Connect Communicate and Contact

When you are working at an NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) , small organisation or you just started your own business, it is important that you engage your administration to achieve your goals. These kinds of organisations often gain their work from their relations, their contacts. Unfortunately most NGO’s, starters and small organistations do not have the money to buy a customized CMS (Content Management System). In this blog I will try to provide you with some information about two different options to manage your contacts en the links between your contacts in free CMSystems.

Morefollowersontwitter.com

Within the next two years 70% of all Dutch organisations will be using social media. More reason to put extra attention and effort in making your own tools effective! In this blog I will focus on a question of which answer may interest you…

How to get more interaction and traffic to your social media tools?

Keep your private pictures in your pocket!

This blog is not about media use IN organisations, but media use BY organisations. In 2 years approximately 70% of all Dutch organisations will be making use of social media, they will be all over the social networking websites creating work opportunities and screening potential employees.

An article I read online today on AD made me think about something I was told a few weeks earlier: everything people are displaying on their personal profiles creates their internet identity. This identity can work for you or against you… The article I read referred to a chat conversation of Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg which took place when he had just established the popular social networking website Facebook. Facebook did not deny the authenticity of the following conversation:

Join My Party

This morning I read the morning newspaper on my way to school when I bumped into an article regarding social media use among the Dutch politicians of today. The article started with some information about our very own prime minister who ate a piece of cake yesterday with a few of his 200.000 hyvesfriends. I laughed out loud when I read that these friends shared their birthday, May 15^th, with Jan Peter Balkenende.

I decided that I wanted some more insight in this happening.. I couldn’t find anything on Prime Ministers’ hyves, me not being one of his 196.430 friends (a request is pending). When I searched some more I found out he had invited 15 of his hyvesfriend who shared the birthday and to launch CDA-radio. Balkenende received some nice presents such as decorated soup cans, self made collages and some books.

I have to admit he makes it count.. ‘As a politician you need to know what is happening in the society, Hyves helps me with that. This is a nice opportunity to meet each other for real.’ he tells in an interview. My birthday is on September 24^th, unfortunately all celebrities who share that same birthday died. Nevertheless, when you celebrate your birthday on the following date, make sure you will send a friendrequest...

May 27^th – Jamie Oliver
July 6^th- the 14^th Dalai Lama
August 4^th – Barack Obama
October 13^th – Margaret Thatcher
December 18^th – Brad Pitt

Observing, listening and participating in Social Media, The Conversation Prism

A few weeks ago I visited an alumni gathering from my old college where I attended a social media workshop by Joris Kleinveld. In the first few slides he showed the crowd some media graphics of which one kept on crossing my mind later that week, The Conversation Prism. In this blog I would like to introduce you to this brilliant attempt of visualizing the rapidly involving landscape for social tools, services and networks.

(Source)

The prism, which is developed by Brain Solis, represents the world of Social Media and the conversations floating around in it. According to Brian[1]; online conversations take place all the time, with or without you. The prism will help you to visualize the potential extent of the online conversations that can impact and influence your business and brand.

As a professional you will be standing at the center of the prism. From out this position you can observe or listen to the conversations floating around in the Social Media or you can participate in them. According to Solis, everything starts with listening and observing in order to identify where relevant discussions take place, as well as their scale and frequency.

I agree, patiently observing and listening can reveal information, groups and discussions that would never be yours to find in the fist place. Last week, someone asked me how I thought about the overkill of Social Media NGO’s got to choose from in order to communicate with each other. My thoughts, which definitely did no go out to the fact that many options are overkill; thought of NGO’s assembling a well considered media mix. The Conversation Prism can help NGO’s to identify where other NGO’s are active and where they should link in. In this way, they can put their valuable time some specific communication channels to create optimal and cheap communication.

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[1] http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism/

A widget with a purpose

As the final part of my last two blogs about AKVO I would like tell you about their widget. A nice little application you can display on your website or blogger to support a water project! People who already placed the widget on their blogs:

http://newsbieonict.blogspot.com/
http://karinvenner.blogspot.com/
http://benstevensmuo.blogspot.com/

AKVO is a digital platform that facilitates the water sanitation sector, their clients are mostly NGO’s in the Netherlands but AKVO is expanding their platform abroad. A large part of these NGO’s are running water projects in the third world for which they seek funding. All projects have to do with water and have the purpose to help the local population to clean it, gather it or make it controllable. To help these NGO’s to find sponsors and donators, AKVO offers them a spot on their ‘Project’ page. On this page NGO’s they have the possibility to find funding for their projects, through their own personal page. The personal page enables the organisations keep visitors updated on information about the progression of the project, in addition the visitors can subscribe to the projects’ RSS Feeds.

The widget AKVO has developed allows its donators, partners and sponsors to display the project they funded in a small screen on their website. The widget is easily written in HTML and can be displayed on your website or blog, as you can see on my page.

I would like to use this opportunity to encourage you to put this widget on your own blog, so maybe your visitors will donate a euro or two to the project. Just follow the following steps for your blogger page:

1. Go to http://www.akvo.org/rsr/projects/ and choose project you find meaningful and click on it.

2. On the right side of the page you can find page tools, click on een widget maken (make a widget).

3. Fill in your website (www.yourblogname.blogspot.com) and click on selecteren en verder gaan… (Select and go on).

4. Choose your own colours for your widget and click on voorproefje (sneakpreview).

5. Copy the HTMLcode which is displayed in the bottom of the page.

6. Log in to your Blogger and make sure you land on your Dashbord page.

7. Click on Layout (Indeling) and then on Page Elements (Pagina-elementen).

8. Click on Add a page element (een gadget toevoegen).

9. Choose the option HTML/Javascript

10. Paste your HTMLcode in the frame, name your widget and save your changes.

AKVO's Clouds part 2 - Projects

As I mentioned in my last blog, AKVO uses a set of interesting applications in order to facilitate their clients. I told you about AKVOpedia, an opensource Waterwiki which can be used by all who are interested. In this way, AKVO is cloud computing, making it possible for their clients to make use of their business application. In this blog I want to tell you something about another cloud, their online E-bay system for their partners.

When I talked to Luuk Diphoorn, project manager at AKVO, he told me that their partners had 119 projects spread all over the world. When you look at the website now, a month later, 153 projects are found at the website. All of these projects have to do with water and helping the population to clean it, gather it or make it controllable. AKVO’s partners and clients are searching for partners to finance all of those projects and with this cloud, AKVO gives them an opportunity to find them…

When you enter the ‘Projects’ part of AKVO’s website, you can clearly see the purpose of this application. The website displays a list of projects, set up by different NGO’s, companies or initiatives. Some of the projects listed are still searching for financing, others are yet to begin and a few ones are up and running. All projects have their own site, on which you can see the reason for starting the project and its purpose. The websites of running projects display pictures of the progression the team is making, others display pictures of their final result. In this way, every donator or sponsor can exactly see where and how their money is spent. Furthermore, when it is available, additional information about the project is linked in the website through AKVOpedia.

This all sounds nice but not special, the reason I wanted to spotlight this application is as follows. Visitors of these websites can easily donate money through IDEAL (a well known internet money transfer method) without any conditions. Companies, employees, researchers and maybe you can donate one or one hundred euros to a project you find meaningful. Besides this, you can subscribe to the RSS Feeds of this project so you will be updated whenever the project makes progress. When a company decides to sponsor a project, they will be featured as a project funder on the specific project page. Their logo will be displayed on the project page, when you click on it, you will find a special page containing information about the sponsor. In this way, the sponsor is credited for its funding.

When you have read this, you may be aware of the fact that a funding partner can only fund a project because they find it meaningful. On the other hand, you may see that a funding partner wants to let everybody know they funded this project and wants to encourage other companies to do the same thing. To facilitate this, AKVO developed a widget, on which I will write a tiny blog in short notice. Meanwhile, you can take a look yourself at www.akvo.org/rsr/projects/ and maybe donate a euro or two to a project!

AKVO's Clouds

It’s been a while but as I promised you, I have had an interview with a network organisation. Without expectations I started the interview with projectmanager Luuk Diphorn, and fell right down in the media world of AKVO…

AKVO is a digital platform that facilitates the water sanitation sector. The organisation is established in The Hague and works as network organisation. The clients of AKVO are mostly NGO’s in the Netherlands but AKVO is expanding their platform abroad. AKVO finds projects or donors to finance these projects and report about them. They also share everything they know about water and ask everyone to contribute too.

Cloud computing, a new phenomenon taught in class AKVO knows all about… The clients and partners of the organisation can use the Internet business applications (the clouds) developed by AKVO. AKVO computes these applications on their website. One of these so called clouds in AKVO’s media world is called Akvopedia, an open water and sanitation resource that anyone can edit. The wiki works almost exactly like the world famous Online Encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

According the book I mentioned in my first blog, The starfish and the spider[1], ideology strengthens a starfish like AKVO. Open systems offer a sense of community; all users are motivated by a desire to create a better product. Users believe in an open system and respect on another’s contributions. A specific Wiki like the Akvopedia, facilitates information to the water sanitation sector and therefore only attracts interested people. The users of the Akvopedia contribute not because they have to but because they want to. As you can see, the center of power spreads trough all legs of the starfish, to the contributing editors. When I asked them, the answer to the question if people sometimes edit wrong information on their Wiki, AKVO answers negative. They have never experienced something like that.

The wiki is easy to navigate through, AKVO has spent al lot of time designing parts the interface of the Wiki. First, the Akvopedia looks a lot like the Wikipedia, which almost every frequent Internet user is familiar with. This interface makes the Akopedia not only easy to use but also recognisable as a wiki. Second, the wiki contains three portals which are divided in more than 20 groups each. Every group is clickable and has an icon, especially designed for the waterwiki.

AKVO does not put al its money on one horse; it uses more applications to facilitate their clients. One of the most important business applications is their Ebay-like project application, sounds interesting doesn’t it? In my next blog, which will come out soon, I will tell you more about this system.

PS. If you want to check AKVO out, visit http://www.akvo.org/ !
PS2. Interested in water? AKVO is bloggin almost every week! http://www.akvo.org/blog/

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[1] Brafman. O., Beckstrom, A. (2006). The Starfisch and the Spider. London: Penguin Group.

Aplication Specific Programs.

Some organisations use different types of Application-Specific Programs to support their CRM (Customer Relationship Management), resource planning, data mining and knowledge management systems.

An organisation I interviewed for a school assingment has developped their own intranet, on which all applications are built. In order to serve their clients perfectly, the organisation developed a Wiki containing very specific information about their clients. The CRM tool is a application-specific program which is edited by the support team every time new information about the client occurs. The wiki contains not only general information about the client, but also about their wishes, earlier orders, loyalty and the service they have to receive. The Wiki is only used by employees, the information is strictly private and the program is fully integrated in the intranet.

For their calendar, the organisation uses a Ajax-based web software called Zimbra. Zimbra is an open source system that enables the employees to share calendars, schedule group meetings and easily look up free-busy times of others and rooms. For accounting the employees use KING, an information system developed by Quadrant in order to get a hold of the financial as well as logistic administration in a medium sized organisation.

Overall, a very effective media mix!

The starfish and the spider

Since I read the book “The starfish and the spider” I can see them everywhere. I am not talking about the actual animals but about organisations. According to Brafman & Beckstrom (2006) organisations are comparable to starfish and spiders. A spider stands for a centralized hierarchical organisation while a starfish stands for decentralized organisations. Because this might sound a little vague, let me explain…trend towards professionalization in organisations. When the professionalism of an individual or an organisation increases, a person may experience a hard time receiving orders from the top. If this person is specialized in a case, why should someone else, with less knowledge about the case, decide what to do with it? Because of such issues, organisations - with hierarchic elements – can be incapable to make decisions. These so called spiders have one head, which is its control centre, its centre of power. When you chop of its head, the spider is dies; it is not longer able to function.
Other than a spider, a starfish has no head and no centre of power, it has got legs. When you chop off one of those legs, the starfish will continue to function and a new leg will grow back. The starfish stands for an organisation with a decentralized network structure, where all the individuals in an organisation depend on each other but the power of decision making is spread.

As I said, I can see them everywhere, and that is the reason I am writing this blog. Transforming a spider into a starfish is a huge task. A big part of the power, which is centred in the head of a spider, must be spread into its legs until there is no head anymore. This transformation goes hand in hand with the use of a lot of media. Because the decision-making in the organisation will happen in different ‘legs’ this must be well communicated with other legs; internal communication systems are a must for these starfish. Which systems these starfish use I don’t know yet, but I’ll definitely find out. Next week I have an interview scheduled with a network organisation. I’ll keep you posted!