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Technology is increasingly important to the American Red Cross. We are an old organization proving we can learn new ways of doing good. Our ultimate goal is to empower the American public to get help or give help during emergencies. A healthy dose of passionate people, tools, and gadgets are required to do this effectively.  

"How American-Made Tech Helped Middle Eastern Governments Censor the Internet" A new Harvard University study details how American and Canadian companies provided Internet filtering and monitoring software to the Iranian government, Mubarak's Egypt and other repressive states. It's still going on.

This is a secondary post to accompany one of my earlier ones on public education and administration strategies. Related to previous post about Obama wanting to create an Ed-Tech agency. This official White House website posts a complete outline of Obama's broader plan for American Innovation to build the economy of the 21st century (in the form of an executive summary).      Interesting pyramid figure conceptually charting the projeced impact on innovation for "Sustainable Growth" and quality jobs.

Interesting for all Americans

This article outlines 3 initiatives for open gov.from president government (transparency,collaboration,participation) but also takes an extensive look at the use of government websites overall

This video was brought to us by The American Red Cross. This shows us that some nonprofits have before very advanced with the technology being used.

Although this article speaks mainly about protecting yourself on a network I think it applied very well with this class. It offers many good tips and points as to precautions to take to protect yourself. These precautions are important to consider especially if any work at your non-profit or public place of employment can be completed outside of work at at perhaps a local "hot-spot". This leads me to wonder how safe the new cellphone hot-spots are.

Obama talking about the importance of investing in wireless technology in Marquette, MI, up north last Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011. This part of a new White House focus on "innovation, competitiveness and infrastructure as a pathway to jobs and 'winning the future.' The president compared the goal of extending wireless access to important successes that connected previous generations of Americans: the building of railroads and the federal highway system."

I really like the plans he is pushing for. Mobile devices is obviously the current frontier to win. The impact on nonprofit activity will be enormous. Most businesses for that matter now have to consider a mobile device plan in supplement to their initial web design plans.

After seeing the tragedy that has hit Japan, I found this story to be useful as a great example of how tech can really affect people's lives. Google has provided a system where you can search the name of a person in Japan and find out about their status in the country after the earthquake. This tool is so important for government to use during a national disaster because it allows families, no matter where they are across the globe, to better find out what has happened to their loved ones after such a tragedy. Governments or non profits such as the American Red Cross can use this technology in all types of different relief effort circumstances when a number of people somewhere in the world have been the victim of such a disaster.

 News Release by Tiffany Brown, Public Affairs Section, Lansing: Recent news coverage prompted by a press release issued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has brought speculation and caused inaccurate information to be reported about data extraction devices (DEDs) owned by the Michigan State Police (MSP). The MSP only uses the DEDs if a search warrant is obtained or if the person possessing the mobile device gives consent. The department*s internal directive is that the DEDs only be used by MSP specialty teams on criminal cases, such as crimes against children. The DEDs are not being used to extract citizens' personal information during routine traffic stops. The implication by the ACLU that the MSP uses these devices "quietly to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches" is untrue, and this divisive tactic unjustly harms police and community relations.

This report indicates what trends dominate older users of social media. The main argument here is whether or not using social media to interact with NPO volunteeers and clients is worthwhile. The research indicates that it is a worthwhile endeavor. The important thing to bear in mind as far as older users are concerned, is making organizational web sites extremely accessible and user-friendly.

I think to a certain extent it is important to incorporate new social media into npo's its a easier way to reach out to volunteers and clients, its mostly about how you as a supervisor manage the usage from your employees.

This article relays that a recent survey indicates that Americans still need local involvement in their communities. Rather than preventing this, as some believe, social media encourages involvement. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Video of Susannah's talk is available above and at the Transform Symposium's website. Plus, a commentary based on her prepared remarks continues is on the website below the video of her talk. Prepared for "Mayo Transform 2010 : Thinking Differently About Health Care"

New York City-based Catchafire, a business that links nonprofits with skilled volunteers who are ready to perform discrete, pro bono tasks. The goal is two-fold: to help nonprofits build capacity within their organization by using volunteers and to provide professionals with high-quality, skills-based volunteer experiences.

I'm always up for something fun and helpful. With the social web, there are some tried and true ways that I approach cause marketing and raising money for nonprofits.