that I got married, bought a custom-built house, and (by proxy)
had a kid.

Goodwill offered a very rich and challenging environment, and my role there,
while titled "VP of IT", included web developer and DBA roles.  I did a
number of extensive projects using MySQL, PHP, Drupal and other open source
technologies.  In 2004, I started reading about RSS and envisioned a lot of
nonprofit uses.  I incorporated it into Goodwill's websites for job listing
pages and other purposes.  Then I found Marnie Webb's infamous "Top 10
Reasons why Nonprofits should use RSS" article on line and tracked her down
to discuss.  Marnie introduced me to NTEN, and I dived in.

In 2007, after about three years of intense politics at Goodwill in the wake
of our long-time CEO retiring, I finally left and took a half-hearted stab
at consulting, something that might have worked out if I had a few years to
build a practice, but my savings weren't anywhere near that robust.  I
registered techcafetria.com for my business, and now use it for my blog and
assorted projects.  In August, I landed my current, awesome gig as IT
Director at Earthjustice.

My constant challenge is in balancing my work, family and eagerness to
write, blog, develop, learn, present, consult and volunteer.  There are not
enough hours in any given day for me.  My career has spanned for-profit and
non-profit; been primarily at larger organizations, and has offered intense
lessons in both how to deploy technology and how to navigate the politics in
order to do it.  These are lessons that I want to share and expand on with
the nptech community, so that we can develop and deliver the type of
expertise and best practices that will allow socially good organizations to
capitalize on technology trends.

--
Peter Campbell
IT Director, Earthjustice
http://www.earthjustice.org
"Because the earth needs a good lawyer"

Website/Blog: http://techcafeteria.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/peterscampbell

Craig,

Good to get that first time poster thing outta the way.

I agree with you and Sonny that this is a good place to talk philosophy
rather than the how-tos.  Feel free to start any discussions that hit the
areas you wrestle with.

:mw

--
Marnie Webb
blog: http://ext337.org | twitter: webb
m: 415.710.6688

Mike,

Welcome. Looking forward to digging into the link you posted below.  And
hearing how you get folks engaged.

best,
:mw

--
Marnie Webb
blog: http://ext337.org | twitter: webb
m: 415.710.6688

Steve,

So, you'll be supplying drinks for the netx party, eh?  I love the drupal
for users site.  We can certainly us it at NetSquared and TechSoup to help
our various partners get up to speed.

:mw

--
Marnie Webb
blog: http://ext337.org | twitter: webb
m: 415.710.6688

Hi all.   Better late than never, I hope...  This is Robert Weiner.  I help
fundraisers make decisions about technology.  Most of my work involves
assessing or choosing donor management systems and managing the fundraising
back office, but I also work on selections of online tools and strategies
for integrating systems.  

I also maintain a list of resources about donor databases and online
fundraising at www.rlweiner.com/resources.html

Robert
__________________________

Robert L. Weiner Consulting
Strategic Technology Advisors to Nonprofit and Educational Institutions
San Francisco, CA

rob...@rlweiner.com
415/643-8955

www.rlweiner.com

2008/5/26 webb <marniew...@gmail.com>:

Since this group has been quiet for a while -- and since we've just
got a little spate of new members -- I thought it might be nice if
folks introduced themselves.  So, please, chime in with what you're up
to, what you've been up to, and anything else you might want to share
about yourself or your work.

I'll start: I'm Marnie Webb and I've worked at TechSoup (http://
www.techsoup.org) for the last eight years.  I've been closely
involved with our NetSquared project (http://www.netsquared.org). I'm
particularly interested in the ways that web-based applications and
the things that tend to go with them (metadata, APIs, various kinds of
semantic markup) can be used to help nonprofits and other social
benefit causes build connections between the various people and
communities that can help move their work forward.

Okay. Now it's your turn...

best,
:mw

David Geilhufe. Done various things in nonprofit technology (www.civicrm.org,
www.civicspace.org), gave away computers and money, now give away software (
www.netsuite.com/giving)

I am particularly interested in the gap between technology use among the
vast unwashed nonprofit masses (small groups, community-based agencies,
etc.) and the folks that buy technology from the vendors that are left
(Blackbaud, Convio, etc.)

Though I love all the wiz-bang new and shiny tech out there, I am
continually drawn to the fact that post it notes and excel are the top
information management applications in the nonprofit sector. And since I
consider that a problem, how does it get solved?

david

Hi all -

I'm Damon Kirkpatrick.  I currently work for the Friends of Georgia State
Parks as .. um.. well, among other things, their "tech guy".  My background
is in IT management and I left my cube officially about 8 months ago to move
to the non-profit sector.  Since then, I've been working to bring a lot of
open source technology to the organization figuring it was the best way to
accomplish a lot of things at a low cost.  My primary focus has been CRM
tools and website development.

Nice to meet you all...

Damon

Howdy!  I'm Rachel Weidinger. I'm also delighted to see a bunch of
smart people I know and can hardly talk enough with here. This makes
those I you I haven't met even more exciting...suspiciously high
incidence of good eggs here.

I'm currently the marketing gal & a Senior Consultant for Common
Knowledge ( www.commonknow.com ) a web strategy consultancy for
nonprofits.  We work with nonprofits like the  Seva Foundation, IFAW,
Sierra Club and the Arthritis Foundation.  I'm slso the designated go-
to person for healthy office snacks.

 My career in marketing started accidentally, with a fortuitously good
mentor.  I prefer to work (subject-wise) with  food /art /
environmental topics, and generally fall on the marketing /
communications/ PR / strategy / project direction side of the team. It
is my job to know all the good ways to communicate. And to master them
or to know who has mastered them.  Hence, my general and specific
interest in the interweb.

Very occasionally, I blog here: www.rachelweidinger.blogspot.com

I'm crazy proud of this project (which i directed): www.scraphouse.org

High fives to all of you for doing good work.

Rachel Weidinger
Marketing Manager &
Senior Consultant
Common Knowledge
415-495-1784 Direct
415-793-2939 Mobile
415-276-2866 Fax
Yahoo, Gtalk, MSN, meebo:  rachel.weidinger
AOL: rachelweidinger
50 First Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94105
rweidin...@commonknow.com
www.commonknow.com

Helping nonprofits leverage the Internet for
fundraising, marketing, advocacy and communications.

Hi gang,

Also another lurker, I'm a corporate techie, turned international
development/humanitarian worker, turned NPTechie :o). I've lived in  both
Cambodia and Kenya (now in Washington, DC) and am a serious photography
enthusiast and dog lover.

I have a masters degree in international development and technology and
ideally I'd be working to use technology to deliver services to people in
developing nations. Until that industry picks up, I'm having fun exploring
the uses of technology for marketing and fundraising purposes within the non
profit world.

Currently I'm the Director of Online Strategy at World Learning, an
international education organization. We do lots of different things (study
abroad, citizen exchanges, international development, graduate education)
and have lots of different web needs - the first of which is getting our
recently launched website redesign under control. Right now my job is less
strategy and more putting-out-fires/maintaining web content, but a strong
foundation is necessary before the cool stuff can come in. I'm trying to be
patient with the fact that my organization and some of the folks in it
aren't ready for everything web 2.0 has to offer, and I continue to be one
of the main technology evangelists there (for better or worse).

Glad to be here!
Michaela

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 1:30 PM, Rachel Weidinger <rachel.weidin...@gmail.com>
wrote:

My name is Jonathan Gosier, I'm a web developer and social media
consultant working to help organizations and entrepreneurs in the
developing world take advantages of opportunities that the web offers
now and that semantic applications will offer down the road.  I've
also started Appfrica: International Web Technology Conference and
Think-Tank that will use various establishments around the world as a
open forums to discuss ways in which web technology can be used to
improve conditions around the globe.  You can find out more at our
wiki http://appfrica.pbwiki.com/

We're currently looking for speakers, sponsors and donors if your
organizations are perhaps interested in participating!

Thanks for the great introductions, everyone.  It's nice to hear from the
people who are subscribed to the list.

And if you haven't introduced yourself, please do.  We want to know ya.

:mw

------------
Marnie Webb
blog: http://ext337.org
twitter: webb

On Jun 17, 11:47 pm, "Marnie Webb" <marniew...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I got on this bandwagon pretty late. I'm Michelle Murrain, technology
advisor/consultant, blogger, and general nptech hanger-on. These days,
my work divides itself into three relatively neat (and surprisingly
separate) packages. Package 1 is that I help nonprofits through
complex web, database and CRM projects - help them think about
organizational strategic issues, figure out technology options, choose
vendors, and project management. This is pretty much how I spend most
of my time. Package two is working as an open source advocate and
educator, and work with open source projects on varied issues,
primarily documentation. And the third package is doing a variety of
technical writing for the nonprofit audience.

I do sort of wrap it all together in my head in the package of being
somewhat of an educator - that's my background as well (I spent 10
years as a college professor before moving into nonprofit technology.)
I spent many years (about 10) building things for people - websites,
databases, web applications - and I'm ecstatic I don't do that
anymore. But I'm always fascinated by, and to some extent playing with
newer technologies, especially stuff on the back end, but I'm
interested in the wide variety of new front-end technologies as well.

I presently live out in the boonies of Western Massachusetts, but will
be moving to the nptech epicenter (that would be the Bay Area) this
fall.

Peace,
Michelle

Hi there,
Brand new to the group, so ... short-term lurker, first time poster.

I work as a Web Producer for a large (~3000 employee) non-profit
research institution in Seattle, Wash. I am also starting graduate
school (Masters in Communication in Digital Media) in the fall.  We
are interested in how to enact organizational change and help key
senior management to believe and invest in electronic / social media.

Suna Gurol
Web Producer II
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
http://www.fhcrc.org

On May 26, 7:55 am, webb <marniew...@gmail.com> wrote: