Using Technology to Organize: Tools to Build Websites, Databases, and Email

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Using Technology to Organize Tools to Build
Websites, Databases, and Email and more

• Jon Stahl
• jon_at_onenw.org

www.onenw.org
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What Kinds of Networks Are Most Important?

• Networks of computers?
• Or networks of people?

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This is what a network looks like
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Lay of the Land Late 2005

• 75 of US homes are now online
• Reading news is the 1 thing people do on the web
  (after email)
• Political campaigns discovered the Internet in
  2004
• A new media ecology is emerging powered by
  blogs

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New Tools, New Possibilities

• Lowering barriers to publishing and sharing
  information
• Informal tagging instead of taxonomies
• More fluid boundaries between organizations and
  tools
• Lots more pick ups and walk-ins
• Pushing power to the edges of campaigns
• Potentially scary lots of potential

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The Challenges

• Creative campaigns that mix old and new
• Knitting networks of people and organizations
• Tools that play well together
• Coping with information overload
• Treating communications tools as core capacity
  building work

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Tools We Use
PloneDemocracy in ActionPayPal GiftTool
ODB Salesforce.com
WhatCounts Democracy in Action Sympa
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Websites

• Increasing focus on
• Easy to write
• Bite-size chunks of content, frequently updated
• Community/interactivity

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• plone.org
• ONE/Northwests website building tool of choice
• Emphasis on
• Community
• Ease of use for non-techies
• Power and flexibility

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Online Donations Online Advocacy

• Theres more to online fundraising than just
  click here to donate
• Online advocacy is mainly a list-building tool
• Tools we use
• PayPal
• Simple, but surprisingly powerful and CHEAP.
• GiftTool.com
• A bit more expensive, but very customizable
• DemocracyInAction.org
• Online donations and e-advocacy, plus simple
  email blasting
• Powerful and inexpensive, but a little rough
  around the edges

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Email

• Still your main lifeline to your community it
  goes to them
• Increasingly sophisticated publishing tools
• Website/email newsletter integration

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Tools we use

• Sympa - ONE/Northwest list hosting
• Discussion lists (e.g. wman_at_lists.onenw.org)
• Simple email newsletter lists
• no tracking, no personalization, no authoring
  tools
• http//lists.onenw.org
• WhatCounts
• More powerful, flexible HTML email newsletters
• Tracking, personalization, automatic import of
  content from your website
• http//www.whatcounts.com

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Real Time Tools

• Skype www.skype.com
• Instant Messaging (aka chat)
• Voice-over-IP (aka Internet Telephony)
• Free ultra-low cost voice calls to computers
  and to regular phones
• 60m revenue, just bought by eBay for 4.7
  billion (!)
• Gaim gaim.sf.net
• A single program that connects to all major
  Instant Messaging networks (AOL, Yahoo, MSN,
  etc.)
• FreeConference.com
• Free conference call bridging (you call in long
  distance)

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Databases

• Still the source of tremendous pain
• No easy answers (yet)

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ODB A Good Simple Starting Point

• www.organizenow.net/odb
• ODB Organizers Database
• Simple, easy to use, FREE
• Windows-only
• Basic donation and contact management
• No online tools integration
• Not good for multi-office organizations

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A New Hope Salesforce.com

• Heavy-duty web-based relationship management
  software
• For-profit company with an explicit social
  mission
• Free 10-user licenses to nonprofits
• Strong user developer community, both
  commercial and non-profit
• Strong connections to other tools
• ONE/Northwest is just getting started as an
  implementer, should be in full swing in early
  2006.

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Avoiding Information Overload

• The challenge
• Getting what you need without being overwhelmed
  by what you dont
• Being able to find things youve seen before
• Sharing information with others, without extra
  work

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More Tools For Finding Managing Information

• Del.icio.us
• Collaborative web bookmarks
• Helps you find and share useful resources AND
  people
• http//del.icio.us (silly URL, great tool)

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Tools We Use To Manage Information Flow

• RSS Feed Readers, e.g. Bloglines
• A great way to take in information and de-clutter
  your inbox
• www.bloglines.com
• Google Desktop
• Instant, full-text searching of your email, hard
  drive and network drives
• http//desktop.google.com

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More Tools To Find Manage Information

• CommonTimes.org
• Collaborative news editing
• Strong group functions
• Google News Alerts
• Free, keyword-driven clipping from 4500 online
  news sources
• Can be delivered by email or by RSS
• http//news.google.com/

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Getting Things Done

• a process
• lots of ways to implement
• www.davidco.com