Technola : Public Interest Law & Technology Updates & Commentary : Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow : Tech Advice for the Non-Profit Legal Sector

TechSoup has made their Editorial Style Guide public. Similar to the AP Stylebook or The Bluebook, this guide helps people produce content with a consistent style and a more professional look. Style guides are a terrific resource. They prevent staff and others from wasting time wondering whether they should be using "internet" or "Internet," or "Web site" or "website." (Checking TechSoup's quick reference guide, they say it's "Internet" and "website." )

Does your organization have a style guide? You should, and it doesn't have to be cumbersome to draft one. Simply create a document that specifies how to treat your organization's global identity and then use TechSoup's guide for everything else. Your writing will look more professional and be easier to read. - K

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Want to help the Online Document Assembly Project win $5,000 cash and $25,000 worth of donated software in Microsoft's and TechSoup's Show Your Impact contest? Yes? Great!

It's easy. You just need to vote for the "Increasing Access to Justice" entry in Microsoft's and TechSoup's Show Your Impact contest by June 10, 2009. Here's how:

1. Go to Microsoft Impact Story Contest.
2. Register or log in.
3. Vote for "Increasing Access to Justice" in the Transformations to Maximize Impact category.
4. Vote for at least 2 other programs. (Preferably, your two other choices are in other categories.)
5. Cast your ballot.
6. Tell your friends to vote.

The first round of judging is by the public, or more specifically any individual from a Microsoft donation recipient organization, TechSoup or Microsoft, and any of those individuals' friends, family or contacts. (If you are reading this post, you qualify.) To move on to the second round, the "Increasing Access to Justice" entry needs to be one of the top nine voted-for entries in the Transformations to Maximize Impact category. So please vote!

Need to know more about Online Document Assembly, the project that consumes my days, before you vote? Check out the profile that The Chronicle of Philanthropy published in February.  -K

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TechSoup, a technology resource website for nonprofits, is holding a webinar on May 21, 2009 at 2 pm Eastern, where you can learn more about TechSoup and its free resources. - K

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I can't believe that I didn't realize this earlier! Or maybe I did and just forgot. NTEN and TechSoup Global are sponsoring a series of free social media trainings. Several already happened and were recorded and made available online, but the remaining two webinars happen this Wednesday and next Wednesday. - K

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TechSoup reports that MarketingProfs is offering a free marketing webinar on April 1, 2009 from 11 am to 5 pm Eastern. Topics that they'll cover include

• Online branding
• Building community with Facebook
• Getting your fans to tell your story

For more information, check out the TechSoup post about the free webinar. - K

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TechSoup's Kami Griffiths will interview Colin Carpenter and Lori Pottinger from International Rivers about their flash video, "We All Live Downstream", which was chosen as runner up in the Adobe-TechSoup 2008 Show Your Impact contest. Learn about the process  for developing a flash video and how to produce a similar video for your organization. Register online here. -M

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Do your staff know where they can turn to brush up on their spreadsheet and word processing software skills? What about to learn more about that new Web 2.0 stuff that can help them network and learn from each other? Yes, you may have told them before, but they have a lot of other important things on their minds--their clients. So I'd encourage you to remind them.  A few resources that you can point out:

• LSNTAP.org. As I've said before, LSNTAP is one of the first places that the legal aid community should turn to for technology training. Rumor has it that their 2009 Training Calendar will be announced shortly, but in the meantime, your staff can watch their recorded trainings.
• TechSoup.org. TechSoup has and is continuing to host free technology trainings for the nonprofit community. Check out a list of their scheduled and archived trainings.

A huge thanks to Mike Monahan, the Director of the State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project, for inspiring this post. (And reminding me to remind you to remind your staff.)  - K

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On Tuesday, December 9th at 10:00 a.m. Pacific, TechSoup Global will be hosting a free webinar on stopping spam. Kami Griffiths will interview Eytan Urbas from Mailshell to help nonprofits understand how they can save money and keep their inboxes secure. You can register online here, and send questions to kami@techsoupglobal.org. -M

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I print . . . a lot, so I'm not about to chastise anyone else for printing. But I do want to encourage you to be smarter about it. I, for example, have set my printer to automatically print on both sides of the paper and often print two pages on each side. I'm also trying to be good about recycling and reusing paper instead of throwing it out.

If you don't know how to set your printer to print on both sides of the paper, check out the TechSoup.org article on duplexing. Another neat resource is the Environmental Defense Fund's Paper Calculator, which can help you determine how much of an environmental impact different types of paper have. - K

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On Tuesday, November 18, 2008 TechSoup Talks is offering a free webinar on "Reducing Your Paper Usage." Anna Jaeger from TechSoup Global's GreenTech Program will interview Steve Adams from Protus, the maker of MyFax, a paperless fax solution. The webinar will be held from 10-11am Pacific. You can register online here. -M

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SurveyGizmo, an extremely full-featured online survey tool, is offering nonprofits a free 30-day trial of their Enterprise account. After that you have to either pay or switch to a free account, but as a nonprofit you can save 50% on their annual Pro or Enterprise accounts.

Remember also that the TIG-funded Poverty Law Survey Tool is available for free to nonprofit legal services programs. -M

[Thanks to Yann Toledano for the SurveyGizmo tip via TechSoup.]

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On Tuesday, August 26, TechSoup is hosting a one-hour webinar about implementing online surveys. - K

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Lately, I've been running across stories about computer security that run the gamut from trivial to terrifying. For example:

• NPR had a segment about those annoying CAPTCHAs and how they can be used to help digitize old books.
• Sophos confirmed that we aren't very good at protecting our own privacy -- 41 percent of Facebook users gave up personal information to a small green plastic frog.  As a part of this research, Sophos put together a list of best practices for protecting your privacy on Facebook.
• The NSA published a report on How to Safely Publish Sanitized Reports Converted From Word 2007 to PDF. And if you are looking for additional security how-tos, check out their security configuration guides.
• Wired ran a story about how to protect yourself from snoops when you are using Gmail.
• The New York Divorce Law Blog reviewed a ruling where a wife was allowed to use evidence of her husband's Internet activities in the proceedings.
• The ABA Journal reported that the MIT students who hacked the transit system can talk publicly about the security flaws.
• The BBC wrote about a new exploit that inserts a malicious link into clipboards. (My favorite line: "Our work would be so much easier if our enemy would be stupid." It's so true under so many circumstances.)
• VentureBeat passed on information that pacemakers can be hacked. This hack was presented at from DefCon, a huge security conference.

The good news is that TechSoup.org is currently putting on a Special Security Event, so you can learn about what you need to do to protect yourself. - K

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Congratulations to Marnie Webb for making The Nonprofit Times' list of The 2008 NPT Power & Influence TOP 50. Marnie is one of the CEO's at TechSoup and has been a huge force behind NetSquared, which is a forum for discussing the web's social tools. - K

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TechSoup.org has compiled a list of online nonprofit technology trainings for June. Topics include website analytics, data integration, technology planning, and fundraising. - K

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You've probably heard the news. The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) intends to require a technology plan as part of its 2010 grant competition. Perhaps this news has made you happy in that you now have a good reason to get started. Or perhaps it just made you cry, rant and rave, quake in your boots or giggle hysterically. How are you going to get this done on top of everything else? And what's a technology plan anyway? Don't worry. Here's a list of free resources to help you along.

• Statewide Technology Planning Manual - The resource for technology planning in the legal aid community. LSNTAP drafted this manual to help legal aid programs develop technology plans without hiring a consultant.
• Path to Successful Technology Planning - A free webinar on June 5, 2008 from TechSoup.org. TechSoup.org is a technology community that provides free technology resources and support to the nonprofit community. They also run TechSoup Stock, which provides discounted or free technology products to nonprofits. In addition to the training, or if you can't attend, make certain to check out TechSoup.org's technology planning center.
• How to Cost and Fund ICT - A technology planning guidebook. It gets to the point of a technology plan - finding out what your technology costs and how you are going to get the money to fund it - and provides some great worksheets and checklists for you to use as a part of the process. I'll admit that I've only scanned this document and haven't read it thoroughly, but Beth Kanter and Marc Osten, its authors, are known for providing high quality content.

I hope that this gives you a handle on what technology planning involves and a few resources to get your plan started. - K

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