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Modernizing the 990-PF to Advance the Accountability and Performance of Foundations: Part 2 (posted 03/21/2011 to website) (John Craig is executive vice-president and COO of The Commonwealth Fund. Craig is chair of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, and a former chair of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF). He serves on the boards of the TIFF Education Fund, the Greenwall Foundation, the International Women's Health Coalition, and the National Center for Law and Philanthropy, and on the investment committee of the Social Science Research Council.)

 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.

If a nonprofit dabbles in web design this is more specific to design choice for the web creator but it was worth the inquiry for myself. Drupal has been proven to better the better choice for a larger organization that wants more features. Wordpress has held an advantage for the smaller startups for ease of use. There is a convergence between the two that is occurring but Drupal still maintains a lead. The problem with the more complex applications in a site is that it will require more maintenance which a very small nonprofit or company would seek to avoid. I generally consider it very difficult to maintain a mobile web solution and keep a good selection of applications running without some expert support. The old standard of a simple website appears to be waning quickly. The choice now appears to be how much work you want to pay your website manager to do rather than determining if you need one.

The Apple iPad, one of apple's hottest sellers, is seeing frequent use by those in the government sector. With the seemingly endless amount of apps available for use with the iPad, many help government workers to become more efficient. The apps that are seeing the most use include twitter, quick office, evernote and flipboard. Twitter is helpful to disperse quick messages to others in the work place, and obviously has social networking benefits as well. Quick Office is seeing a lot of use as a microsoft office productivity tool. Evernote allows the user to take notes, record sound bytes, add pictures and video, and other helpful pieces of information into one "note" that is easily dispersed to others in one piece, together. Flipboard is presented almost as a "personal magazine", where feeds from social networking sites and other sites the user selects appear directly on the iPad's interface.

A non-profit out of California has created software for human rights workers that is designed to secretly store data about human rights violation abuses in the country where they are located. There is talk about it already being used in the Middle-East recently. The software includes a 'panic button' that a human rights worker could use that would instantly delete all the files on the computer about government violations. The data is then stored in the cloud and accessable only with a password and secret 'key.' This is a great example of nonprofits working together to fight enormous challenges, with human rights being one of the most dangerous and exhaustive areas of work in the non-profit sector.

young hacker is holed up alone in his apartment. His face is lit by a laptop screen, monitor split between a live video stream and a text editor filled with code. Fueled by Ramen Noodles and caffeine, he codes away through the night, monitoring the latest hashtags on Twitter, never a few seconds behind the newest exploding meme, instantly transmitting the latest news to others in his social graph. ((This is a scene that is played out in the rooms of countless hackers and their "lean startups" around the world. Only for the past few weeks, it could have just as easily described an entirely new, organic, philanthropic phenomenon: Hacktivism. Hacktivism is the use of hacking and the startup mentality to tackle and support social good causes.

"ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous."

Speech by Steven R. Chabinsky, Deputy Assistant Director, Cyber Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation  - delivered March 23, 2010 "...to talk with you about the cyber threat, why it's important, and how you can help your organizations-and in doing so, help our country-rise to this enormous challenge. Some of you no doubt are on the front lines of the cyber security problem and are quite familiar with it, while others of you may only have passing familiarity with this growing problem. First, let me share with you the importance of the cyber security problem from the lens of the FBI. As you know, the FBI is a law enforcement agency that investigates hundreds of federal crimes as well as a domestic national security agency that combats terrorism, espionage, treason, and sabotage.

Airline passengers in the United States understand they will be treated as suspected terrorists when going through airport security checkpoints. Yet nearly a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, airport security has become a lot more invasive with the rollout of the so-called "advanced imaging technology" scanners, paid for with $1 billion in stimulus funds. The scanners - now deployed at about 78 airports - use either millimeter wave or backscatter technology to create a virtual picture of the traveler's naked body. The image is then viewed by a screener  with the Transportation Security Agency iin a sequestered room away from the checkpoint.

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.

The Michigan State Police have a handful of portable machines called "extraction devices" that have the potential to download personal information from motorists they pull over, and the ACLU would like to know more about them. "The problem, as the ACLU sees it, is that accessing a citizen's private phone information when there's 'no probable cause could create a violation of the Constitution's 4th Amendment', which protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures."

MSP Statement in response to news stories on April 20, 2011 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.

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.

The Coachella music festival was broadcasted live through youtube last weekend, representing a momentous change in the collaboration of music and online tools. With few glitches and little advertising, the concert was broadcasted over three days through youtube where people got the chance to pick between the three stages to watch their favorite artists. Free and easy to access is becoming more and more prevalent everyday with online tools. The streaming video was viewed over four million times. Nonprofits that are concentrated on promoting and advocating the arts and music can look at this as an innovative way to connect to an audience.

The article include 7 tips on how to choose donor-management software. The alternative is the cloud..The article suggests that there is one to fit any budget but the interaction values have to be individually determined. A willingness to adapt to the structure of good software is recommended over doing the way you always have.

Choosing software for donor management

"In an effort to crack down on child pornography, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of 10 domains as a part of a new initiative called "Operation Protect Our Children" but they also shut down 84,000 seemingly innocent sites in the process."   A clear example of how attempting to exercise government control over the Internet in the United States on a even a small scale can present problems that were not the intent of the US gov. officials & decision makers!!!!!

This article was good at showing the different ways blogging can inflict cost. You can choose the method which matches your flexibility to pay. $12000 annually will still be more than some can afford to pay. Carrying a full-time employee to manage the blog is the bulk of the cost so some may consider adding this as a responsibility to someone capable in the organization in the interim.

Just so nobody misses the point - there's no evidence that the incidence of spam and malware being generated is improving. "What we have seen is a significant uptick in the area of malware related to the expanded use of social networking sites. Although we are isolating the malware, it blows my mind how significant it has become,"

This article talks about why the cloud is good for non-profits.

The nonprofit sector is in a bit of a technology evolution/revolution. As the industry looks to reduce costs, increase efficiency and engage with constituents that are living lifestyles that embrace mobile, digital and social technologies as never before. It is here that the benefits and options that cloud computing brings to the table are clear.

The Cellebrite UFED Physical Pro is a high-end, all-in-one solution for logical and physical extraction. The UFED Physical Pro expands your current device capabilities to extract deleted mobile device data, user passwords, file system dumps, and physical extraction from GPS devices.

From the company product brochure for "UFED Physical Pro": 'THE COMPLETE MOBILE FORENSICS SOLUTION Cellebrite's UFED addresses the growing need for fast, comprehensive mobile forensic capabilities. An add-on module for advanced extraction and analysis of evidence Physical Pro enables the basic UFED system with physical data extraction, file system dump and reconstruction, and password extraction. UFED Physical Pro enables recovery of invaluable evidential information that isn't accessible by logical extraction methods alone. In use by military, law enforcement, governments, and intelligence agencies across the world, UFED Physical Pro allows users to rapidly extract a wide variety of data types in a forensically sound process from both phone and SIM memory. Extracting data in a forensic manner and presenting it with the integrity of the data intact ensures that the evidence will be admissible in court.

Online .pdf Brochure Description of 'extraction device' continued (notice the GPS and mapping capability also): AT A GLANCE * Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags * Powerful search, reconstruction, and analysis of the phone hex dump that can be used for intelligence gathering, investigative research, and as legal evidence in court * Expanded coverage for GPS devices, with mapping of GPS locations on Google Maps and visualization of GPS locations on Google Earth * Unrivaled phone coverage and compatibility * Fast, intuitive extraction process source: http://www.cellebrite.com/images/stories/brochures/UFED%20Physical%20Pro%20Brochure%20%20ENGLISH.pdf