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Is there an art to getting ReTweeted on Twitter? Dan Zarrella says yes and has been studying the "Science of ReTweeting" for the past nine months. Zarrella analyzed five million tweets and 40 million retweets and compared the two, noting the time of day they were tweeted and ReTweeted, which words and url shorteners were used most often, and more. Check out the results of Zarrella's study below.

This is admittedly NOT nonprofit related.  But I thought some of you might be interested to know you can get Windows 7 Professional for just $30 from Microsoft.   If you're running Vista, BUY THIS NOW. Windows 7 runs noticeably faster in my experience than Vista on the same hardware. If you're running Windows 7 Home, it's not as big of a deal (if you're on XP, it can get messy to upgrade. Ask me if you have questions). Andy

Anyone who doesn't have a car can use this trip planner on the Rapid's website to get anywhere in Grand Rapids. Non profits could fine this tool very useful to help clients get from one place to another if they don't have reliable transportation. Hopefully a mobile app is in the works!

In getting ready to fully utilize social media and online tools for his upcoming campaign, Obama is holding a town hall meeting at Silicon Valley. Facebook users have been sending in their questions for the President and more than 36,000 users have said they will virtually attend the meeting held today that will include Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerburg. Obama will surely utilize social media tools alike Facebook and twitter to get his message out there for next years campaign. This is a great example of participatory government in the context of online social media.

This looks to be a really interesting way to get people connected with Nonprofits. Using your Facebook account, you hook up with Jumo to connect to organizations you care about, and maximize your potential in doing work for them. Founded in February 2010 by one of the founders of Facebook itself, Jumo is still a work in progress. It appears to be a really streamlined way to get involved, and would be an excellent way to get volunteers for any organization.

"Yesterday, we told you how someone was able to steal the tax identity of 2,300-plus small nonprofits due to a hole in a new electronic filing system implemented by the Internal Revenue Service. Every nonprofit in this group, most with religiously themed names, now lists as a principal officer one William Alexander and its address as the same mail-box drop on N. Rainbow Blvd. in Las Vegas. This happened due to a glitch that essentially allows a nonprofit's contact information to be changed online by anyone who registers on an IRS-designated site with a name-which is not verified-and an email address."

TechAtlas helps nonprofits stay updated with technology.  This is a great way to get technology resources organized and under control. 

This article emphasizes the need for a nonprofit to get excellent functionality out of a website and worry about looks second. The website is critical in importance before social networking can even be considered. The IT assets of a nonprofit should be built in a definite order.

This post is an article linking to a series that outlines the building of IT assets in a nonprofit organization

Before an organization gets to Twitter and other social media they will have to have settled on a logo. This article critiques 25 powerful and unique logos and how they send their message

It is increasingly apparent that finding the perfect cloud platform is a lot like getting married. The perfect partner if hard to find. Yes there are 5 major players as of today that include Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon but even they aren't identical in this field. A better bargain might be found with one of these baby clouds so it appears to be worth the look. All of the usual IT issues are what will last, what's next and how much did that cost? The clouds are coming no matter what though....

The tight controls over the internet in Egypt, and especially the internet blackouts, have caused rebellion thoughout the country and outrage throughout the world. Despite the government's attempts at complete internet control some Egyptians are getting messages out via social media networks in particular twitter.

Far too many NGOs are relying on Facebook and Twitter to get connected with donors, and its time that we try to break out of this two-party system. There are millions of potential donors, volunteers, or just concerned people to rely only on the "usual suspects." I personally find the team focus for fundraising to be the most interesting, and probably most-effective for getting people involved and raising large amounts of cash. Make it highly visible, and make it competitive, and people can have a lot of fun doing the right thing.

It would be great if non-profits could get on board with something like this--with products pertaining to their services. Also if a project like this was successful with products, it would be great for a system to be created dealing with service projects.

New Brunswick isn't worrying about high unemployment in their information techonolgy sector. What NB is really struggling with is there lack of skilled workers in the field and not being able to attract such workers. Low population growth and low post-secondary graduation rates is a big factor, but NB Information Techonolgy Council C.E.O. says that making IT more attractive to students when they are in high school and earlier is the key to getting skilled workers in the sector.

One of the largest App websites available, it is now reaching out to non profits so they can get information on which apps would help at their organization.

Toyota wants to salute do-gooders by giving 100 cars over 100 days to organizations that could really use a new set of wheels. And voters like you decide who gets a new ride every day.

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.  

A new report out from the Nonprofit Technology Network and M+R Strategic Services concludes that NP's have a lot of work to do when it comes to making a presence on social media sites. The 2011 'eNonprofit Benchmarks Study" found that NP's had only around 110 Facebook fans and 19 Twitter followers for every e-mail subscriber. Small organizations will need to be apart of social networking in the near future and there looks to be great potential for growth. Working with a small-consulting firm, I found that utilizing social media is a quick and easy way to inform clients on up-to-date news and activities.

Blackbaud is getting involved in non-governmental organizations