Flickr Photo: alexander drachmannWe started the week off here at NTEN with a Q&A session with Chris Brogan, who answered questions from NTEN members about engaging people through social media. In case you missed it, you can see a transcript of the questions in the materials section (and if you're a member of NTEN, you can get the recording) here.

Chris commented a few times on how impressed he was by the questions you all asked him -- demonstrating yet again that, in many ways, the nonprofit sector is a leader in harnessing the power of social media to engage and energize communities and individuals online.

Here is a summary of take-aways from the session:

LOLnptechAmy Sample Ward let us take a peek at her technology toolbox last week by describing 6 of the daily e-tools she incorporates into her online work and life.

Michelle Murrain has a new free and open source tool overview: Miro, a video tool you can use to play, organize, download, and disseminate online videos. She predicts that this is the future of television.

NTEN member Beth Dunn is profiled as a "tech star" over at @Bar. We're so proud!

Marnie Webb to all organizations thinking about social networking: start with the search. She gives some tips and links to begin your (re)search.

NTEN member Ed Schipul will be speaking on a panel (which includes NTEN superstar Beth Kanter) about web-based social media technologies for nonprofit organizational fundraising at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW). All you NTENners who will be at SXSW -- let us know what you learn!

A couple of familiar NTEN members and contributors joined our nptechies across the pond for the Circuit Riders 4.0 Conference last week. Laura's Notebook has a nice round up, including a video of Beth Kanter, who joined via Skype to discuss Web 2.0 for nonprofits. She also referred to NTEN superstar John Kenyon, who was invited by NTEN organizational member LASA to lead a workshop on nonprofit advising (or leadership, as we refer to it around here) the day after the Circuit Rider Conference. Good show!

Beth also has a great post addressing the issues of transparency and criticism in the world of social media. She offers a hypothetical scenario that anyone engaging constituencies in this user-generated environment should consider (hint: read the comments).

In response to Beth's post, NTEN member Kivi Leroux Miller offers some great advice for nonprofits dealing with negative user-generated content.

Joyce Harmon, of NPower Greater DC, posted slides she presented recently for nonprofit leaders about online strategies and tools for this generation of online fundraising and constituent engagement. Thanks, Joyce!

Speaking of giving stuff away, Katya Andresen wrote this enlightening post applying the business model of the "gift economy" to nonprofit organizations. The important takeaway for me here is that, with the low-cost of technology tools like email, e-newsletters, and of course social media tools, it not only makes sense but is fiscally possible for even the smallest nonprofit organization to use this model. Read Katya's post for more background and ideas.

Finally, I found a new form of online update from an NTEN member: this tweet about the upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference from "Erica G." Why is this exciting? I used Google Alerts to search for "nten member" -- and was sent a link to this twitter update in my email. Implications? Tweeting has reach outside subscribed followers.

I'm a total snob when it comes to MySpace. My house is pretty much always spotless, and that's the way I like my interface design, too: clean.

So I get the chills when I check out MySpace. Too cluttered! Nonetheless, it's a tool nonprofits cannot ignore. Folks like IFAW and many others have used MySpace to engage and activate a whole new constituency.

If you're looking to start a MySpace campaign, or if you have one already and want to improve it, check out Heather Mansfield's post on optimizing your MySpace page.