From the Gilbert Center in an excellent article entitled “Asking the Wrong Questions: Challenging Technocentrism in Nonprofit Technology Planning”: In every domain in life, the questions we ask shape the responses we get. Our questions reveal our frame of reference and impose that frame on our answers. As a result, much is revealed by examining [...]
I launched ProducersForum.org 4 years ago. At the time there was a need for a “Yahoo Groups”-functionality that offered: RSS Feeds Wikis Sub-lists for working groups that would still be accessible/cross-searchable It seems rather quaint now, but there was a need for this for community media groups in 2006. Built using Drupal, it is the only website I [...]
Last week I completed a 2 day Technology of Participation Facilitator training. Developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs, the Technology of Participation is a series of practices and principles for leading groups through inclusive and participatory dialogues and planning. The training was led by Nancy Jackson and Ruth-Ann Rasbold, who were excellent. One of [...]
I was pointed to Political Scientist Michael Parenti’s 7 categories of generalizations about the way the news media create anti-union messaging by this article analyzing the media’s portrayal of the Philadelphia public transit strike. I got really steamed about a month ago listening to a local interview/call-in show about Boston charter schools and the Teacher [...]
I’ve been digging through the section on communications in Radical Technology, the 1976 anthology of the magazine Undercurrents. The global village is no such thing. It is a global castle, in which the barons may chat over their wine, while the serfs outside may overhear a few fragments of merriment. Our planet does boast some [...]
I love posting from The Tree of Knowledge. This is what they have to say about tubes (emphasis mine): Our discussion has led us to conclude that, biologically, there is no “transmitted information” in communication. Communication takes place each time there is behaivioral coupling in a realm of structural coupling. This conclusion is surprising only [...]
Download this as a PDF I have now had a couple friends ask me to help them prepare job applications, so I pulled together some personal advice on what I feel is the most important part of applying for a job: the cover letter. As someone who has applied for many jobs, and also reviews about [...]
The following is from a handout I created for the CTCnet Conference in which I presented on capacity building models for community engagement. You can download the handout with worksheet (PDF), or read the overview below. Introduction to Community Engagement The core competency for any organization—private or nonprofit, funder or grantee—is learning to manage change [...]
Yesterday I posted an article that sought to give a broader frame to the idea of cross-sector nonprofit collaboration: placing collaboration within a process of negotiation to create new value. Today I will break down negotiation a little bit further to show why I think it’s important to take a broader frame of things and [...]
It’s the holiday season which seems to make a lot of people think about beliefs. I’m thinking about this great book on my desk entitled Communication Planning: An Integrated Approach by Sherry Devereaux Ferguson and reading the section on understanding the psychology of audiences (Chapter 7). Citing social psychologist Milton Rokeach the book outlines five [...]
Deregulation in the utilities industry results in higher costs whenever those costs are not expected to greatly affect consumption (also in the oil industry), contrary to the consequentialist arguments of deregulation proponents. The same thing is happening in the communications sector. From a BoingBoing comment on a broadband penetration related post. I have no clue [...]
Last week I attended NTEN’s 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference and sat in on a wonderful session entitled Nonprofit Communications 2.0: Seven Steps to Transform Your Organization. Led by Lauren-Glenn Davitian of the CCTV Center for Media and Democracy, the session provided a strong framework for nonprofits to better communicate in an increasingly networked society. I [...]
