The Blog Stump

Josh Goodwin, from our DonorTec technology donation program in Australia www.donortec.com.au, recently asked our nonprofit organisation donation recipients to send in photos that captured what their organisation is about and he made it into a competition called ‘A Jpeg’s worth a thousand words’, for which entries are still pouring in. You can see some of them that Josh inserted into MS Movie Maker on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Baa6mKletKg&feature=youtube_gdata .

I just thought you might like to share in the experience.

Do you have an idea for using government information that you’d love to have but you can’t get now? Would you like to win $5,000 for your favorite nonprofit? Well, all you have to do is come up with a
great idea for the nonprofit sector to use government information to make the world a better place. The contest details are below.
Who’s behind this? The Gov 2.0 Task Force, appointed by the Australian Government.
What’s Gov 2.0? It’s about governments being more open with information and using social media to communicate with the public, so they are more accountable.
So how does this contest work? The Taskforce will select the best idea(s) for using public sector information in a nonprofit/charity setting and award a cash donation of $5,000 to the charity/not-for-profit organisation of the winner’s choice.
What happens after that? The winner(s) (or their nominated not-for-profit organisation) will get help from Connecting Up Australia to scope their idea as a project proposal to the Taskforce.
What does that mean? It means that your idea may get funding from the Gov 2.0 Project Fund to be put into action.
How long have we got? You’ve got until Friday 30 October, so hurry. But don’t panic, you just need to generate the idea at this stage, but you’ll need to provide some broad details to allow the Task Force to make a decision.
What sort of government information are you talking about? Have a look here for some ideas of what’s already out there. But we’re really looking for great ideas about government information that the nonprofit sector could use to make a difference. We’ve also included a light-hearted example to kick-start your brain-storming but the only limit is your imagination.
What other smart ideas for Gov 2.0 have others thought of, just to get us started?  Check out some of these ideas  for a bit of inspiration
OK, we have an idea – how do we enter? Go to the Idea Scale site, sign up, and then submit your idea.
While you’re there, you can vote on other people’s ideas as well.
Don’t forget, the contest closes Friday 30 October, so get your skates on!

The Australian Government put its toe into the water of online transparency last week with an interesting development called Gov 2.0 . According to its website, “The Taskforce will advise Government on structural barriers that prevent, and policies to promote, greater information disclosure, digital innovation and online engagement including the division of responsibilities for, and overall coordination of, these issues within government.”

It’s even going to have a few bob to chuck around via its Project Fund .

Great to see some familar faces on the Task Force , including 3 of the speakers at Connecting Up o9: Lisa Harvey, Martin Stewart-Weeks, and Alan Noble, although obviously the bulk are public servants charged with actually implementing the ambitious agenda set for them.

And therein lies the rub. All of us have seen Federal and State Governments turn FOI policies into Freedom FROM Information when the going gets tough. Let’s hope Gov 2.0 doesn’t fall at the first firewall. We will watch with interest, as I’m sure our US collegaues will be watching Data.gov , a similar inititative emerging from the Obama administration.

It’s always good to see the rise of another media outlet for our sector and we wish the Third Sector Magazine well, especially when they give us this wonderful coverage.

http://www.thirdsectormagazine.com.au/editions/tsm_jan09_web.pdf

In October 2008, we invited Australian charities and nonprofits to take part in a survey similar to one we conducted as a part of the NNIC project in 2006. Once again we had a fantastic response, with over 1,000 organisations of all sizes and from all over Australia logging on to record their information. A very special thank you to all of those who took time out of your busy working lives to complete the survey. And once again it was a pleasure to work with Digital Business Insights and utilize their survey methodologies and benchmark tools.

 Briefly, the survey has found that Australia’s charities and nonprofit organisations are missing out on opportunities presented by the social web and are unhappy with software that does not meet their needs. Those that have  embraced the digital future are experiencing gains in productivity but some still face major challenges.

Those organisations who are ‘ahead of the game’ are using online banking and purchasing more than they were two years ago when we last surveyed. They are also taking up internet-based phone systems, raising more funds online, and adopting some new software. However, they are not moving towards improved Customer/Member Relationship Management (CRM) systems or significantly participating in the ‘social web’ revolution via sites such as Facebook, blogs, RSS feeds, and mobile technologies. This is worrying because it risks not engaging the next generation of donors, volunteers, employees, sponsors and supporters.

Those ‘behind the game’ seem content to stay there and deliver ‘business as usual’. While that may be appropriate in some specialised circumstances, the increasing trend toward lower levels of support from government and increasing reliance on public fund-raising, corporate sponsorship, and private philanthropy will mean these organisations will find it increasingly difficult to get on anyone’s radar when they need support.

 The survey outcomes throw out a real challenge to software developers in that charities and nonprofits are between two and four times more likely than other sectors of the economy to conclude that the software they have does not meet their needs. However the most worrying result from this survey is that despite the sector spending up to an estimated $500m annually on technology, three out of five charities and nonprofits are not spending a cent on technology-related training.

 We’d now like to invite you to:

1.      Download the two parts of the Report – one from Digital Business Insights reporting the main survey data and providing some excellent case studies on technology implementation,  and one from us here at Connecting Up Australia that provides some analysis of the outcomes and some recommendations for the future. Visit here to access the reports  http://www.connectingup.org/NFPtechnologysurvey2008

2.       The data from the survey has also been fed into a terrific new service we are offering Australia’s nonprofits – Are We There Yet? (or AWTY  for short) . AWTY is an online tool that allows you to benchmark your technology capacity against similar Australian nonprofits of your size and in your specialised area of service . This in turn makes the benchmark data even richer over time, as more organisations participate. Give AWTY a try at http://www.db-insights.net/

Contact details for feedback are at http://www.connectingup.org/NFPtechnologysurvey2008  or simply comment on this post.

At the risk of tempting fate, those of you who attended CU08 might recall a couple of ‘blue sky’ questions I asked at the end, namely:

• What if we demanded that every politician have a social web presence so that we can ‘poke’ them and write on their virtual walls to our heart’s content, so that even if they ignore our letters, phone calls and emails, the world knows the message we are trying to send? After all, what are Friends for?
• What if we as a sector got our act together to network a lot better, create stronger communities of interest, and campaigned more effectively as a result?

Of course politicians using the web is not new (even Kevin 07 had a Facebook page) but Barack Obama’s people took it to a whole new level in the US presidential campaign www.mybarackobama.com . In the process they may have changed the political scene forever. Of course the challenge now is what to do next with those millions of email addresses and a highly engaged supporter base and a broader electorate to engage. The Washington Post has some ideas . What’s your take on how Australia’s polticians may or may not use the web in the future and, more to the point, how your organisation might use it to change the political and social scene?

Doug Jacquier,

CEO, Connecting Up Australia

Excellent slide show on the new media from Neil Perkin, from the delightfully named Only Dead Fish (swim with the current).