I recently wrote a post titled, ‘Twitter is dead. Long live the microblog!’ (http://tinyurl.com/dalurc). As far as I am concerned microblogs that are accessible via handset apps have leveled the playing field. Once orgs start implementing software packages like Laconi.ca behind their firewalls we are going to see whole new level of communication. We’re already discussing how to control and parse the data flow. It’s not a matter of if but when. Plugging our local partners into such a social stream would be as simple as name and password.

Check out my post and the comments where I lay out the concept. Please shoot holes in it where you can.

Many thanks and best regards,

Jon

Simple stuff. Open stuff. That’s what works.

People who care about helping will get straightforward tools to people that can be opened, changed, re-applied and reworked for a range of core functions…but that’s more or less what you’ve both said.

Hey, we’re all dazzled by good-looking technology, no blame game here. A related problem is that the best-looking technology is often a proprietary solution which has a large marketing budget behind it. That’s one thing we have to get out from under if we’re going to succeed – not dismissing commercial solutions but using our networks effectively to market those alternative approaches.

Thanks for the great analysis and commentary on my earlier post. I’m obviously pleased that you largely agree (!) but this is without doubt a conversation that needs to be had. It forms a large part of my conference talks these days, and is a message NGOs often largely agree with.

We need to go beyond recycling interesting case studies (in some cases over and over again) and start to seriously figure out how we get working tools into the hands of NGOs – working tools that are appropriate to their needs, not what we consider to be cool and sexy.

Thank you for continuing and widening the debate! Hopefully others will follow. =)

Ken