Nonprofit Technology Conference Roundup

Yes, I know I was actually supposed to blog *from* the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), not afterwards, but the intermittent wireless connection, the short life of my laptop battery, and my general inability to multitask, all lead to to this ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ?ì my post-NTC round-up. It?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢s nearly impossible to sum up everything we learned and all the great people we met, but here are a few things that stood out for me personally:

Day of Service

On the first day of the conference, really before the ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ö‚Äúreal?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭù conference started, we had the option of participating in a Day of Service ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ?ì nonprofit geeks helping local nonprofits with small technology projects. I had the honor of working with the Downtown Cluster's Geriatric Day Care Center, which aims to keep seniors at home, living independently, by providing a place for them to go during the day. Together with Mark Mayther, we trained 7 of their staff on how to use Excel for a lot of their data tracking and grant administration. As the Kabissa Excel guru (for better or worse!), doing this training was immensely rewarding. They all came up with all sorts of ideas for how they could use Excel in their work and make themselves much more efficient. Even ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ö‚Äúold?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭù technology can have such a big impact on small organizations that are providing such a tremendous service to the community! A big thanks to NTEN and Beth Kanter for continuing this tradition of service.

David Weinberger, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society

Besides being an amazing, hilarious speaker (not many people can hold my attention for an hour at 8:30am!), David Weinberger had some really great insights about the ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ö‚Äúmessiness?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭù of the Web. He basically made the point that all of the hierarchical categorization schemes that have traditionally been used to organize information (or anything for that matter), really come down to the limits of physical space. For example, in a library, a book on Kofi Annan can only be in one physical place on a shelf, so of course it has to fit into one category, let?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢s say it?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢s been placed under biographies. Really, you could make a case that it could be categorized under United Nations or Ghana or African Leaders. But in the library, it can only be under one of those categories ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ?ì one book can?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢t be in four places at the same time! But on the Internet it can. On the Internet, it can be ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ö‚Äútagged?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭù under all of those categories and many many more, which is part of what makes the information on the Internet so powerful.

Now, while I loved this idea, I will readily admit that I have a hard time with this in practice. I like categories and bullet points and organization. But, I?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢m going to do my best to embrace one of David?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢s mantras in his presentation: Messiness is a virtue.

Tribute to Claire Obare

As part of the closing lunch, Kabissa advisor Bill Lester gave a very moving tribute to Claire Obare, an eRider for EngenderHealth in Kenya, who suddenly passed away this year. While I did not have the pleasure of meeting her personally, my fellow co-Director, Tobias Eigen did, and she clearly inspired many with her passion, commitment, and warmth. Thank you to Bill for making sure that her life was honored by all at the conference.

Avaaz.org Video

Before the conference began, organizations were encourage to participate in a contest for the best video on social change. The winning video, from Avaaz.org, was the winner and was played at the same closing lunch. I was absolutely blown away by the power of this video. The message ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ?ì battling stereotypes and misconceptions to find peace among cultures, particularly in the Middle East ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ?ì is not new, but the video literally brought tears to my eyes. Anything else I would write wouldn?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢t do it justice, so just go watch it for yourself.

Panels, panels, and more panels?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭ¶.

I had the honor of speaking on two panels ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ?ì ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ö‚ÄúYou Don?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢t Need to Know Everything, Just What to Ask?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭù organized by John Kenyon on what Executive Directors need to know about technology, and ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ö‚ÄúCase Studies in Open Source Software?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭù organized by Michelle Murrain of NOSI, where I spoke about our experiences with Joomla, the Content Management System we use on the Kabissa site. While I enjoyed these panels and others I attended, I was also frustrated that Liz and I seemed to fall into this gray area ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Ǩ?ì we aren?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢t hard core techies, but we know quite a bit about applications of technology. We found that a lot of sessions were either extremely technical or extremely high level and general, so it was hard to find sessions that were just right for us. Similarly, a lot of the case studies came from really, really large, US-focused organizations, which left us small, international organizations wondering what was really applicable to us. Some suggestions for panels next year (which Liz has already promised to help me lead):

• Women in Technology
• Online fundraising for small organizations
• Appropriate Technologies: Using Tech in Low-Income Areas/Developing Countries

The names obviously need some work, but you get the idea. More about the Kabissa lessons learned from the panels coming soon.

All in all a great experience?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?Ǭ¶I can?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢t wait for next year in New Orleans!