June 2006

Blogging Software - Detailed Reviews and Recommendations

By Laura Quinn, June 29, 2006
Our report on blogging software is complete, and no one could be more thrilled than I! The report, written in partnership with TechSoup/ CompuMentor, takes a detailed look at seven different tools used to build blogs. We take a close look at how easy each blogging software is to get up and running, to post, and to tailor to match an existing website. We review comment moderation functionality, usability for the visitor, reporting, and more. And as always, we make recommendations of the right tool for your needs.

The report is here: www.idealware.org/blogging_software/ Registration is required; a $10 donation is suggested.

The Games We Play (and Build)

By Laura Quinn, June 29, 2006
I was excited to go to the Games for Change conference this week - a conference on using video games for social good - and it didn't let me down. It was a great conference, with a lot of opportunities to look at games close up and talk the people behind them.

Being a geek for details as always, I wanted to find out what building games entails from a practical perspective. I asked a lot of people how they went about thinking through their games, and what lessons they learned. Some interesting themes emerged - some expected and some not so much:
  • Creating an immersive, cinematic experience is the name of the game. One of the key defining factors of a game is that it creates empathy, a connection to real life. This is more easily said than done. Creating a strong graphic design, with the right feel for the tone of your game, is important. You also can't rely on lots of text, which people generally won'te read - instead, you need to convey info (usually in stages) through audio, video, animation, and game play.
  • It's a different kind of technology development project. Because of the need for immersive elements, and other things, it's a different animal than building most other things. You need specialists - game designers, illustrators, animators, and script writers can all be important.
  • A good game requires deep knowledge of your subject. There will tons of decisions about every aspect of the game - what words would people use? what does their house look like? what's a realistic outcome? - that requires nearly encylopedic knowledge. And the more sensitive your subject matter is, the more important it is to have credibility through subject matter experts (and expertise)
  • Focusing on (and measuring) your desired outcomes is critical. There's a temptation, even more than usual, to concentrate on the nifty rather than the useful. Keeping your end goals in mind (i.e. do you want to educate? engender action?) , as well as how you'll measure whether you succeeded is important.

Weekly news and article roundup

By Laura Quinn, June 25, 2006
I religiously collect links to interesting nonprofit software news and articles for the Idealware eNews, but I'm finding it suprisingly difficult to clean them up and put them up as I find them. So I'll try something new: a round-up of links at the end of each week. Here's this week's crop.

Great New Blog on Internet Tools for Educators (Learning.now)
Andy Carvin’s new blog for PBS, Learning.now, threatens to single handedly dominate Idealware’s news roundup. He's written a number of great articles and case studies on open source tools, wikis, and blogs, and more – and it’s only his first month. Just read the whole blog.

Youth Centers Grapple with MySpace (CNet)
Schools and community centers are facing a challenge: does allowing kids to use MySpace in a supervised setting help teach them to surf safely and responsibly? Or does it expose kids to “cyber bullying” and online predators?

Nonprofits and Second Life and Other Games (Beth’s Blog)
Beth Kanter has been investigating how games and virtual environments can be useful for nonprofits

Analysis of Open Source Principles in Online Communities (First Monday)
An interesting look at three case studies of online communities (Wikipedia, Black Rock City and ThinkCycle) that are collaboratively organized and maintained.

Thinking About "Virtual" Meetings (Full Circle Interaction)
Nancy White has put together one of her useful and beautiful diagrams to summarize the types of tools to consider using for online meetings based on your needs.

Advokit 1.0: An Open-Source Voter Contact Management Tool (Advokit)
Advocakit released Version 1.0 of their free web-based voter contact management system which supports social networking, recruitment, voter registration, supporter identification, get-out-the-vote, door-to-door canvassing and phone bank work.

Google Tools and Services (Small Business Computing)
Google now has so many services it's hard to keep them straight – searching, blogging, mapping, shopping, research and more. Here's a quick rundown.

Four memediggers compared: Digg, Reddit, Meneame and Hugg (Social Software Weblog)
A number of tools centeralize user submitted news moderated up or down by other users and available for comments. Which of these sites get the most use, see the most conversation and are most useful to their readers? Marshall Kilpatrick compares Digg, Reddit, Meneame and Hugg.

Four Web Authoring Programs Compared (TechSoup)
TechSoup compares four different tools that allow users to create webpages without HTML or scripting experience: GoLive, Dreamwaeaver, Nvu and FrontPage.

Handout: Software Best Bets for Small Organizations

By Laura Quinn, June 25, 2006
Looking for a handout on software tools for small organizations for your workshop or conference? We've put together a one-pager which summarizes the recommendations from the areas we've looked at. Feel free to distribute at will, or contact me (laura@idealware.org) if you'd like something customized for your event. Download the PDF now>

Donate what you feel the Idealware resources are worth

By Laura Quinn, June 14, 2006
Did Idealware’s report on Online Donation Tools save you time and money? Do our articles help you understand what tools are available and worth looking at?

If so, please help us keep these resources coming by donating what you feel they're worth.

We're in the midst of an email fundraising drive, and I didn't want to make you blog readers feel left out :)

According to our evaluation of the Online Donation Tools report, readers found a huge amount of value in the report:
  • One reader, who estimated the report saved him more than $1000 and a week of time, said “You helped us eliminate the vendors from things we knew we didn't want. Your detailed summaries are great.”
  • Another, who estimated he saved more than $500 because of the report, said “The cost graphs were excellent and the side-bars were very informative. Now with this report, I'm confident that I don't need to revisit this question for a while.”
  • A third, who saved about a day and $200, simply said “Amazingly candid.”
We'd love to write more reports (perhaps on bulk emailing tools, donor databases, CMS systems, or large integrated internet providers like Kintera, Convio, and GetActive) but it's an unfortunate fact of life that we can't do it without money. We wrote the Online Donation Tools Report and the forthcoming Blogging Tools report without any funding at all, but that's not a sustainable model. And it's getting harder every day to raise money for projects like these.

Can you help?

Please take a minute to donate by credit card or via PayPal to help make these new reports possible.

Thanks for supporting Idealware!

Results from our evalation of the Online Donation Report

By Laura Quinn, June 11, 2006
Way back in January, we surveyed the folks who had registered to view the Online Donation report to see how they used the report, and how they liked it. We've finally finished analyzing and writing up the results, and I thought I'd post them for anyone who's interested.

We've heard a lot of great feedback about the report, but it's always hard to tell how representative the feedback is until you actually survey people. But the survey results were really positive, as much as we could hope. Some key findings:
  • 99% of respondents found at least one section very useful
  • 70% agreed that the report helped them to find particular tools that might work for them,
  • 60% told others about the report - either by forwarding it or discussing it with others
  • 80% of all respondents felt the report had saved them time - about 5.5 hours on average. Those who read the report for help in choosing a specific tool said they saved about 8.5 hours on average.
  • The average money saved across all respondents was $161; this increased to $224 for those specifically looking for a tool.
Want more, and to see some pretty charts? View the evaluation report>

A Good Time for Software Grants

By Laura Quinn, June 8, 2006
Apparently, it’s a good time (or at least a better time than usual) to be looking for funding for software projects. Three different applicable awards and grants have been announced recently:

AT&T; Nonprofit Technology Grant Program (AT&T;)
AT&T; announces the launch of the fifth year of their grant program that supports projects that use technology to build stronger communities in 13 different states. Proposals are due by July 5th.

Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (Andrew W Mellon Foundation)
The Mellon Foundation invites nominations for an award which will recognize institutions that contributed to the collaborative development of open source software of benefit to higher education, libraries, museums and arts organizations, and nature conservation. The deadline for nominations is Friday, 4 August.

The Antonio Pizzigati Prize For Software in the Public Interest (The Tides Foundation)
The Tides Foundation will award The Antonio Pizzigati Prize to a software developer who has made, in the spirit of open source computing, an outstanding contribution to the nonprofit world
and the ongoing work of social change. Online applications must be submitted by July 5, 2006.