• Compfight – Search engine and plug-in for Creative Commons photos 

Flickr hosts over 6 billion images, many of them being licensed under Creative Commons Licenses. Compfight is a search engine that helps you find those images. However, the main attraction of Compfight is not the website itself, but the WordPress plug-in.

Once installed, you can search for CC licensed images directly from within a new post you are writing and Compfight will insert the selected image including the license and photo credit. The only thing I don’t like about the plug-in is that it hotlinks the image, rather than uploading it to the media library.

(h/t Manage WP) 

• 6 Tools to Build a Mobile App on the Cheap

While some people might clearly have a different definition of “cheap” than the author, these services can still help you develop an app for your non-profit for less money, than when hiring a dedicated programmer. Considering that “mobile” is becoming more and more important, these services might be helpful, particularly if your organization is working with volunteers who need to capture date or wants to share location based information. 

• In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid

Great study, but why does it have to be 206 pages long?

“Over the past 40 years, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has developed a reputation as an emergency medical humanitarian organization willing to go almost anywhere to deliver care to people in need. Yet when questioned about MSF, people in countries where it works had different perceptions. One thought MSF was from Saudi Arabia and financed by Muslim charities. Another thought it was a China-based corporation. And yet another believed MSF requires everyone who enters their medical facilities to be armed (quite the opposite, in fact).”

• Infoasaid: Diagnostic Tools

“infoasaid has developed a set of diagnostic tools aimed to support: community and audience profiling, information needs and access assessments, communication strategy development and feasibility assessments related to different channels of communication.”

• Beyond Kony 2012 (e-book) 

Amanda Traub from Wronging Rights has published an e-book for those who want to know more about Kony and the LRA, follwong the Kony 2012 campaign.

“This book is both a collection of that criticism [of the campaign], and a constructive response to it. The authors each wrote a short essay offering information that they felt was missing from the video, or explaining how they thought the campaign could be improved.”

The book is sold at a suggested retail price of 2.99 USD, but you can also download it for free. I have already bought it since I have been following her blog for many years, but  have unfortunately not gotten around to reading the book yet.

• The worst way to judge a charity

The LA times is talking about why administrative costs are a bad way to judge the effectiveness of an aid organization. While the points that are raised are hardly new for anyone working in this industry, it is nice to read this in a mainstream newspaper.

Related posts:

1. Posts worth reading: from social media ROI to digital storytelling
2. Posts worth reading – 1 April 2012
3. Lack of communication fuels panic during riot

• How UNICEF used social media monitoring for their annual flagship report

Showing a concrete return of investment is one of the most difficult things for non-profits involved in social media (unless you focus on fundraising only).  And while there are numerous tools that promise to help you measure and visualize their impact, I find frequently find them either too simplistic or overwhelming. One of the most sophisticated tools to measure social media impact is “Radian6”, which is used by a number of UN agencies. UNICEF has just published the results of their social media monitoring for their annual flagship report. I find the post interesting because all NGOs struggle with how to promote reports, which are often rather dry, online.

• 10 paid social media monitoring services for nonprofits

If, after reading the UNICEF post, you suddenly decide to spend some money on social media monitoring, you might want to take a look at Socialbrite’s list of paid services. While not free, their recommendations are quite affordable. Personally I’m using Hootsuite which is fine for basic monitoring, but nowhere near as sophisticated as Radian 6.  It really depends on what you need and whether you are willing to spend a few dollars or a few thousand dollars.

• Buy a diagram

„Slide:ology“ by Nancy Duarte is hands down the best book on powerpoint presentations I have ever read. Her design company has now started an online shop for those of us who are creatively challenged but need a good looking diagram for a presentation. The shop currently contains  4,000 diagrams and cost only 99 cents each.  And while I haven’t bought anything from them yet, I’m sure to give it a try next time I’m asked to explain something mindboggling.

• How much does social media cost in 2012?

How much do you need to pay someone to write a Social Media Strategy? How much for the monthly management of your Facebook page?  Mack Collier has published average social media consultancy rates since 2010 and just released the 2012 figures. The post is rather long, so make sure you scroll down to the actual rates.

• Digital storytelling for non-profits: 8 tips

Digital storytelling seems to be the non-profit buzzword for social media in 2012. Alex Noble is giving some good advice on how to get started. While some of his tips are very basic, overall I found the blog post very helpful and down to earth. His recommendation to consider a series of still images, rather than video clips, for example are probably more realistic for NGOs with very limited resources. I also like his free and low-cost software recommendations.

Related posts:

1. Posts worth reading – 1 April 2012
2. Posts worth reading: From finding photos and building apps to aid efficiency and communication
3. Use of technology in the 2011 elections in Liberia

• World Water Day: The key to sustainability is data

Amy Sample Ward has an interesting post showing how mobile technology can be used to monitor service delivery – in this case water: “Combining Android cell phone technology and Google Earth software, FLOW lets field workers, volunteers, our partners and others record data from tens of thousands of water points around the world. That information is then displayed on our online global map to signal whether a project is up and running, broken, or on the verge of disrepair and needs quick action.” I love these kind of things because they show that it’s the comparatively simple solutions that can make the biggest difference in peoples’ lives.

• How Oxfam America engaged bloggers for International Women’s Day campaign

Everybody loves real-world case studies and I’m no exception. In this post Shonali Burke explains how she helped Oxfam with blogger outreach. The secret – as always – is you have to do your homework.

• American Red Cross Digital Ops Center: Your Questions, Their Answers

Being an ex-Red Crosser I had planned to write a dedicated blog post about the AmCross Social Media Disaster Response Center myself, but Kim Stephens already has all the answers, so please read his blog post. I have been to the Disaster Operations Center (DOC) in Washington D.C. a few years ago and have to say it is the most impressive setup I have ever seen and I’m really glad to see that they are now incorporating social media.

And – last but not least – because today is April Fools Day:

• Google’s Gags Go Worldwide For April Fool’s Day 2012

My favourite is probably the Google Chrome Multitask Mode …

Have you come across any articles of blog posts that you think are interesting for readers of “Social Media for Good”? Please share them in the comments section. 

Related posts:

1. Posts worth reading: from social media ROI to digital storytelling
2. Posts worth reading: From finding photos and building apps to aid efficiency and communication
3. Behind the scenes of the American Red Cross Digital Operations Centre

"Damned Nations" by Samantha Nutt

I just finished “Damned Nations” by Samantha Nutt, a book I’d highly recommend to anyone working in the aid sector, anyone interested in aid or development as well as any aid worker who wants his friends and relatives to understand what he is doing all day.

Samantha Nutt is a medical doctor specialising in public health and has been working in the aid sector since 1995. She has worked for both the UN and NGOs and is the founder of the “War Child Canada“.

What I like about the book is that it is critical but never defeatist – contrary to what the title suggests. It is an excellent counter part to the largely negative world view of books like Linda Polman’s “Crisis Caravan”.  Where Polman is criticising everything and doesn’t offer solutions, Nutt is just as critical but also shows a way to address some of the problems. That two of her central recommendations are involving communities and empowering women is hardly surprising.

In 240 well written pages, “Damned Nations” covers an amazing array of topics. From voluntourism, to small arms control, from “gifts in kind” to overseas development aid.

No related posts.

Doing their homework

One team of journalists who have really made an effort is the team behind “Inside Disaster Haiti”, which will air as of Tuesday in Canada. They had already been in touch with the Canadian Red Cross for a whole year prior to the earthquake, wanting to film a response operation. When the earthquake happened they were able to deploy with some of the first emergency response units and they came back a few times afterwards to film the progress.

Inside Disaster Trailer from PTV Productions on Vimeo.

Serious game gives a glimpse behind the scenes

An offshoot of the film is the “serious game” Inside the Haiti earthquake where anybody can play the role of a survivor, a journalist or an aidworker. It’s done fairly simply: you get shown a scene and then have to pick one of multiple choices, which will influence how the rest of the story progresses. But since it is based on professional-grade documentary material, I think that it actually leaves quite an impression and can help people to get at least a glimpse of the decisions that need to be made at in an operation like this.

I have worked as a journalist for almost ten years and found that part quite realistic. As for the aidworker-scenario: in the beginning I was really upset because their protagonist is someone who spontaneously decides to go to Haiti with some random, donated goods and without any training or useful skills, i.e. exactly the kind of person that most big organizations don’t want to see on the ground. But they actually manage to take this lack of experience and include it as part of the scenario. Which is brilliant because, after all, the people playing the game will have no experience.

And while it isn’t trying to give you an in-depth perspective by any means, I still think that it might open some people’s eyes to the complexities of the work. So, all in all, a big “thumps up” from me:

Check it out and play “Inside disaster the Haiti earthquake”.

Related posts:

1. From collaborative “crisis mapping” to “crisis feeding”
2. Photographer sues AFP for 120 million over Twitter-photos

True, there are USB stick that you can use to connect your laptop to the web, but to me that always felt like a crutch . Then, the other day, I discovered what I had been looking for all the time: a wireless router that is small enough to fit into a pocket. And I love it!

Connects up to five devices

Fit's in the palm of my hand - the Hauwei E5 wireless router.

It’s called “Huawei E5” (marketing clearly had no say in this) and I bought it through my local mobile phone provide for 120 Euros. In addition you need a SIM card and obviously some kind of data-plan.

What I like about it is that it is not SIM-locked so I can easily switch this SIM card for another if I’m abroad.

I can connect up to five devices to it, which is great if you are meeting for an impromptu work-session with someone in a cafe where there is no wifi.

The maximum download speed is 7.2 MBit but that depends on what kind of wireless signal you have at your location. If HSUPA or 3G is not available, it’ll switch to whatever speed is. I tried it while being in the train and it was still good enough to browse the web (slowly) and send or receive emails.

Meager battery life

The only negative thing I can say about it is that battery life is not great. It’s only good for about four hours. Considering that it’s basically just a small transmitter the batter life should be much better than that. But it charges through USB and wall socket so it’s not a huge issue.

I’ve had it for around for about a week now – always in my carrier bag – and I think it’s great. In Germany O2 is selling it, but you can fit any SIM card into it so there is no reason to be tied to a specific provider.

No related posts.