See What’s Out There

Leading provider of online fundraising, education and advocacy for nonprofits partners with the first open-source video platform

San Francisco - April 28, 2009 - Continuing its growth as a national provider of interactive services to the nonprofit and cause community, See3 Communications announced today at the Nonprofit Technology Conference a strategic partnership with Kaltura, the first open-source video platform. The partnership makes See3 a primary channel to bring Kaltura to nonprofits and extends Kaltura’s growing influence as a preferred video solution. In addition, the Kaltura solution is now powering video on DoGooderTV, the video services and promotion site powered by See3, and home to the annual Nonprofit Video Awards.

“We are excited that we can finally, wholeheartedly, recommend a video platform to our clients,” said See3 CEO Michael Hoffman. “Many nonprofits need to move beyond free video sharing sites and introduce a professional solution to manage their video content. Kaltura is a terrific product and their quality and feature-set simply cannot be matched. That they are open source is a huge added benefit to our clients and the greater nonprofit community.”

As an open source platform, Kaltura is unique among online video solutions. It enables developers around the world to create add-on software to extend the functionality and improve the performance of the platform. Kaltura integrates seamlessly with open-source platforms, such as Drupal, WordPress and MediaWiki, which have become popular in the corporate and nonprofit community, because they produce better results at lower cost. In addition to being open source, Kaltura has advanced online editing features, allows for uploads directly from YouTube and other video sharing sites, and can be used to push content on to other video sharing sites through integration with Gigya, TubeMogul and others. With blog and forum integration, Kaltura can add video comments to any website, allowing site visitors to make comments directly from their webcam.

“Kaltura has always had a commitment to the nonprofit community,” said Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura Chairman and CEO. “Our partnership with See3 expands this commitment and allows us to work with a well-known pioneer in online video for nonprofits. See3 also brings to our partnership a web development team well-versed in open source software and the ability to integrate the Kaltura solution into many types of websites.”

I recently conducted a little experiment with my work Inbox. When I left my position at Easter Seals, I had seven-plus years of research covering the field of nonprofits online flowing (more like gushing) in daily via email newsletters, listserve digests, etc.  I felt guilty every time I hit delete without reading them, because I knew there was gold in them thar emails, but the sheer volume was more than any one person could consume.

When I set up my new Inbox here at See3 Communications, I decided rather than sit down for hours conducting a massive re-subscribe, I would wait and see what professional enewsletters I really, really missed. After three months, it’s been a cleansing experience (for my Inbox and my brain). But more importantly, it helped me identify the really great ones. If the topic of nonprofits online is also your bag, I hope you’ll make room in your InBox for these enewsletters that refused to be forgotten.

NPAdvisors e-Fund News: Thought provoking weekly articles on online donor development written by Rick Christ and Heather Fignar. If you’re responsible for online fundraising in any capacity, each email will either reinforce your efforts with well written points to use with upper management, or give you a good kick in the pants for what you need to be doing.

ASPCA: Oh, how many good ideas have I “borrowed” from ASPCA online over the years? I always keep one eye on these folks because they’re just so darn good at what they do. In my defense, I’ve adopted three rescue kittens in the past year. Or did the enewsletter make me do it?

Alertbox: Jakob Nielsen’s column on Web usability: Not for nonprofits only, his lessons on Web (and email) usability are universal. I’m an avid follower for his invaluable research on user-centric Web site creation, but I love him for his forthright use of the word “bad”. “Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad category pages… which is worst for business?” Go get ‘em Jakob!

All of these enewsletters share two key ingredients — they consistently bring me information I need and are very well written, so they’re worth my valuable time and a joy to read.

What enewsletters can you not live without, and why? There’s still room in my Inbox for something new….

David Pogue, the NYTimes technology writer, has some good advice about using digital cameras. In fact, he wrote a book on the subject called David Pogue’s Digital Photography - The Missing Manual.

One big issue in getting good pictures with amateur camera equipment is controlling the flash.

Here’s what Pogue has to say on this subject:

Cameras love light. Light is everything to a photograph: It provides the color, sharpness, and shadow. And if there’s not enough light for a decent exposure, well, your camera stands ready to provide that light all by itself.

What most people don’t consider, though, is that the flash generally provides horrible light. It’s harsh, it’s white, it’s direct, and it comes from a single point: your camera.

If you’re close to the subject, the flash can blow out the picture, giving your best friend a ghost face that looks like it was photographed during a nuclear test. Worse, the flash illuminates only about the first 10 feet of the scene; everything beyond that comes out black.

In any case, most people make two mistakes with the flash: using it when they shouldn’t, and not using it when they should.

1. When to Avoid the Flash

Your camera’s flash probably has a range of about 10 feet. Beyond that distance, it does nothing at all–except waste battery power and annoy people.

You know when thousands of flashes go off at a rock concert, football game, or school play? Don’t be one of those clueless people. They’re all firing their flashes for nothing. Do they really think they’re going to illuminate a singer, football player, or actor from 200 yards away?

The second time to avoid using the flash is, well, whenever possible. A no-flash picture is almost always better-looking and more realistic than a flash picture.

Of course, small cameras, in particular, may not be able to take certain pictures at all without the flash, like nighttime pictures and indoor shots where people are moving. (Without the flash, you’d get blur.)

But there are dozens of edge cases: situations where your camera is convinced that it needs the flash but in fact could do without it; often, it’s just a matter of steadying the camera on something (a car, a wall, a doorway) to avoid blur. If you can learn to identify these situations, you’ll get much more realistic, attractive pictures.

2. When to Force the Flash

This may sound nuts. But there’s a very good reason to use the flash even on a bright, sunny day.

Suppose, for example, that you’re taking a picture of a person outdoors. (Hey–it could happen.)

You aim the camera and half press the shutter button; the camera “reads” the scene and concludes that there’s tons of sunlight. It would never dream of using the flash; it’s not smart enough to recognize that the subject’s face is in shadow.

The solution is to force the flash on–a very common photographer’s trick.

A fill flash like this makes outdoor portraits look a lot better. It eliminates the silhouette effect when your subject is in front of a bright background. Better yet, it provides very flattering front light. It softens smile lines and wrinkles, and it puts a nice twinkle in the eyes.

3. Flash Modes

All right: Now you know that you’re not a slave to the whims of your camera’s flash. So what are the steps to controlling it?

Press the flash mode button. It’s a dedicated physical button, marked by the universal lightning-bolt-with-an-arrow-on-one-end. Use it to open a menu of the camera’s flash modes. (On some cameras, press it repeatedly to cycle through the different flash modes.)

Here’s what you’ll probably have to choose from:

* Auto. The camera chooses when to fire the flash. (It’s wrong about half the time.) Usually denoted by “Auto” or the letter A.

* Redeye reduction. A mostly ineffectual and highly annoying double flash, intended to minimize that spawn-of-the-dead look. Marked by an eyeball.

* No flash. Usually represented by a circle with a slash through it. Great for whenever you can get away with it.

* Forced flash. This is the mode for outdoor portraits. It’s usually marked by a lightning bolt or the words “Flash on,” “Force flash on,” or “Fill flash.”

* Slow-synchro flash. This mode, also known as front curtain sync, isn’t as common as the previous four, but it’s available on most of the nicer cameras. (On pocket cams, it may be called Nighttime mode, and its icon usually looks like a star or a moon over someone’s shoulder.)

The idea here is to flash once, illuminating your companion nicely–but then to leave the shutter open for a moment while it drinks in some light from the surrounding background. If it didn’t do that, you’d get just a totally inky black background. This way, though, you can see the city lights, the campfire, the dusky street, or whatever’s beyond your subject.

As you can imagine, however, slow-synchro flash requires a steady camera.

* Second-curtain flash. This one, also called rear curtain sync, is probably the least-used flash effect, chiefly because (a) it’s hard to understand what it does and (b) it’s hard to understand when it might be useful.

In essence, it’s the same thing as the slow-synchro flash, but in the reverse sequence. That is, the shutter opens up to soak up the background first–and then the flash fires at the end of that interval.

The usual example people give for second-curtain flash is reversing the direction of moving lights (car taillight trails, for example). With slow-synchro flash, the trails seem to extend forward from the cars; with second-curtain flash, they seem to trail from behind the cars.

You can read more David Pogue on his site and check out his videos at the NY Times website.

The 2009 DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards received almost 400 video entries from 175 nonprofits and social causes. Our judges have selected the top 4 videos in each category and now it’s time to cast your vote!

Top winners will receive some incredible, one-of-a-kind “camera trophies” (below) provided by our sponsors, Flip Video Spotlight.

……..

Voting will close at midnight on Saturday, April 25, and winners will be announced at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco, CA, brought to you by NTEN.

See3 Communications Names Shirley Sexton Director, Interactive Marketing and Fundraising


Leading provider of new media services to nonprofit community adds experienced online fundraiser and strategist to manage expanded service offering.

Chicago – April 3, 2009 – Continuing its growth as a national provider of interactive services to the nonprofit and cause community, See3 Communications proudly announces the addition of Shirley Sexton to its team as Director, Interactive Marketing and Fundraising.

Sexton joins See3 from Easter Seals, the 8th largest nonprofit organization in the United States, where she served as Assistant Vice President, Interactive Marketing. Sexton lead the creation of Easter Seals online infrastructure of over 140 Web sites, and established their Online Fundraising program, bringing their online income from virtually nothing to over 1.5 million dollars in just six years. Under Sexton’s leadership, Easter Seals’ presence online has became a leading model in the nonprofit sector for innovation, integration of headquarters and local chapters, and accessibility. In her position, Sexton managed a staff of seven employees and oversaw all online communications, including website development, email fundraising and outreach. During her tenure at Easter Seals Sexton also contributed to the nonprofit community by serving on the Convio Advisory Board, the ePhilanthropy Board of Directors and the Network for Good Advisory Board.

“We are thrilled that Shirley is joining See3 and bringing her vast knowledge of online fundraising and her sector leadership to our organization,” said Michael Hoffman See3 CEO. “Shirley is the anchor to our expansion of services, including comprehensive interactive assessments and email communications plans. In today’s environment it is especially critical that organizations optimize and coordinate all of their fundraising activities. At Easter Seals, Shirley was running an interactive program in a complex organization with a massive direct mail background, major corporate partners and large federal grants. She knows how to integrate channels and collaborate with stakeholders to optimize outcomes.”

Sexton has long been a trailblazer in utilizing online and direct marketing for social causes. Sexton’s online experience includes serving as principal strategic consultant for engagements with hundreds of national nonprofit clients at AppNet/Commerce One and managing the ground-breaking online experiment of marketing online subscriptions for Slate.com at iXL. Her direct mail portfolio includes work for Highlights Magazine, The New York Times and AOL. In addition, Sexton worked for nine years as art director in the direct marketing department of the National Geographic Society.

About See 3 Communications

See3 is a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits, foundations, associations, and social causes. See3 specializes in online strategy for fundraising and advocacy. They use their skills in video production and web development combined with their experience in strategic communications.

See3 creates compelling media and online initiatives for causes, from national organizations to community-based programs. They approach each engagement with a fresh eye, take the time to consider the clients’ audience and goals—fundraising, recruitment, education, awareness—and execute tailored video, web, and outreach campaigns to achieve maximum impact.