Group items tagged

As governments push to adopt sustainable practices, one holy grail is creating working environments that achieve net-zero energy consumption. That's the idea behind a newly opened office building at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo. Known as the Research Support Facility (RSF), the structure is designed to create as much energy as it consumes, making it one of the world's most energy-efficient buildings.

Using new technology poses problems for nonprofits such as limited budgets and financial restirictions. To help these nonprofits companies like JCA design and manage computer systems to help nonprofts become more efficient so they can accomplish their goals.

If you setup a file server at non profit this article outlines a good strategy for your files structure. The use of outside backup and a partition of disk drives should be done from the start. It is a good idea to determine what the activities will be and make the structure match to avoid over searching... Some seemingly simple structures can be a nightmare for maintenance.. A good file server setup promotes sharing which can produce efficiencies..

This is really server basics for some of the less technical but it's good advice

Extensis is a program that allows nonprofits to do more for less. They incorporate Extensis portfolio server and NetPublish into these nonprofits so that they can distribute digital assets more easily. Extensis is an affordable program that improves fundraising, preserves historical records and improves accountability for non-profits.

Government CIOs say that the iPad is making them more productive and efficient, and also has potential to change how technology is delivered to government employees and the citizens they serve. date e-published:  Nov. 16, 2010

Links for grantwriters to evaluate and assess their grants and programs in the most efficient ways, all available for free online

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 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.

This article talks about how technology is improving our ability to respond to disasters around the world. Specifically it talks about how technology like SMS and twitter allowed rescue efforts to happen quicker and more efficiently. I think it's cool how with all this new technology we have the ability to save more lives and do more in times of disaster. Families were able to communicate with those in Haiti more than they would have been able to before this technology was available. Also, that with tools like SMS, donations were able to be set up for non-profits to assist in recovery efforts. People are probably more likely to donate if they can do it with something as simple as sending a text message, and organizations will be able to receive the money quicker. Cool article.

This article discusses the changes the government will be making this year in order to stick with budget plans put in place. It also discusses the barriers of government technologies as well as what needs to be done to create more efficient and effective government technologies.

Although this article talks about business and government, it nonetheless provides very useful information in regards to the use of technology in the government. If the public information that is being taken by the government and seemingly used very little can prove to have benefits to society when used in an efficient and accessible way. These benefits can affect an individual, a business, or a non-profit in numerous ways.

Another foundation assisting nonprofits in being more efficient

The medical field can be very behind in some parts of technology. Smart phones have the ability to revolutionize patient - doctor relationships and help people to monitor their own health. It is predicted soon that 90% of U.S. physicians and they will be able to communicate to each other through a social network aimed for their collaboration. New health smart phone apps will only help spread more information with higher level of efficiency.