Forming networks around technology needs
Beth Kanter has posted an interesting, quick interview with Christopher J. Mackie from The Andrew Mellon Foundation, from the Technology in the Arts Conference. They talk about the issue of nonprofits keeping up to speed in technology and how difficult it is. Mr. Mackie had some interesting comments that really resonated for me:
I think this is right on - but also, well, easier said than done. Conferences are certainly a great way for those interested in technology to meet others interested in technology, but what about the huge majority of nonprofits who have no one focused on technology, or who's technologists are struggling just to keep the computers running, let alone reach out to others and share ideas? How can we support their expansion of knowledge and personal networks?
And in practice, organizations that are similar in some aspects are different than others. Perhaps another organization has a similar philosophy on outreach, and we can share a lot of best practices about communications and engaging the audience. However, if I look at accounting software, there's no reason to suspect that same organization is also similar to me in financial setup. So in reality we're talking about a number of different networks that overlap and change over time. There's no question that a great nonprofit technologist should be seeking out and developing these networks. But how many are allowed the time or have the skills to do this effectively?
Idealware is in fact my answer to these issues. I feel strongly that many organizations are "close enough to yours to be relevant" when you're looking at specific technology solutions. If you're looking for, say, a tool to manage your member data and member related functions, there is a pretty finite number of core needs. There will be a few organizations whose needs are way different than the mainstream, but the large majority of organizations will fall into maybe four to six different types when it comes to this specific area. And thus by researching the needs of organizations, understanding the software offered, and writing a report that addresses the concerns of these particular organizational types, we can address the core needs of the majority of organizations - shortcutting each individual nonprofit’s process of understanding what's working for other organizations.
No, it's not as good as a strong, individually formed network of like-minded organizations. But these reports would be a lot better than nothing for the vast number of nonprofits who don't have those networks. And by forming a community around these reports, with online and real-time discussion, we can also help to create the networks that will help with other technology needs down the road.
Beth Kanter
You mentioned the difficulty of people who work in nonprofits and arts organizations keeping up with the technology – it’s just so difficult and time consuming. What’s your advice around that?
Christopher J. Mackie
I think the biggest thing to think about in terms of keeping up is that even people like me - who are paid more or less full time to keep up - can’t keep up on our own. We depend heavily on networks. You should be depending heavily on networks. There are people like you in other organizations around the country and around the world. The key is to find the people who sit in seats like yours, who see the world the way you see it, who have organizations that are close enough to yours to be relevant but different enough that the diversity actually adds value to you. And then…figure out ways to keep in touch with them and to share ideas and share insights and share links to new developments - so you’re leveraging your own investment of time and energy with the investment of all the other people in your network.
I think this is right on - but also, well, easier said than done. Conferences are certainly a great way for those interested in technology to meet others interested in technology, but what about the huge majority of nonprofits who have no one focused on technology, or who's technologists are struggling just to keep the computers running, let alone reach out to others and share ideas? How can we support their expansion of knowledge and personal networks?
And in practice, organizations that are similar in some aspects are different than others. Perhaps another organization has a similar philosophy on outreach, and we can share a lot of best practices about communications and engaging the audience. However, if I look at accounting software, there's no reason to suspect that same organization is also similar to me in financial setup. So in reality we're talking about a number of different networks that overlap and change over time. There's no question that a great nonprofit technologist should be seeking out and developing these networks. But how many are allowed the time or have the skills to do this effectively?
Idealware is in fact my answer to these issues. I feel strongly that many organizations are "close enough to yours to be relevant" when you're looking at specific technology solutions. If you're looking for, say, a tool to manage your member data and member related functions, there is a pretty finite number of core needs. There will be a few organizations whose needs are way different than the mainstream, but the large majority of organizations will fall into maybe four to six different types when it comes to this specific area. And thus by researching the needs of organizations, understanding the software offered, and writing a report that addresses the concerns of these particular organizational types, we can address the core needs of the majority of organizations - shortcutting each individual nonprofit’s process of understanding what's working for other organizations.
No, it's not as good as a strong, individually formed network of like-minded organizations. But these reports would be a lot better than nothing for the vast number of nonprofits who don't have those networks. And by forming a community around these reports, with online and real-time discussion, we can also help to create the networks that will help with other technology needs down the road.
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3 Comments:
Networks are relatively well understood and the tools that support these communities are also fairly well defined.
At CivicSpace, we are specialists in applying "new-fangled" ideas to what are esentially very old problems... community building. Communities come together (at conferences for example) to put everyone in a room and share.
This is how we envision effective support operations... no 1-800 number that answers a limited scope of question, but a community of like minded folks with similar needs and problems.
Here is where you need to stretch one's mind a little... that community can be a meta community... an aggregator/connector accross a wide variety of other more "natural" communities.
If anyone is looking to actually build a technology tool that can deliver on these ideas, please drop us a line. dgeilhufe / civicspacelabs // org
Laura:
I think your framing is right on:
"What about the huge majority of nonprofits who have no one focused on technology, or who's technologists are struggling just to keep the computers running, let alone reach out to others and share ideas? How can we support their expansion of knowledge and personal networks?"
He said that in a session during the conference and it took all my nerve to walk up to him afterwards and ask him for an interview and shove my crappy video camera in his face.
The fact that you reflected on what he said, wrote this post - convinces me of the value of "moment capture" in the context.
Now, if he had a blog that we could trackback too ...
Thanks for doing the interview, Beth! Absolutely, I thought all your stuff from the Tech for the Arts conference (a conference I really would have liked to go to!) was really interesting.
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