Our picks for the top nonprofit software news and articles for this month

Online Interaction Tool Tour (Full Circle Associates)
A terrific, detailed look at the different types of online interaction and collaboration tools available, why you’d want to use them, tool providers, and examples.

What Can Social Networking Do for Your Organization? (TechSoup)
Tips and tools to help your nonprofit get the most out of online social networking tools, like Flikr, Friendster, MySpace, and the like.

Prizefight: Calendars: Yahoo vs. Google (CNet)
A fun comparison of the features of Yahoo Calendar vs Google Calendar beta.

Skype launches free conference calling for up to 100 people (Skype)
Skype, the VOIP phone service, has launched a “Skypecasting” service, which allows free public conference calls for groups of up to 100 people.

No Charity Cases: Forbes on the big nonprofit software companies (Forbes)
Forbes covers the profitability and business model of Blackbaud, Convio, and Kintera.

Screencast: Plotting Data on Google Maps with Drupal (Zacker.org)
A screencast that demonstrates how to use Google Maps with Drupal – and is also a good example of the power of screencasting itself.

Security 101 (PC Magazine)
An introduction to hardware and software security, including both strategies and short reviews of products for securing your gateway, wireless access, desktop and servers, and data.

Grant: MS Products installed on 50 desktops for free (NPower NY)
Are you in the New York/ New Jersey metro area? Are you suffering from a poor technology infrastructure? NPower NY offers grants to eligible organizations.

The Bad In Email (or Why We Need Collaboration Software) (Central Desktop Blog)
A look at some of the downsides of using email and Listserves, and when it might be time to adopt an online collaboration tool instead.

Storage for Nothing, Backup for Free (Small Business Computing)
Simple storage servers can cost a few thousand. And backup software can quickly mount up if you license it for a few people. But there are much simpler options available that can greatly reduce or even eliminate the cost of basic storage and backup function.

Libraries and Instant Messaging (Tame the Web)
An overview of how libraries are currently using IM and some thoughts on how they should – an interesting model for other organizations who respond to a lot of client inquiries as well.

Choosing a CMS for the Telecentre.org Network (TechSoup)
A nice case study on a software selection of a content management system with strong blogging and RSS functionalities, including overviews of the tools they reviewed.