Today Allison Fine and I celebrated the launch of the Networked Nonprofit at TechSoup Global in the space where Netsquared Meetups take place. I got to snap this photo of two women, Marnie Webb and Charlene Li, who have greatly influenced my work over the past 5-10 years. It was fantastic to connect with colleagues in SF, almost like a family reunion. Finally, people really wanted to dig in and discuss the big ideas in the book!
Having the party at TechSoupGlobal meant a lot to me. I’ve been a long-time member of the community — and have had the pleasure of working with Susan Tenby, Rachel Weidinger, Evonne Heyning, Rebecca Wiegand, Erica Lorraine Scheidt, and many others. Most importantly, the vision that Marnie Webb had over five years ago called Netsquared inspired me to keep blogging and explore social media and nonprofits. The TechSoup Global model is on so many levels a Networked Nonprofit. Both Allison Fine and I are truly blessed to have such gracious and supportive colleagues and friends at TechSoup.
I’ve been following Charlene Li’s work since I heard her keynote at the BlogHer 2005 conference. She launched a book last month, Open Leadership. If you look at Amazon’s recommendation engine, customers who purchased her book also purchased The Networked Nonprofit. There’s a reason for that as Holly Ross at NTEN writes in this blog post about how NTEN is applying the principles of Open Leadership. Buy Charlene Li’s book (along with ours) – it is important for nonprofit leaders too!
It was great to see Craig Newmark and exchange #squirrel greeting in real time. (And I promise you this reference to Up does have a connection to the Networked Nonprofit, but I’ll save that for my presentation at CraigsList Nonprofit Bootcamp in August.)
The discussion about Networked Nonprofits was rich. A couple points that stood out:
- How can nonprofits work together in a networked way via social media? Amy Jussel asked this great question. It made me think of Network Life Cycles and NetGains.
- James Leventhal told us all the Smithsonian Commons is a beautiful case study in transparency and nonprofits.
- We talked about network weaving and I got to share some of June Holley’s ideas about Network Weaving as a way of being rhizomatic. Adina Levin told me that she didn’t realize it, but she was a network weaver.
- Amy Gahran asked a great question about mobile phones and Networked Nonprofits. Couldn’t resist some public network weaving and put Ben Rigby on the spot to answer it. Amy almost didn’t make to the party because her firmware upgrade too forever! This seems to be theme in Amy’s life …
- David Geilhufe asked for a case study where free agents have successfully worked with Fortresses. Here’s where we acknowledged that change takes time! Here’s where I shared why I like blogging. David, to answer your question, here’s an unfolding story.
- We were asked a great question about how The Networked Nonprofit and Social Media relevant to those who don’t have Internet access. I got share a wonderful story about Pratham Books. Small world.
- Robin Mohr shared some examples of transparent churches, Adin Miller did some terrific live tweeting and tracking down some references – for example this post by Allison Jones about rethinking internships, and I noticed Kenneth Yueng taking photos (hope he puts them in the Networked Nonprofit Group and hope I was smiling) and JD Lasica asking smart questions.
- Got to do some networking and catchup. I learned that Chris Heuer is working on some great educational projects. Chris gave me the opportunity to be a social media tourist and I’ll never forget it.
It was great to see/meet Dorothy Hearst, Dien Yuen, Matt Sharp, Sandee Smith, Meg Garlinghouse, Joni Podolsky, Cathryn Hrudicka, Amy Luckey, Shradha, Dani Scoville, Adnan Mahmud, Judith Copeland, Jeanne Ray, and others whose names I’m not remembering because I am tired and wasn’t live tweeting or blogging this event – so please forgive me.
I’m headed to the East Coast in the morning for another week of book launch events – see you there! For those of you who want discuss The Networked Nonprofit, SocialEdge is hosting a book blog and discussion over the next couple of weeks.
