Fwd: Online Writing, Integrated Tracking, Community Vendors, Economics of Trust

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Leila Kaas

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Nov 10, 2009, 4:17:02 PM11/10/09
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From: "Nonprofit Online News" <gilbert.n...@gilbert.dl.soceco.org>
Date: November 10, 2009 3:55:00 AM GMT+01:00
Subject: Online Writing, Integrated Tracking, Community Vendors, Economics of Trust

Nonprofit Online News: http://news.gilbert.org/ 
Nonprofit Online Classifieds: http://classifieds.nonprofitnews.org/ 
Weekly Edition for Monday, November 9, 2009


++ Contents:

   Section One: Special Notices
     - Tips for Managing Your Subscription
     - Our Next Online Seminar

   Section Two: News & Resources
    - How the Web and the Weblog have Changed Writing
    - Session Notes from Web of Change 2009
    - Six Online Community Vendors for Associations: An Analysis
    - The Economics Of Trust

   Section Three: Copyright

   Section Four: Subscription Information



++ Section One: Special Notices:

 + Tips for Managing Your Subscription

   Don't forget that there are links at the end of this email that make it easy for you to: 1) Change the email address we send to, and 2) Send us Questions, Comments & News Submissions, or 3) Unsubscribe, Anytime. 


 + Our Next Online Seminar:

   The Voice of Your Community: The Strategic Role of Stakeholder-Generated Content (Nov. 18):


   See Full Calendar: http://www.gilbert.org/Calendar



++ Section Two: News & Resources:

 + How the Web and the Weblog have Changed Writing

   Philip Greenspun is a visionary technologist and a very charming writer. I recommend his piece on How the Web and the Weblog have Changed Writing. In particular, I believe that most nonprofits have substantial mismatches between their media and their messages and could really learn a lot from this article. If you are publishing online in any fashion, if you're consider weblogs, or if you are thinking of so-called "user generated content" (which I think should just be called "content"), you own it to your stakeholders to read this.



 + Session Notes from Web of Change 2009

   I was unable to attend this year's Web of Change gathering at Hollyhock, but there are some good Session Notes accumulating online. These are in fact all notes, rather than articles, so be prepared to use them as the basis for an email to the presenters or a lot of online searching for named examples and resources. I recommend you start with the first one on the list (which is my personal favorite): Technology and True Love - Integrated Engagement Tracking.



 + Six Online Community Vendors for Associations: An Analysis

   Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer at SocialFish have published an analysis of Six Online Community Vendors for Associations. I'm disturbed by the fact that every single one of the chosen applications is a proprietary application provided by a single vendor. Another way to do this analysis would have been to compare open source platforms - such as AroundMe, Elgg, Mahara, NewsCloud, and many others - and then compare the vendors competing to provide you with strong service. With single source proprietary vendors you are far more likely to get locked in. While the analysis does look at open APIs, it does not do an assessment of exit costs. But if the culture of your organization prefers the single, commercial vendor model, then I do in fact recommend this analysis. Furthermore, as a set of benchmarks for looking at open source solutions, it's also quite useful.



 + The Economics Of Trust

   The World Bank isn't my favorite institution, but it nevertheless produces some great thinking and some great resources. For example, Steve Knack of the World Bank says: "If you take a broad enough definition of trust, then it would explain basically all the difference between the per capita income of the United States and Somalia." In The Economics Of Trust, Tim Harford looks into this analysis. This suggests a much larger role for civil society in the wealth of nations than just its percentage of the employment base. It also bodes ill for the climate of rapidly devolving trust in the rise to power of the paranoid right in the United States.




++ Copyright:

   Nonprofit Online News is a service of The Gilbert Center. The opinions and observations are those of Michael Gilbert and the authors. Copyright 1997 - 2009. All rights reserved.

Nonprofit Online News




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