Photo tribute to Directory Maximazer

You might have this more or less clear idea that being visible on Google, Yahoo or any other search engine is important for your organization. This idea that has been created and is being exploited in the for-profit sector mostly does not apply to the non-profits.

Are you really competing with tens and hundreds of other community groups in your town that do the same thing as you do? Doubt that. Most of community agencies and groups are either unique in their geographic area or in the work that they do. Just this uniqueness in content and activities presented on the website makes it possible to jump up high in Google or Bing listings very fast. This is called “organic” ranking and most non-profits do not need all the extensive time, consultations and investment to be “visible”. Covering the SEO basics is good as basics are in anything you do.

Basics of SEO

Basics of optimization are a part of any basic website development. You create titles and subtitles that truly represent the most important elements of your message; you always give titles to your images; you make sure that links to your pages contain titles of those pages and can be searchable by engines; you include a site map; you integrate social media if you can into your website and you create and add meaningful content that people come back too! Following what like-minded organizations are publishing and getting into commenting and meaningful conversations is something to think about if there is people on your staff that can take this role.

Search Engine Rules are Changing

Some rules are going out of practice, such as over use of important or Key Words in your titles or text; not repeating often the same content or text that links to your site; not spamming other sites with useless comments or articles, etc. Those practices are even being penalized nowadays. For example, Google uses its analytics to measure how long people stay on the pages of your website and if they come back to it to regulate your ranking. How often you publish content and how often you repeat yourself can as well influence the authority of your site.

This is where the authenticity of your web activity is important. As much as you are loyal to your mission in your off line work, you should be true and honest in your online activities. SEO for non-profits and community groups is really that simple! The difficult thing is getting skilled and dedicated to your working life on the Internet!

Related articles

• Introduction to SEO(http://seo.grassroots.org/guide)
• 6 Best Practices for Modern SEO (directorymaximizer.com)

You will always find on CMS sites like Joomla or WordPress the latest stable versions of software and the latest test versions, both for download. We make sure we are working with the latest stable versions when we help you create your sites. However, in many cases our partner organizations are acquiring their first experiences and do not have a long term vision nor stable budgets to think of all the aspects of web strategies. They would be happy to learn how to update and manage their site, how to work with photos or pdfs, and would forget that their Content Management System needs maintenance and care. Improved and more secure software versions appear every couple of months and as we said, CMS-based web sites are not entirely free! Besides paying your hosting fees, you need minimal investments to do regular backups and update your CMS.

Basic Maintenance We Do

DAG Nova offers two types of basic maintenance to its partners.

1) More than 100 hours per year of volunteer technical support and site maintenance for those that do not have stable funding nor entirely developed web strategies.

• That includes two backups per year and resolving problems as they arise. Pretty much in reaction to what is happening.

2) Maintenance for a minimal cost up to 500$ to those partners that are able to budget it annually.

• This support includes quarterly backups, regular upgrades of the software, including technical support up to 200$ per year.
• Another couple of hundred dollars can be added here for “migrations” to a new stable generation of the software, if necessary, and for installation and maintenance of anti-virus packages for CMS.  Prevention is always better than only reacting to problems.

So, hacking incidents have been in some cases an important “teachable moments”, and a step toward building a more complete web strategy. We will continue supporting you and learning together. Did we mention that social media strategy can as well be developed before things “happen”?

Related articles

• Costs You Cannot Escape (dagnova.ca)
• Will paying for website maintenance save time and money? (marketing.yell.com)
• Importance of Upgrading CMS Software (www.digitalpacific.com.au)

We will keep in touch with some of them on individual basis until another date brings us together.

Please, take a look at the presentation of the Local NetSquared Agenda Building and do not hesitate to contact us in the meantime if you have questions, projects of partnerships in mind!

And spread the word!

This is an announcement of the first get-together of people interested in supporting local nonprofits and community groups in their meaningful use of new technologies.

October 18th, 7PM
at the Social Planning Council KW
151 Frederick Street, Kitchener,
3rd floor, # 300

The Survey of Interest has been up for about a month and just a few people responded.  The outreach to small and medium nonprofits, most needing support, has been limited for now and I hope that it would improve after this first meeting.

Those who responded agree that a support group for nonprofits is needed. Obviously, there are many IT user groups and it is well know that they most enjoy mind-bending presentations that are too technical for non-tech-savvy. Are there engaging ways to put the two worlds together?

Small nonprofits benefit most from IT volunteers but those volunteers would need support too, and to join with dedicated staff, developers and agencies to work on larger and more inclusive projects. How can a common language develop so that both technical and community development side of the social transformation work gets recognized and valued?

And most of all, I wish to call out to those voices from the community that have projects in mind but do not know how to find collaborators and partners in putting them into practice. Don’t know where to start? How to find reliable and affordable developers and IT specialists? How to put their ideas into words and images? How to ask for support when there isn’t much money to put into those projects?

If you see the potential, come and join us!

I have been looking for a decent presentation of the Cloud computing for some time, and have found an interesting one through TechSoup Canada.

Before you take a walk in the Cloud with Tierney from TechSoup Canada, I just want to tell you that it won`t be your first time. It is another word for the Internet and computer networks.

Since you had your first free email account (Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail), you began storing your information on the Internet. You didn`t need to install the email program on your computer as you did with Outlook, Opera or Thunderbird. You didn`t need to worry about the space on your disk to store years of messages and attachments.

Since you started uploading your photos to Flickr or Picasa, you could reach them and show them to anybody, from any computer and not worry that a hard drive crash would burn all your precious memories to bytes and pieces.

Since you used Dropbox or Google Docs, you avoided emailing yourself documents from home to work and back. Did you collaborate with people from different places who only needed Internet access to work on the one and same project and do not loose track of the latest versions?

Since you surfed YouTube or Vimeo when there was nothing good on TV. Did you upload your own creations for others to watch? You decide if your creations are public or private and you do not worry if other people will break into your treasure chest because those services are generally safe.

Since free Facebook accounts, Google Apps,Twitter, StumbleUpon, SlideShare, and many more of those useful tools we take for granted.

Since your first blog, or CMS-based web site that you comfortably log into, update on the remote server and publish with a click.

Working in the Cloud is comfortable

• You can access your data from anywhere and from any device with a web browser
• You do not need to buy software licenses for every computer and updates to new versions
• You are better protected from viruses and spyware; you just take care of your browser protection
• Your data is safely stored on multiple remote servers so you do not ever notice if some crash in one part of the world

Working in the Cloud is not completely free

• You still pay for your Internet access or hosting fees
• You have to maintain your computer or mobile device
• If you run a company or a business, you will need top security and performance and you will pay fees to a specialized cloud service provider
• Set up, application migration and use of some applications will require external support or consulting

Working in the Cloud requires caution

• There is always a question of who has control over data stored on remote servers
• Security is better than in traditional hard drive protection but not unbreakable
• Be sure to create different passwords for different applications and take privacy seriously
• Users having less and less expertise in and thus control over technology that they use

The future of public computing and universal access to technology could be in the Cloud, would you agree?

Tierney will be hosting a free webinar about the Cloud on October 27th. Register and you will find out more about cloud computing tools in action, such as Google Docs, Prezi, Smartsheets, Dropbox, Diigo and Netvibes.

Related articles

• A Walk in the Cloud – Is Cloud Computing Right for You? (techsoupcanada.ca)
• Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web (google.com)
• Is “the Cloud” Overrated? (webpronews.com)

• For ourselves, to make the dream more real.

• For our prospective partners or clients, to encourage their efforts to invest and learn.

DAG Nova Vision

Thriving local communities supported by organizations and individuals that are autonomous and authentic in their use of web-based technologies.

DAG Nova Mission

• Building capacity of community organization to use web-based technologies to advance towards their own vision
• Building DAG Nova as a collective of technologically minded community developers

DAG Nova Objectives

• Developing trust relationships and multiplying long lasting partnerships and projects
• Building supportive networks across DAG Nova blog, Facebook page, NetSquared Community, etc. – sharing its experiences and learning
• Conducting action research about adoption of new technologies by community groups and associations  – knowledge building around community web development

The understanding of the cultural shift is important, how new media shape realities and events, and the issues around the privacy on the Internet. However, there seems to be more than one story that has been missed. Those new media shape realities such as advertising and marketing too often. The early adopters take so much for granted and cannot slow down their enthusiasm to look who is left behind.

Shift in communication and adoption of technologies has been seen as if there was no need for middlemen anymore.

“The intermediaries and the barriers are breaking down” according to one of the organizers “It’s a new way that people are organizing and connecting with each other.”

Without implying what Benjamin Bach has really meant out of context with his statement, I will just say that I have heard a similar idea too often in many different contexts. There is a notion that everybody has access to Internet today, and that the mere access means any meaningful use of web resources, and that any further learning of constantly changing technology universe can be made instantly available for everyone.

This is not what I hear from organizations we are working with. They consider themselves tool users, resist or evade new tools, think that capacity of their members or service users is far from seeing technologies as an immediate need, and seeing themselves only a limited use of technologies and lacking resources to learn more.

As a community developer, I think that I have been successful in my work when enabling others to go about their work and communications without my presence. I consider what we do in community web development as “intermediaries with a limited duration” is still essential. Awareness, training, support and collaboration are so much needed with large parts of non-profit sector if a true culture shift is to happen – and not only for well-educated and more-privileged social groups.

Disagree? Not so much? Tell us about it.

Once you have sorted out your communication objectives, audience, resources and expected outcomes, you can:

Spread Enthusiasm

When the site is finished make a party and celebrate both online and offline! Invite everybody, even the media, and announce what you wish to achieve! Take a lot of photos, make short clips and record what others think of or expect from your website.

Empower your staff, volunteers  and users through training, visioning, and coaching. Pay attention to their interests and expertise, and time they can invest. Tasks such as finding information, writing announcements, taking photos, commenting and giving feed back, they are all useful to keep the project going.

Work on Web Strategies and Policies

In  order to implement and manage your online activity… you have to consider things such as:

Outline the procedures: such as specific work to be done, when, who, etc.; Some organizations have simple and clear task divisions and stick to them. One person updates pdf documents, another works with the text on the service page, the third may only work on news section, etc. Others would have one person responsible, a webmaster, and others would only contribute on occasion while the coordinator would be overseeing the work.

Risk management: ensure that individuals leaving the organization can be replaced and that at least a few people are knowledgeable about what is going on; For some, keeping good records of all the passwords, contact names and other details is the extent of control they would take. Do not forget ongoing investment in learning and time, and make provisions that the ongoing costs will be reviewed and budgeted correctly.

Protect staff and volunteers: with clear guidelines on how contact and personal information are to be used, what content is appropriate to be published, sorting out copyright issues and permission. Most organizations would only use their job emails for communication, and work with written consent for releasing photographs of their members. Extensive gathering of user information is rare but there are good examples of privacy policies on the Internet. The more organizations learn about the Creative commons, the more they decide to publish their content under non-proprietary and share-alike license.

Monitor your website statistics to match your goals and review strategies: content preferences, change in unique and returning visitors, visitor loyalty, traffic sources and time on site, actual engagement, etc. Most organizations would completely forget to assess their web presence and loose chances to improve their web strategies. The diligent ones will create spreadsheets to put in all important metrics and mark how changes on their website influence traffic and actions taken by the readers to get in touch or support their work.

Related articles

• This Month at TechSoup: Sharpen Your Website (forums.techsoup.org)
• Designing a Website? Read this first (techsoupcanada.ca)
• Creating Website Content: What do your visitors really want (nonprofitmarketingguide.com)

My wish is to create opportunities for community web development with nonprofit groups and associations, all those that could benefit from accessible web-based technologies. My wish as well is to build together with long-time active initiatives and socially minded technology professionals, such as ConnectKW Project.

Local NetSquared groups are interested in technology for social change. They usually hold monthly offline events as an opportunity to convene locally to share ideas, learn from one another, and collaborate on projects for real world impact. Each group chooses its purpose and points of interest.

The usual suspects are staff and volunteers from local nonprofits and community groups; foundations and funding agencies; web developers and IT consultants; innovators and social entrepreneurs. 

Would you like to be a part of it?

Here are some benefits that all members can draw from being a part of the NetSquared Community:

• Learning about the projects around the world – sharing your own projects!
• Practicing the art of community organizing and sharing your story in a Community Organizers Handbook Wiki, NetSquared Discussion Group or Community Blog
• Participating in The Challenge and receive recognition and a prize for your project; being informed about challenges and funds available from other organizations for community-technology projects
• Exchange resources and ideas through NetSquared Think Tank monthly round-ups on the Community Blog and participate in peer-to-peer learning (online and offline)

Please, take a few minutes to click through the “SURVEY OF INTEREST” or get in touch with me to tell me what you think about or wish for the Waterloo Region within the NetSquared community - aleksandra@dagnova.ca.
(www.aleksandra.graonic.ca or LinkedIn Profile)

I hope to see you at the Waterloo Region NetSquared Group Planning Meeting
October 18th 2011, 7 pm
151 Frederick St., suite 300, Kitchener
with the support of the Social Planning Council KW

SURVEY OF INTEREST takes 5 minutes to fill in

We are on the Facebook now! Connecting and more connecting is our objective. We know that not many of the people we work with think of themselves as tech savvy or having time to squeeze some online befriending, but there are some of you with Facebook accounts that LIKE what we are doing. If you LIKE it, you would LIKE your friends and contacts to know about us. Or you would LIKE to share your stories with others.

Why Facebook?

We have done some basic calculations on DAG Nova audience profiles with the Forrester’s Social Technographics Tool and decided to post small pieces of information on the Facebook instead of posting them on the blog. There are quite a number of people that are joining social media among community workers (joiners). We support you in moving from spectators to becoming collectors, to learn and share content, and support you to become critics and creators, that comment or produce content themselves.

Question ?

We have a question. Since social media platforms are easy to set up and update, come free, require only access to the Internet, constantly improve their tools, integrate with other web applications, we believe they could easily become the core of web presence for community organizations and associations. Replace websites in the near future? Probably.

There are people that say “Never”!  There is too little control over the look or administration of the pages, no support and no guaranties.

What do you say? You can post you comment here or on our Facebook Page, since we will make most of our posts available on Facebook too.

Related articles

• Will Facebook replace company Web sites? (news.cnet.com)
• Five Reasons Why Facebook Will Never Replace Your Website (SocialFish.org)
• Do Small Businesses Still Need a Website? (smallbizlabs.com)
• Adopting New Technologies (dagnova.ca)