12:02, 2 July 2009
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Nonprofits probably have much more to fear from onsite staff or volunteers stealing computer information,
installing malware, or committing onsite sabotage than from online culprits, but the reality is that, indeed,
many nonprofits have found themselves on the receiving end of online attacks. Some of these online attacks are attempts to steal client information and other confidential information. But most (at least from my experience) are attempts to prevent anyone from accessing the organization's online information, or to take over the organization's web site and post inappropriate, inaccurate information.
An organization called
Perverted Justice reported on
its MySpace blog today about the arrest of a man who not only was harassing and threatening its volunteers online, but also set up a bot-net to conduct distributed denial of service attacks against the organization. From the blog: "Traffic ranged from 216 gigabytes a day and sometimes went up as far as over 1 terabyte in generated traffic over a 24-hour period, depending on the size of the bot-net infections. At any time there may be between 100-200 requests to surges of over 10,000 different requesters at a given time. We block usually on average 500-2,000 ip addresses making requests from the bot-net daily."
Also today,
NABUUR, a nonprofit organization that involves online volunteers,
posted to LinkedIn with a plea for help -- NABUUR is currently under attack of a spammer who spoofed his IP address and they need to know how to block this person.
All of the UN agencies I've worked with, as well as an Afghan government agency, were under constant attack from malicious computer users. I had frequent conversations with the IT staff at such about how often these attacks occurred. Large, well-known organizations seem to be of particular interest to such computer users.
If you are a nonprofit that is lucky enough to have an IT staff, sit down with this person or staff members and ask if your organization has ever been the target of a malicious computer user, and what systems are in place to prevent and to respond to denial-of-service attacks, attempts to install
malware on your agency's computers, and attempts to take over your organization's web site.
If your organization does not have an IT staff, consider recruiting a volunteer to help you with a prevention and a response plan.
Here are tips on finding a network computer consultant, which includes tips on interviewing/screening. You will want to get the volunteer's full credentials -- real name and references, maybe even a criminal background check -- to make sure this person is the right person for this very sensitive job.
It's sad that nonprofit organizations have to deal with this issue, in addition to a frightening economic climate and their day-to-day operations.
12:44, 30 June 2009
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(this blog entry is inspired by a current discussion on
UKVPMS)
There's nothing new about web sites that allow people to apply for volunteering opportunities, and nothing new about volunteering opportunities that can be done virtually, from a volunteer's home, work, school or neighborhood tech center.
VolunteerMatch, then called Impact Online, started in 1994, and
Idealist started in 1995 -- both allowing organizations to post traditional onsite volunteering opportunities, and individuals to express interest in such. The
Virtual Volunteering Project began researching and promoting virtual volunteering / online volunteering opportunities in 1996.
Many new online tools have emerged since then, and that's great. HOWEVER, in addition to these online tools making it easier for organizations to recruit volunteers and for volunteers to find such, there is a downside:
with all these online tools, it's never been easier to disappoint large numbers of potential volunteers.
Too many organizations start using the many online tools out there to recruit volunteers, either for traditional onsite roles or for online roles, without having all the systems in place to put applicants into a screening process immediately, put accepted volunteers into tasks quickly, and provide volunteers the support they need. I've been researching online recruitment of volunteers since 1994, and I can tell you that the number one complaint I've heard again and again is from people who want to volunteer: "I signed up to help with the assignment, and the organization never got back to me/didn't get back to me for months and, by then, I wasn't available any more." That complaint gets voiced regularly in surveys, in emails, in online discussion groups, and when people hear what I do professionally and want to vent about their repeated attempts to volunteer (it's happened everywhere from dinner parties to planes to concerts and probably lines for the women's bathroom).
With online tools, it's not only never been easier to disappoint large numbers of potential volunteers;
with online tools, those disappointed people can let a lot of people know just how frustrated they are re: your organization. So it's never been more important to have all your ducks in a row: before you use any of these online tools to recruit volunteers, map out exactly how you will screen new recruits quickly, put them into assignments quickly, and provide them support in assignments. And be ready to respond to online applicants *immediately* -- a few weeks is too long!
20:48, 28 June 2009
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Our adventure in Louisville continues:
Stefan went to his
his first baseball game (it was also
Albi's first baseball game) and his
first dirt track race. Guess which he liked more? And Stefan went on his own to a motorcycle gathering for
motorcycle travelers/adventure riders in Eastern Kentucky (hurrah! there are such people in the USA! He's been worried...)
We've also made trips to
Mammoth Cave (took the Historic tour; Stefan liked it very much),
Maker's Mark Distillery (free samples!),
Lincoln's Birthplace, and various places on
Bardstown Road (the Irish pubs, the
Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen, and the The Falafel House, where I dazzled the staff with my SEVEN words of Arabic).
Special thanks to my friend Jennifer, who made Stefan feel extra welcomed by donning a black wig, blacking out her front teeth, and running across the parking lot of
Lynn's Paradise Cafe while yelling, "Stefan! Stefan! Welcome to Kentucky." He's still recovering from that cultural experience. I spent the whole event laying on the sidewalk convulsing with laughter.
Stefan now has his green card.
I've been listening to the local public radio station,
WFPL, and often, the announcer says, "This news hour is brought to you by: The Embassy of Germany. Learn more about Germany as a vacation destination or as a partner for your business..." I'm impressed! The public radio audience in Louisville is *exactly* the type of audience that Germany should be going after, no kidding. We've wondered for the last eight years how Germany advertises to Americans. Through June, we only have access to TV-by-antennae, and so far, I haven't seen any advertisements for Germany -- guess the network TV audience
isn't their desired demographic.
Watched
Sheba, Baby, a rather bad movie with the fabulous Pam Grier, on TV the other day, because it turned out to have been
filmed in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1970s. My how the city has changed! Awful movie, but the city scenes, and Grier's outfits, were fun.
Favorite thing I've heard lately: "If you really want to clean up your karma, go get my freakin' latte." From "
The Big Bang Theory". It's so nice to have TV in English again, I cannot lie... I also got to enjoy the Tony Awards live for the first time since 2000. My verdict on the 2009 show: Best. Opening. EVA. And, as well, Greatest. Closing. EVA. Host Neil Patrick Harris was terrific (there wasn't enough of him actually), musical numbers were terrific, and except for Carrie Fisher's TRAIN WRECK of an outfit, everyone's dresses were terrific. Ultimate compliment is from Carmen Thornton, expert on Tony Awards and wine maven at Old Town in Louisville: "This stands up to the 1987 Tony award, which I have on tape." What more of an endorsement do you need?
I've taken "
TARC", the local bus system, a few times this summer and enjoyed it immensely. The drivers were friendly and helpful, the buses were clean, and the web site is comprehensive and detailed. Only complaint: TARC doesn''t allow dogs. Highlights of my TARC trips:
A very old black gentlemen -- one of those unofficial-mayor-of-the-neighborhood types -- regaling everyone at a downtown bus stop with incredible stories of when Al Capone and various famous performers of the era would visit Louisville, where black entertainers stayed during Jim Crow, etc.
A middle-aged white good ole' boy standing in the front of the bus talking to the driver, telling her in his strong Kentucky accent, "Well, I don't want to sound sissified or nuthin', but that thar Yoga really helps me calm down. You'd think hittin' a hammer all day would really release all yer anger, but it don't like Yoga does."
A young white woman telling two different people on the bus, with no shame whatsoever, that she had spent Sunday night in jail on a suspended license and what a HUGE inconvenience it was not to be able to use her car now, adding, "I've NEVER been in no trouble before" (so, dear madam, how then do you explain that suspended license?).
Realizing why the young, large black woman looked so very, very uncomfortable in her seat in the front of the bus: the bus driver stopped at an intersection next to a hospital, even though the light was green, and honked the horn until the guy in scrubs crossing the street and wearing an MP3 player turned around to see what the noise was; the driver yelled, "Hey, come over here and help this woman over to the hospital. She's havin' a baby." When someone on the bus remarked how sad it was that the woman had had to take public transportation to the hospital to have a baby, the driver said, "Well, that's how I did it myself!"
If you had told me back in March that, by now, we would have taken our dog
Albi to two bars (
Molly Malone's and the
Nach Bar) and a minor league baseball game, I would have said, "That's crazy! How many Hefe Weissens have you had tonight?!?" But it's true - Louisville is dog friendly. In addition, I've seen dogs with their owners at outdoor areas of many restaurants on Bardstown Road and people walking their dogs all over town. Now, if we could only take her on the city buses and it was cooler in the summer, life in Louisville would be perfect!
USA men's soccer victory over Spain in the Confederations Cup? Rapturous. It was all I could do to stop myself from honking the horn of the U-Haul wildly as I drove across Tennessee (heading back from Austin). The loss to Brazil? Heart-breaking. And I'm someone who has had her heart broken many, many times over sports...
Yes, we road tripped to Austin, to deal with various matters, since Austin was my official home while I lived in Germany. Highlights of that trip: seeing Star Trek (awesome) at the
Alamo Draft House (also awesome) while eating artichoke pizza (also awesome), playing table shuffle board at
Shoal Creek Saloon and the bartender donning a mullet wig,
Enchiladas y Mas, and our hosts,
Sharron and
Ron.
Unfortunately, we're having to move again before leaving Louisville. Most of our things are in storage, but we still have enough to make it annoying to have to move again. And then
we'll move again at the end of July:
job or no,
we hit the road at the end of July and head to Portland, Oregon (or there abouts).
I'm keeping
my public calendar updated; it's quite easy to know where I am and when I'm available.
Things I've been enjoying online: these
Awkward Family Photos, this
very detailed, sad-but-true history of drunks in sports, and
the Worst And Saddest Of Yahoo! Answers (although it starts off with a totally geek, fun question, sums up why I gave up on
YahooAnswers).
What I've learned lately: how to
ride a motorcycle and the
The Chewbacca Defense.
I'll end with a thought for the day, from the
amateurscientist.org:
Excessive punctuation and appeals to emotion are no substitute for evidence.
11:05, 27 June 2009
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It's the weekend! Time for a personal blawg:
Back in 2002, I went to
Ávila, Spain to study Spanish (or Castellano) at the
Instituto Español Murallas de Avila. I had been looking for a school that would be focused on its students learning Spanish quickly, not on its students partying and hooking up. IEMA had been recommended to me by
my Spanish teacher in Germany, who is from a small village near the school, and after meeting a couple of students -- colleagues from the UN -- who had gone to IEMA and loved it, I booked a place for two weeks. I came back and jumped up to the next level of language class at work, then went back two years later and jumped another level!
I highly recommend
IEMA: the daily classes, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., are tiny (you will have one to four other students), very intense and a lot of fun. I recommend taking a private lesson with an instructor as well twice a week. If you are a beginner then, in just one week, you will be speaking Spanish. No kidding! If you speak some Spanish already, you will see your skills jump immediately.
IEMA is excellent for preparing for the
DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language). They also have a special class for Spanish language teachers.
The best time to start is the first Monday of the month. I only went for two weeks, but many students go for three and four. I went to Ávila for the first time in August, and it was a great time to go -- most of the village is off on vacation (and that makes it quiet at night so you can, you know, SLEEP), and it's still very cool, temperature-wise, because you are in the mountains. And it's much better to study Spanish in Ávila than, say, Madrid or Salamanca, because in Ávila, there's NO English speakers, other than maybe your fellow students. My fellow students were from Germany, France and the USA.
I lived with
a family in Avila during my stay, and it was wonderful (
puppy!) -- it meant I was always learning Spanish. There was
a lot to see in Ávila, and it was relatively easy to get to Madrid or Salamanca for the weekend.
Downsides? If you are over 30, then you will probably be the oldest student, and I think that can some time be intimidating (but the instructors don't care about your age and won't treat you any differently). Take earplugs because, while you may need to get to sleep before midnight in order to make it to class in the morning, the citizens of Avila stay up late late late. That's it, really.
I don't get anything for promoting
IEMA -- no discount on a future class, no kickback, no nothing. I'm not sure anyone would even remember me there. I just want to recommend a really great Spanish school!
Also, I'm looking for a similar school in Mexico or Central America -- particularly one focused on preparing for the
DELE and is a member of
Instituto Cervantes. If you had a similar experience with a school in this hemisphere,
let me know.
17:57, 26 June 2009
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It's a wonderful thing to put information and services online, whether you are a nonprofit organization, a school, a government agency, a business, whatever. You will not only reach new audiences, but you will better serve and build your credibility with your current customers, clients, supporters -- whomever.
HOWEVER, the information or product has to be easy to find, and the web site or online tool has to be easy to use, for your organization to realize these benefits. In short,
your web site has to be usable. Your primary audience isn't the web designer -- it's your current and potential customers, clients, partners, supporters and others external to your organization.
In November 2008, the
International Seminar on Usability and Accessibility for the Web /
Inicia el Seminario Internacional de Usabilidad y Accesibilidad para la web 2008 was held in Cintermex. Monterrey, Mexico, and a result of this gathering was the
Manifesto on Usability and Accessibility for Mexican Government Websites /
Manifiesto Nuevo León sobre Usabilidad y Accesibilidad para los Portales Gubernamentales Mexicanos. From the Manifesto:
The web can be the most democratic tool a government has because it allows for direct communication, overcoming geographic, cultural, economic and hierarchical barriers, as well as those faced by people with disabilities.
But technologies do not do this on their own. They can either reduce or widen the gap between those with more and those with fewer opportunities, and they can enrich or hurt the relationship between citizens and government. It is the duty of the creators and administrators of these technologies to guide them and improve people’s quality of life.
Good stuff!
Every e-government initiative should adopt this manifesto, not just Mexico! And your nonprofit needs to always have usability in mind when it delivers information or services online. Otherwise, what kind of message are you sending with your online activities?
Thanks to Sharron Rush at
Knowbility for bringing this to my attention... over beer in Austin, Texas...
17:46, 25 June 2009
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Attention nonprofit organizations:
your employees, volunteers and clients/supporters are using social media/online social networks to talk about what they are doing at your organization.
Let the panic begin! Wring your hands, pull your hair and gnash your teeth over the possibility that they are saying something inappropriate or confidential, that they are saying something negative about your organization, and on and on!
Oh, wait -- they could do all those things with boring old email. In fact, they could do that face-to-face at parties and family gatherings without any Internet whatsoever. Hmmm.
Paid staff and volunteers at nonprofits -- and, depending on your organization's work, clients as well -- need to have guidance regarding confidentiality and appropriateness in
all communications activities, not just those that happen online. And that includes senior management at your organization, including the Executive Director!
If you are going to develop a policy for online communications, it should reflect your existing policies and your organizational culture. And setting such a policy should involve staff and volunteers themselves (and, again, clients, depending on the nature of your work), so that they can feel a sense of ownership of it (they will be much more likely to adhere to it if they helped design it themselves).
Fistful of Talent offers a
terrific set of suggestions for setting a policy for employees regarding online activities, and its good advice for nonprofits as well to apply to paid staff and volunteers.
Also see
my own web pages regarding nonprofits using online tools for outreach.
Employees, volunteers and clients/supporters are, IMO, the best promoters of a nonprofit organization's work. Don't muzzle them! Emphasizing regularly what's appropriate and what's not will keep all conversations -- online or onsite -- within bounds, keep current supporters engaged, and promote your organization to new audiences.
13:35, 22 June 2009
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Do you volunteer (contribute work/ a service pro bono/unpaid) to a nonprofit organization, non-governmental organization (NGO), grassroots organization, school, or other civil society organization (CSO)? And at some point in your volunteer service, have you used a a computer at your home, your work, or a computer cafe to complete some of your tasks?
If so, then you have been an online volunteer.
Do you research information, design web sites, databases or graphics, prepare proposals, edit documents, translate text, offer professional advice, moderate an online discussion group, manage a web site, manage a Flickr account, edit a podcast or online video, or any other activities to help an organization that supports a cause you believe in, working as a volunteer (unpaid!) from a remote site? If so, you are an
online volunteer. You are engaged in
virtual volunteering.
So, please post a photo or video of yourself at this Flickr Group, "Online Volunteers."
Please describe what you do as an online volunteer, including either the name or a description of the organization(s) you support. ALSO, please tag your photo "online volunteer."
Finally, please please forward this message to online volunteers you work with, or anyone you think might be interested.
Goal: to show the diversity of online volunteers out there.
The practice of online volunteering is more than 30 years old. I want to show just what a HUGE group of people volunteer online, and have been doing so for a long while now!
Also, a reminder: if you ever have been a volunteer (onsite or online), OR if you have worked with volunteers in *any* capacity -- side-by-side as a fellow volunteer or as a manager/primary staff contact --
I invite you to complete this survey regarding the use of online tools to support volunteers, to help me in my efforts to revise the Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
You do not have to consider yourself an online volunteer to complete this survey! Huge thanks to everyone who has done so already.
17:45, 19 June 2009
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Right now, today, on the
IBM.com site (at least the one in English in the USA), is a podcast called:
Working in a cloud is a very down-to-earth strategy: Learn how the smart business of cloud computing makes for a smarter planet.
Go to the
IBM.com site, click on those words, and read a little about
cloud computing. then scroll down the page to "Cloud Computing Podcast," and hear two IBM experts interviewed by my good friend
Betsy Thaggard about IBM's "cloud."
There is nothing new about
cloud computing for most people, including you, the person reading this blog. It's "
a metaphor for the Internet, based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals." As Betsy noted on
a previous article for IBM, "If you use Web mail, share snapshots through Flickr or collaborate online with
LotusLive or Google apps, you're already in the
cloud. "
Why visit the page and listen to the podcast?
- To see how a company takes one of its existing practices/services and presents it in an interesting, easy-to-read/easy-to-access way to appeal to a broad audience
- To listen to an effective podcast
- To think about how your nonprofit could do exactly the same thing with one of its own existing practices
- To learn about "cloud computing" and to be able to say, "Hey, I do that! I know what that is"
- To hear Betsy!
Ignore the techie language and jargon (unless that's your thing); as you read and listen, think about how this information about an IBM service is delivered in such a simple manner, and how your nonprofit could do the same for one of its services.
11:50, 16 June 2009
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We live in a world now (and maybe it was really always this way?) where, to stay employable,
you must continually grow your skills. You have to always be learning. But even if you didn't have to do it to stay employable, I hope you would still do it: setting goals for yourself, and then achieving those goals, gives you a great sense of personal accomplishment, and helps life become even just a little bit richer every day. And studies have shown that
people who constantly learn new skills and engage in new experiences have better health later in life.
My learning goals are a mix of personal and professional goals. I've had small ones, like learning to drive a stick shift (and Dad was right -- once I learned, it's the only kind of car I liked to drive), to large ones, like getting a
Master's Degree.
My learning goals that I hope to achieve by the end of the year:
It's a hefty learning load, I know! I may not get to do them all in 2009. I've tried S802_1 before, and had to abandon it twice when things got busy. But I'm determined to try again. If anyone would like to study with me on any of the above online courses -- we go through the course together and keep each other motivated --
contact me.
A learning goal I'm on track to meet for the summer: to get my
motorcycle license and get more comfortable riding a motorcycle.
What are your learning goals for the rest of 2009, or for 2010?
Share them here.
13:00, 15 June 2009
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My good friend Brian Cugelman has recently published his latest
journal paper on website credibility, trust and behavioural change. The paper is called "The Dimensions of Web Site Credibility and Their Relation to Active Trust and Behavioural Impact", and it's co-written with Mike Thelwall and Phil Dawes. The abstract says:
This paper discusses two trends that threaten to undermine the effectiveness of online social marketing interventions: growing mistrust and competition. As a solution, this paper examines the relationships between Web site credibility, target audiences’ active trust and behaviour. Using structural equation modelling to evaluate two credibility models, this study concludes that Web site credibility is best considered a three-dimensional construct composed of expertise, trustworthiness and visual appeal, and that trust plays a partial mediating role between Web site credibility and behavioural impacts. The paper examines theoretical implications of conceptualizing Web sites according to a human credibility model, and factoring trust into Internet-based behavioural change interventions. Practical guidelines suggest ways to address these findings when planning online social marketing interventions.
The keywords used to describe the paper are: Web site credibility, trust, behaviour, social marketing, advocacy, social exchange, Internet, online, Web, persuasion, and
captology (
interactive technologies that motivate and influence users).
Credibility in online activities is something every nonprofit organization/mission-based organization needs to be acutely aware of. In my opinion, NO online activity by a nonprofit organization, whether its sending out an email newsletter or hosting an online discussion group or presenting live online video presentations or
blogging or whatever, will be sustainable and successful over the long-term without building credibility and trust among its audiences and intended participants. It's another example of a human element that's absolutely fundamental to tech use success.
And a reminder: if you ever have been a volunteer, OR if you have worked with volunteers in *any* capacity -- side-by-side or as a manager/primary staff contact --
I invite you to complete this survey regarding the use of online tools to support volunteers, to help me in my efforts to revise the
Virtual Volunteering Guidebook.
21:01, 10 June 2009
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In the late 1990s, I co-wrote The
Virtual Volunteering Guidebook with Susan Ellis. It is a free manual to help organizations involve online volunteers, as well as to use online tools to support all volunteers. I am currently revising this Guidebook.
If you ever have been a volunteer, OR if you have worked with volunteers in *any* capacity -- side-by-side or as a manager/primary staff contact --
I invite you to complete this survey regarding the use of online tools to support volunteers, to help me in my efforts to revise this guidebook.
By
volunteer, I mean someone who has provided some kind of work support without pay to a nonprofit organization, community-based group (such as a school), or government initiative focused on the community (such as a city-sponsored park cleanup).
When talking about your experience, you can talk about more than one organization. But remember that most questions relate to your experience only regarding volunteering or working with volunteers.
Please note that
this survey is NOT limited to any country or region.
I plan to share the results in the next edition of the
Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. To know when the guidebook is released, please subscribe to my blog (which you are reading now) or
Tech4Impact (my email newsletter).
Thanks, and feel free to spread the word!
14:19, 10 June 2009
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Differences are a fact of life. Differences are normal. Unfortunately, people are often excluded from society, education and work because of their difference, such as a disability. But the good news is that addressing the needs of one group of people deemed "different" often makes a project or product more accessible and useful to
everyone: that bathroom stall for people in wheelchairs gets used by a woman with children; closed-captioning for the hearing-impaired is used much more by people learning English and on TVs in bars and restaurants; offering a text transcript of a podcast allows people who prefer to read than listen, or who don't have headphones and are sharing an office, to access the info; and on and on.
Make Development Inclusive is a project working to ensure that people with disabilities are served by the development policies of the European Union Member States, the European Commission, and European non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the fields of development cooperation and humanitarian aid. The site has great resources for anyone working in aid and development, not just people from the EU or funded by the EU.
Just as
I mainstream gender issues but I'm not a gender specialist, you can make your development and humanitarian aid work accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities, without being an expert in such. It's all about your approach and your attitude. Why leave anyone out?
17:43, 8 June 2009
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Among the
many blogs I read is
Dana Blankenhorn's on znet.com regarding
Open Source software. I'm no expert on Open Source software. I'm just a
non-techie who finds myself drawn to its tools and
its philosophy, and I'm trying to take advantage of it and help nonprofits to do so. Blankenhorn's blog has helped me a great deal in this endeavor. But a lot of his blogs also apply to other activities I'm undertaking or am interested in. For instance, three of his recent blogs that are must reads for anyone who wants to understand marketing, social networking, and/or the advantages of Open Source are:
These are quick reads and very much worth your time. You don't have to be a techie or an Open Source advocate to get some great tips from these three blogs, particularly relating to transparency and outreach.
11:54, 6 June 2009
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It's Saturday: personal blog time:
Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, and more than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts - this according to a report released Thursday in the American Journal of Medicine by a team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University. The researchers and some consumer advocates said the study showed the proposals under the most serious consideration right now are unlikely to help many Americans. These researchers and others are pressing for a so-called single payer plan, in which one agency, usually the government, coordinates health coverage.
Read more here and
here (also read the comments).
More about why the single-payer plan is what is needed in the USA from
Physicians for a National Health Program.
(personal note: we're struggling to find affordable health care right now -- in fact, my husband has to continue to be covered by a European company, because he's been turned down by everyone in the USA. Scary times.)
13:07, 3 June 2009
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I get made fun of for my
use and advocacy of old technology. I like buying something new, truly, but I also like getting my money's worth out of it, and I don't see any reason to throw something away only because a new model is out. Not only can the environment not handle it, but neither can my budget.
I have a
MacBook that I bought in January 2008, but I also still use
my lime iBook clamshell running
OS 9 because there's a lot it can do, for free, that I would have to buy software for on the MacBook (like saving video into various formats), and I think the OS 9 interface is way better than OS 10. Online, I have had some people mock me over it. However, guess which machine gets the "Wow, that's beautiful!" comments when I take it out in public?
And then there are cell phones. To me,
there's nothing intuitive about a cell phone: I take a long, long time compared to most users in trying to do things like, oh, make a phone call. And observation of family and friends tells me I'm not alone in feeling this way. Whereas I feel oh-so-comfortable in cyberspace,
a cell phone -- especially the current models -- leaves me utterly confused. What makes some people really laugh is when I pull out my cell phone, a
blue Nokia 1100. One friend called it a "training phone." But it gets the job done: I use it primarily to receive calls, since I use
Skype or
iVisit, to
make calls, usually. I also use it to send and receive text messages (including reminders from my private Google calendar, as opposed to
my public Google calendar). This phone is as plain as you can get: it doesn't have a color screen, music player, or camera. However, it does have a flashlight, alarm, reminders, and three games I adore. But mostly,
it works and doesn't confuse me.
I just found out today that the Nokia 1100 is not only the most popular cell phone model ever sold, it has, at least as of 2007, outsold both the iPod and Playstation 2 (
see this story in Reuters UK). So I'm not alone in liking this little work horse of a phone. Or maybe it's a donkey? Whatever it is:
hurrah for easy-to-use, minimal-learning curve tech. There is still a market for such!
10:00, 3 June 2009
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In
an AP story about a man who shot two people in Arkansas, whose motive was his religious beliefs, there is mention of his religion (Islam) and the story uses the words
terrorist and
terrorism.
In
another AP story, this one about a man who shot a doctor attending church in Kansas just a few days before, the motive was also the shooter's religious beliefs, but that religion (Christianity) is
never mentioned, nor are the words
terrorist and
terrorism.
So, Associated Press -- what's up with that? Why such specific language choices for one story but not another? The stories have oh-so--much in common: a male religious extremist, in the name of his deity, publicly executes someone whose practices are, he believes, so grievous that they warrant religiously-sanctioned murder. He believes that this violent act will garner him a place in heaven. He believes his violent act is righteous. I could be (and am) describing either shooter. But the media -- and not just the AP -- has chosen to describe the shooters and their motivations in strikingly different terms.
The words we use to describe situations often says a lot about our beliefs and prejudices. Each media outlet needs to put their reports on these two stories side-by-side and do some in-depth reflection on the very different words they have used to describe the subjects.
14:39, 31 May 2009
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The weekend is my time for personal blog entries. Here's some quickies to update you all since my move back to the USA:
- Albi is the Queen of the Highlands in Louisville. All worship and adore her here. She likes to lay out on the front porch and survey her Queendom. The postman brings her dog treats. She enjoys her frequent invites to our neighbors' house. I could not have survived three weeks without Stefan had she not been here.
- We love our Honda Fit.
- Louisville is a terrific city. The bars and restaurants on Bardstown Road are just a few blocks from us. Lynn's Paradise Cafe is just four doors down. There are bikes everywhere. Cherokee Park is a treasure. The mass transit (TARC) is more than decent if you live close to downtown (though there needs to be more buses per hour). There's a charming, fun, funky vibe I wasn't expecting here. But, no, I'm not staying past July.
- The Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen is EVIL... because it's so freakin' good and within walking distance of our apartment.
- The German influence in this area is oh-so-apparent, from Germantown, Louisville and Schnitzelburg to the names of various businesses here.
- How did I live so long without Family Guy?
- It is beyond awesome to live next door to Todd (my friend from my university days who recommended our apartment to us) and Julie (his delightful wife who is an amazing cook and hostess), to sit on their porch with their dogs and our dog and just be groovy.
- It's also so awesome to hang out with Lisa, Tim and Carmen, friends from my university days.
- My friends Reb and Anne said recently that I'm The Red Phone. Yes, I will take that 3 a.m. call.
- My friend Jen says that I should have my own font created per the way I print.
- We've had our first German restaurant-in-American experience: The Schnitzelbank Restaurant in Jasper, Indiana. Stefan's verdict: authentic, very good but over-priced schnitzel.
- It should have taken four to seven days to get the Africa Twin back together. Stefan took a day and a half. Here is the bike before the trip. Here it is upon arrival in the USA. And after his intense day-and-a-half of work.
- Stefan liked Roman Holiday! Probably because of his Roman Holiday... But, really, there would have to be something wrong with you not to like that movie.
- Space Racism is Bad: lessons learned from Star Trek.
- I'm still looking for a job.
We're in Louisville through most of July. The adventure continues...
10:03, 27 May 2009
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INTRAC's latest newsletter,
ONTRAC Issue 42, looks at HIV and AIDS in the workplace, and reviews how organizations can respond to the personal and organizational impacts of HIV and AIDS. Articles from the varied perspectives of international NGOs, African consultants, practitioners working in low prevalence countries, and personal testimonies, shed light on how and why organizations can respond to the personal and organisational impacts of HIV and AIDS.
Download ONTRAC Issue 42 in PDF.
Almost no one in sub-Saharan Africa has remained untouched by the HIV and AIDS. Most have relatives and friends who are HIV positive or who have died of AIDS. Having staff infected with HIV and affected by AIDS in the extended family decreases productivity. There is increasing absenteeism due to sickness, care of the ill and funerals. Scarce management time is diverted to dealing with HIV/AIDS issues. But when donors and CSOs together acknowledge the threat caused by HIV in the workplace, there are many positive ways forward to build organizational resilience to the disease.
INTRAC (International NGO Training and Research Centre) is a non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom and working in the international development and relief sector. INTRAC supports NGOs and CSOs around the world by helping to explore policy issues, and by strengthening management and organizational effectiveness.
17:37, 26 May 2009
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Like all Presidents named Bush and President Clinton before him, US President Obama is signing legislation and making speeches to increase the number of Americans that volunteer.
As noted in this editorial entitled "More volunteers won't help if nonprofits aren't ready for them," by the
Christian Science Monitor, "Managing volunteers requires considerable staff time and energy – only more precious in the face of ongoing staff cuts. Nonprofit staff members should be given tools and support to design volunteer posts that deliver results and build capacity, not serve as a distraction." It's so nice to see someone else who gets it!
But few really seem to understand the infrastructure needed for volunteers to be successful. In a response to an Oregon editorial "
Making volunteerism count," which noted that a law signed by President Obama authorizes up to $6 billion in spending over the next five years to triple the number of AmeriCorps volunteers by 2017, someone wrote on the comments section, "Why do you need $6 Billion for volunteers? I thought volunteers didn't get paid? That's what makes you a volunteer."
Sigh.
I've blogged before about the need for funding the volunteer management to make volunteering worthwhile for both volunteers and the organizations wanting to involve them. As I said back in January:
Ofcourse, as anyone who was involved in all the other Presidential promotional campaigns regarding volunteerism over the last 20 years, it's no problem to get people in the USA to turn out en masse for a just-show-up-and-feel-good experience. The challenge -- and it's a BIG challenge -- is having the infrastructure in place so that these volunteers aren't standing around waiting to do something, and so that they have such a great experience they decide to volunteer again.
So I ask again: will it be different this time?
My own resources regarding volunteer involvement here.
15:37, 23 May 2009
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It's the weekend. A HOLIDAY weekend in the USA. And, so, time for a personal blog:
If you send and read text messages while driving, then let me just say, I hate you.
Text messaging has been blamed for a number of recent high profile accidents, including a train crash in the Los Angeles area last September in which 25 people were killed, and a Boston trolley crash this month in which almost 50 people were injured. According to a 2007 report by
SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, text messaging while driving leads the list as the biggest distraction while driving. The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2006 that distracted drivers, including cell phone users, account for almost 80% of all crashes and 65% of near-crashes in the United States.
And as I sit at a stop light, in
my beautiful new Honda Fit, the first new car I have ever owned in my life, and watch you in my rear view window about to rear end me as you read or write a text message, I wonder, if you hit me, if it will even make a difference in your driving habits.
There is NO excuse for sending and reading text messages while driving. None. Zilch. Nada. NEVER. You may have done it hundreds, even thousands of times and not yet killed or hurt someone, but you will. It's only a matter of time.
