Here is a summary of the week's Web Tech action on Read/WriteWeb. Note that you can subscribe to the Weekly Wrapups, either via the special RSS feedor by email.Web ProductsGoogle Apps Goes After Enterprise MarketThis week Google announced a partnership with major IT consultancy and outsourcing specialist CapGemini, to sell Google Apps to enterprises. CapGemini, which is also a partner of Microsoft and IBM, aims to "mix and match" Microsoft and Google office products. So it seems Google Apps will be a complement, moreso than a replacement, for Microsoft Office. Robert Whiteside, Google enterprise manager for UK and Ireland, is quoted as saying: "If you look at the traditional desktop it is very focused on personal productivity. What Google Apps brings is team productivity."See also the responses from Microsoft and Zimbra:Microsoft Issues 10 Reasons Why Enterprises Shouldn't Use Google AppsZimbra: Google Apps Not Quite Ready For EnterprisedeliGoo Mashes Google with del.icio.usOur Web product of the weekis deliGoo, a nifty new add on for Firefox 2.0+ and IE 6.0+ that mashes up del.icio.us with Google Custom Search. The way it works is by creating a Google Custom Search engine based on all of a user's del.icio.us bookmarks, all of the bookmarks under a single tag, or all of the bookmarks under a single tag from a single user.You can find many other startup profiles in our Startups category.AnalysisSocial Graph: Concepts and IssuesAlex Iskold explored the meaning of the Social Graph, a term used by Facebook to describe their social network. Alex took as his starting point a post by Brad Fitzpatrick, who defined "social graph" as "the global mapping of everybody and how they're related". One problem, wrote Alex, is that currently you need to have different logins for different social networks. Another issue is portability and ownership of an individual's information, explicitly and implicitly revealed while using social networks. As was recently asserted in the Social Bill Of Rights and as has been advocated for a while by Attention Trust Principles, users want to own their personal information - including their chunk of the Social Graph.10 Ajax Start Pages to ConsiderAjax start pages are easy-to-use, customizable webpages, allowing you to keep up with the latest news and add interactive content. You can add new RSS feeds and widgets, and move your content around the page. In some ways start pages are the successors to the portals of the 90's. They have yet to break into the mainstream, however the promotion of iGoogle and the presence of MyYahoo are facilitating the transition. This post by Aidan Henry explored some of the top players - and also some you may not have been aware of.You can find more R/WW analysis posts here.Non-Profits WeekThis week we focused on non-profitsand here were our top posts:Non-Profits Web Tool KitJosh Catone looked at what web-based tools exist to make running and organizing a non-profit or charity organization easier. It turns out, there are many of them. He organized the cream of the crop into a very useful tool kit - including tools to create a website, get the word out, fundraise, and much more.Non-Profits & Web 2.0: Notes From The Real WorldGuest author Beth Kanter provided R/WW readers with an inside look at non-profit Web activity in the real world. For example, Beth recently went to Cambodia to take part in a blogging summit there. If you want to find out how web technology is being utilized outside the much hyped consumer sector, we highly recommend you read Beth's post.R/WW Network Blogslast100Check out a wrapof the week's Digital Lifestyle news onlast100. Their main feature post this week was a comprehensive look at the Internet streaming efforts of the big five U.S. television networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and The CW. last100 concluded that the online offerings of the big 5 remain sporadic and their Internet strategies feel like “we have to” rather than “we want to”.Alt Search EnginesOur other network blog AltSearchEnginesasked this week: can a search startup take on the Google juggernaut?According to the post, a trio of small, well-funded startups are taking divergent approaches to break into this area of general-purpose web search: Powerset, of San Francisco, CA, is licensing technology originally from Xerox PARC to tackle the problem of Semantic Search; Mahalo, of Santa Monica, CA, is at work on a “human-powered” search engine; and Quintura, originally from Russia and now based in Alexandria, VA, is creating an effective “see-and-find” visual search engine for the web.Read/WriteTalkThis week Sean Ammirati of Read/WriteTalk- our new podcast show - sat down with Bradley Horowitz, VP of the Advanced Development Division Yahoo! They discussed two hacks that were launching after being conceived at their internal hack day on March 23rd. They also discussed the ‘hack ethic’ inside of Yahoo.PollOur poll this week asked:How often do you donate to charities or non-profits online? Here are the results:---About once a week 2% (4 votes)About once a month 9% (18 votes)Every now and then 19% (37 votes)Not regularly, but I donate large amounts 4% (8 votes)Rarely 24% (46 votes)Never 42% (81 votes)---66% said that they rarely or never donate online. The next highest vote was 19% for "every now and then".That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.
This week as part of our focus on Non-Profits, I did a Read/WriteTalk podcastwith Brian Bailey - the author of The Blogging Church. While Brian's focus is obviously on one specific type of non-profit, his advice on different ways that churches can incorporate blogs into their communication strategy, is applicable for any leader in a non-profit. How Blogs Are Leveraged in Churches Brian shared four specific ways that churches are leveraging blogs: Internal Communication Vehicle for Their Staff Announcement System for Volunteers and Members Pastors Connecting with Other Pastors Communicate Information About New Ministries / Churches According to Brian, the third case is the most common: "Then, one just really core thing is that it has really proven to be such an incredible way for pastors to connect and relate to other pastors. In the past, being a pastor of a church is usually a very lonely position, and the only time you really get to interact with your peers is at a conference once a year, and you can barely afford to go to that. So, a lot of times, it’s just kind of lonely at the top and you have the people in your church but really nobody will understand what you’re going through... So, that to me has been probably one of the core ways that blogs have been used. It’s just pastors talking to other pastors and getting that feedback, getting support, learning from each other and things like that, and being able to do it so inexpensively. Pastors are always so pressed for time. Blogging is something they can do at any hour of the night and get that response throughout the week and things like that. So, I think it has been really powerful."This is something we can all relate to. One of the things I've enjoyed most about blogging has been the interaction with a blog's community. It's great to see that the non-profit world leverages blogs for the same purpose.If you're interested in learning more, you can listen to the full interview here.
Earlier this week we took a look at the non-profit spaces on Facebook and MySpace, as part of our non-profits week. The conclusion was that both were good resources, but in terms of raising money -- they weren't quite succeeding. Which leads us to ask: is this common on the Web? Are non-profits utilizing the Web well?You only need to read Beth Kanter's guest post todayon Read/WriteWeb to discover that there is a lot of great work happening in the non-profit and charity sector, using Web tools. Beth provides an inside look at non-profit Web activity from an experienced practitioner. For example, Beth recently went to Cambodia to take part in a blogging summit there. Beth herself admitted that there is still a lot of work to be done making the transition from web 1.0 to web 2.0. But her discussion about blogging in Cambodia shows that there is great progress being made.Resources and Success StoriesTo prove there is no shortage of resources, this week Josh Catone published an excellent Non-Profits Tool Kit, a list of web-based tools to make running and organizing a non-profit or charity organization easier. Some of the success stories on the Web include Firstgiving, which has raised $50 Million and counting for charity, and Kiva.org, which has just crossed $11 Million in microloans to developing nations.In the comments toour opening postthis week, Allan Benamerpointed out that "the three biggest success stories so far [in Web-based non-profits] are modestneeds.org, globalgiving.com and Kiva". He noted that "the biggest nonprofit social network is Project Agape's Causes with 4,000,000 users and counting." Also check out Allan's post Philanthropy and Nonprofit Top 25 List - September 2007, which lists cancer.org, aspca.org and aclu.org as the top 3 nonprofits online.We may still be in the early stages of non-profits utilizing Web 2.0, but there are a lot of fantastic non-profit and/or charity websites with web 2.0 functionality - e.g. changing the presentand Care2. Also there are lots of resources - e.g. check out NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, which supports nonprofits who are using tech and the Web to change the world. Others mentioned in our comments were Free For Today, idealist.organd NetSquared(which we've profiledbefore on R/WW). There are many more mentioned in the comments to our opening post.No Home Runs Yet?Ben Rattray from the excellent Change.orgemailed me this week with his thoughts on non-profits and the Web. He suggested that there haven't been any "home runs" yet. Ben wrote:"I find the most helpful way to think of the space is to divide it in the following two groups:1. organizations set up to be purely online platforms to help other organizations or causes raise money or recruit volunteers online, and2. existing bricks-and-mortar organizations that are using the web as one (of many) ways to advance their mission.As you might suspect, most of the interesting activity using the social web has been by the first type of organization. The best two success stories are Kiva.org and DonorsChoose.org, both of which I’m sure you’ve heard much about. (Although it’s worthy of note that neither of these are actually that new – Kiva.org was founded in 2005 and DonorsChoose.org way back in 2000.)There have been a few other marginal successes outside of these two (despite a lot of attempts), but the honest truth is that there haven’t been any real home-runs yet."Given the list of sites above and Beth's guest post, do you agree with Ben that there haven't been any huge success stories yet? I'm sure we all agree that there's a lot of great work happening in this space, but how effective it is -- seems to be open to debate.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Google_Presently_Set_For_Launch_Next_Week';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'compact';Google's powerpoint competitor is expected to be released very soon, according to reports circulating. The Inquirer saysthe product will be called Presently. It wouldn't surprise me if Presently is unveiled at TechCrunch40 next week - TechCrunch was coy about this in their blog post, but they noted earlier this week that Google would be announcing something.The lead-up to Presently: in June Google announced its acquisition of Zenter, a company that made software for creating online slide presentations. Zenter's technology was added to Tonic Systems, a technology for presentation creation and document conversion. Tonic Systems was acquired in Aprilby Google. In a blog post in June, Google said that a presentations app was due by the end of summer. Well the end of summer is just a week away, so current speculation is almost certainly accurate. Will this finally close the loop on Google's nascent Web Office suite? The table below shows that presentations is the only major app currently missing from Google Apps. It still won't make Google Apps any more ready for the enterprise, as both Microsoftand Zimbrawere at pains to point out this week. But with the CapGemini partnershipintact, it inches Google another step towards a true Microsoft Office competitor.Web Office Suite: Core ProductsEmailCalendarWord processingSpreadsheetsPresentationGoogle AppsY, GmailY, Google CalendarY, Google D &SY, Google D &SY (Zenter + Tonic)ZohoY, Zoho Mail (private beta)Y, Zoho Mail (private beta)Y, Zoho WriterY, Zoho SheetY, Zoho ShowThinkFreeNNY, ThinkFree WriteY, ThinkFree CalcY, ThinkFree ShowZimbraYYYYNMicrosoft Office LiveYYNNN
By Guest Author Beth Kanter, who is a trainer, coach, and consultant to Non-profits and individuals in effective use of technology.I have worked in the nonprofit sector for over 25 years; and in the nonprofit and technology field for the last 14 years as a trainer, coach, and consultant. I've helped non-profits use the web since 1993. So, when Richard raised the question to Read/WriteWeb readers: is the Web still a windfall for Non-profits?. My answer is a resounding yes! Non-profits that integrate Web 2.0 tools and techniques effectively into their communications and programming strategies are reaping many benefits. While not necessarily raising larger dollar amounts, organizations are reaching new potential donors - particularly younger ones- and laying important ground work for the next generation of supporters.Web 2.0 Adoption ChallengesHowever, when it comes to putting web 2.0 into practice in everyday nonprofit work, many (not all) non-profits face adoption challenges, as a recent reportfrom the Overbrook Foundation indicates. Despite the popularity of Web 2.0 tools like social networks and social media, many non-profits are at best in the early stages of exploration; or at worst paralyzed by unanswered questions or concerns, a lack of knowledge or skills, concerns about control of branding or messaging, or they simply don't view it as a priority. Many feel pressured to adopt these tools (okay, sometimes non-profit technology providers, consultants, and even bloggers like me may be creating that pressure) or feel that Web 2.0 is trend that will go the way of eight-track tapes.Beth Kanter teaching a web 2.0 workshop in Cambodia; photo by Steve GoodmanIn a recent blog discussion on the Netsquared community blog, some nonprofit techies believed that the answer is actually a change of mindset. Their point was that non-profits need to adopt a new philosophy of making their constituents the distributors of their message, and their work. To facilitate this shift, there is a need to educate more non-profits about what possibilities Web 2.0 tools offer and the practical ways to get started. It took years and small steps for many in the nonprofit sector to make the leap from fax machines to email - and it'll be the same when taking the leap from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Those that have successfully answered the "Why does it matter" question, are now beginning to wrestle with the questions: "What does it mean to our mission?" and "How do we do it right?". And while there is a relatively small and fast growing number of non-profit techies experimenting and sharing wisdom about the tools, to learn about web 2.0 and feel comfortable, more non-profits need to experience it first hand. The first step is jumping in and getting comfortable with the tools; and carrying out low risk experiments. In the long term, non-profits should consider integrating new roles and expertise into nonprofit job descriptions- geek marketers, buzz directors, and so forth. Or think creatively about volunteer opportunities, for example recruiting a Facebook intern from a college. Personal Fundraising CampaignsAs an older baby boomerwith Gen Y media habits, for the past few years I've been exploring the possibilities - on my blogand in my wiki- of how non-profits can use social media to support their work. And while I've explored many facets of Web2.0 use and adoption by non-profits, more recently I've been tinkering with how to mix social media with fundraising, as well as experimenting with personal fundraising.Less than a year ago, I launched a personal fundraising campaign on my blog using a Web 2.0 fundraising tool called ChipInto send a young Cambodian Woman, Leng Sopharath, to college - through a program sponsored by a nonprofit, the Sharing Foundation, where I serve on the board. I was able to raise $800 for a year's tuition and living expenses, in less than two weeks! Several weeks later, I experimented with an organizational approach to group fundraising - working with a team of 20 Sharing Foundation board members and volunteers to raise $100,000 via my blog, using a Charity Badge. It was quite an accomplishment, given that the organization has an operating budget of less than $400,000. Cambodia Bloggers SummitMy most recent campaign used Chipinto raise over $4,000in less than two weeks, for me to participate in the first ever Cambodian Bloggers Summit. At the same time I shared my knowledge about video bloggingand Web2.0 tools, as well as provided some video blogging kits (an idea developed in a very web 2.0 way. The conference attendees were a mix of young people who were bloggers and staffers from Cambodian ngos. I learned a tremendous amount from them about the power and potential of using Web 2.0 tools.Cyber Cambodian Panel - Cambodia Bloggers Session; photo by Beth KanterThe Cambodia blogger campaign gave me yet another opportunity to experiment with mixingsocial media tools with fundraising. I learned that it is important to have some challenge grant, contest, or competition to fuel the campaign. In this case, Chipin generously offered to match contributions. I also created many different ways to participate, including small cash donations, in-kind contributions, or advice. Videoblogging fundraising pitches worked very well, including this onewhich resulted in a gift of Creative Commons T-shirts! One tool that surprised me Twitter. It was an effective fundraising platformand I received donations from people who were beyond my network of "followers." In fact, the donation that put the campaign over the top came from Twitter. However, many in Cambodia were not aware of Twitter and from an Internet Cafe with a less than robust connection, Twitter (and other web-based apps)took too long to load.Viirak- the first video blogger from Cambodia; photo by Steve GoodmanConclusion Web 2.0 and social media tools offer many possibilities for non-profits to raise awareness of their work, connect with potential (younger)donors, raise money, find volunteers, and other tangible benefits. There are challenges to adoption, but as a staff member from a Cambodian NGO said to me: "We just have to be creative." It's a matter of low risk experimentation and personal learning in order to reap powerful benefits.Top image: The Seeds of the FutureProjects for Cambodian Bloggers
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/microsoft/OMG_Instant_Messaging_into_Charity';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'compact';Started last March, Microsoft's i'm Initiativehas enabled people to raise over $92,000 for ten charities by doing nothing more than chatting with their friends. The i'm program lets users of Windows Live Messenger specify a charity to receive a portion of the funds from the advertising that the application displays.Microsoft has signed up 10 major heavyweight charities for the initiative, including the American Red Cross, the National AIDS Fund, the Sierra Club, and Unicef. Participating users can specify which charity they wish to support with their chatting by entering a text code into the program's set up area after their nickname.Though the service has so far only raise about ten grand per charity, each is guaranteed at least $100,000 over the first year by Microsoft. Though Microsoft concedes that the amount raised per user is small, Windows Live Messenger reportedly has 280 million usersworldwide (the i'm Initiative currently only works for US users), so there would appear to an opportunity for Microsoft to raise a lot more money for charity though this scheme."The i'm Initiative has been a very successful campaign for Windows Live Messenger and we're thrilled with the our customers' response to the opportunity it provides to give back by sending instant messages," said Tara Kriese, senior product manager, Windows Live Messenger. "We're looking forward to continuing the initiative and helping raise awareness for important social causes through our customers' support of the organizations involved."Microsoft says they currently have no plans to end the i'm Initiative and will run it indefinitely for the foreseeable future. That makes a lot of sense. The program is, of course, not all altruistic, and from Microsoft's point of view it is a great way to capture new users. The program is only costing them, at most, an extra $1 million to run over the first year (that $100k promised to each charity) and because the company won't say how much of their advertising revenue is actually being shared with charities, they certainly can tweak that percentage to make sure they at least break even.According to Microsoft, the initiative has already been successful in capturing a bevy of new users. They forwarded me the chart below showing how Windows Live Messenger has trounced the competition (though I'm not sure precisely which competition) in terms of new user acquisition since the i'm Initiative launched. It's hard to say if i'm is responsible for that, but clearly Microsoft thinks so. Regardless, the cost to charities is zero, the cost to users is zero, and the benefit to everyone involved is major, so in my opinion the i'm Initiative is a great idea.
I'm very pleased to announce that Marshall Kirkpatrickis joining Read/WriteWeb as a Lead Writer, starting this Monday. Marshall teams up with Josh Catonein this role, meaning that Read/WriteWeb now has three daily writers (including myself). Marshall will focus on breaking news for Read/WriteWeb, something he is very skilled at and which will complement Josh and I well. Josh's role hasn't changed - he will continue to provide daily news and analysis. My own role will change a bit - I will still write daily on R/WW, but focus more on analysis. Also of course having Marshall on board allows me to spend more time growing the business.In order to join R/WW and work more on his independent consulting practice, Marshall has resigned from his role as Director of Content at SplashCast Media, a media syndication company. Many of you will remember Marshall from his previous job as lead blogger at TechCrunch. Before that, Marshall was the editor of AOL's Social Software Weblogand he's also written for NetSquared, a project of the nonprofit tech assistance organization CompuMentor. So Marshall brings to Read/WriteWeb a wealth of tech blogging experience and he will be an integral part of our team going forward.A note to startups and companies wishing to be covered by Read/WriteWeb: it is even more important now that you use the tips@readwriteweb.comemail address to contact us with news. Josh and Marshall will be monitoring that address daily. I often don't have the time to reply to startups who email me directly, something I'm forever feeling guilty about! So please use the tips address, to ensure the best chance of coverage on Read/WriteWeb.
Content Management Systems (CMS) aren't the most sexiest applications in the world. When you think CMS, you probably think Vignette, Interwoven or a similar enterprise-level product. Those systems are usually bulky and difficult to use. At the other end of the spectrum are blogging platforms, such as Movable Type or Wordpress, which are renown for being fairly lightweight and easy to use - but often they lack the high-end functionality required in a CMS (content approval process, version control, reporting, etc).In the middle of this spectrum (Enterprise CMS -- Blog Platform) lies SilverStripe, an open source CMS system developed by a small company out of Wellington, New Zealand. It has a simple web interface and was built using PHP5, an alternative developer framework to the more hyped web 2.0 framework Ruby on Rails. SilverStripe was recently named as one of 5 finalists in the Most Promising Open Source CMS Award, part of the 2007 Open Source CMS Awardsheld by Packt Publishing. Included amongst SilverStripe's features are an e-commerce module and some web 2.0 mashups (e.g. Flickr, YouTube and Technorati). Check out their Modules pagefor full details. It also has the usual things you'd expect of a CMS (but don't always get!), such as standards compliant code and scalability.SilverStripe AdminState of the CMS MarketI caught up with SilverStripe Chief Marketing Officer Sigurd (Siggy) Magnusson recently, to find out more about his company's product and about the current state of the CMS market. Siggy told me that the content management space is still immature. The bigger CMS systems like Vignette and Interwoven are going for the larger, enterprise market - and there are great open source choices too in this market, such as Alfresco. Meanwhile blog systems are becoming popular as CMS systems - notably Automattic's Wordpress and Six Apart's Movable Type. But there is room for smaller CMS systems like SilverStripe to cater to the middle market, said Siggy. Indeed he described SilverStripe to me as in between Wordpress and a CMS system like Mambo or Drupal.So how does an open source CMS make money? Siggy replied that they make money by hosting and development services, but also a possible revenue stream is e-commerce commissions.SilverStripe and Google Summer of CodeAnother interesting thing about SilverStripe is that it recently got support from Google, in the form of being a part of the Google Summer of Codeproject (although in this part of the world it was a Winter of Code!). Summer of Code is a program that Google ran this year, to bring together "900 students and nearly 1500 mentors across 90 countries to contribute to over 130 different open source software projects." SilverStripe was given 10 programmers, who helped to develop SilverStripe features and enhancements. One of those students was Elijah Lofgren, from Deatsville, Alabama. Elijah kept a journal of his work with SilverStripe as part of Google Summer of Code. In his wrap-up post, he wrote:"My 2007 Google Summer of Code Experience has now come to a close. It’s been great! I’ve learnd a lot about AJAX & PHP5 and have thoroughly enjoyed making improvements to SilverStripe. :)I spent approximately 50 days on SilverStripe work. So with about 300 hours, it comes out to about 6 hours a day. :) If you are interested in reading my entire work log (warning, quite long!) see: /silverstripe/logs/silverstripe-google-summer-of-code-2007.html"Another Summer of Code student, Markus Lanthaler, created an OpenID loginfor SilverStripe.SilverStripe Flickr moduleConclusionThere are literally hundreds of CMS systems on the Web, targeting anything from small businesses to large enterprises. SilverStripe is one of those hoping to mine the large 'in-between' market of organizations looking for something more functional than a blogging platform, but not as complex as some of the traditional CMS systems. Let us know of other small CMS systems that you like, in the comments. It's a mostly ignored market segment in the world of web 2.0 blogs, so it'd be good to open up this discussion some more.
San Franciso-based Kiva.org, a microfinance non-profit organization founded in 2005, is one of the best success stories of the charitable web. We first profiled it back in January. In just 2 years, the site has funded nearly 17,000 loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries, and last week the total amount of those loans crossed the $11 million mark.In late March, 2005 Elizabeth Omalla, a woman from the town of Tororo in Uganda, received the first Kiva.org loan for $500 to help expand her burgeoning fish selling business. Shortly there after 6 other entrepreneurs in developing nations received loans from the site, in total worth $2,150. By September of that year, all seven initial microloan recipients had repaid their loans and Kiva.org was launched to the public. The company incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in November, 2005.Within a few weeks of the site opening, founder Matt Flannery left his job at TiVo to work on the project full-time; later he would be joined by Permal Shah, who was the principal product manager at PayPal. Kiva.org reached the $1 million funded mark in just over a year after launching the site. The next million would be a bit easier coming a single month later.Kiva.org growth chart from Kivapedia.Kiva.org has now funded almost 17,000 loans by over 110,000 lenders. The average size of each loan is $649.63 and the repayment rate is a very impressive 99.59%.The site works with 64 different microfinance organizations (field partners) in 37 countries around the world. The field partners locate entrepreneurs in developing nations who are in need of small business loans (usually under $1000) and then upload the loan information to the Kiva.org site where users group together to fund the loans as a crowd. Lenders can lend as little as $25 and all transactions are handled by PayPal. PayPal provides Kiva.org with payment processing free of its usual charges -- Kiva.org is the only site that PayPal does this for.When a loan is funded, the managing microfinance field partner is wired the money and handles doling out the cash and reporting back on the progress of the entrepreneur who received it. After the loan is repaid, lenders have the option of reloaning their money or withdrawing it back to their accounts.Unlike other person-to-person lending startups, such as Prosperor Zopa, Kiva.org does not charge interest on their loans and lenders do not stand to make any money. But unlike giving to charity, there is a good chance you'll get your money back. Participating in Kiva.org's microloan program lets lenders help people in the developing world with the expectation of getting their money back, and given their minuscule default rate, Kiva.org loans are very low-risk. This is an appealing alternative to straight donations for many people.Kiva.org has already had a very big year, funding about $9 million worth of loans so far, and having been featured in the Wall Street Journal, on ABC News, CNN, the New York Times, and Oprah Winfrey's television show. Last June, after being featured in a piece on ABC World News Tonight, Kiva.org received 1,000 new members and $100,000 in new loans overnight. Their history is littered with success stories like that, indicating the idea really resonates with people.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/Non_Profits_Web_Tool_Kit';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'compact';We're focusing on non-profits and charitieson Read/WriteWeb this week, and with that in mind, we decided to take a look at what web-based tools exist to make running and organizing a non-profit or charity organization easier. It turns out, there are many of them.We've organized the cream of the crop into the tool kit presented below. It's likely that we missed some tools that could be used by charities, non-profit organizations, or other groups to run their online operations, so please feel free to leave your favorite sites for this type of work in the comments.Creating a WebsiteObviously the first thing you'll need when bringing your non-profit organization online is a web site. Grassroots.orgoffers free web hosting and web design services to non-profit organizations. Unfortunately, their offerings are not very up-to-date (i.e., it appears their free hosting does not support PHP or any other server-side scripting language), and 100MB of file space might not get you very far if you plan to build a thriving community.Hosting, however, is a fairly cheap commodity, so what you're really interested in here is building your site. Blogging platforms like Wordpressand MovableTypeare great, free software on which to run community or information web sites. But the number of blogging platforms and content management systems is too great to list here. Check out OpensourceCMSto test drive a bunch of open source CMS, blogs, groupware, wiki, and forum tools.The Non-Profit Soapboxis a content management system designed specifically for non-profit organizations. Helpful tools like event calendars and constituent relationship management come already baked in.Getting the Word OutWhat good is a web site that no one knows about? A great way to get the word out about your charity is to leverage the power of existing social networks. By creating profiles and groups on networks like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, you can potentially reach millions of people. Even those that don't donate money can be educated about your cause.Care2is a social network built around social change. It's a great place to create a groupfor your organization and gain access to the nearly 7.8 million members who are perhaps more likely be to receptive to social or progressive causes.If you're feeling adventurous, you could try to create your own social network using Ning. Ning isn't the only hosted create-your-own social networking platform out there, but it is certainly one of the most powerful. It powers a number of enterprise social networking deployments for large companies and can probably handle anything you throw at it.If your non-profit is accredited in the US, make sure you're listed on the GuideStarweb site, which powers the databases of major charity networks like Change.org.Raising MoneyOne of the primary directives of a non-profit organization is to raise money. For accedited US non-profits Firstgiving(which we profiled yesterday), makes it easy for members of your organization to set up donation pages and collect donations from friends, family, colleagues -- or total strangers. Non-profit groups can also use the service to manage fund drives of their own.Fundableand ChipInare two other fundraising web applications that work very well for charities that are not accredited non-profit organizations.There are a large number of for-pay payment processing solutions -- many of which include offline software packages as part of the product. PaySimpleis one of the more affordable packages, costing not too much more than a normal merchant account. Blackbaudis one of the more well-known enterprise solutions for non-profit fundraising (they offer other services as well, such as CRM).Keeping in TouchOnce you've got members flowing into your organization, you need to keep in touch with them and engage them on a regular basis to keep them motivated, interested, and giving. One great way to do that is via email lists. Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups, and Topicaall offer free email discussion list solutions that your organization can take advantage of.CicleUpis a unique service that lets you broadcast messages and gather information from groups over email, AOL Instant Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. The service is free and has some unique call and response features that can truly engage you with your membership. CitizenSpeak, meanwhile, provides free tools for groups to create email action campaigns.On the pay side, there are a large number of email mailing list management services. Groundspring.orgis specifically aimed at non-profit groups and offers a fairly good deal. Idealware has a good overview of email list toolsavailable for organizations.Meet in PersonOnline interactions are all well and good, but sometimes you want to get together with people in person and debate an issue. Meetupis one of the easiest ways to make that happen. Organizations have used the site since 2002 to organize in person meetings across the United States and build grassroots movements from the ground up.Finding VolunteersAs your organization grows, it will be harder to keep things in order without help. Volunteers are key to almost any non-profit group's success, but finding them isn't always easy. VolunteerMatchis like a dating service for finding the perfect volunteers for your organization. Also consider creating a profile on Idealist.org, which will then allow you to post jobs, volunteer opportunities, and internships available at your organization.Keeping Track of EveryoneOf course, now that your organization is brimming with volunteers, it is bound to be getting harder to keep track of everyone. A number of database tools are available to help your organization keep track of your constituents, volunteers, and donors. Organizers Database(downloadable) and CiviCRM(web-based) are two open source solutions that you can try out. CiviCRM benefits from integration into the Joomla and Drupal content management systems.WildApricotis a hosted, for-pay membership management service aimed at non-profit organizations. It's free for databases of up to 50 contacts. [Note: WildApricot is a R/WW sponsor]Kinterais one of the more well-known software solutions, and has been used by large organizations, such as the Jimmy Fund and Amnesty International. (Kintera also offers a number of other services, such as event management and email marketing.)It's a good idea to use a groupware tool like Basecampto keep in touch with your core team. Good communication between the top brass in your charity will help to make sure everything you do goes off without a hitch.Measuring Your SuccessWith your web site up, it would be great to know how many people are visiting it. Google Analyticsmay be one of the best free, hosted web analytics services on the Internet. I've recently started using it on all of my sites and have been very pleased with the depth of the reporting that it provides, and comparing it to other stat tracking services I have running on my properties, it appears to be pretty accurate in its reporting.Another Google service, Feedburner, will help you keep on top of the number of people reading your organizations news via RSS.All In One SolutionsCivicSpaceis an all in one solution for non-profit groups. Their service covers everything from creating and managing a web site, to promotion, fundraising, membership tracking, and email list management. Conviooffers a very similar service aimed primarily at larger groups. Indeed, Convio has been used by the world's largest charity (in terms of cash assets), the American Red Cross. Finally, Democracy in Actionprovides a full suite of management tools called "Salsa" that cover CRM, event management, fundraising and more.
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/deliGoo_Mashes_Google_with_del_icio_us';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'compact';deliGoois a nifty new add on for Firefox 2.0+ and IE 6.0+ that mashes up del.icio.uswith Google Custom Search. The way it works is by creating a Google Custom Search engine based on all of a user's del.icio.us bookmarks, all of the bookmarks under a single tag, or all of the bookmarks under a single tag from a single user.This can be very helpful for people who want to find something from among many untagged bookmarks, or for people who don't care to bother with tags but still want to get some utility out of del.icio.us. deliGoo can also be helpful to search among the collective knowledge of a large group of people (i.e., if I search only among sites tagged with "MySQL," I am presumably searching among the knowledge of a bunch of database gurus).Unfortunately, deliGoo has some oddities and drawbacks that make it less useful than it could be. One of the major things that jumped out at me is just how useless the Firefox extension actually is. The purpose of the extension is to provide quick access to a deliGoo search engine, however, all it really does is provide a link to their search page. A simple bookmark would work just as well.The biggest drawback, however, is that creating a search engine takes time, and it has to recreate yours every time you use it. (At least, every time you navigate back to the page ... if you create a search engine and keep the results page open, it will save that search engine for as long as the page is active.) In the interest of time, deliGoo was set up so that you could use it without registering, but it would make a lot more sense if it remembered you and didn't have to rebuild your engine every time you needed to search.I think the service would be much more useful if it let users sign up and create one or more custom search engines and had them readily accessible without having to wait for Google to index the sites each time. The site could add a manual or scheduled update option, so that if it has been a week and you've added 100 new bookmarks to your del.icio.us account, you can update your engine -- but on your schedule so you aren't forced to wait when you want access to your information quickly.
This evening Yahoo! is announcing two new 'hacks' that have been in development since late March. While it is tempting to write them off as two small features being incorporated into the largest Internet Property in the world, we wonder if there is more meaning here - especially given that Jerry Yang announced a 100 day strategy refreshback in July. This week I sat down with Bradley Horowitz, VP of Yahoo's Advanced Development Division, to discuss both hacks that are launching tonight. You can listen to the full interview on Read/WriteTalk. As we talked, it became apparent that Horowitz was trying to make these hacks more symbolic. Specifically he commented: "And even at this time, when the media has widely reported struggles and the internal challenges we have at Yahoo, the Hack spirit is very much alive. And I'm really happy to be sharing with you today a couple of innovations that I think are representative of the kind of things that we see coming out in Hack on a continual basis."With this in mind, it is worth taking a close look at both of the 'hacks' that are launching tonight. Map Mixer The first hack decribed by Bradley was MapMixer.It allows users to morph a Yahoo! Map with another image of theirs, to create a hybrid map. The example provided by Bradley was integrating images from Berkeley Website with a Yahoo Map of the area. See the image below for an example of how that would look: The most challenging part of the process is actually matching the two images together. The user simply finds a couple intersection points on both the map and his/her image and then the system automatically morphs them together. In our interview, Bradley explained the process as being "like a big sheet of rubber, the map is kind of stretched and rotated, and then applied to the Yahoo Map." Shop by Color The second hack launching tonight is Shop by Color.This is actually being integrated into Yahoo! Shoppingas one of the mechanisms to narrow search results when looking for a product. Historically you've been able to filter results by: price, style, gender, and brand. With the introduction of this new feature, shoppers will also be able to filter based on 56 different color hues.The most challenging part of this process, according to Bradley, was simply making this work both at the scale of the Yahoo Shopping Index (10 million objects indexed) and also ensuring a user experience that is consistent with expectations. This was done both via statistical analysis against the corpus and user experience testing. The screen shot below shows the user filtering down their results for only blue results of dresses in this case: Conclusion So will this be announced as part of Yahoo's new strategy? At a minimum, as we discussed last week, one of the trends on the web moving forward will clearly be "moving from websites to web services." I should also point out that this is nothing new from Bradley - in fact Richard interviewed him and Caterina Fake at Supernova 2006and Bradley was talking about the importance of building on top of Yahoo's open platform back then. When trying to figure out how this fits into the '100 Day Strategy', the most important question probably is how they will evaluate the success of both these launches. And by extension evaluate the success of future launches. To this end, I asked Bradley about Yahoo's expectations for both these launches and he responded: "I think one of the great things about Yahoo, and the great things about this program is that our expectation is that we put them out there and we learn. We might learn that users love it, and we'll continue to double down and invest resources and kind of make it increasingly great. Or we might find it doesn't resonate with users and that the resource is best put elsewhere. So kind of putting them out there in beta, and being good listeners, and watching what happens next especially with something like Maps which is contingent upon the uptake in the community." What do you think? Will Yahoo! incorporate this 'hack ethic' as part of their strategy moving forward? If so, how do they communicate this to their different constituents (Wall St, etc)? Related:- Big Company Hacks at Yahoo, R/WW March 2007- Yahoo Mail API Launched, R/WW March 2007
Ajax start pages are easy-to-use, customizable webpages, allowing you to keep up with the latest news and add interactive content. You can add new RSS feeds and widgets, and move your content around the page. In some ways start pages are the successors to the portals of the 90's. They have yet to break into the mainstream, however the promotion of iGoogleand the presence of MyYahooare facilitating the transition. Let's explore some of the top players - and also some you may not have been aware of.For in-depth analysison start pages, check out Read/WriteWeb's The Future of Personalized Start Pagesand Business Models For Start Pages. NetvibesNetvibesis one of the leaders in the space. The interface is not only clean, but also very well thought-out. Usability seemed to be a big factor when designing the experience - and it shows. In March they released their Coriander Edition- a "super personalized homepage, including a "Netvibes Reader" with multimedia capabilities and new "instant sharing" capabilities.PageflakesPageflakesis another leading start page. I am a big fan of the initial 3 step set-up process and the high level of customization. It's a very nice overall service. In July Pageflakes announced their latest version, code-named Blizzard. It introduces social networking functionality, themes, a slick Ajax UI, and more.ProtopageProtopageis very cool. It may not be quite as practical as the front runners, but the 'sticky note' type interface gets big points. Though the messaging is scattered, the drag-and-drop is wonderfully smooth.iGoogleiGoogleis probably the most simple of all the offerings. It is Google's first big kick at AJAX start pages. The offering is extremely basic and lacks any clutter. See a full review here: iGoogle: The Epitome of Google PersonalizationMyYahooMyYahoois clearly tailored for the average Internet user. Messaging and instructions are clear and concise. Having said that, the interface is rather bland and functionality is limited. However, this is soon to change - as in March Yahoo announceda new beta My Yahoo with web 2.0 features. The beta My Yahoo has a fresh new design and some neat interactive features (using ajax of course!). It also aims to make personalization simpler.InboxInboxis a portal with an AJAX start page wrapper. As is the case with Yahoo, this offering will most likely appeal to regular folks, as it is easy-to-use. Advanced users may skip over it, as it lacks in the functionality department.EskoboEskoboressembles a Netvibes clone, but there are slight differences. The service provdes a nice, clean page, but does not include anything revolutionary or particulary interesting.ItsAStartItsAStartis a generic, two-column AJAX start page. There is nothing overly flashy or extraordinary about the service. In fact, I found that it offered the least attractive interface.FavoorFavooris a beautifully designed start page, but it lacks in two key areas. Firstly, there is a mandatory registration process. Secondly, there is no default content once you finally access the page. Once these two obstacles can be eliminated, I think the site may have a chance at competing with the big boys.24eyes24eyesimmediately engages the reader with a page full of news content. However, this can be somewhat daunting, as my eyes got lost! Perhaps I need 24 eyes to truly enjoy the experience to the utmost extent.ConclusionThe need for a start page is undeniable. The ability to personalize and customize your own space saves time and hassle. A drag-and-drop interface is extremely easy and intuitive for newcomers to the feed aggregation concept. Adoption is simply dependent upon further education. One key question still remains however - where is the revenue model? Though these mini-portals are able to attract millions of users, monetization is needed for long term survival.There are many other AJAX start pages available on the net. We have only chosen to list 10 of them and we're not claiming this to be a 'top ten' list. Please feel free to add others in the comment section below. Also, let us know which is your favorite.
Back in January we revieweda promising new online video startup out of China, called Mojiti. While thereare many so-called YouTube clones fighting it out on the Chinese web 2.0battleground, Mojiti.com- which launched in November 2006 - caught our attention because it offered a fresh user experience. It wasn't just a YouTube clone, in other words. In Mojiti, videos are not just available to watch andshare - youcan annotate them too. With Mojiti you can add text and graphicsto existing videos.In our review, we spoke to Eric Feng, the founder of Mojiti.com and a former Microsoft exec. He mentioned that other new features to come included a Media Center plugin, Flash Spots, and SubRip/SubViewer. So there is a lot of functionality in Mojiti, which seems to have made it a prime acquisition target for $1 billion News Corp./NBC online video joint venture Hulu, according to Techcrunch.Note that Eric Feng told Read/WriteWeb in January that unlike most Chinese startups, Mojiti.com was targeting the international market by offering an English version since launch. We'll keep an eye on this story and whether the rumor is confirmed soon, although TC is usually spot on with them.A nice demo of what Mojiti can do can be found inthe video below:
