Computers crash, viruses infect, and disasters happen. But they don’t have to affect your ability to continue working if you’re prepared. There are some key things you should know about your computer system and your applications — and things you should do with your data — to ensure that you’re back up in a few hours instead of a few days.   

Kami Griffiths will interview Laura Richardson from Uptime Resources to help you understand how you can get your system back up and running so your staff can continue to do their work as quickly as possible. The discussion will open your eyes to the risks you should be aware of and to the measures that can help prevent data loss.

Don't know your VoIP from your POTS or even what these acronyms mean? Scratching your head on all the phone system options out there? Then this webinar is for you. Join us Thursday February 18 at 11 a.m. Pacific for an informative webinar and forums event to help you avoid the buzz-word marketing and get the real picture on telecommunications. We'll be joined by telecommunications expert and longtime TechSoup star and forums moderator, Chris Shipley of Nutmeg IT and Kevin Lo, Lead Technology Analyst for TechSoup Global. Our hosts will address the various voice communication options (VoIP, PBX hardware, voicemail) available and how these differ.

Note: First published on the Leadership Learning Community Blog

Social media is changing the way people interact with each other. As Clay Shirky suggests, social media and networks enable people to share, converse, collaborate, and in some cases, engage in collaborative action.  And while collaborative action is not widely popular yet, it is where the future is headed (Clay Shirky 2008).

Both large and small nonprofits earned top honors this week for their attention-getting taglines, demonstrating again that an organization of any size can craft a powerful, pithy motto to build awareness and connect with its key audiences.  Organizations of all sizes participated in the Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards, hosted by president of Nancy Schwartz & Company and publisher at GettingAttention.org.

Find Out Who the 13 Winners Are!

Volunteerism in the 21st century can take a different form than traditional charity work, like YouTube's Video Volunteers: youtube.com/videovolunteers.

The mission of YouTube's Video Volunteers platform is to connect nonprofit organizations with skilled video makers who can help them broadcast their causes through video, reaching new audiences online and driving action around issues and projects that matter to them. In partnership with allforgood.org, the new platform that connects volunteers with volunteer opportunities, "Video Volunteers" pools video-related volunteer postings and connects YouTubers with these opportunities.

What's the secret recipe to making great YouTube videos for your nonprofit?  Learn the secret ingredients from a baby rhino...read more

Lately, I've heard from many organizations that they are on board with social media and excited to be finding, connecting with and engaging their communities online.  But, they are struggling with the number of options available and how to differentiate between the tools they are using.  So, April's Net2 Think Tank focuses in on the multiple entry points of engagement used by nonprofits.  Won't you join the conversation?

Learn more about the topic and how to participate below.

February's Net2 Think Tank sprang from an interview with Clay Shirky, the author of Here Comes Everybody.  The topic asked: What do you think the role of nonprofit organizations is in the changing world of social media? This month, we also have a book giveaway of a free copy of Skiry's paperback edition of Here Comes Everybody for one of the contributors.

Watch the interview and check out these responses!

You can watch the video interview with Skirky below.  This month, we asked:

What do you think the role of nonprofit organizations is in the changing world of social media? 

I recently connected with Vinnie Lauria of lefora to hear about the forum service as well as its use by nonprofit organizations.  Vinnie is the co-founder of lefora.com, a free forum hosting service for communities on the web. He also runs a monthly New Technology Meetup group in Silicon Valley, featuring over 3,000 members and 150+ companies that have demoed their product since 2006.

It's Net2 Think Tank time again and this month we have a book giveaway, too!

Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations came out last year and has started a lot of conversations about the power of online communities. Shirky explains in his book that, "Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring... It's when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen."