KLM Airlines moves over 11K employees to Google Apps!!

Google Apps News March 2010 Both customers and IT partners are converging around Google Apps to transform the way they do business. New customers to Google Apps: • From the clouds to the cloud: Find out why KLM Royal Dutch Airlines moved 11,200 crew members into the cloud. • From scarcity to abundance: Sports Basement stops inbox rationing and quota limits and gives everyone access to rich communication and collaboration tools (Free webcast). Google Apps moves forward: • New! Google joins the Cloud Security Alliance, a non-profit focused on best practices and education around the security of cloud computing. • New! The Google Apps team goes to America’s Small Business Summit to answer questions from small businesses. • New! The Google Apps Authorized Reseller Programturns a year old. Get timely customer news and product updates delivered to your inbox by signing up at theOfficial Enterprise Blog. All the best from Google, and stay tuned!

Using Facebook and need more donations? - Take John Haydon's advice.

Socialbrite

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How do I get my nonprofit’s Facebook fans to donate? Posted: 02 Mar 2010 11:01 AM PST Getting an army of Facebook fans for your nonprofit is not an easy feat. It takes lots of planning, hard work, and time. But just because you have a lot of Facebook fans doesn’t mean that you’re any closer to meeting your fundraising goals. Especially if you’re unknowingly creating barriers. When potential donors go to your donation page, is it immediately clear how they can donate and what amount they can donate? Do they have to search around your site? How many mouse clicks does an entire transaction require? 7 things to keep in mind Show Them Impact – One thing that worked very well during the Tweetsgiving campaign was showing people what their donations would buy. It created a direct line of site between donation and impact. Make It Fun – Red Nose Day is a huge hit in the UK, precisely because it’s so much fun! Think of creative ways to make sharing fun for your fans. Make The Dollar Amount Specific – The ever-present “donate now” button with no recommended dollar amounts, gets far less results than an ask with a specific dollar amount. Make It Easy To Share – The moment a person donates is the best time to ask them to share that action with others. Applications like Giving Impact and givezooks do this really well with their social fundraising apps. Target The Ask – Similar to most email marketing services, Facebook allows you to target your messages to a specific subset in your fanbase. You can slice by location, gender and age. Measure The Ask – Measure traffic, clicks, average donation amounts and number of donations. With enough data, you’ll be able to refine your approach over time. Also, Facebook provides great analytics for their Facebook Pages. Keep It Simple – Frank Barry wrote an excellent guest post on optimized social fundraising. Go back and check it out. One last thought. Don’t be discouraged if your first attempts to spur fans to act don’t get the results you expect. It takes time to build an active community. What’s been working for your org?

Phybridge joins forces with Cisco = The Uniphyer Rocks!

Phybridge Inc. Joins the Cisco Developer Network and Completes Cisco Interoperability Verification Testing Mississauga, Ontario - March 26, 2010 - Phybridge Inc. announced that it has joined the Cisco Developer Network as a Registered Developer within the Unified Communications technology category. In addition, Phybridge's UniPhyer has successfully completed interoperability testing with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, 7.1. The Cisco Developer Network unites Cisco with third-party developers of hardware and software to deliver tested interoperable solutions to joint customers.  Members of the program share Cisco's strong commitment to customer service and satisfaction and are required to undergo interoperability testing based on criteria set forth by Cisco.  With offerings such as the Phybridge UniPhyer, customers can more quickly deploy a broad range of Cisco Compatible business applications, devices, or services that can enhance the capabilities, performance, and management of their Cisco network. Phybridge Inc.: Phybridge's mission is to bring practical innovations to market that provides customers and partners an easier way to deploy and manage their VoIP installs resulting in reduced total cost of ownership and enhanced return on investment.  The award winning Phybridge UniPhyer allows for an optimized converged voice and data network; enabling the deployment of IP Telephony to be quick and easy with no network or business disruptions. This patent pending solution leverages existing telephony infrastructure to provide Ethernet, PoE and Quality of Service over a single pair with reach of over 1,200 feet. Complementing the existing data network, the UniPhyer allows customers to centrally converge with the data network while having a separate physical path for voice; reducing deployment and day two management complexities.  With a UniPhyer infrastructure customers can realize the benefits of Cisco Unified Communications Managers and Cisco IP phones with no compromise.  Sectors such as education, healthcare, hospitality and government greatly benefit.  Phybridge is looking forward to teaming with Cisco to bring their customers to the future of communications with much of the focus being on implementing the productivity enhancing Cisco applications ensuring a reliable converged network that handles both voice and data.  * Interoperability testing is designed to simulate typical customer configurations, and does not replace the need for on-site testing in conjunction with actual implementation. For more information and to learn about the 14 compelling benefits of deploying IP Telephony wit the UniPyer, please visit http://www.phybridge.com/uniphyerbenefits.aspx

Google Apps for Educators Webinar recording.

In case you'd like to share the information presented during the webinar with others, or watch again yourself, please make use of the following resources:
• Recorded video
• Published slide presentation
• Q&A Transcript
• Maine Township case study

If you would like more information about Google Apps Education Edition, please visit our website atwww.google.com/apps/schools. You can also access and review previous webinars in our Google Apps Education Resource center

If you have more questions about Maine Township's use of Google Apps, you can contact the Dr. Hank Thiele from Maine Township High School District: HThiele@Maine207.org 

Exchange Migrations to Google Apps have been enhanced.

Migrating from Microsoft Exchange now even easier with new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange tool

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 03:28 AM PDT

The new Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange tool simplifies migration of email, calendar and contacts from both hosted and on-premise Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. With this tool, admins can:

- Do multiple migrations in parallel.
- Centrally manage migration without end user involvement.
- Selectively migrate email, calendar or contacts (or any combination thereof).
- Migrate from Microsoft Exchange 2003 or 2007.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
US English

How to access what's new:
- Download page
- In the administrator control panel, in 'Advanced Tools', enable the checkbox 'Allow users to upload mail using the Email Migration API'.
- Enable two-legged OAUTH, as outlined here.

An extraordinary way to build community - Thanks SocialBrite!

Tap into the collective power of your community

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 10:30 AM PDT

The Extraordinaries lets your organization create a crowdsourced ‘mission’

By Kim Bale
Recruiting friends and supporters to get real work done virtually on behalf of social-good projects is easy and fun with the help of The Extraordinaries. Based in San Francisco, the company has created a platform allowing anyone to create a micro-task and blast it to their community of friends and supporters to generate real, usable output when they spend a few minutes of their spare time on an iPhone or computer.
You can download the iPhone app at BeExtra.org and check out a wide array of simple tasks you can help with. Missions featured today on the Beextra home page include:

• Build a collection of cute dog photos for GoodDogz.org.
• Help build a searchable photo archive for the Smithsonian Institution (yes, thatSmithsonian).
• Create a list of job resources for youths on behalf of Goodwill.
• Rate tweets from the SXSW conference.

The tools The Extraordinaries have created are available to nonprofits, for-profits, politicos, evangelists and passionate people alike. For example, Citizens Market, a company tracking corporate behavior, is using The Extraordinaries to research and rate company behavior. To map children’s recreational spaces,KaBOOM! is asking people to mark the GPS location of a playground, rate it up or down and snap a photo, such as the one at top.
Anyone can create a mission and harness the power of the crowd to achieve results while engaging and interacting with the broader community — the Extraordinaries has 29,000 registered users, more than 250 missions and 240,000 micro-tasks completed. The team vetts all apps submitted to the site.

Ways for nonprofits to use The Extraordinaries

How can you use The Extraordinaries?
1. Identify your needs. Many tasks, particularly administrative duties, are ripe for crowdsourcing. The Extraordinaries breaks these tasks into small bits of work with the potential for a big impact. Where could you use a few hundred extra hands? First identify your needs, then see how The Extraordinaries community can help meet them.

Use the community to organize your photo archive by adding descriptive tags, making it searchable and easy to navigate.

2. Create a mission. The Extraordinaries has created a few standard templates, making it easy to create a micro-task, or “mission,” and the list continues to grow.
• Build a map. Whether your organization is creating a map of playgrounds across the country or you just want to locate community gardens, this mission will allow your friends and supporters to help you build the map.
• Collect photos. Let the general population help you build a photo library with this mission. Users take and upload photos, which can then be rated, creating a ranked stock library for you to use.
• Tag and catalog photos. Organize your photo archive with the help of The Extraordinaries. Friends and supporters can add descriptive tags to your digital library, making it searchable and easy to navigate.
• Research a topic or issue. Need research on grants available to your organization, or information on businesses not engaging in sustainable practices? Let your community help do the research and generate usable data.
3. Complete your profile. Just like any social site, The Extraordinaries asks that you complete a profile for your organization. Upload a logo that is simple and recognizable, along with a brief description of who you are, what you do and why you’re asking for help. These are largely read on mobile phones, so brevity is key.
4. Engage your community. Let your friends and supporters know they can do real work for you via their iPhone or computer. Encourage them to download the iPhone app or complete your mission via the Web. The Extraordinaries can provide you with direct links to your mission page and embeddable tools for your website. When people complete your mission, they’ll have the opportunity to tweet about it and share it via Facebook or email, increasing your exposure and missions completed.
At South by Southwest Interactive on Friday, a TechSoup representative cited the Extraordinaries’ efforts to bring a new dimension to relief efforts after the earthquake in Haiti. The site collected 8,137 news photos and volunteers submitted 76,584 image tags, resulting in 746 possible matches and 24 matches good enough to contact family members.
Clearly, we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the service’s possible uses in the years ahead.
The app is not yet available on other platforms.
How would you use The Extraordinaries? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Kim Bale, a former staffer at the Extraordinaries, is interested in exploring how nonprofits can use technology for social good.

Related

• The Extraordinaries: Building the ‘micro-volunteering’ movement (Socialbrite)
• New ways to take social actions (Socialbrite)
• Harnessing the crowd for social good (Socialbrite)

Social Media resources for any organization. John Haydon = Good PR

How To Create A Custom URL For Your Facebook Page In 70 Seconds   2010-03-12 10:08:34-05 During the TechSoup webinar on Facebook yesterday, one question that came up was about creating a custom URL for your Facebook Page. There are three reasons to create a custom URL for your Facebook Page: It’s easy for supporters to remember. Creating the custom URL prevents someone else from registering it. And if someone else does register your [...] read more...   29 Pros And Cons Of Starting A Blog For Your Nonprofit   2010-03-15 10:48:02-04 Starting a blog for your nonprofit is not something you take lightly. Based on my conversations with nonprofits, I’ve found the following “pros and cons”: The Pros Of Starting A Blog For Your Nonprofit Blogs are much less expensive to host and manage than traditional websites – and most hosting companies feature “1-click” installation of WordPress. WordPress is [...] read more...   How To Demonstrate Integrity On Your Blog   2010-03-16 07:26:12-04 Following is an intro to a guest post I published today on Tanveer Naseer’s blog. ______________________________ Integrity, as Tanveer has talked about before, is a critical factor in attracting and retaining readers, subscribers and customers. In the offline world, integrity is something people easily recognize. It could be demonstrated by returning something on time that you borrowed, staying [...] read more...   How To Shoot Yourself In The Foot   2010-03-18 10:30:17-04 You expend all of your energy fighting to promote your non-profit’s cause. You spend time nurturing relationships with your biggest fans. And you care deeply about the people impacted by the issues you fight for. It’s in your DNA. So I can understand how frustrating it must be when your marketing folks decide not to post a [...] read more...   What I do I advise non-profits how to implement inbound and social media marketing strategies. If you're interested in hiring me, let's talk! Sponsors