Aha! I knew there had to be a word for misusing review quotes. From this week’s World Wide Words:

Such extracts from reviews are called “pull quotes” in the jargon;massaging them into more favourable versions is “quote doctoring”. Another word, with apologies to Stephen Potter, is “quotemanship”(or “quotesmanship”). “Contextomy” is yet another term, one used principally by academics in reference to literary misquoting. The ending “-tomy” means cutting up and has here been neatly reversed into “context”. It was created by the historian Milton Mayer in 1966 in reference to a much more significant issue, the misquoting of the Torah for propaganda purposes by Julius Streicher, editor ofthe Nazi paper Der Stürmer in Weimar-era Germany.

Notes from Rebecca below on managing nonprofit technology projects

http://aspirationtech.org/events/mntp-sf http://mntp.aspirationtech.org/index.php/Event_Agenda

…maybe I’ll clean this up someday.

—- !!!Basic Stages of a Project

1. Initiate * define project * talk about start and end points, budget, participants/roles, timeline
2. Plan * defining scope, requirements, use cases

3. Implement

4. Monitor

5. Close *how do you know when you’re done with the project you’re working on?

*upkeep/maintenance phase?

*in “waterfall” style projects, there is just one of each step *in “agile” style projects, the plan -> implement -> monitor cycle repeats *know which style project it is at the beginning!

!!!Content inventories For redesign processes, figure out what content and navigation is currently present and how it’s organized. Include things like creation dates and web statistics; talk about the value of old content to users. This can affect how much of the content is migrated, and can give organizations insight into how they intend to communicate vs. how they’re actually communicating. For example, one PM working on the ACLU site inventoried 15,000 pages; the ACLU decided to migrate 8,000 of those, and rethought their style of technical & legal language to a more personal approach.

!!!Scope Creep *postpone things to phase 2 *define project endpoints in the “initiate” phase *specifications that include what ‘‘won’t’’ be included *review scope and recently developed features regularly *revisit goals to regain focus as scope creep starts to take over *saying no: make sure that people are aware of the depth of their requests, especially if they’re out of scope. inform people about research or dev time required just to estimate cost for a feature.

!!!Recognizing Impending Doom *chunking projects: dividing projects into smaller chunks will make overages more obvious. *development time = developer + QA + PM + client + risk + padding. *define checkin points in the web plan *be upfront/honest/immediate when you’re feeling uncomfortable *be proactive about input–consider what input people will have before you ask them for it *one attendee mentioned that they “had been trying to stay with this FOSS community which was politically important, but they were making incredibly bad engineering decisions” and they eventually had to break with the FOSS group. *beware of working with volunteers who aren’t web professionals *notice the point where transparency starts to drop

!!!Client Panic *lack of communication: presenting a product that the client hasn’t seen before and they aren’t happy *role changes on either the client or dev side can trigger less dialouge *when you’re behind, don’t just work harder: restructure dev roles, reopen lines of communication with client *sign of panic: abusive emails. one dev mentioned having a “2 strike rule” for abusive communication; he immediately calls higher-ups re: lack of tolerance for abusive/blame email/interaction *learn how to identify ‘‘good’’ things about a client relationship

’'’recovery stragegy’’’: regaining trust is remotely is difficult. Highly structured communication can help; for example, frequent meeting at consistent times with a repeated agenda.

#highly structured communication #revisit goals #talk to other members of the client org #re-structure the project #fire the client

!!!Turning a Project into a Product *forces you into more standardization *documentation becomes exponentially more important *languages & international users: translators can be your most active outside contributors

!!!Other *build test cases alongside app development *involve real-life people–external stakeholders–in the process *make sure there is someone within the nonprofit who can maintain the solution *can you narrow your website’s focus? working with the client to focus the project; can be used to reduce the feature set and budget, AND/OR to clarify the client’s communication strategy. *get clients to take notes at meetings and send them to you so that you know what they’re taking away/expecting *discussions about “which tools?” can obscure discussions of needs *blog or message board for a project: for both issues and for cheerleading *“the smallest organizations need the most hand-holding” —- EOF

I’ve been meaning to type of some of my notes from the NTEN 2008 Conference, but the benefit of waiting is that someone will do it better. Like Britt Bravo: Notes from The Seven Things Everyone Wants: What Freud and Buddha Understood (and We’re Forgetting) about Online Outreach .

In short (lots more notes and examples in the link):

Need 1: To be SEEN and HEARD

Does your home page make people feel heard? Not many people give money because they read a well word-smithed mission statement. Effective sites and campaigns provide space for people to express themselves. Nonprofits need to truly listen to their supporters and acknowledge what they are saying.

Need 2: To be CONNECTED to someone or something

Engage people by connecting to what they (not you!) care about.

**Need 3: To be part of something GREATER THAN THEMSELVES **

**Need 4: To have HOPE for the future **

Doom and gloom, and finger-wagging messages don’t work.

Need 5: The security of TRUST

People are starved for a sense of trust in “the messenger.”

**Need 6: To be of SERVICE **

The #1 reason people stop giving to a nonprofit is that they feel like they are being treated like an ATM machine. They want to help, but they want to be of service, and to have different ways of serving. That need is not being fulfilled if all they hear is the unimaginative drumbeat of dollars.

**Need 7: To want HAPPINESS for self and others **

The core of Buddhism is that everyone wants happiness and to be free from suffering. The more you want happiness for others, the better it is for you, and them.

The cafe down the corner from my house makes the best brownies and I’ve been wanting this recipe ever since they opened. My friends have been quietly debating whether it was corn syrup or condensed milk that makes them so good. I made an oft-hand remark about it today and the counter-girl went back and wrote out the recipe for me. Turns out the answer is butter and eggs, lots of ‘em.

In regard to the amounts below: they were given to me in grams, and I did some loose conversions since I don’t have a scale.

• 3-1/3 C (760g) Butter
• 1-2/3 Lb (910g) Chocolate
• 12 Eggs
• 2 Tsp Vanilla
• 2-1/2 C (560g) Sugar
• 3-1/3 C (420g) Flour
• 2 Tsp Salt

18” X 24” Pan (makes 24 Brownies)

I didn’t get the instructions for actually baking them, but I assume that you melt and cool the chocolate, then cream everything, adding the flour at the end.

Probably bake at 350 (though maybe a cooler 325). They should have a torte-like consistency when done—cakily aerated but moist and fudgy if compressed.

From an Ars Technica article entitled YouTube University gets failing grade from prof, students. The original analysis is here

Juhasz breaks the issues down into a set of what she refers to as “binaries”—tensions between opposites that have to be balanced for proper teaching.

Those binaries were:

1. Public/Private
2. Aural/Visual
3. Body/Digital
4. Amateur/Expert
5. Entertainment/Education
6. Control/Chaos

I made a simple chart of approximate seed planting times for Boston (USDA Zone 6). You can download a printable PDF of the planting chart.

Today I put together a simple raised bed in my backyard. I built it along the same design as the Food Project’s Build-a-Garden Program’s planter—which my landlord participated in last year. Other than shoveling 1300 pounds of soil needed for an 8 x 4 raised bed, it was pretty easy. The only really novel part is putting a sheet of weed-block between the ground and the planting soil to keep the vegetables from growing down into polluted city-dirt.

Dandy’s recipe:

• 8 medium tomatoes, stewed
• 1 jalapeno
• 4 green onion, chopped
• 1/4 bunch of cilantro, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves

Then:

• In large sauce pan, stew tomatoes and jalepeno.
• Remove stem from jalapeno.
• Put into blender or food processor.
• Add garlic.

Then:

• Pour into pan.
• Add 4 green onions and cilantro.
• Simmer for 15 minutes.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

My alteration:

Take all of the above ingredients, and just throw them in a blender (I use a can of whole stewed tomatoes rather than the fresh tomatoes—probably better fresh). Done._

.!.

Meet my new cat, Jose Pierpont (“Ponty”). I got him a few weeks ago from the MSPCA and he’s somewhere in that adolescent cat phase between 10 months and a year old. He’s pretty awesome, though he has a strong penchant for pipe cleaners. more pictures

Two weeks ago I launched a new website at Brompt.com. It’s a web-based service for unreliable bloggers (like myself) that sends you an email if you haven’t posted to your blog in a while. It’s sort’ve like HassleMe except Brompt actively scans your blogs RSS feed to only send reminders when you’re lax (as opposed to just sending you a reminder every so often).

It’s very practical, but I also think Brompt is really interesting conceptually too. Everyone talks about RSS as just a means to aggregating content, but there is so much other interesting metadata in an RSS feed too.

Right now the site is just the barebones service, but I’m planning on adding some statistics and such so you can track your unreliability. It’s a fun project with a lot of possibilities.

Because of constructive criticism of some of my organization’s archaic language, I asked the Mission Based Massachusetts Listserv, a nonprofit discussion list, what terms they use in place of “poor people”. Below are all of the responses I got, which were awesome!

Some terminology…

• low-income
• under-resourced
• under-served ( Barbara humorously notes that “overserved” is a euphemism for intoxicated)
• people living in poverty
• historically and persistently marginalized groups

(thanks Michelle, Felicia, and others who are quoted below)

Some general strategies…

• Use a preposition: Instead of “poor children” the phrase “children from low income households”. Therefore, it’s not the subject themselves, but rather their circumstances. (thanks Barbara!)
• Use a specific measure, like “125% of the federal poverty threshold” or “50% of area median income,” whatever’s most appropriate in the context.
• For a grant proposal, look at the language the grantmaker is using and follow their lead. (thanks Dennis!)
• Think of the program as asset based rather than deficit based: people who benefit end up being associated with the problem and not the solution (thanks Alan!).
• “Describing the populations we want to serve as ‘marginalized’ or ‘most vulnerable’ makes our donors feel good about themselves, but at the risk of objectifying people, using a dominant culture’s description of them as somehow Other. We try to incorporate this awareness into our outreach materials by assuming that the people we serve will be reading the materials. How would they feel about this description? How would they describe themselves? Does a description assume that the people have brought their situation on themselves? Does it assume that the people are simply victims and not actors in their lives? Does the language carry implicit judgment? Calling an activity ‘drug abuse’ carries many more judgments and assumptions than calling it ‘drug use.’ (thanks Kathy!)

“‘Working poor is a helpful phrase for those who are working, which reminds people that we aren’t talking about ‘welfare queens’, a term I fear may still have resonance….I like to remind people what the actual Federal Poverty Guidelines are. We know, but many people outside our profession don’t actually know how low it is, and if you take a minute and ask people to think about how it compares to their own household income, you can see people digest what that means.” (thanks Michelle!)

To note, from the 2008 Federal Poverty Guidelines, an individual making less than $10,400 is in poverty, while for a household of 4 poverty is earning less than $21,200 (in the lower 48 states, slightly more in Hawaii and Alaska). As of 2006 there were 36.5 million Americans in poverty (according to the US Census Bureau).

Some said that the terminology wasn’t the issue…

• “I’m poor. It doesn’t upset me when people say I’m poor. It does upset me when the thought police waste everyone’s time talking about language issues instead of actually fighting poverty.” (thanks Pat!)
• “There’s nothing degrading about saying someone is poor. It’s an insult only if you believe their poverty indicates their own moral failing, and THAT’s an antiquated attitude.” (thanks Dennis!)

And a related example…

“This is interesting to me because I work at a prison education organization. We have lots of materials that talk about ‘prisoners’. An ex-prisoner recently called that word into question, saying that it was dehumanizing and he preferred to be referred to as a person (perhaps incarcerated person?). However, I work with a group of folks who deliberately call themselves Ex-Prisoners. So there’s no easy answer.” (thanks Mea!)

External Resources:

Michael pointed me to two great resources:

• Two Penny Project: To build public support for human services in Massachusetts: “…The problem with the Sympathy/Poverty frame is that it reinforces the idea that poverty is the result of bad individual choice rather than a condition that requires systemic reform. This message also recreates the sense that people will think nothing can be done that doesn’t make matters worse….The Ford Foundation recommends that advocates frame their messages in terms of responsible planning and economic vision, with a strong secondary or reinforcing message about community planning….” (page 3)
• For An Economy That Works: There are a lot of resources and studies here on language. Their goal is creating effective frames of reference for poverty issues to effect policy, which may or may not be applicable to grantwriting or appeals.