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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.

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 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.

Technology pop quiz for business owners: What's more secure? A. Data stored in redundant back-up server installations (or "the cloud"), automatically updated and maintained, in a facility secured from outside threats. Or B. Data stored or backed up to an on-site tape or flash drive, whenever the company's controller or non-IT back-office staffer remembers to do it - then left in the drive? For many, the answer in theory is A, but in practice, it's B. Why is this important? Because studies have shown that 70 percent of companies go out of business after a major data loss and 60 percent of companies that lose their data will shut down within six months. Yet those unfamiliar with cloud computing still believe onsite back-up is a safe, secure solution. Therein lies one of the most compelling reasons to embrace cloud or ERP (enterprise resource planning) computing.

Researchers have discovered that the iPhone is keeping track of where you go and storing that information in a file that is stored - unencrypted and unprotected - on any machine with which you synchronize your phone. It is not clear why Apple is collecting this data. Data scientists Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden came across the file - "consolidated.db"

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.

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.

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.

This is an example of just how easy it is to keep a client base or target population informed of what your organization is doing. When a news story about Friends of Transit aired on the local Fox station, they simply had to go the Fox website, embed the link to the video onto their own website, and now the actual video is available for viewing on the campaign's website.

This article details results of a fundraising survey for 2010. The biggest finding is that online contributions are rising in 2010. This makes the process more important. It is unclear if the trend is strictly temporary. The increased awareness of events in conjunction with social media appears to be generating more donations. More data is needed to make a definitive assessment than this article provides.

The emerging business structure applicable to nonprofits. You will have to pay taxes but the confusion is in the donation structure. There is a link to that information contained within

Was seeking answers to what is an L3C?

I found this article to be very interesting, especially relating to the comparison of the U.S. and Chinese patent system. China is increasing it's supply of patents, hoping to stimulate innovation and start-up inventions in the country. China is starting to heavily invest in 4G telecommunication. Wadhwa is offering a different perspective on this issue and ultimately plays down the hype of this story. He asks for the U.S. to concentrate on being a leader in innovation, rather than patents, which seem like nuclear weapons in an everlasting tech arms race that doesn't seem to allow for revision.

This is site that non-profits can join and access different technologies that would help the organization reach its goals. TechSoup is the name of the organization that runs this and it has many partners that donate these different forms of technology. This technology is availiable to all nonprofits that qualify. check it out.

Email marketing is CHEAP and EFFECTIVE means to marketing in a nonprofit but there is a wrong way to do it. This article outlines the importance of not upsetting people with SPAM. A targeted, restrained outreach is more effective in the long run.

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

This is a nice list of useful cutting edge mobile tools. Mobile web seems to have the most immediate impact potential in the sector for 2011. I personally like bump with lets you share contact lists instantly. There is so many new mobile applications coming out that you need to hunt.

Mobile is where all the growth is

Blended Learning, which combines online distance learning and traditional classroom education for K-12 discussed in this article, has potential, but needs help to reach its "full potential".  My favorite quote in the article is: " 'There is a significant risk that the existing education system will co-opt online learning as it blends it into its current flawed model-and just as is the case now, too few students will receive an excellent education,' the report states."

Wikipedia turns ten years old this month. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is open to anyone with an internet connection to write on any topic that they see fit. IT is more of a starting place for research on things because of its open user format, but those dedicated to Wikipedia usually come in and remove any nonsense that a person, place, or event may accumulate. The founders of Wikipedia could have easily made a fortune, but in turn decided to make Wikipedia a non-profit, charitable business.

Someone needs to stay on this mission, inside or outside of the organization. The only way to keep things current is to keep someone watching over the process. A failure to monitor your IT investments is a colossal waste of the investment. Social media is a long-term obligation if you want to participate. This article also recommends that interns shouldn't overlook this process. You want to choose an associate for the long-term but it is ok to choose someone outside of the organization if they understand what is required.

This is a blog from the president of Yele Haiti. He is updating the general public on the success of the organization and things that may need a little more work. This is a great way to visualize how technology has affected the world of non- profit.