Connecting Up Australia Newsletter September 2009

Have you taken your first flight on twitter?

If you are like many of us who are wondering how you can possibly keep up with information you currently filter – your reaction might be “Now you want me to TWEET as well! You can’t be serious! Can you? “

Are there any real benefits professionally for you or your organization in joining the twitter movement? www.twitter.com

Well the simple answer is that twitter won’t be for everyone, but there are some interesting movements and applications including recent attributions of social change and action such as those in Iran recently - #iranelection

There are some useful listening, and broadcasting uses and it does create large networks very quickly and disseminate bite size pieces of information well. The bites often provide links to more extensive articles on blogs and web sites and if you manage your following well it can assist you to keep on the pulse of your chosen issues and debates.

There are some useful tools and protocols behind participating. Read more here on our blog…

A guide by Deanne Bullen – “Getting Started on Twitter”

And if you need a first friend I’m sure our new DonorTec twitterers will be happy to oblige @DonorTec http://twitter.com/donortec

Fixed price IT support - A different model

The fixed price IT support model is an interesting model for nonprofits looking to outsource their IT support particularly for the maintenance aspects, because a budget is agreed upfront.

It is based on a relationship to create high systems performance or “up time”. There is no advantage for the supplier when systems fail, because each call out is a cost to them. This is different to the usual Break / Fix IT support model which is based on hourly fees for installations and then call out fees with after hours being the killer when something breaks. It also promotes proactive IT support with a long term roadmap which can adjust to the changing needs of this sector.

Case study:

Genevieve Bell

Deb Ryan; CEO of Playgroup NSW said about their supplier of fixed price IT support – FOCUS BT, “It’s like having your own IT department but better. They’re really in tune with our needs and budget.

They also educate us to make informed decisions. To discover you can save some of such a tightly held budget when we need so many things, is a wonderful feeling.” Read more..

FOCUS Business Technologies were early adopters of this fixed price model for Sydney, Melbourne and now Brisbane. They have found that this model has created absolute client retention. FOCUS builds a relationship which is about longevity, trust, reliability and flexibility. Owner Chris Voukidis says, “It’s about peace of mind – risk mitigation to minimise down time which means greater productivity”. FOCUS have had a strong presence in the nonprofit sector. They are also strong in finance and insurance sectors because they know security. They support small to large organisations of 5 to 300 staff. Owner, David Woo says, “We like the fixed IT support model because we build a relationship and feel part of enabling our clients to achieve their goals.”

One of the single most important things to learn today – Tag your content

For comments and the full article on tagging go to the blog: Connecting Up Blog

In the new world of managing information, creating information, participating in blogs, and other social media you will hear a lot about Tags.

What are tags?

Prior to the internet, classification had to be done by professionals because there was no way for users to classify.

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata) a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information.

Tagging: adding a tag/label/keyword to a digital object (website, image, audio or video) to categorise it.

A user chooses a tag that is meaningful to him or her.

Public, tags collectively create a folksonomy, a user-generated taxonomy.

Examples of tags :

Nptech = nonprofit technology
Nptechau = nonprofit technology in Australia
Gov2au = government web 2.0 transparency – open information in Australia
npgreen = nonprofits concerned about being green (environmentally conscious)
Cua09 = Connecting Up Australia conference 2009

Why is tagging so important?

The more we all tag our blog posts, photos, web site content, twitters, videos etc, the more we will be able to find and collate this information from all contributors –yes you! Your information will be picked up in tag searches. We will develop a pool of resources and be able to keep track of issues across a much broader audience participation. See some protocols and more on tagging here : Connecting Up Blog

How to Tag

Most web content can be tagged. Most blogs will have a category or tag field when you create your blog entry. See more on the Connecting Up Blog

If you’re unsure, ask your website manager how you can tag your content. Experiment – it is probably easier than you think.

We welcome discussion on what tags will be best for particular topics for the nonprofit sector in Australia.

Suggest a tag for the nonprofit sector on the Connecting Up Blog –Click here .

Or email us http://www.connectingup.org/contact

For comments and more on tagging go to the blog: Connecting Up Blog

DonorTec has friends!

www.Facebook.com/donortec

Connecting Up Australia Team

You guessed it. Due to popular demand DonorTec has joined the Facebook community. Join DonorTec on our journey into the web 2.0 social revolution.

Why? We say why not?

And

Nonprofit service provider of the month

If you would like to find out more about FOCUS Business Technologies and the fixed price IT support model visit: www.focusbt.com.au
Or ring
1300 133 448

Connecting Up Australia

The nonprofit link to Capacity Development Resources. Go to www.connectingup.org

Follow the blog for articles of interest www.connectingup.org/blog and make comments, raise issues. Or start your own blog.

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For informative articles, great tips and hot news for the nonprofit sector - keep in touc or have your say via the Connecting Up Blog.

Connecting Up blog link

For comments and more on tagging go to the blog: Connecting Up Blog

Connecting Up Australia
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email: support@connectingup.org phone: +61 8 8212 8555 Fax: +61 8 8212 2788