Plone NGO Mailing List The Organizational Digital Divide

[Laura Trippi]

Hi, Jonah,

Nice piece and very timely! We do seem to be at a threshold in the 
adoption of these tools by non-profits, as Nynke says of NGOs in the 
Netherlands, so that the possibility of organizations being, uh, "left 
behind" seems very real.

A couple thoughts, in case they're helpful. I think you could make your 
point more fully and more pointedly -- and also perhaps introduce it 
sooner. (I really like what's in the opening paragraph, but maybe it 
belongs further down?)

Also, your target audience, your presumed reader, would be nonprofits 
who haven't yet adopted these tools, and funders who don't get their 
importance yet, right? You want to persuade them, change their minds? It 
might be helpful if you offered more concrete specifics and examples, 
definitions and descriptions of what these tools can do, how they can 
use and integrate them, and possibly of what the dangers are of not 
adopting them.

It reads very well as it is, and makes important points. I only wonder 
if you're underselling your main idea, while also preaching a bit to the 
converted.

Thanks for sharing it with the list, and good luck with it!



::Laura



Nynke Kruiderink wrote:
> Hi Jonah, 
>  
> Great to read your piece! Just one little extra "and" in there, I highlighted below.
>  
> Here in the Netherlands I have the impression the NGO world woke up to web 2.0 tools this year and there are seminars and meetings and a whole bunch of buzzing going around about the uses of web 2.0 tools in online collaboration, although most attention up till now has gone to communication with the external world... not so much organisational, internally.
>  
> At our organisation (IICD.org) we are indeed looking into using wikis for team communication, and also social bookmarks in combination with tags for bottom-up repositories of usefull web resources. 
>  
> Alot of interesting things going on!
>  
> Nynke
>  
>  
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Van: ngo-bounces at lists.plone.org namens Jonah Bossewitch
> Verzonden: do 11/9/2006 4:51
> Aan: ngo at lists.plone.org
> Onderwerp: Plone NGO Mailing List The Organizational Digital Divide
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Everyone,
> 
> Really great meeting many of you all out in Seattle last week.
> 
> I mentioned to a few of you that I had been working on an op-ed piece on
> the importance of technology for non-profit organizing. I am thinking
> about submitting this to the Chronicle of Philanthropy or something
> (which means I shouldn't publish it anywhere until then), but was
> curious if anyone had any feedback for me before then. I thought it
> might also have a place in Plone's non-profit marketing.
> 
> all the best,
> /Jonah
> 
> -------------------------------------------------
> Like the telegraph and the railroad in their time, the Internet has been
> heralded as the promoter of equality, freedom, and democracy. And like
> the technologies that preceded it, its impact will ultimately derive
> from the ways we choose to use it. Organizers need to be purposeful and
> deliberate in their choice of communication technologies since these
> tools shape the connections between their users.
> 
> There is an emerging generation of collaboration tools, born and
> incubated in the free software world, which are radically improving the
> ways that people work together as a team. They have the potential to
> help fulfill some of the Internet's grand prophecies by significantly
> improving the efficiency and productivity of non-profits, NGO's and
> activist groups alike. These kinds of tools can dramatically improve the
> management of knowledge, communities, and projects, and enable the
> coordination and collaboration across thousands of participants. They
> are rapidly being adopted by corporations eager to move beyond the
> e-mail inbox as the primary task management and collaboration platform.
> Organizations of all shapes and sizes need to be evaluating and
> embracing these technologies, or they risk falling behind in
> differential efficiency, victims of the organizational digital divide.
> 
> The "writeable web" has spawned a new generation of networked, web-based
> environments that can significantly increase an organization's ability
> to realize their goals. These environments are not a panacea - at best,
> they will catalyze and facilitate an improvement in communication and
> processes. While technology alone will not guarantee a change in a
> group's culture, it can play an instrumental role raising the
> self-awareness around an organization's processes, and in turn, help
> improve them.
> 
> It is remarkable how a simple mailing list combined with an internal
> wiki can thoroughly transform the workflow within an organization, but
> this is just the start. Project management tools, collaboration
> platforms, and content management systems, 
> 
> and [remove this extra and]
> 
> are transforming the
> potentials of the modern intranet. By better balancing the flows of
> communication and power, these environments can boost an organization's
> productivity, and increase the return on a philanthropic investment.
> With the proper training and tuning, these technologies can help an
> organization achieve important strategic objectives such as
> transparency, accountability, and sustainability.
> 
> Organizers must find the time to learn how to harness these tools as
> vehicles for implementing their vision. These aren't just toys for
> techies anymore - just as the word processor became an essential tool
> for every writer to master, organizers must embrace the network as their
> new medium.
> 
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> 
> 
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