See What’s Out There

I had a conversation today with a major Jewish Federation about technology change. They are thinking about the future and wanted to look seriously into how changes in technology will impact their activities in the future. They are thinking beyond fundraising to service delivery, health care, and many other segments of community activity for which they are responsible. I tried to give them a framework in which to think about this kind of change and we discussed different models to explore and teach this subject.

The change taking place with technology isn’t simply about operational efficiencies. These changes in technology are creating fundamental changes in how people see their role, the community and their identity. In philanthropy, for example, the people-to-people connectivity of a Kiva is not a new concept, but the internet makes it possible on a new scale.

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Ariel Beery, one of a whole crop of young technology savvy Jewish thinkers and creative types. Walking in the footsteps of my friend Yossi Abramowitz, these folks are putting out cultural products and shaking the traditional tree with new ideas.

Ariel Beery’s ideas are included on a blog I have been reading called The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy. I was turned on to this blog by a friend and then given it to review as part of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, which introduces nonprofit bloggers (like me) to other nonprofit bloggers through our work.

How do you think the web and technology change will impact identity? Is Facebook and MySpace a trend? a tool? or a fundamental shift in how people connect and communicate and create networks. Read Ariel Beery’s ideas here and let me know what you think.

The newspaper business is in trouble. Their trouble is connected to the media fragmentation that I so frequently talk about and the rise of the web as a source for news. It is also connected to having sites like Craig’s List take away classified revenue, which has traditionally been a key pillar to newspaper profitability.

Sam Zell thinks the newspaper business will survive. I am not so sure.

If you are watching The Wire you can see the parallel impact of budget cuts to the police force and budget cuts in the newsroom. In my hometown newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, budget cuts mean that serious news coverage declines, foreign bureaus close and a paper that was once a well-respected part of a thinking man’s daily diet is now just a mere shadow of itself.

David Carr in the New York Times suggests that The Wire is placing too much of the blame for the failures in the newsroom on the management staff that has to make them. He suggests that the show should spend more time looking at the structural issues that are the root cause of the problem.

All of this matters because there is no way for us as a society to address the problems that ail us, if we don’t know what those problems are. If you are a nonprofit working to help low-income Americans or to rebuild the levees in New Orleans or to assist developing countries, you then should care deeply whether and how people get their news.

Today on Techcrunch, Michael Arrington blogs from Davos about a suggestion that government step in to save the whole newspaper industry. The title of his post is “If Real Journalism Fails as a Business, Should Government Step In.” He wrote this because he heard Columbia University President Lee Bollinger mention the idea in a session at the World Economic Forum.

An interesting discussion is on venture capitalist Fred Wilson’s blog today. His post is called Rethinking the Local Paper and he writes about a vision where the local paper is actually an amalgam of “hyperlocal” postings from the moms and dads writing about their neighborhoods. He sees a business model where I assume the big international stuff is covered by the professionals but it’s supplemented by lots of detailed and organized posting from the neighborhood. So the pothole and the PTA meeting are covered by the people it most impacts. This is a level of journalism that local papers could never do and the technology now makes it possible to do it. He points us to two websites working on different aspects of this issue. One is called Outside.In and the other is called Everyblock. Everyblock was actually funded by our very forward thinking friends at the Knight Foundation.

Outside.in takes more blog posts and that kind of info. Everyblock grabs police reports (eek! I don’t want to know!) and things like city permit information — who is building where, etc. Here’s my office neighborhood on Outside.In and on Everyblock.

We will stay tuned to see how all of this plays out. As a nonprofit you need to be thinking not only about describing what it is you do and why it matters, but also in giving people the necessary background they would have once received from their local newspaper.

MoveOn has been a leader in using the web, and email in particular, to get their message out. If you don’t know MoveOn, they started with a simple email during the Clinton impeachment — lets move on — and it grew and grew.

They are no strangers to using video either. They have had video contests, and have made lots of 30-second spots. They have used the web to fundraise for these spots.

Today I saw something different from MoveOn. Eli Pariser, the Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action did a direct response video. It came in an email with a little text and a large screen shot of a video player window. It said:

Dear MoveOn member,
I recorded a video message for you about this election year—it felt too important to put in a regular email.

Watch it here:

The here is this page on the MoveOn.org site.

The page is their standard fundraising page (the kind you get with services such as Convio or Kintera). In the video he even points down to the donation form from his YouTube box, asking the viewer to donate right now to kick of the 2008 campaign activities.

At See3 we’ve been exploring this direct response video technique for a while. We think that in certain circumstances it can work well and we will try to find out how this does relative to non-video landing pages.

Can you spare $10? It’s a dumb question because I know you can.

Beth Kanter, friend and blogger, is raising money for the Sharing Foundation, which supports kids in Cambodia. Watch the video Beth did with her son:

Now, if you give $10 you can help Beth raise $50,000 through a competition called America’s Giving Challenge. The fundraising page was set up on GlobalGiving by Michele Martin. Go to THIS PAGE right now and donate and make a big difference.

Parade magazine and the Case Foundation are partnering with GlobalGiving to launch America’s Giving Challenge — an initiative to inspire and reward greater giving through online technology. $500,000 will be awarded through the challenge to charities whose supporters have attracted the most unique donors to their cause using new and innovative online tools. The Challenge begins December 13 at 3pm EST and will close January 31 at 3pm EST.

At See3, we have been adding clients for social media marketing services for the past year. This is all about audience identification and message distribution. Finding your online niche and getting those influencers to engage and then influence their friends.

There are lots of organizations with just a toe in the water, others that are swimming away and some that are fully clothed, looking at the pool and wondering what it’s all about.

To measure this space by the job openings we can see some traction here. It seems that it’s hourly I am getting an email telling me that there is a job opening for an Online Marketing Director or an Online Community Manager, or an Internet Marketing Specialist or some other name that basically means the same thing.

The organizations that are hiring for these positions are the ones who are going full speed ahead. Humane Society, for example, is a leader in using social networking to spread their message. And so it is no surprise that they are hiring. They are seeing the return on investment from using social media tools — and video — and so they are beefing up their operations.

If you are not thinking about how to plan and staff your online strategy — which is becoming more lucrative AND more time consuming every day — you need to be.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards

Chicago, IL & Seattle, WA January 11, 2008

See3 Communications and NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network announce the co-sponsorship of the 2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards. Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to submit their videos to the contest, hosted on DoGooderTV, the video sharing platform for nonprofits. The grand prize winner will be announced at NTEN’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in New Orleans on March 21. The winner will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 NTC to be held in San Francisco.

The theme of this year’s contest is From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Engage Constituents and Make the World a Better Place. The goal of the contest is to highlight the work of nonprofit organizations and to spread the word about the creative ways they employ media to bring about social change. Last year’s winner, Avaaz “Stop the Clash of Civilizations” received a standing ovation when played at the conference. This video has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.

Nonprofit organizations and their constituents are invited to submit videos used in support of a 2007 campaign. Videos can be from a wide variety of issue and interest areas including (but not limited to) activism, environment, education, disability, economic development, human services, international development, health, and the arts.

Entries will be accepted until February 15, 2008 at which time finalists will be determined. The finalists will be shown on www.DoGooder.tv beginning March 1, 2008; individuals will be able to vote on their favorite entry through March 20, 2008. For complete contest rules and to submit or view videos, please visit the video contest home.

See3 Communications creates compelling visual media and internet marketing initiatives that enable nonprofits to maximize exposure, deepen connections and produce results. Our background in video production, web development and nonprofit marketing and fundraising are combined to create campaigns with emotional appeal that compel target audiences to action. For additional information about See3 Communications, visit www.see3.net

NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network is the membership organization of nonprofit technology professionals. NTEN facilitates the exchange of knowledge and information within the nonprofit community. We connect our members to each other, provide professional development opportunities, educate our constituency on issues of technology use in nonprofits, and spearhead groundbreaking research, advocacy, and education on technology issues affecting our entire community. For additional information about NTEN, visit www.nten.org

Contact Information
Mary Dombrowski
Director of Operations
See3 Communications
(773) 784-7333
mary[at]see3[dot]net
www.see3.net
www.dogooder.tv

Holly Ross
Executive Director
NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network
(415) 397-9000
holly[at]nten[dot]org
www.nten.org

A while back I wrote a post about how there are just too many Michael Hoffman’s out there and with Google I am connected to all of them, even the anti-Semite Michael Hoffman who consistently gets top billing on Google. It is a story really about how the web connects people who otherwise would never know each other. Take a minute now to Google yourself and all of your top staff or consultants. You might be surprised at who else comes up.

I was recently contacted by yet another Michael Hoffman who asked me to link to his website. Here it is.

I still need some help with this so that we can dislodge the evil Michael Hoffman from his Google and Wikipedia rankings. So, if you can spare a link, please put “Michael Hoffman” on your site somewhere and link it to this post or better yet the first one I did.

One of my most favorite conferences of the year is the Making Your Media Matter Conference. It is put on by American University’s Center for Social Media. This is the place to go if you are interested in the intersection of film, video, documentary, web video and social change. And you should be interested — this is the most important communications method available to nonprofit organizations. We are moderating the panel on short-shorts and new platforms.

Here’s the info on the conference. It is small and ALWAYS sells out — so reserve your spot.

The Center for Social Media is sponsoring the Making Your Media Matter conference on Feb. 7-8 at American University. The conference, geared towards established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders and students, is a place where leading-edge practitioners learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters. The conference will feature panel discussions on the latest tools and trends in creating and distributing social issue media, including panels on games for social change, intercultural media, and short-shorts and new platforms; demos of cutting edge practices; networking opportunities as well as the chance to hear from our keynote speakers, filmmaker Byron Hurt and outreach expert Sonya Childress.
Click here to register and learn more.

SPACE IS LIMITED! REGISTER NOW TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SPOT

Good ideas make a good blog, but so does good writing.

Check out this post from the new blog Snarfd. I love the language.

Can you use the terms “freaktard” and “douche-nozzle” in your organizational blog posts? Maybe not, (though I found a way to get them in here But you can write with emotion and purpose and not over produce everything that you post. It’s about authenticity, even if douche-nozzle is a made-up word.

See3 Executive Producer Daniel Alpert is a brilliant filmmaker. HBO, A&E, PBS… Danny has made moving and impactful broadcast documentaries for more than 15 years. In the past 5 years, Danny has become an expert in short-form video and internet delivery and through See3 makes those services available to nonprofits. But he keeps making those broadcast documentaries.

Danny’s latest project is The Calling. It’s a 4-part prime time PBS event scheduled for 2009. One of the coolest things will be the outreach and engagement pieces. Danny “plans to leverage the widespread appeal anticipated for this project with an innovative, multi-platform community engagement campaign designed to build audiences before the broadcast and extend the reach of the series into communities across the nation.” Much of that engagement will happen online.

From the press release:

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that it has made a significant investment in a four-part documentary series about religion in the U.S. to be broadcast in 2009 on PBS. ITVS’ support of the program is bolstered by a recent announcement of other major funding from the Program Challenge Fund from the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).

“THE CALLING” presents a four-hour, in-depth exploration of faith in the U.S. through the dramatic journeys of dedicated Americans who have chosen to become religious leaders. As they approach a lifetime of service and spiritual leadership, these Muslims, Catholics, Evangelical Christians and Jews struggle to balance religious convictions, rigorous academics, professional responsibilities and personal relationships. Their intimate portraits will provide a rich, nuanced portrayal of religion in America never before seen on national television. “THE CALLING” is projected for broadcast on PBS in 2009.

And here’s the very short trailer.