Techcafeteria

Baudcasts

Blackbaud, maker's of popular fundraising software like Raiser's Edge and BBEC, have a regular podcast on nptech issues, with guests from the community. I've appeared on two of these, to date.

Episode 26: 2009 NTC, Day of Service, social media campaigns, branding, online fundraising ROI, Facebook Causes, virtualization, losing control of your message, YouTube, Google, and more. Featuring Chad Norman, Steve MacLaughlin, Melanie Mathos, Allison Van Diest, Danielle Brigida, Peter Campbell, Anna Richter, and David Neff.

Download Episode 26 here

Episode 30: The Online NTC, IT and Mission, IT Alignment, Google Wave, and more. Featuring Chad Norman, Holly Ross, Peter Campbell, and John Merritt.

Download Episode 30 here

Slideshow Summarizing Chapter 4: Planning and Prioritizing from NTEN's Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission

In addition to writing this chapter, I presented on the topic at NTEN's 2009 technology conferences (both the live one in San Francisco in May and the virtual "ONTC" in September). Here are the slides from those presentations, which summarize the key points in the chapter.

NTEN: Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission Book

The NTEN guide to technology management at nonprofits is out. I wrote Chapter 4, "Planning and Prioritizing", and the book includes chapters by many of my sharp friends in the community like Steve Heye, Beth Kanter, John Kenyon and Dahna Goldstein. I don't believe that there's another book like this, specifically focused on how nonprofits manage tech, and I'm really happy with my contribution, which challenges the typical technology approach of "Buy what we have to, spend as little as possible" and makes a strong case for mission-focused planning and understanding where you have to approach technology projects the exact same way that a for-profit company would, and how you can scrimp and be creative on the less critical stuff in order to keep the budget down.

You can order the book from the publisher or Amazon.

NTEN: Personal Virtualization

Here's a slide set for a webinar on Personal/Desktop virtualization. It's one of two Webinars from March, 2009 on the subject of Virtualization.

Idealware: Using RSS to Feed your Information Needs

This Idealware/Techsoup article attempts to cover the many things that you can use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to subscribe to; the many ways that you can subscribe; and the tools that will best match your information needs and style. It's pretty comprehensive.

Using RSS at Idealware and Using RSS at Techsoup.

NTEN: Day of Service

In preparation for the 2009 NTEN Cnference in San Francisco, I put together an Ignite" style presentation (20 slides in five minutes) for a pre-conference event at Techsoup's headquarters.

Idealware: Evaluating Software Systems

I'm very proud of this article on software purchasing and evaluation: The Perfect Fit: A Guide to Evaluating and Purchasing Major Software Systems

Document Management Systems

Idealware.org is the foremost source of articles and white papers focused on non-profit technology. My most recent work is a paper on Document Management Better Organization through Document Management Systems. This article was also picked up by Techsoup.

Idealware: Data Soup

I developed, along with Idealware founder Laura Quinn, a primer on data integration called XML, API, CSV, SOAP! Understanding the Alphabet Soup of Data Exchange in October of 2007.

NPTimes Article on Data Management

The Non-Profit Times published an article I wrote in April, 2007 on data management, a follow-up to my NTEN session (below).

NTEN: Presentation on CRM Implementation

I am a regular contributer to the NTEN Connect newsletter and a presenter at their conferences. I led a webinar on the best practices for rolling out CRM in an organization:

• Preparing for your database: Making the Transition as Painless as Possible

• CRM Webinar Presentation

Effective IT Management Practices

I wrote the feature article for NTEN's May Newsletter on IT Leadership

• Lessons Learned: Effective Practices in IT Management

The Great Open API Debate

Last year, I participated on the panel for their great debate on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). That was a lot of fun, as I was the sole end-user on a panel of software providers. Someone had to keep those guys honest about how open their systems are (or aren't!).

• A podcast of the debate is here: The Great Open API Debate

Prior to the debate, I wrote this article.

• Seven Questions for Peter Campbell on Open APIs

NTEN has other great resources on Open APIs, linked here

Taking it to the Streets

This is a "rant" that I wrote for NTEN Connect about the frustrations of trying to collaborate on technology projects. Bet you've been there!

• Taking it to the Streets: Technology Needs to be about the Clients

Slides and Video from 2007 NTEN Managing Technology 2.0 Session

These are the slides for the session I did at the NTEN Conference in D.C. on April 5th, 2007

• Managing Technology 2.0 Presentation

My session was videotaped and is up on Blip.tv. Warning, though - it's out of order. It starts 15 minutes into the session on part one and then, a few minutes into part three, jumps back to the start of the session. This is about an hour and a half long, so only view it if you are really interested in the topic! The Q&A was pretty lively and interesting.

• Managing Technology 2.0 Video

Goodwill Retail Reporting System Presentation

This is a presentation that I did in 2004 at a National Goodwill conference describing the reporting system.

• Retail Data Warehouse Presentation

Non-Profit Quarterly Article

Joe Baker, the former President of NTen, among other distinctions, interviewed me about the project and highlighted it in the article.

• Non-Profit Quarterly Article - Tech Success Stories: Innovative Uses of Technology by Non-Profits by Joe Baker

Salesforce CRM Deployment

p>While at Goodwill, I kicked off their rollout of Salesforce.com's Constituent Relationship Management Software. These three pieces make up the business plan I drafted.

The main plan

The project plan

Additional notes