We met this month at ACHIEVA on the South Side. We will be at this location for the rest of 2009.

We discussed Microsoft SharePoint quite a bit during the meeting.  We determined that:

• It is a good tool for an Intranet.
• It must be well-planned out before implementation.
• It is ideal for sharing files and forms across an organization.
• You can use it to replace paper newsletters (internal only, obviously)
• It can be connected to Exchange server.

Here are the various other resources discussed during this month’s meeting:

• Dim Dim – free web conferencing for up to 20 people – http://www.dimdim.com/
• IP Chicken – tells you your IP address – http://www.ipchicken.com/
• Office 2010 – coming soon, God help us all – http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/
• Schneider Downs – has an off-the-shelf board portal software package – http://www.schneiderdowns.com/
• Business Library – has a tech login and discounted online trainings, including certifications – http://www.bizlibrary.com/
• SpeakEasy – for clocking your Internet connection speed – http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Our next meeting will be held at ACHIEVA on the South Side, on November 4. Please note that we are now holding our meeting from 8:30 – 10 am each month.

The Bagels & Bytes 2009 Calendar (including directions) is here.

Once again, we met at the Bayer Center office in the Regional Enterprise Tower in downtown Pittsburgh. Here are the wealth of resources that were discussed during our meeting:

• Malware Bytes – free anti-malware program
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/
• Super Anti-spyware – free anti-spyware program
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Sophos AV – very good anti-virus software
  http://www.sophos.com/
• Avira AV – free anti-virus software
  http://www.free-av.com/
• Netbooks – mini laptops w/enough functionality to get online
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook
• Kindle Reader – proprietary book and news reader for Amazon.com downloads
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00154JDAI/ref=sv_kinc_0
• Sony Book Reader - nonproprietary book and news reader
  http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665245739
• Book: “What Would Google Do?”
  http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061709715/What_Would_Google_Do/index.aspx
• JARTE - free alternative word processor w/simple interface and ability to save in Word format
  http://www.jarte.com/
• PrimoPDF – free PDF converter similar to Acrobat
  http://www.primopdf.com.
• Zoho – web-based office apps suite
  http://www.zoho.com/
• Revo Uninstaller – does cleaner uninstalls, allows you to delete registry entries during uninstall at your discretion
  http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Many thanks to Norm Mast of Lutheran Service Society (who has more freeware in his brain’s memory cells than is probably healthy for any one person for many of the items on this list!

ONE LAST THING…

The Allegheny group came up with the idea of having our December holiday party B&B meeting at a fun place – ROBOWORLD!  All B&B groups will be invited to this session.  I will be working with Joe McLaughlin, who worked on the exhibit there, to see about making this happen!

Our next meeting will be held at the Bayer Center’s downtown office, on October 8.  Please note that we are now holding our meeting from 8:30 – 10 am each month.

The Bagels & Bytes 2009 Calendar (including directions) is here.

This was our second and last meeting for this year at Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania in the Strip District. 

Our discussion centered around strategic technology planning.  Some items of interest from our discussion:

• Focus is critical when creating a technology plan – keeping things that are actually tech-related in the plans and other things out of it.
• Recommended scope for a tech plan is 1-3 years.
• Difficulty can be caused by the length and timing of the tech planning process vs. the strategic planning process.  If strategic planning not done first, the tech plan writer can end up generalizing and guessing.
• A tech plan should be a living document, subject to updating revision between formal planning sessions.
• Staff training is generally overlooked in tech plans, but should be included.
• Cost codes (financial) are frequently not assigned within a agency for technology items, so tech tends to get lumped into administrative costs.  (We need to work on this issue!)
• An online resource is the National Center for Technology Planning:  http://www.nctp.com.

We also discussed time management for techies in nonprofits. Here are some of the ways we get our multi-faceted jobs done:

• Outsourcing / vendor-based tech support or consultants
• Make sacrifices – you can’t do everything!
• Do what you can do, even if not everyone is happy about it
• Automate as much as you can
• Deflect work that isn’t tech-related
• Learn to say “no”
• Track help requests (a resources for this is the help desk feature in http://www.spiceworks.com)

In addition, we noted that we should pay as much attention to our “up” time as we do our “down” time.  Too frequently we (and other staff) only notice when the computers aren’t working.  We should acknowledge and celebrate the amount of time that the computers are working as well!

ONE LAST THING…

We discussed having our December holiday party B&B meeting at a fun place – ROBOWORLD!  I will be working with Joe McLaughlin, who worked on the exhibit there, to see about making this happen!

Our next meeting will be held at ACHIEVA on the South Side, on October 7.  Please note that we are now holding our meeting from 8:30 – 10 am each month.

The Bagels & Bytes 2009 Calendar (including directions) is here.

This was our first of two months at Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania in the Strip District.  We used their lovely (albeit rather large!) board room for our meeting.

Our discussion centered around online donation tools and fundraising software.  We found that the two frequently cross each other and might be had as a complete package.  Here are some resources from the meeting and a few I’ve found since then:

• Online software donation comparison matrix by Affinity Resources.
• Comparison chart from the Grassroots Fundraising Journal.
• “Four Principles of Choosing Donor Management Software” article on Idealware.org.

In addition we discussed the impact of the upcoming G20 Summit (not a tech topic, but on everyone’s minds nonetheless).  Randy Strothman has created a a semi-permanent page on his company’s blog on which he will post relevant Summit updates as they are made available. (Love the page title, Randy! lol!)

Our next meeting will be held at the same location, Easter Seals Western Pennsylvania, on September 2.  Please note that we are meeting from 8:30 – 10 am starting this month.

The Bagels & Bytes 2009 Calendar (including directions) is here.

Ahoy! We had a great time this month at Bagels & Bytes on a Boat!  RiverQuest’s new boat Explorer is everything we hoped it would be.

Talkin' Tech at B&B on a Boat

A big “thank you” to the RiverQuest staff and crew who were so helpful and gracious before and during our meeting.

We held a drawing for two tech-related books at our meeting.  Rose McKee from the Benedum Foundation won “Momentum” by Allison Fine and Mike Papas from Three Rivers Youth won “Wired for Good” by Joni Podolsky.

Speaking of the book “Wired for Good” – I can get this for $10 per copy, but have to order at least five at a time.  Please email me at leonard@rmu.edu if you are interested in being added to a list.

Regardless of the setting, you can’t stop NP techies from talking about tech!  Here are some of the resources discussed during our meeting:

• Giveawayoftheday.com (http://www.giveawayoftheday.com) – a new, free software package each day for download
• Grants Management Software – A free comparison report from Solpath.com is available here – http://www.solpath.org/results.html
• Harmony Information Services (http://www.harmonyis.com/) – human services database software
• Stimulus funding information – http://www.recovery.gov/

One last tidbit from the meeting…Sandy S. brought her little tech guy-to-be along for us to meet.  This little dude attended Bagels & Bytes in utero all last year and we finally got to meet him!

Our Bagels & Bytes Baby!

Note:  There are no B&B meetings in July.

• Allegheny group – Wednesday, August 5 at Easter Seals in the Strip District, 8 am – 9:30 am.
• Downtown group – Thursday, August 6 at the Bayer Center office in the Regional Enterprise Tower, 8 am – 9:30 am.

I know we discussed changing the meeting start times to 8:30 am.  Since the Bayer Center calendar and course catalog have been published and widely distributed through August, let’s keep the original start time through that month.  I’ll change it in our fall course catalog and we’ll give an 8:30 am start time a try for a few months.

2009 Bagels & Bytes Calendar is here

We had some small (but good) groups this month!  Everyone must be in recovery from doing their taxes. 

The Downtown group viewed a demo of OpenOffice software.  A big thanks to Joe Allen from PULSE for guiding us through this with ease!  Learn more and download this free productivity software package at http://www.openoffice.org.

The Allegheny group discussed Keeping Up with Trends.  Here are a bunch of ideas and resources:

Books

• The Accidental Techie, by Sue Bennett
• Wired for Good, by Joni Podolsky  (I can probably get this for you for $10 per copy – let me know if interested.)
• Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission, edited by Holly Ross, multiple authors

Email subscriptions

• Techsoup.org
• NPT Technobuzz
• NTEN Connect
• TechNotes (Bayer Center)
• Idealist.org
• Grassroots.org
• Various vendors (Microsoft, Adobe, etc.)

Memberships/groups

• Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN.org) ($85 for individual, $60-300 for entire org based on budget)

Web 2.0

• NTEN blog
• Beth’s Blog: How NPs can use Social Media
• Facebook – NTEN group and “All the NP Techies” group
• John Kenyon’s blog
• BCNM blog (My articles are normally about tech stuff.)
• We Are Media
• Twitter – network with other np techies and follow NPtech group
• Frogloop Blog
• Idealware Blog

Listservs

• Yahoo groups – information_systems_forum &
• Careernptechies wiki
• Google group – ctcnet-listserv

Other

• Google Alerts – try “nonprofit technology”
• Women Who Tech

Our next meeting is on Riverquest’s boat “Explorer” on the second Wednesday of June (6/10/09).  The meeting is the usual time – from 8 am – 9:30 am.  Riverquest’s dock is just a little west of the Carnegie Science Center, in fact, you will park in the CSC lot ($3).

Both the Allegheny and Downtown groups’ meetings will be held in this location so we can share our annual summer outing together!  (I will also invite the Westmoreland and West groups.)

2009 Bagels & Bytes Calendar is here

We met once again at the Bayer Center’s office in the Regional Enterprise Tower. Our “starter” topic was New Features in Office 2007.

Other tools and resources discussed included:

• Article by Mark Shaw of NPower Michigan “The Purposeful Techie“
• Office 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guides
• Free speech recognition software – e-Speaking.com (it only costs if you want the ability to add/delete/customize commands)
• Sierra w/o Wires – http://www.sierrawowires.com/ - (discounted software for those who don’t qualify for TechSoup’s program)

Our starter topic for May will be OpenOffice.  The group voted to move the June 2009 meeting to Wednesday, June 10, so that we can have the meeting on the same day as the Allegheny group and partake in the “Bagels & Bytes on a Boat” event that day.

Our next meeting is May 6 at the Bayer Center office on the 26th Floor of the Regional Enterprise Tower. If anyone has any topic suggestions or any issues you’d like to discuss at the meeting, please email them to me at leonard@rmu.edu. The meeting is, as usual, from 8 am – 9:30 am.

2009 Bagels & Bytes Calendar is here

This month, we traveled to the North Side’s warm and friendly Amani International Coffee House.  Our starter topic for the month, troubleshooting hardware and software, was extremely interesting and produced some great stories.  At one point, I laughed so hard my eyes started to tear up (over the one about the user who was hiding a key in the CD-ROM tray).

Here are the resources and issues we discussed during the meeting:

Resources 

Troubleshooting Tips

• It is important to probe the users thoroughly for information and ask the right questions.
• If you can train users to write down errors or create screenshots, that’s great too.
• Start at the lowest level, most basic level, with the simplest possible thing.  (Is it plugged in?)  Only try one thing at a time so you know what worked and what didn’t.
• A cable tester can save you a lot of time and energy. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/8510/

Next Meeting:

• Our next meeting is May 6 at Amani International Coffeehouse on the North Side. Our starter topic will be “Keeping Up with Trends.” The meeting is, as usual, from 8 am – 9:30 am.

2009 Bagels & Bytes Calendar is here!

We met once again at the Bayer Center’s office in the Regional Enterprise Tower. Our “starter” topic was Exploring Google Apps. 

We created a new Google Apps account (projector and laptop hooked up and displaying onscreen) and went digging around.  We determined that most of the programs - word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation – were similar to Microsoft Office, enough so that an existing Office user could generally find his or her way around with too much training.  We explored the Google Sites feature to see what it had to offer.  One could make a very basic website or intranet with this tool.  There didn’t seem to be many possibilities for customization.  The link to our faux Bagels & Bytes Google Site is:  http://sites.google.com/a/rmu.edu/bagels-bytes/

Other tools discussed (most of the online collaboration type) included:

• Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com)
• Acrobat Connect (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnect/)
• Webex (http://www.webex.com)
• Skype (http://www.skype.com)
• ReadyTalk (http://www.readytalk.com)

For upcoming months, we decided to do a series of starter topics:  April will be New Capabilities in Office 2007 and May will be OpenOffice.  The group also discussed the desire for a Bagels & Bytes Facebook group.

Note from editor:  I accidentally deleted the February 2009 meeting notes last week and don’t retain the paper copies once I’ve written the blog post.  Sorry!!

Our next meeting is April 2 at the Bayer Center office on the 26th Floor of the Regional Enterprise Tower. If anyone has any topic suggestions or any issues you’d like to discuss at the meeting, please email them to me at leonard@rmu.edu. The meeting is, as usual, from 8 am – 9:30 am.

2009 Bagels & Bytes Calendar is here

This was our last month at Rodef Shalom in Shadyside. Our starter topic for the month was the ever-popular “social networking.”  Here are the resources and issues we discussed during the meeting:

Social Networking Sites and Utilities

We discussed the management of these sites and generally agreed that it typically falls upon one or two people within the organization.  Social networking tasks also tend to be lumped onto existing duties.  We touched upon the importance of gaining competence with these tools now in order to reach the socially conscious 13-18 year old set that will be volunteers in the near future and donors later on.

Selling Tickets Online to International Customers

The Great Pittsburgh Food Bank does a Blues Festival fundraiser each year for which they sell online tickets and merchandise.  They’ve experienced periodic attempts at credit card fraud by international users with their current online transactional system.  The group suggested Paypal for international orders, which guarantees the money is available and that a “real” bank account is funding the purchase.

Spam

We hate spam!  One can cut down on spam by subscribing to new online accounts using a hotmail or other free email address until one knows whether or not the new account will bring an onslaught of spam.  We have also experienced having our email addresses pulled out of web submission forms, sometimes even if one hits the “cancel” button.

Other Sites and Tools Mentioned During the Meeting

Next Meeting:

• Our next meeting is April 1 (that ought to be interesting, eh?) at Amani International Coffeehouse on the North Side. Our topic for April will be “General Hardware and Software Troubleshooting.”  The meeting is, as usual, from 8 am – 9:30 am.

2009 Bagels & Bytes Calendar is here!