Dear Mimi

Kabissa has begun encouraging members to switch their email to Google Apps, so Mimi has decided to devote this month's Internet Advice column to share Google's own comprehensive explanation of its services. The text is business oriented but the benefits for civil society groups in the Kabissa network are mostly the same if not even greater since many of us operate on a shoestring budget or do not have in-house computing systems and staff to run them. If you can, watch the videos linked below to view Google Apps in action. 

When considering Google Apps, keep in mind that Google Apps Standard Edition is free for anyone (expect unobtrusive text-based advertising) and that Google Apps Educational Edition (no advertising, more features including email migration tools) is free for nonprofits registered with 501(c)3 status in the United States. All you need is a domain name, which you can register at Kabissa and which we will gladly help you set up at Google Apps. We will be formally launching our new domain registrar service soon, but in the meantime existing hosting members can switch to Google Apps immediately - please contact support@kabissa.org for more information.

Gavin Clabaugh posted the following very handy tip to the NTEN-Discuss mailing list recently, generating some very useful information sharing about several web publishing tools - some free open source, some given away, and some available at low cost. If you have ever wanted to create a snapshot of your screen or even create a video presentation using your computer, then you should definitely read on. You will be surprised at how easy - and inexpensive - it can be.

Now you may not know what Thunderbird is (it's an email program like Outlook only it's freely available as open source). But this is a question that comes up frequently these days in Kabissa's tech support mailbox so I think it's time for Mimi to address it.

Many Kabissa members still use cybercafes and webmail to access their email on Kabissa. After a while, however, they begin to look for more ways to get at their email as the organizations they work for become more sophisticated and get Internet connectivity in their offices. Or, and this would be gratifying to Mimi indeed, they are beginning to make more clever use of a USB Key as Mimi suggested last month to maintain a secure and reliable travelling 'office' in their pockets as they move from cybercafe to cybercafe.

If this describes you and you feel you are outgrowing your Webmail then do read on to learn about a feature called IMAP and how it will let you combine the power of Webmail and Thunderbird.

 

"If you're like many nonprofit technology staffers, your time is at a premium, leaving you precious few minutes to provide colleagues with one-on-one support or to answer the same software questions again and again. Nevertheless, the help requests and questions are likely to keep coming, and it's your job to address them."

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Every organization has its techie, it's Internet champion, its computer problem solver that everyone turns to for help. You know who you are, and Mimi salutes you! This month, she will give over her space to share an excellent Techsoup.org article by Joanne Connelly, a learning and development consultant with more than 15 years experience creating training programs and support tools. In her article, Joanne outlines very useful strategies for dispensing with common questions and problems you and your colleagues face every day.

Mimi is not one to argue with this wise proverb! But if you have a USB Flash Drive, you can take your most valuable digital belongings with you on your travels and from cybercafe to cybercafe. Mimi is assured that you, savvy Kabissa member and African civil society practitioner that you are, already use webmail (Kabissa, Yahoo, Gmail etc) so you can access vital correspondence from anywhere. But how do you access that essential proposal or address book when you're at a computer miles from the nearest Internet connection?

With a USB Flash Drive you can keep copies of essential documents, but you can also do much more. To get started, head on over to http://www.portableapps.com and find out how you can run popular open source applications such as Firefox Web browser, Thunderbird e-mail, and Open Office on any Microsoft Windows computer - without leaving a trace. (Oh, and if you complete the member survey when it arrives in your inbox you might just win a free USB Flash Drive from Kabissa!)

We all know how to write, right? Well, yes, but writing an official letter is different from writing a journal article is different from a newspaper editorial. And these are all completely different from writing a blog entry or web page! If your organization maintains a website or blog, and is interested in attracting more attention from around the world to the issues and concerns you are writing about, then listen up. What follows is an excellent primer on "Writing Online" shared via Creative Commons by One/Northwest. Mimi will try harder to follow their advice and encourages you to do the same:

• Keep it short!
• Break up content into short sentences and bullets
• Use hyperlinks!
• Build trust by linking to useful content on other websites
• Use active voice

Yes, Mimi is always encouraging you to take your organization online to find and take advantage of the new opportunities for collaboration with colleagues, supporters and beneficiaries around the globe. But as we all have found, t can be difficult to get organized to work together with a group through the net. This month, thanks to the liberating power of Creative Commons discussed in November, she is reproducing an excellent Techsoup article that will be a tremendous help. Some of the resources are US-focussed and will require a very good Internet connection, however Mimi was struck by the appropriateness of the selection for African civil society. She recommends heartily that you devote some time to exploring the suggested resources and bookmarking the ones you find most useful for future use in your online collaboration forays. And let us know if we missed a good one!

Social Web? What's that? Sometimes Mimi likes to push the envelope, and to encourage her gentle readers to sit back and reflect on the latest advances in technology that are now - or soon will be - affecting African civil society. The social web, also called Web 2.0 by trendsetters, represents a new era of the Internet in which people no longer go on the web expecting to merely access information provided by others. Everyone can now comment on what they read, change it, rate it, and put up information of their own - all using new user-friendly web interfaces. As a result, many now approach the Internet as a place to make and develop relationships with friends, network professionally and socially, and to create an image for themselves. Kabissa is taking an indepth look a Web 2.0 right now and will be sharing the benefits with Kabissa members - for now, all Mimi can do is to give a preview of the promises (and pitfalls) Web 2.0 offers. She welcomes your feedback!

Oh my, so sorry. Pole sana. Unless you keep backup copies of your critical documents and other computer files, there is unfortunately little you can do to get it all back unless you recover the laptop. And no, hitting your head on your table won't help either. What you can do is learn from this experience. And tell your friends so they learn it too! Mimi cannot stress enough: disaster will strike and you cannot afford to be unprepared.

Read on to learn about a few simple things you can do to keep your important computer files safe, at little or no cost to your organization.

Wonderful. Mimi loves answering questions like this, because they get at the root of what it means to integrate the Internet into your organization. And that, of course, is her obsession. For tiny outfits of one or two people, Mimi agrees that it is acceptable to have a single ?¢‚ǨÀúofficial?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ yahoo mailbox, or even to simply take advantage of the existing yahoo-type mailboxes everybody seems to have these days. As your org evolves, however, and you get more people involved, Mimi recommends getting everyone on your team a dedicated official mailbox that they use only for official business. Why? Because it helps to separates work from pleasure, and contributes to creating a professional, flexible and reliable organization. Read on!