On Thursday night I was honoured to accept the national Equity Trustees CEO Award for 'Innovator of the Year' and thought I would share the news with you, as fellow travellers on the CISA-Connecting Up journey.
Regards
Doug
http://www.notforprofitceoawards.com.au/website/winners.asp
http://www.notforprofitceoawards.com.au/gallery08/speakers/default.htm
Showing posts with label Connecting Up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Connecting Up. Show all posts
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Connecting Up 2008 conference - Brisbane - the wash-up
Just back, tired but immensely satisfied, from our organisation's Connecting Up 2008 conference in Brisbane. Over 320 delegates attended over the 2 days, including the 2nd annual Australian Community ICT Awards and a full-day workshop with Beth Kanter on the third day.
This year's theme was 'Online and Off to the Future', with a special emphasis on the growing importance of the social web or Web 2.0 to the nonprofit sector globally and locally. Over 40 break-out sessions over the 2 days covered topics ranging from using mobile phones to connect to homeless young people, to saving the traditional languages of Indigenous peoples.
Keynote speaker on Day 1, Bill Strathmann (CEO, Network for Good) highlighted the way that social web tools are transforming the online giving and volunteering experience of US nonprofits. Book-ending the day was the vastly entertaining Australian futurist, Richard Neville, who enthralled not only those who remembered his days as a media enfant terrible but young people looking for signposts to 'where to from here?'
The conference dinner, at the Brisbane Ruby League Club overlooking the Brisbane River, included the 2nd annual Australian Community ICT Awards presentation. Proud winners accepted their Awards with both humour and moving passion.
Karma Currency, of Melbourne, was named Innovator of the Year for its pledge to cut down the billions of dollars spent on unwanted gifts by diverting these funds to charities using a web-based Charity Gift Voucher scheme.
Sydney-based GetUp! won the Best Web Strategy for its social activism site, which has successfully encouraged Australians to stand up for social justice, environmental sustainability and economic fairness. GetUp has made the most of the social web’s potential to influence and channel widespread opinion to gain political outcomes. It has even been credited with helping shape the outcome of the 2007 Federal Election. As GetUp executive director Brett Solomon says, “The GetUp culture is deeply Australian – a cheeky mate-to-mate callout for change in the face of bad leadership.”
Queensland’s Quicksites won for its use of ICT to connect to the community. The company’s UCare system began as an online database designed to help the local METRO church keep in touch with members and visitors, and has evolved into a smart, low-cost customer relationship management tool for any nonprofit setting. Unlike sales-oriented CRM tools, the judges said, “UCare has been designed to build a true sense of community, encouraging a profound sense of belonging”.
Young People Connected won the Telecommunications award for its mobile phone technology, which reaches out to some 46,000 young homeless people every night, across Australia. YPC is the result of collaboration between the Vodafone Australia Foundation (VAF) and three not-for-profit organisation, Barnardos Australia, Mission Australia and Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets, and their young clients.
The Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association and Support Link Australia were joint winners for Best Use of Software.
Arwarbukarl impressed the judging panel with the Miromaa Language Program, which uses technology to help preserve and reclaim our native languages. Miromaa allows users to gather all evidence of language in one place, whether the language is in text or audio formats. It was developed through a process of consultation with community based language groups from all around Australia and is now being used in programs in all states.
The SupportLink Referral Communication and Management System is a web based application that enhances early intervention outcomes for vulnerable individuals and families. It does this by establishing web-based ground rules for police officers and other intermediaries to proactively refer persons they come into contact with for social assistance.
This eliminates the need for people to self navigate their way to support. The system was designed to overcome agency and service fragmentation within the area of referral communication.
Day 2 keynote was Beth Kanter, who took us on a journey to the bleeding edge of the social web but in a way that that made sense and infected us all with her enthusiasm for blogging, Twittering, mobile web streaming and a myriad other tools. She was followed by Stephen Alexander, strategy advisor from End Point, who emphasised the importance of strategy in connecting with the people that are important to your organisation. At the end of Day 2 a panel involving Bill Strathmann, Beth Kanter, Aba Maison from the UK, Rufina Fernandes from India, John Fung from Hong Kong-China, Tina Reid from New Zealand, and Lisa Harvey from Australia shared their take-outs from the conference.
The excitement and energy coming out of the conference this year were palpable and it was clear that the social web theme had attracted a younger audience than normal. It was also clear that moving the conference from Adelaide to Brisbane was a popular choice. When I get my own full energy back I'll try to draw oigether some of the threads that emerged but, in the meantime of you were there it would be great to get your comments.
This year's theme was 'Online and Off to the Future', with a special emphasis on the growing importance of the social web or Web 2.0 to the nonprofit sector globally and locally. Over 40 break-out sessions over the 2 days covered topics ranging from using mobile phones to connect to homeless young people, to saving the traditional languages of Indigenous peoples.
Keynote speaker on Day 1, Bill Strathmann (CEO, Network for Good) highlighted the way that social web tools are transforming the online giving and volunteering experience of US nonprofits. Book-ending the day was the vastly entertaining Australian futurist, Richard Neville, who enthralled not only those who remembered his days as a media enfant terrible but young people looking for signposts to 'where to from here?'
The conference dinner, at the Brisbane Ruby League Club overlooking the Brisbane River, included the 2nd annual Australian Community ICT Awards presentation. Proud winners accepted their Awards with both humour and moving passion.
Karma Currency, of Melbourne, was named Innovator of the Year for its pledge to cut down the billions of dollars spent on unwanted gifts by diverting these funds to charities using a web-based Charity Gift Voucher scheme.
Sydney-based GetUp! won the Best Web Strategy for its social activism site, which has successfully encouraged Australians to stand up for social justice, environmental sustainability and economic fairness. GetUp has made the most of the social web’s potential to influence and channel widespread opinion to gain political outcomes. It has even been credited with helping shape the outcome of the 2007 Federal Election. As GetUp executive director Brett Solomon says, “The GetUp culture is deeply Australian – a cheeky mate-to-mate callout for change in the face of bad leadership.”
Queensland’s Quicksites won for its use of ICT to connect to the community. The company’s UCare system began as an online database designed to help the local METRO church keep in touch with members and visitors, and has evolved into a smart, low-cost customer relationship management tool for any nonprofit setting. Unlike sales-oriented CRM tools, the judges said, “UCare has been designed to build a true sense of community, encouraging a profound sense of belonging”.
Young People Connected won the Telecommunications award for its mobile phone technology, which reaches out to some 46,000 young homeless people every night, across Australia. YPC is the result of collaboration between the Vodafone Australia Foundation (VAF) and three not-for-profit organisation, Barnardos Australia, Mission Australia and Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets, and their young clients.
The Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association and Support Link Australia were joint winners for Best Use of Software.
Arwarbukarl impressed the judging panel with the Miromaa Language Program, which uses technology to help preserve and reclaim our native languages. Miromaa allows users to gather all evidence of language in one place, whether the language is in text or audio formats. It was developed through a process of consultation with community based language groups from all around Australia and is now being used in programs in all states.
The SupportLink Referral Communication and Management System is a web based application that enhances early intervention outcomes for vulnerable individuals and families. It does this by establishing web-based ground rules for police officers and other intermediaries to proactively refer persons they come into contact with for social assistance.
This eliminates the need for people to self navigate their way to support. The system was designed to overcome agency and service fragmentation within the area of referral communication.
Day 2 keynote was Beth Kanter, who took us on a journey to the bleeding edge of the social web but in a way that that made sense and infected us all with her enthusiasm for blogging, Twittering, mobile web streaming and a myriad other tools. She was followed by Stephen Alexander, strategy advisor from End Point, who emphasised the importance of strategy in connecting with the people that are important to your organisation. At the end of Day 2 a panel involving Bill Strathmann, Beth Kanter, Aba Maison from the UK, Rufina Fernandes from India, John Fung from Hong Kong-China, Tina Reid from New Zealand, and Lisa Harvey from Australia shared their take-outs from the conference.
The excitement and energy coming out of the conference this year were palpable and it was clear that the social web theme had attracted a younger audience than normal. It was also clear that moving the conference from Adelaide to Brisbane was a popular choice. When I get my own full energy back I'll try to draw oigether some of the threads that emerged but, in the meantime of you were there it would be great to get your comments.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Upcoming nonprofit technology conferences
CISA's Connecting Up conference - May 19-20, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
TechSoup's NetSquared conference - May 27-28, San Jose, California, USA
TechSoup's NetSquared conference - May 27-28, San Jose, California, USA
Report from NTC
For those of you not familiar with NTC, this is the annual conference organised by the US nonprofit Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). It is held in a different city each year and brings together some 1100 delegates, vendors and sponsors and is the premier nonprofit technology event in the US. I attended the conferences in Chicago in 2005 and Seattle in 2006. I missed last year in Washington DC because we were just getting DonorTec off the ground at the time.
The program on Day 1 consists of the Day of Service program (where visiting delegates volunteer to assist local projects with their technology needs e.g. building a network, website etc), Affinity Group meetings (i.e. orgs working on similar issues getting together), the Science Fair (i.e. booths from vendors and sponsors – over 80 of them), and the Welcome Reception.
It also includes an NTEN members lunch, at which I was presented with an Official NTEN Superstar Award (known as an Ntenny, complete with headband with stars on springs) as the delegate Most Likely To have Crossed the Most Time Zones in my time in the NTEN community. I was deeply moved and thanked my Mum and everyone at CISA before descending into a weeping mess. Truly.
Days 2 and 3 commence with a plenary session and then three 90 minute breakout sessions, providing literally dozens of options for presentations and workshops.
There is no formal dinner as such (delegates are encouraged to organise small dinner groups spontaneously) but there is large a party gathering at a local venue on the evening of Day 2.
2. What I did at the conference
Day 1 – attended the NTEN members lunch. So exhausted after all that had to go out for jambalaya and blackened catfish with the UK delegation (who said they enjoyed the chips). Serious references to the Science Fair below.
Day 2 – The opening plenary was provided by David Pogue, technology columnist for the NY Times, an extremely entertaining as well as insightful presenter.
He listed the three technologies to watch as:
• The continuing convergence of phones and the internet into multi-function single devices
• Mobiles that operate via VoIP (i.e. wireless internet)
• The http://www.t-mobile.com/promotions/hotspotathomelearnmore.aspx (and similar technologies)
He also talked about the rise of Google in the phone space, though programs like:
- Grand Central, where you have one number and it calls all your phones at the same time.
- Google text search – text them with a personal name, organisation etc and get their addresses, weblinks, local weather, driving directions etc. Can get currency conversions, movie show times etc. Can’t text? Google 800 will do the same via voice recognition. And no ads in sight (yet).
Other phenomena to watch
• Voice-to-text e.g. Spinvox http://www.spinvox.com/
and Call Wave http://www.callwave.com/landing/mobile/SelectService.aspx
• Free TV online (with 15 sec ads)
e.g. Hulu http://www.hulu.com/
• Audience-created video, where video makers are paid by the number of views of their video e.g.
o Metacafe http://www.metacafe.com/
o Revver http://www.revver.com/
• Will downloads kill DVD’s? No, because:
o No-one wants to watch movies on a monitor
o Only 50% of US homes have broadband
o Limited selection of movies available
o Poor quality downloads because of compression issues
So what’s the key to Web 2.0, according to David Pogue? Information sharing! e.g.
http://www.prosper.com/ community sharing of loans
www.kiva.org micro finance for developing countries
http://www.goloco.org/greetings;guest sharing transport
www.epetitions.net free online petitions
Who Is Sick http://whoissick.org/sickness/ tracking illness in your area
So what are the Web 2.0 Challenges, according to David Pogue:
- The interface challenge for mobile devices – big fingers and small screens i.e. where will all the features go?
- Copyright
- How to teach about ethics and privacy and to be constantly aware that what you put on the web is permanent.
Finally, he moved to the piano and entertained us with ditties like this one:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=f390265dcbb9e1f1da97a69637e921d39b6c99aa
Day 2 and 3 Breakout Sessions
I won’t go through these in detail but I will dotpoint the key take-homes for me later in this post.
Day 3 Plenary
This was an extremely illuminating and moving panel presentation by three women involved in the rebuilding program following Hurricane Katrina – Laura Crochet, Deborah Cotton and Patricia Jones. Patricia’s home was in the Lower 9th ward, where all but 5 homes were destroyed when the levee bank burst and they were inundated with 23 feet of water in 25 minutes. Patricia moved back into her partially rebuilt home last week, some two and a half years after Katrina. She also runs NENA http://www.9thwardnena.org/home/
They talked about the role of technology and communications in the painfully slow rebuilding program, especially the role of their website www.louisianarebuilds.info
Just some dot points:
- It was 10 months before they were even allowed to enter the affected area to inspect the damage and even then it was a ‘look and leave’ policy with everyone out by sunset.
- When the Road Home project eventually got under way, their site became the registration site and call centre.
- When Katrina hit only 60% of residents had email addresses and only 70% had mobile phones.
- Most residents are poorly educated so they set a 7th grade reading standard for the site and a maximum of 3 clicks to core information.
Some Key Vendors/Organisations at the Science Fair worth checking out
Ammado – global internet platform for charities, based in Ireland www.ammado.com
Care2 – the largest online social network based on civic action and recruiting new members to your cause www.care2.com . Headed up by Joe Baker, former CEO of NTEN, who spoke at CU 06.
Foresee – using online customer surveys and the American Customer Satisfaction Index to improve web site satisfaction, loyalty and value www.ForeSeeResults.com
Idealware – provides consumer reports on nonprofit software – great little outfit headed up by Laura Quinn, who is keen to work with us on presenting low cost ‘webinars’ for our clients. Still trying to persuade her to visit here one day. www.idealware.org
Nice Touch Communications – a telco where 5% of your bill can be re-directed to the charity of your choice http://nicetouch.net
Salesforce – commercially developed CRM system that now sits under many nonprofit applications www.salesforcefoundation.org
See3 – create visual media and internet marketing initiatives – very impressive and hope to get Michael Hoffman here next year www.see3.net
This is a mere handful of the 90 booths but they are the ones I stopped to chat with the longest. There are now literally dozens of CRM, fundraising software and consulting companies displaying their wares, which is great news for the nonprfit sector.
So, What were the Take Home Messages for me?
1. We operate a national conference , Connecting Up, that like for like population-wise matches NTC for organisation, breadth and delegate sources and we should be very proud of that. However I’m green with envy at the spread of products and services available to US nonprofits and wish our compatriots would get off their backsides to match it.
2. We in Australia have barely scratched the surface of Web 2.0 when it is the fastest growing aspect of connectedness. If we don’t move soon we risk losing an entire generation of potential supporters.
3. We should expect to increasingly deliver into mobile contexts..
4. We need to keep in mind these principles from Brian Reich and Dan Solomon’s Book ‘Media Rules’
- Everything is fragmented and blurred
- Small can be big
- We are all connected
And
Media is the information, the experiences, the stuff that we consume and share - it is not the technology
5. Key Indicators that It’s Time to Change
You wake up one day and find yourself competing with groups you've never heard of before.
You are under increasing pressure to lower/waive your fees
Your audience asks for changes you cannot or do not want to make
Your competitors are leaving the market
6. Challenges in Personalising the Messages and Making the Connections
The average person is exposed to 5,000 messages a day
1.4 blogs are created every second,
YouTube uploads 65,000 videos every day
There are 55,000 possible drink combinations at Starbucks
The program on Day 1 consists of the Day of Service program (where visiting delegates volunteer to assist local projects with their technology needs e.g. building a network, website etc), Affinity Group meetings (i.e. orgs working on similar issues getting together), the Science Fair (i.e. booths from vendors and sponsors – over 80 of them), and the Welcome Reception.
It also includes an NTEN members lunch, at which I was presented with an Official NTEN Superstar Award (known as an Ntenny, complete with headband with stars on springs) as the delegate Most Likely To have Crossed the Most Time Zones in my time in the NTEN community. I was deeply moved and thanked my Mum and everyone at CISA before descending into a weeping mess. Truly.
Days 2 and 3 commence with a plenary session and then three 90 minute breakout sessions, providing literally dozens of options for presentations and workshops.
There is no formal dinner as such (delegates are encouraged to organise small dinner groups spontaneously) but there is large a party gathering at a local venue on the evening of Day 2.
2. What I did at the conference
Day 1 – attended the NTEN members lunch. So exhausted after all that had to go out for jambalaya and blackened catfish with the UK delegation (who said they enjoyed the chips). Serious references to the Science Fair below.
Day 2 – The opening plenary was provided by David Pogue, technology columnist for the NY Times, an extremely entertaining as well as insightful presenter.
He listed the three technologies to watch as:
• The continuing convergence of phones and the internet into multi-function single devices
• Mobiles that operate via VoIP (i.e. wireless internet)
• The http://www.t-mobile.com/promotions/hotspotathomelearnmore.aspx (and similar technologies)
He also talked about the rise of Google in the phone space, though programs like:
- Grand Central, where you have one number and it calls all your phones at the same time.
- Google text search – text them with a personal name, organisation etc and get their addresses, weblinks, local weather, driving directions etc. Can get currency conversions, movie show times etc. Can’t text? Google 800 will do the same via voice recognition. And no ads in sight (yet).
Other phenomena to watch
• Voice-to-text e.g. Spinvox http://www.spinvox.com/
and Call Wave http://www.callwave.com/landing/mobile/SelectService.aspx
• Free TV online (with 15 sec ads)
e.g. Hulu http://www.hulu.com/
• Audience-created video, where video makers are paid by the number of views of their video e.g.
o Metacafe http://www.metacafe.com/
o Revver http://www.revver.com/
• Will downloads kill DVD’s? No, because:
o No-one wants to watch movies on a monitor
o Only 50% of US homes have broadband
o Limited selection of movies available
o Poor quality downloads because of compression issues
So what’s the key to Web 2.0, according to David Pogue? Information sharing! e.g.
http://www.prosper.com/ community sharing of loans
www.kiva.org micro finance for developing countries
http://www.goloco.org/greetings;guest sharing transport
www.epetitions.net free online petitions
Who Is Sick http://whoissick.org/sickness/ tracking illness in your area
So what are the Web 2.0 Challenges, according to David Pogue:
- The interface challenge for mobile devices – big fingers and small screens i.e. where will all the features go?
- Copyright
- How to teach about ethics and privacy and to be constantly aware that what you put on the web is permanent.
Finally, he moved to the piano and entertained us with ditties like this one:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=f390265dcbb9e1f1da97a69637e921d39b6c99aa
Day 2 and 3 Breakout Sessions
I won’t go through these in detail but I will dotpoint the key take-homes for me later in this post.
Day 3 Plenary
This was an extremely illuminating and moving panel presentation by three women involved in the rebuilding program following Hurricane Katrina – Laura Crochet, Deborah Cotton and Patricia Jones. Patricia’s home was in the Lower 9th ward, where all but 5 homes were destroyed when the levee bank burst and they were inundated with 23 feet of water in 25 minutes. Patricia moved back into her partially rebuilt home last week, some two and a half years after Katrina. She also runs NENA http://www.9thwardnena.org/home/
They talked about the role of technology and communications in the painfully slow rebuilding program, especially the role of their website www.louisianarebuilds.info
Just some dot points:
- It was 10 months before they were even allowed to enter the affected area to inspect the damage and even then it was a ‘look and leave’ policy with everyone out by sunset.
- When the Road Home project eventually got under way, their site became the registration site and call centre.
- When Katrina hit only 60% of residents had email addresses and only 70% had mobile phones.
- Most residents are poorly educated so they set a 7th grade reading standard for the site and a maximum of 3 clicks to core information.
Some Key Vendors/Organisations at the Science Fair worth checking out
Ammado – global internet platform for charities, based in Ireland www.ammado.com
Care2 – the largest online social network based on civic action and recruiting new members to your cause www.care2.com . Headed up by Joe Baker, former CEO of NTEN, who spoke at CU 06.
Foresee – using online customer surveys and the American Customer Satisfaction Index to improve web site satisfaction, loyalty and value www.ForeSeeResults.com
Idealware – provides consumer reports on nonprofit software – great little outfit headed up by Laura Quinn, who is keen to work with us on presenting low cost ‘webinars’ for our clients. Still trying to persuade her to visit here one day. www.idealware.org
Nice Touch Communications – a telco where 5% of your bill can be re-directed to the charity of your choice http://nicetouch.net
Salesforce – commercially developed CRM system that now sits under many nonprofit applications www.salesforcefoundation.org
See3 – create visual media and internet marketing initiatives – very impressive and hope to get Michael Hoffman here next year www.see3.net
This is a mere handful of the 90 booths but they are the ones I stopped to chat with the longest. There are now literally dozens of CRM, fundraising software and consulting companies displaying their wares, which is great news for the nonprfit sector.
So, What were the Take Home Messages for me?
1. We operate a national conference , Connecting Up, that like for like population-wise matches NTC for organisation, breadth and delegate sources and we should be very proud of that. However I’m green with envy at the spread of products and services available to US nonprofits and wish our compatriots would get off their backsides to match it.
2. We in Australia have barely scratched the surface of Web 2.0 when it is the fastest growing aspect of connectedness. If we don’t move soon we risk losing an entire generation of potential supporters.
3. We should expect to increasingly deliver into mobile contexts..
4. We need to keep in mind these principles from Brian Reich and Dan Solomon’s Book ‘Media Rules’
- Everything is fragmented and blurred
- Small can be big
- We are all connected
And
Media is the information, the experiences, the stuff that we consume and share - it is not the technology
5. Key Indicators that It’s Time to Change
You wake up one day and find yourself competing with groups you've never heard of before.
You are under increasing pressure to lower/waive your fees
Your audience asks for changes you cannot or do not want to make
Your competitors are leaving the market
6. Challenges in Personalising the Messages and Making the Connections
The average person is exposed to 5,000 messages a day
1.4 blogs are created every second,
YouTube uploads 65,000 videos every day
There are 55,000 possible drink combinations at Starbucks
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