Just a heads up – a wee bit overdue but hey I got busy.

I want to announce I have accepted full time employment with Fair Health Inc. I will be working as a project manager under Ray Agostinelli -which some of you may remember from Kaivo fame – who talked me into…er-r-r-r recruited me to come work for FH.

Its a wonderful opportunity and I am very excited to join such a great organization doing important work around health care costs and out of network reimbursement.

I want to confirm that I am also continuing my work with the Texas Access to Justice Foundation (TAJF) as they implement their new grant management system over the course of the next 6 months. Both Fair Health and TAJF have been most gracious in allowing me to engage in this new endeavor while still honoring my existing obligations and serving my clients.  However, I will no longer be accepting or actively seeking new consulting assignments.

I do hope to be able to continue to post regularly to this blog space and contribute to the ever growing body of knowledge around nonprofit management.   I will also be keeping up with my presenting at the Equal Justice Conference in May, 2011.  I hope to see all of you there!

I have just a smattering of topics today – a bit all over the map but I hope you find something of use here.

I am presenting tonight at the Fort Collins Ignite #7.  (Wahoo!) My presentation is about personal change -a topic near and dear to my heart.  The event is sold out so if you don’t already have tickets – sorry!  But the organizers have promised me a video I can use of the presentations so you can still catch my 5 minutes/20 slides  on  making personal change.  I will post here as soon as it becomes available.

Idealware does great research and I use their work all the time – they are now taking a survey of nonprofits using Facebook and will turn that data into useful information no doubt.  If you are a nonprofit – consider answering the survey to help Idealware with their work.  Their research is only as good as the data they collect – so put your two cents in, its worth it!  If you are not a nonprofit, consider donating to Idealware to help them continue providing great research and information to the nonprofit community.

And I have been pondering a recent article I found on Stanford Social Innovation Review: Measuring Social Value- its by Geoff Mulgan and he discusses the difficulties of measuring the work of the public sector using traditional business oriented metrics and tools.  While determining value in an economic sense can be observed by what someone will pay for a product or service – it is hard apply that same evaluation to social products and services that may not be purchased by the end user or whose long term benefit may be derived tangentially.  For example; drug users don’t typically pay for treatment and yet the benefits accrue directly to them.  Society as a whole may pay for this service as it creates other benefits – reduced crime, reduced homelessness, more productive (and presumably tax paying) citizens, etc. – that accrue to the larger society.

Mulgan’s organization – the United Kingdom’s National Health Service – has begun using judgement statements as part of its funding reviews to determine the social value of different initiatives they might invest in.  The judgments fell into four categories “1) strategic fit (how well the proposed innovation meets the needs of the health service), 2) potential health outcomes (including likely impact on quality-adjusted life years and patient satisfaction), 3) cost savings and economic effects, and 4) risks associated with implementation. ”

I initially was thinking of this in conjunction with LSC’s recent announcement opening their next round of Technology Initiative Grant (TIG) funding – how might LSC take these judgments into consideration when making innovation investments?  A useful discussion for them might take the shape of: what do we value overall about what technology makes possible for our programs?  Is there a particular technology that we think has greater potential to create benefit for our low income clients than any other?  I realize that these value judgments are evidenced by what TIG funds and doesn’t fund already – however a more deliberate articulation of these judgments might result in a greater awareness of the choices and trade offs that inevitably must be made as well as a greater sense of accomplishment around particular ideas or innovations that do get funded.  I have heard rumor that LSC might be convening another technology summit like the one they hosted in the late 1990s – thinking about and articulating these value judgments would be great topic for the attendees to grapple with.

I will have to think more – and re-read the article a few more times – to figure out how I think these value judgments might be used as measures by a nonprofit but it is an interesting take on how counting drug addicts “cured” is not the only way to measure the value of our social ventures.  Are there long term benefits to society at large and how would we account for those?  Who would we ask to make the value judgment once we had them identified?  Evaluation is always a thorny issue but one worth tackling as it informs our choices and good choices lead to good investments.

It seems like every time I pick up a newspaper there is a new article on social media.  This level of hype is starting to make me nervous that we are all overselling what social media can and cannot do.  To bring a little perspective to the game I wanted to write about some of what I am reading and provide some comments.

Yesterday, January 31, 2011, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on Taco Bell’s response via social media to a recent lawsuit “filed by a disgruntled customer on Jan 19 [alleging]… that the restaurant chain’s taco mixture consists of more filler than meat”.  Taco Bell’s rebuttal included full page ads that read “Thank You for Suing Us” – the ads purport that the lawsuit gave Taco Bell a chance to publicize their high quality ingredients and yes just how much meat they put into the tacos (88% according to them; the remaining 12% of the ingredients are added for flavor). Taco Bell has used its Facebook page to post about the lawsuit, and launched a YouTube video which is a clip of an interview with the Associated Press that presents the Taco Bell side of the case.   I thought by far the most interesting and strategic thing that Taco Bell did was to purchase the keywords “taco bell lawsuit”.  This was brilliant.  It means that Taco Bell created content is at the top of all the search engines results pages.  So given how few individuals really scroll down the page or let alone click onto pages two or three – the Taco Bell side of the story will most likely be what most people read about the case.  Go try it yourself – Google it and you will see the Taco Bell Official Statement as the first item in the list followed by news coverage.   I think this is a worthwhile strategy we should all consider.  If your organization was hit with a major negative campaign of some kind, moving quickly to ensure that critical keywords pointed to content you created might be a fairly simple but powerful tool.  And I can’t overemphasize speed.  Taco Bell moved quickly – all of these actions happened within days of the lawsuit filing which means Taco Bell communications staff was paying attention and must have had some established protocol for dealing with this kind of scenario.  You should too.

Also on January 31, 2011 The Denver Post had a huge article about the role social media is playing in the upcoming Super Bowl.  Many companies – Mercedes Benz, Kia, Bud Light, and others – are creating games and contests that tie in with their advertising that will air during the Super Bowl.  We all know that the Super Bowl advertisements have become as much fun (or more fun) to watch than the games themselves so adding in a social media component to build buzz and spread the advertising further before the “big game” makes total sense to me.  However, I must say this is one of those areas where I am not sure how much bang you would be getting for your buck.  I am not going to drink Bud Light just because of the Budweiser Clydesdales, (seriously it’s an acquired taste) even though they are adorable and I love the commercials.  Budweiser has done sneak previews of the upcoming Super Bowl commercial that will feature the Clydesdales as part of the AFC and NFL championship games along with posting links on their Facebook page.  And apparently they have seen a pretty good spike in “likes”.  The article says they hit a million fans by January 28 but I looked today (Feb 1) and they only had a bit over 650,000. So maybe these campaigns are targeted to folks that already like your product which may have some value- as in solidifying brand loyalty- but I am not sure if there is going to be an increase in profits that you can point to once game day is over.  So the take away lesson here?  It’s okay to add a social media component to an existing event or outreach even if you can’t point to a specific measurement to rate success just use some discretion when allocating resources.

And lastly – mashable.com reports the New York Times has added links to its Facebook and Twitter accounts to the www.nytimes.com homepage.  No take away lesson here – I just had to laugh at the breathlessness with which this news was greeted.  As if the last bastion of traditional information distribution had fallen low to all things digital.  You know folks, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

At the recent TIG Conference, Liz Keith gave me her copy of the January 9, 2011 issue of The New York Times Magazine which included an article entitled “Things to do in Cyberspace when you’re Dead” by Rob Walker.  The article details the live and untimely death of blogger/tweeter Mac Tonnies and the efforts of his friends to save his online work.  The article discusses the pros and cons of trying to save the digital output we are all putting online every day.  Companies have cropped up – Legacy Locker, DataInherit and Entrustet – are the top three and they promise to follow whatever instructions you have for how online information should be dealt with.  You can decide that not all email accounts need to survive or that maybe some photos should simply disappear into the mists of time.  All of us want a certain amount of control over our legacy – digital and otherwise.  So consider this next time you update your will.  You have one, right?

I think the toughest problem is going to be passwords.  So far that seems to be the biggest hurtle to having family members and friends simply clean out your online closets like we do physical closets when someone dies.  I don’t want to have to update Joel every time I change a password.  (Its way more important that he remember our anniversary!)    However if I could just give him a special , “backdoor” password that would never change, then he could just delete what I wanted to have deleted and keep up the accounts on what I wanted to remain online and viable.  Sounds like an easy solution to me.

Then I was thinking – how long would you keep your website/blog/twitter feed/Facebook page around?  20 years?  30 years?  Until your children’s children fail to know who you are? Or maybe we will all end up donating our digital memories to universities so that scholars can pour over my status updates as the apt rantings of a “typical middle aged woman with an attitude”.

Speaking of scholars, Dr. Elaine Kasket presented in September, 2009 a at the 9^th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying & Disposal in Durham, United Kingdom a Powerpoint of her research on how individuals use Facebook to preserve memories of individuals that have passed away.  She refers to those who create and maintain these memorials as “in-memory-of-groups” and she studied them to understand how the multi-faceted person we represent on Facebook survives and which may in time be revised to only reflect what the mourners want to remember.  The presentation is interesting but a little scary.  I am not sure I want all of everything I have ever said or thoughtlessly put on Facebook to survive.

So I don’t have a cut and dried suggestion for what you should do about your online identity and the plans you should make for it once you are six feet under.  I think I will at least discuss it with Joel and maybe make a few discreet plans – surely he can have my Facebook password.  What do you think?  Are you ready to decide how to dispose of your online life?

Joyce presenting on Change

As promised here are the materials from both my sessions.  TIG was -again- a fabulous conference and I had so much fun re-connecting with everyone and catching up.  I am planning on attending EJC come May, 2011 in Las Vegas so I will let everyone know now that I will be renting a road bike, planning a Nerd Girl Dinner, and hosting a Tech Happy Hour!

What does all that mean?

Renting a Road Bike – Jed Untereker of ILAO and I rode every morning in Albuquerque to get our exercise in and see a bit of downtown Albuquerque.  Wednesday and Thursday we rode at 6am (yes it was VERY cold!) and on Friday we got lucky and did a 7:30am ride on a portion of the Paseo del Bosque Bike Trail.  Rides in Vegas could get very interesting! (Can you imagine the Strip before dawn?!?!)  Just remember everyone is welcome (regardless of ability – this is a No Drop Ride!) and we ride early early morning.  When I (or someone) figures out where to rent from I will post that information here.

Nerd Girl Dinner – a chance for techie women to hang out together, trade stories, and get to know each other.  Women only but that is the only criteria.  I haven’t picked a night yet but it will not conflict with the opening reception – let me know if you want to attend and if you have any special ideas about where to eat.

Nerd Girl Dinner attendees

Tech Happy Hour – those of you who attended last year’s EJC hopefully also got a chance to join me at my happy hour!  Steve Scudder was kind enough to lend me his suite for a couple of hours and I had appetizers and beer/wine for any tech folks who wanted and excuse to start to party a little earlier.  The Happy Hour will probably be between 5pm and 7pm the night of the reception and again hosted by me and in Steve’s suite.  Tell Steve how wonderful he is for sharing!  I will post more when I know more.

Social Media:Engaging Your Community with Kate Bladow

SM Listening Checklist,  SM Plan Checklist,  website disclaimer from Georgia Legal Services Program – posted with permission from Mike Monahan

JRaby TIG Ignite Change – a topic near and dear to my heart – making lasting positive change in your life.

Tomorrow I get on a plane and head out to the annual TIG Conference, held this year in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I will be presenting at two sessions:

Conversing Online: Using Social Media to Engage with Your Community with Kate Bladow on Thursday morning at 8:45am in the Sandia Ballroom I-IV.  We will be covering all things social media; providing examples of how programs are using social media to engage their supporters, recruit volunteers, and raise awareness of their mission.

Change: Making it Happen at the Ignite Plenary Session: Show and Tell of Technology Projects and Ideas Thursday right after lunch at 1pm-2pm also in the Sandia Ballroom I-IV.  Rumor has it I go first so don’t be late!

(Both Presentations will be posted here post conference.)

And I will be serving as an expert during the “Ask the Experts” session on the last day.  Bring your questions and let’s chat!

In other news, some of us are also renting road bikes (Jed, Kathleen, Joshua) and will be braving the low temps (they say it will be in the 40′s!) for a few early morning rides and maybe one late afternoon ride.  Bring your winter riding knickers and come on out and join us!  Call the Bike Shop at 505.299.1210 to reserve your bike.  Rental comes with helmet, water bottle, patch/flat kit and pump.  Bring your own pedals for clipless shoes.  Wahoo!

Hope to see you all there!

Over the past month or so I have been reading what the experts have to say about what is coming up in 2011 – what are the new, hip trends we should be paying attention to.  Here they are in summary: We will see more competition in the iPad arena as others throw their collective hats in the ring to try and get a piece of market share action away from Apple.  We will see Verizon announce an iPhone.  More apps for smart phones will be built – many adding GIS functionality to existing data (check in please!).  And businesses will continue to move into social media to continue to try and figure out what consumers want.

And I was going to blog about all that but really other folks have already done a better job than I could.  So here is their link. Check out what the experts have to say.  As for me I thought I would be more interesting to think of the trends issue from the consumer side and just tell businesses what I want to see in technology in 2011.  After all I am a consumer too.

1) If I tell you something about me or if you get my email address or I “like” you then please put that data to good use.  I was on Facebook the other day commiserating with a friend over the poorly targeted ads that FB runs on profile pages.  She keeps getting “Learn Hebrew Online” as she lists herself as Jewish even though she has no desire to learn the language.  I commented that before I got married and was listed as engaged – my profile pages carried almost exclusively advertisements for “wedding diets” and “weight loss tips for brides”.  So I must be fat if I am getting married?!?!

Reward me for letting you into my world by being more thoughtful about what you try to sell me.  If you know I am getting married how about help selecting a minister?  Or finding an outdoor venue?  Facebook are you listening?  If I change some key piece of information – get married, buy a dog, have a baby, move to a new city – why don’t you offer me a brief survey that asks “Would you like help with any of these related services?”.  It might work like this:

Step 1 – I get engaged.  (Yay me!  That part I can do without Facebook’s help)

Step 2 – I change my status from “in a relationship” to “engaged”.  Facebook clearly knows I am doing this.

Step 3 – Facebook sends me a message that says – Congratulations on your nuptials!  Do you want to see advertisements targeted to newly engaged couples?  These products and services might include:

Ministers in my area
Wedding Venues
Catering
Musicians/DJ’s
Photographers
Wedding Dress Shops
etc.

You get the idea.  Is this an Invasion of Privacy?  Probably, but at least if they ask you get the option of deciding if you want more information or not.  It is just like Land’s End – if you want to create a virtual model on their website so you can try on clothes before you buy them – you have to tell them your measurements.   Customization comes at the cost of some intimacy.  At least if Facebook was up front about it I would get to say yes or no, instead of putting up with diet ads for months.

2) I don’t want to have to keep signing up for “two year” contracts with my phone service provider.  I mean really I am going to have a phone forever, why can’t it just be like anything else?  I buy it knowing that I will pay once a month for the service and we just quit all these games about how I get a better rate for a multi-year contract or need a special discount to buy a new phone each year.  You know I want a new phone every year (techno-lust is very real) and you know I will need your service to use it.  Let’s just make it easy and quit all the smoke and mirrors.

3) And now the truly sci-fi desire – I want to decouple sending and receiving from media type.  This isn’t as groovy as my own personal rocket or Star Trek-esc transporter but hear me out.

I am not a phone call person.  I really do not like voice mail.  I like email and text.

You on the other hand – love to connect by voice.  You want to call me and leave a message instead of typing up a long involved email or sending me 50 text messages, one right after the other.

Okay – I want you to be able to call me and leave me a voice mail and I want to be able to retrieve it as an email.  And if I respond and send you an email back you should be able to get it as a voice mail if that is your desire.  You can pick any voice you want (just like those GPS devices for cars) and it should read my email aloud to you.  And we should be able to pick and choose all the time – flipping between media as easily as drinking different kinds of milk (soy milk for my tea, whole milk for scrambled eggs).  The technology already exists – it just requires someone smarter than me to make it work.  And then take it global.  But I would buy stock.

That’s it.  Doesn’t really seem like much but it’s what I really want to see happen in 2011. Agree? Disagree?  If you are going to the TIG Conference in Albuequerque next week – stop me in the hallway and tell me what you want to see happen in 2011.  See you there.

and I have yet to finish wrapping presents or making the TexMex feast that is the highlight of Christmas Eve.  I was raised in Texas and my Mother in her infinite wisdom realized very early on that TexMex beats the pants off turkey and stuffing any day of the week.  I make wicked good enchiladas, queso dip (my Aunt’s recipe and YES it will use Velveeta!) and fresh quacomole.  We will eat with abandon, drink Tequila Sunrises, and then have cookies because soppapillas are too messy to make and really one shouldn’t drink and then try to fry things on the stove.

I have no time left for writing a tender hearted tech related Christmas blog post for you.  So I found one for you to read - it is funny, sweet, and while does not directly mention TexMex, I am sure it was what they were going to have for dinner.  Enjoy!  and Merry Christmas to you us all, every one.

There is a GREAT article in the Friday Dec, 17, 2010 edition of the Wall Street Journal written by Damian Kulash Jr of the rock band OK Go which discusses at length the quantum changes that have occurred in the music business in the past decade.  With the rise of the Internet and digital music, he asserts that the primary product being sold today is a music experience not a recording of a particular song.  The current industry model is based on the premise that music is a commodity – that businesses can measure the success of a band based solely on the number of records they sell.  A song that sells 1 million copies is more successful – at least financially – than a song that sells a thousand records.

According to the article; as records sales plummet “In 1999, global record sales totaled $26.9 billion; in 2009 that figure, including digital purchases, which no represent 25% of sales (nearly 50% in the US) is down to $17 billion”, revenue from touring has also declined “A report from Edison Research found that in  2010, 12-24 year olds went to fewer than half as many concerts as they did in 2000; nearly two thirds went to none at all.”  So if you can’t make money selling records, or from live music shows, how are bands making an income?  By selling access to their fans to corporate sponsors.

It works like this – instead of signing with a record label that will control what kind of music is created, whether or not there will be a budget for a music video, or merchandise or a tour for that matter, artists are contracting directly with corporate sponsors who “tend to take a broader view of success.  The measuring stick could be mentions in the press, traffic to a website, email addresses collected or view of online videos.  Artists have meaningful, direct, and emotional access to our fans, and at a time when capturing the public’s attention is increasingly difficult for the army of competing marketers, that access is a big asset.”

Sound familiar?  Sounds like social media to me.  In my blog post – Social Media ROI: Measuring Engagement – written a few weeks ago I talked about emerging ways to measure the success of your social media efforts – like comments, nested comments, discussions between followers fostered by your site, etc.  While I don’t have an easy metric for figuring out if you have “meaningful, direct, and emotional access” to your followers, I think the closer you can get to saying you have that access, the more powerful and successful your social media efforts are.  I am going to be on the lookout for a way to capture and measure the nature (and possibly the intensity?) of something as elusive as “meaningful, direct, and emotional” and will post that information here when I find it.  Do you try to measure the depth and the intensity of the access you have to your followers or fans?  If so, how?  If not, what do you measure and do you think it provides any insight into the nature of your relationship to your followers or fans?  I would be very interested to hear from all of you.

I did a short, spot on social media presentation today targeted to small entrepreneurs just getting started with social media.  The discussion was lively as everyone seems to have an opinion and some questions on what social media can – and can’t – do.

Health and Wellness:Building Your Business with Social Media