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"Test Drive New Ideas with Micro Experiments Matthew Cornell Experiments don't have to be grand to be useful-in fact, tracking small things with short turnaround times can be extremely useful. As Quantified Self's Matthew Cornell explains, conducting "micro experiments" is a great way to try a variety of things, from software to exercise. The time and cost investments are low, and you might find a few tools and habits to keep around longterm. As I work to adopt an experimental mindset about life, I've noticed that efforts can vary in scope, duration, and complexity. Because interesting things happen at extremes, I've been exploring the very smallest class of activity-what I call micro experiments. I've found that trying little things like these is a great way to test-drive treating things as experiments. Here are some examples I've tried and their results. Jing: I tried using Jing, a free tool for doing short screencasts, to explain a bug I found in my site. I usually write them up, but because it was complex, it would have taken a lot to explain it. Instead, I created a four-minute screencast, emailed the link to my developer, and measured the results. Conclusion: Worked great! Time to record: 4 minutes. His understanding of the problem: High. Enjoyment level of trying a new tool: Fun. Testing expectations: Left unchecked, I tend to be pessimistic and anxious, which I continue working to improve. Here's a technique I stumbled on that works well in micro experiment form. The idea is to treat your expectations as a model, make your assumptions and predictions explicit, then put them to the test. I applied it to two difficult phone calls I had scheduled, and found that my expectations were way off. In one case, I was asking a fellow writer for a favor (mentioning an ebook I created), and instead of turning me down (my working model), he was happy to help. The other was a sales call to a prospective client, which I expected to go swimmingly. Instead it was a

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24 tools for fundraising with social media

Core Techniques and Technologies for Advancing Big Data Science & Engineering

Independent web analytics firm StatCounter confirms milestone as Chrome overtakes IE globally for first calendar month

Narrative Description of Your Activities Here you provide a detailed, narrative description of all of your organization's activities -- past, present, and future -- in their order of importance (that is, in order of the amount of time and resources devoted to each activity). For each activity, explain in detail: the activity itself, how it furthers an exempt purpose of your organization, and the percentage of time your group will devote to it when it was begun (or, if it hasn't yet begun, when it will begin) where and by whom it will be conducted, and how it will be funded (the financial information or projections you provide later in your application should be consistent with the funding methods or mechanisms you mention here).

"The Engagement Rate is the best metric for benchmarking performance but social media analytics offer much more!"

Giving by U.S. Family Foundations Recovering Slowly New York, NY - February 8, 2012. America's family foundations contributed more than $20 billion in 2010 to organizations and people working for the public good,

Foundation Giving Lost Ground to Inflation in 2011 Foundation Center Predicts Weak Growth in Giving for Near Future

Online fundraising is likely the hardest thing any small or medium-size philanthropic will ever do. At times all the exertion and absence of results make it have a craving for pulling teeth with chopsticks. As a matter of first importance, there are the impediments you have at the beginning line.