Flickr: visit~ fingerlakesWhere I come from, there's a lake, and every year on the Saturday before Labor day when the sun goes down, everyone who lives on that lake turns off their house lights, lines their waterfront with lit red flares, and builds a bonfire. This is how we mark the end of summer (high tourist season) and the beginning of a new year. For the past few years, I've been in Portland, OR, far away from this tradition -- which may explain why it feels a bit like September has smacked us over the head, as it walked unannounced into our summer party.

Regardless of how it got here, it's already September and before we know it, October, November, and December will soon follow. In preparation for your end-of-year campaigns, NTEN has devoted September to talking about fundraising. I thought I'd do my part with a few of 2010's best resources (so far).

Flickr Photo: bredgarIf you're a frequent reader of this blog, you know that if I could do it all over again, I would have paid more attention in math class. Though my high school calculus class actually made me break out in hives -- it was the most stressful experience of my life -- I adore data. I want to eat statistics for dinner. I would love to marry a good data visualization. Mashups make me want to sing!

I love this stuff because, to me, data done right is empowerment. I look at it this way: a piece of data can tell you where you are, today. If you collect and analyze data over time, it can tell you where you're headed, tomorrow -- and that can help you make better business decisions.

That's when data becomes intelligence.

The field of Business Intelligence (BI) is growing by leaps and bounds as technology tools make getting, combining, and visualizing data easier than ever before. I'd like to stress that even though it has a fancy name and is used at large corporations, BI is something we all can do, no matter the size or scope of our organization.

Really, it's something we all MUST do, because it will help us serve our stakeholders better.

I hear from folks in the field that we don't do more with BI because it seems complicated and expensive. But if little ol' NTEN can pull off a BI strategy -- and we do our best over here -- so can you.

Let's bust a few BI myths.

Flickr Photo: kohtzyLast weekend, I was lucky enough to speak at The Arc of the USA's executive leadership conference. As usual, I did a session on social media, but they also let me trot out something new: Five Trends that Will Impact IT.

The presentation includes lots of tech stuff, of course. But one of the main points I wanted to drive home to this group of really smart and engaged leaders was the idea that tech trends aren't really just about tech: They reflect the changing world around us as much as they reflect the latest innovations.

I tried to frame most of the trends in terms of the business changes that are happening and the possibilities and challenges they create for IT.

Here are the trends:

Every Wednesday, Gartner does a free webinar on a variety of topics. This week, they presented "Technology Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore." I tweeted my way through the one hour call, but here are some notes with a little more clarity and reflection.

Flickr Photo: FaysterNow that the stimulus package -- or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, if you're keeping score at home -- has been signed into law, the work of making it all happen begins. No matter what you think of the law itself, everyone in our sector needs to pay very close attention to Recovery.gov.

You've heard a lot on this blog, and many others in the sector, about the power of social media and the web to bring more transparency to our work. I know that as good, smart people working at good, smart organizations, we believe in the power of transparency. But it's difficult to put the theory into practice.

When data is stuck on servers, web publishing is slow and centralized. When your stakeholders can't chew on, discuss, and disseminate your data and messages, transparency can't happen.

But the hurdles to transparency are vanishing rapidly. More and more of our data is in the cloud, or accessible via APIs. Publishing to the web is now, in the worst case scenario, easy, and in the best case scenario, automagic. Social media tools give your stakeholders ways to interact with data like never before.

That's where Recovery.gov comes in.

Obviously, there's not a lot on the site yet. But it could be a very good model for how nonprofits can use the web to open up all the way and be as transparent as possible. On the site, you can already read the bill, see the big breakdowns of how the money is being spent, and explore the projected timeline for implementation and impact. My favorite bit so far is the jobs map.

Obviously, you aren't overseeing a stimulus package -- but you can use the same set of tools and ideas to show your stakeholders exactly what you're up to. That's what turns a one-time donor into a long-term supporter.

Here's what I think we'll see on Recovery.gov that nonprofits should think about:

Kurt Voelker, Forum One Communications

Policy-oriented organizations have long produced dizzying amounts of statistical content. In the past, rows and rows of data would die a quick death in thick policy reports or inscrutable spreadsheets. Don’t let your data fall victim!

Today, there are many tools to visualize and share data online. Smart organizations are creating and publishing their data widely to other sites, widgets, social networks, and aggregation applications. They are using data visualization and sharing tools like Swivel, Widgenie, Many Eyes, Google Maps, Google Motion Charts, APIs and others to make their data more available and more compelling.

So how can your organization tap into these tools and trends?

Sure, you collect a lot of data, but if you don't use it effectively, it's essentially dead. And I'm talking "a tree falls on you in a forest and nobody's around to help" dead. This occasional blog series aims to give you some inspiration for creatively interpreting and using your data.

101. Track an Illness

Flickr Photo: EugeniusD80Earlier this week, I wrote about sifting through a mountain of data as we re-think our metrics for 2009. We're creating internal numbers to track faster than we can track them. Then, there's all the data we're producing about our causes, our donors, and our clients. We're creating a forest of numbers to navigate through. I bet you all have similar issues.

But, as the old saying goes, are we seeing that forest, or are we obsessing about trees?

An enthusiastic "Heck Yeah!" for the recent CNET Blog Post: "Should "open source" include open data?" In the post, author Matt Asay says:

I'm not speaking for the Open Source Initiative here, but to me this makes it critical to add open data provisions to the Open Source Definition. Why? Because open source that locks down one's data is not all that open, in the grand scheme of things.

Amen! But let's take it a step further. There are several big pieces to the vendor lock-in puzzle, and none of them are the exclusive domain of open source solutions.

Briefly, what is MAPLight.org?

MAPLight.org is a groundbreaking web site that brings together all campaign contributions given to legislators with how every legislator votes on a given bill. We illuminate the connections between money and politics, providing unprecedented information to enable advocacy groups and citizens to hold legislators accountable. The “MAP” in MAPLight.org stands for “Money And Politics.” For a 6-minute overview of the site, see our Video Tour.

Where did the idea that became MAPLight.org originate?

As a political volunteer, I was frustrated with the uphill battle that issue-oriented nonprofits and community groups fight against big-money special-interests. I saw the tremendous influence of campaign contributions on government, but when I explained these connections to others who did not yet see them, the examples were not good enough and there was too much hand-waving. I decided to build a website that illuminates the specific connections between campaign money and the specific issues people care about.