Not only was there talk of agencies running leaner and meaner, but two other points that were mentioned were in regard to collaboration, and the need for agencies to be able to show measurable outcomes.

And while both of these ideas are not new concepts, in either the private or nonprofit world, the discussion reminded me of a recent email article Jason Calacanis wrote in regard to what to do if your startup is about to fail.

Believe me, I’m not hoping any nonprofits or other agencies fail, but I think Jason’s thoughts can be translated to almost any situation, good or bad.

In fact, many of Jason’s recent articles have inspired me to push even harder during these difficult times in both my day job and ‘second life’ IT business.

If your nonprofit or other agency is also dealing with budget challenges, I would recommend reading a reprint of his article (and any others you can find).

They may be geared toward the private tech sector, but there is lot’s of good advice that can be used by all, regardless of what you do. If you too are inspired by his thoughts and writings, you can sign up for future articles here.

The site interface is simple, and one of the first things I did as a new visitor was search for proposals from schools in my area.  By typing Bakersfield in the search box, I found several local schools who had active proposals.

In addition to the site, Social Actions Labs created a WordPress plugin called Possible Related Classroom Projects which displays donorschoose.org campaigns at the bottom of posts based on content.  Clay Burell did a nice job of summarizing donorschoose.org and the WordPress plugin here.

And while I like the idea of the plugin, I have a couple of recommendations as to enhancements.  First, why not offer an option to embed the project campaign links into the sidebar?  I understand sidebar real estate is limited, but it would allow for an educational-focused website (such as a PTA or school parent club) to display the information in a more prominent position.

Secondly, instead of showing proposals related to content, why not allow keywords to be included–similar to donorschoose.org website search results?  For example, only showing Bakersfield-related projects.  I realize this limits the results, but again, if I’m supporting a Bakersfield educational-related website, I probably don’t want proposals from other areas to be displayed.  Not to mention the kinds of results that may be displayed based on my content.  I noticed there is a way to not display related proposals in a post using a variable, but this does not seem ideal.

Again, I think the donorschoose.org concept is great!  What a neat way to support educational projects–both at the national and local level.  And no doubt the WordPress plugin can enhance the ability to support those projects, but I think the plugin could be enhanced to offer multiple placement options, and the ability to focus on local search results.

UPDATE:After being contacted by someone at donorschoose.org regarding the enhancements I mentioned, I was informed that the website allows the ability to create custom RSS feeds and widgets. By using the SpringWidgets creator, you can get code for multiple scenarios.

After doing a search for Bakersfield, I used the options from SpringWidgets to export the widget into html, which I then embeded into a WordPress sidebar widget and bingo. You could also embed into a single post, which might be a useful solution if the post is specific for education campaigns and not the entire focus of the website.

And it is ironic as I write this now, because when I came across the report several years ago, I had no knowledge of GIS or its power, but I was fascinated with the maps that were included in this report.  So now that I am familiar with GIS and have become empowered to help our community, I think a study of the digital divide in Kern County would be beneficial to find out where publicly accessible technology is available, and where it is not.

Especially if we, as a community, want to bring more technology training and technology-related jobs to this area.  I feel that if we can find the digital divide in Kern County, then we can focus on areas that are in need of technology and training.

In fact, in 2001, The Innovation Groups did a study titled, “Connecting Kern County – Assessing Our Readiness for the Networked World” which can be found on the Great Valley Center website.  Although several years old, this report was designed to assess where Kern County is in regard to becoming a connected community. 

The report notes, “Attracting and retaining information technology based companies is important to the County and an integral part of the overall Economic Development Strategy.”

And since the time the above reports were completed, there have been numerous online resources created as to digital divide-related information, such as the Digital Divide Network and the Technology Opportunities Program.  With all of the available resources, there are enough sample cases and methodologies that could be used to create a similar report for Kern County. 

The California Central Valley will have to diversify into other areas if it wants to survive.  If technology is going to play a role in that diversification, we have to be prepared to attract businesses and skilled workers.  With that in mind, if bringing more technology to Kern County is important to you, or if you are interested in the digital divide in Kern County and would like to help, drop me a line and let’s collaborate!

I realized I had to update my website, especially with all the web 2.0 hype.  My previous site was static HTML, no CSS, very plain-Jane, and very outdated.  As a small-business owner, I fit into the categories of limited budget and resources, like free and easy to use.

After searching customer and content management systems (CMS) via google, low and behold, WP showed up as a possible solution.  I say that because some may consider WP as only a blogging application, but soon, I found many articles related to other small businesses and nonprofit organizations whom were searching for the same solution.

After doing further research and finding how robust the WordPress forums were, I decided it was time to do some sandbox testing.  I’ve been hooked since.  I use WP in all my sites and I’ve been impressed with the development of the platform and the huge community of WP users.

I have to admit that WP is not for the beginner or faint of heart, however, after the initial setup, along with some training and documentation, many ORGs could use WP as a solution to getting rid of sites that cannot be changed without some sort of second-hand party, and billing.  (No offense to web designers/developers, but things are changing!)

Besides the great WP community that is available, the platform has recently gone through some major renovations as to admin interface changes, and the ability to include widgets.  In my opinion, widgets are the closest things to easy buttons when it comes to offering customized solutions.

In a future article, I will highlight some WP plugins which I feel would benefit many ORGs and NPOs within their website, such as the ability to include a google map; using a calendar for events; showcase event pictures; and receive donations.

Overall, I feel applications such as WP,  Drupal, and Joomla are paving the way for ORGs to embrace content that can be created by end users who do not have much experience, which is up-to-date and interactive.