Assignment #10: Podcasts and Videos

1. The video I found was from the United Way of Guelph: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXWRo5Sjau8

2. I found a series of podcasts called Conquering Nonprofit Chaos on Podcast Alley. (http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=50370) The other two podcasts directories were not found at the URLs provided on the course page.

3. You Tube was easier to find what we were looking for than the podcast directories, maybe simply because the volume of information available is larger. I did find some information on the podcast directory related to fundraising but I wasn't able to find anything directly related to the United Way. I chose the video on You Tube because it was from a neighbouring United Way. I chose the podcast because it seemed like it might be useful despite being very basic information.

You Tube could be useful for us if we begin creating our own videos that we want to share with interested audiences. Podcasts could be useful for offering some of the training that we provide to our volunteers and non-profit organizations.

Assignment9 blog

Assignment #9: Online Applications & Tools

 

Zoho writer seems like it would be useful if we weren't on a network and able to share documents quickly through the network.  Some of our committees might find it useful when we are dealing volunteers that do not have access to computers on our network.  Our campaigners could also use it to collaborate with volunteers at their accounts.

 

It has been interesting figuring out how to have multiple users access a document at the same time.  I also like the feature that you can publish to either .pdf or LaTex formats directly.

Assignment #8: Wikis

The three wikis that I explored were:
1. The ALA conference page
2. Waterloo Way Wiki
3. WATSTART

The idea of using a wiki for a conference is a good one, but our organization doesn't hold any events that are of this magnitude. The Waterloo Way Wiki looks like a resource that we could use to research potential or current volunteers and donors and has brought to my attention that I should be looking for such wikis. I can't see an application for us implementing such a wiki other than perhaps setting up a listing of our funded agencies but I have concerns about having such information open for public editting. The Watstart wiki was again an interesting resource but I can't see the application for us.

The only user-generated content I think we would implement on our website would be more of a blog for experiences that our volunteers have, I'm not sure where the definition lies for if a user-editted blog is considered to be a blog or a wiki.

The negative side to wikis is the fact that because their content is based on opinion of whoever edits them, they may not always be factual and so implementing one for our organization would require careful monitoring to ensure that the information posted is factual.

Assignment #7: Web 2.0 & You

Part 1: After reading the article, I'm still not entirely sure what Library 2.0 is compared to Web 2.0 but I'm going with an assumption that it is the new model for how libraries should be represented on the web. I agree with Meredith's perspective that it could be used to assess how library patrons want to interact with their library and what kind of information they are looking for. She makes a good point about not just using the technology for the sake of using it. On the other hand she may have given up too fast and been too negative about some of the technology that they tried to implement. If patrons aren't aware of what you have implemented, they won't know to use it. Meredith seems to be positive about using Library 2.0 for assessment but not for other interactions, but if it is working for assesments it can be used to communicate back to them as well.

Part 2: The three articles I read were "What Does Web 2.0 Mean for your Non-Profit?", "To More Powerful Ways to Cooperate", and "Away from Icebergs".

Part 3:

The first article I read was 'What Does Web 2.0 Mean for Your Non-Profit?'. The ideas were good, but didn't really anything I didn't know or how to actually implement any of them. I know we should be doing more of this, but we need to figure out what is realistic to implement. Tiffany Meyer might be an interesting resource for us to check out in relation to our marketing plan and how we can better incorporate Web 2.0.

The second article I read was "To More Powerful Ways to Cooperate". I found this article full of confusing jargon relating to library use and had trouble seeing the relevance to our organization.

The third article I read was "Power from the People". We could use a blog to tell some of the experiences we've had when touring our United Way funded agencies, and to share some of the day to day activities and successes that we have. That way our donors and potential donors would get a better feel for what we do all year, as opposed to just during campaign time when we're asking them to donate. It's important to keep a blog up to date and if this isn't a reality, then we're better off not doing one. We could post our campaign video (currently on our website) on You Tube to get more exposure and interest. If we stay up to date with our website, we could consider setting up an RSS feed of our website content so users will know when we have updated content to view. We actually created a Facebook event for a fundraising event we ran. An interesting idea could be for us to use a web interface to gather stories from people who have been touched by one of our United Way funded agencies, although we would have to monitor it to make the content is appropriate. Overall, we have to consider our mission and communications goals, what tools and strategies are likely to be worth the effort.

Assignment #6: Tagging and Technorati

I can't really see much of an application for either of these tools for our organization. Both are interesting ideas but seem to have more personal applications than business applications.

Del.icio.us could be used to share relevant articles that all of our staff should be reading, but it seems like we would just be using it for the sake of using it since our current system of forwarding links to articles is working for us. On a personal level I can see using it to have pages that are currently saved in my 'Favourites' list accessible from multiple office computers and at home.

Technorati could be used to see what people are blogging about United Way, whether it is good or bad, but time limitations would restrict how often we would actually do it. It could help us tailor our messaging to the perceptions of the public.

Assignment #5: Facebook and Library Thing

Library Thing looks like a neat concept, but more on a personal level than anything that I could see being useful for our organization. It did seem very easy to use. I liked the features such as suggesting books that I might like once I had added a couple of books to my library.

Facebook is a tool that I can see direct usefulness for our organization and we are using it in a very limited way to advertise events. We should post an organization page, but haven't yet. Concerns I can see with it are finding the staff time to set it up and then monitor it. Because of the nature of Facebook there is the danger that we can't control what is posted in terms of negative comments and opinion as opposed to fact. Careful monitoring would help this, but again that is more staff time.

Assignment #4: RSS Feeds

RSS feeds seem like an interesting tool but I ran into some snags today with some of the sites running very slowly. Once I got Bloglines to stop timing out it seems simple to use, but I was never able to get feedster.com to work.

I think the main application for the United Way would be to use RSS feeds to monitor media coverage. However, when I tried to implement this there were very few hits on any of the methods of finding newsfeeds and it didn't seem like there was a way to narrow down the feed from our local media sites to a keyword.