LOLnptechNTEN member Beth Dunn picked up on the discussion on Beth Kanter's blog about outcome-based thinking for nonprofits using social media. She encourages those who set out on the "journey" through social media for good causes to plan ahead and keep notes.

Amy Sample Ward discusses Twitter for nonprofits, emphasizing the importance of individual interest over organizational broadcasting. Amy always applies the golden rule when she tweets.

Judi Sohn is back with another down-to-earth -- or from-the-trenches -- post about what it really means to implement a new technology for an organization, even if it's a free technology (such as Salesforce or Google Apps for nonprofits). Someone has to spend staff time (or consulting fees) learning the tool before it can be applied to the organization's mission.

Beth Kanter summarizes the many definitions and implications of "authenticity" and "transparency" for the nonprofit sector.

There's sad news from our anonymous NTEN friend 1centNPtech: his/her organization has decided to outsource their technology planning and oversight. Please drop by our comrade's blog to offer your condolences. And maybe some job leads.

Michelle Murrain rants about the problems with custom CMS solutions for nonprofits. She calls on all nonprofits to reject the custom CMS option in their RFPs.

Our very own Holly Ross was highlighted in PBS.org's Idea Lab blog for talking about the "power" of information, nonprofits, and technology.

If your organization is considering whether (and how) to apply social networking for your cause, read Beth Kanter's contribution to Network For Good's blog, "8 Secrets of Effective Online Networking."

Finally, Deborah Finn wrote a guide on search engine optimization (SEO). She was kind enough to re-publish it on her blog.

As many of you know, I just became Executive Director in November of last year. Although I've been in the nonprofit tech community for nearly a decade -- and at NTEN for over 5 years -- I have to admit that I was pretty startled the first time someone asked me, after I took over as ED, "So, what is NTEN?"

I didn't have a good answer.

Of course, I've used a variety of stock responses over the years, none of which have ever really satisfied me. We help nonprofits with technology, but we're not ABOUT technology. We're a community of nonprofit technology professionals, but we're not all server room geeks. It gets a little confusing, and I'm spending a lot of time thinking about it these days. I don't think I'm any closer to the mythical elevator pitch, but the one thing I can say for sure is that NTEN *is* our members.

So I figured I should ask you: what is NTEN to you? What do you get? What do you learn? What do we empower you to do?