A little Norton spring cleaning
Posted on April 30, 2006
Filed Under Internet & Technology | 4 Comments
It was time.
When I was away last week, I had to restart my computer a few times as I moved from place to place. You know it’s time to do some housecleaning when it takes 8 minutes for your system to go through a full restart. I don’t even mean from when you first select “Restart” from the menu. I mean after the generic black screens load and you first click on your login icon on the blue screen…up to the point that your machine is actually usable. Windows XP users know that you may see your desktop quickly, but the machine is useless until a certain point that enough services have loaded so your applications will launch and you have your network connections.
8 minutes! Ridiculous.
First thing I did this morning was get rid of all things Norton. I’ve had Norton Internet Security on my PCs since I started using PCs in 2004, but I know it’s big and bloated and can slow things down. I know there’s better out there. My Mom also has Norton Internet Security and she’s getting a warning that her subscription is about expire. I’ve learned the hard way that I can’t put anything on her computer that I don’t know and understand how it works myself. She’s very bright and she knows her stuff…once I show her. Even though my subscription doesn’t expire for another 6 months, I decide to make the switch now.
I decided to go with ZoneAlarm’s suite. It’s very highly rated, well supported and reasonably priced. I briefly considered going with just anti-virus, and letting the Windows built-in firewall do the rest. But in the end, I like the interface of the suite products better than Windows. Better safe than sorry, I guess. It was easy enough to disable the features I wasn’t interested in.
It’s a big decision because it’s not so easy to try 3 or 4 different products and settle on what you like best. You have to completely remove all traces of other products or you may be asking for trouble later. It took a long time to get rid of the Symantec stuff. A simple uninstall doesn’t do it. You have to run Norton’s tool and to be safe, do some manual digging around the registry. I’m not sure if I got it all, but I’m hopeful.
Next I took a pass through my startup items and installed applications. For this I highly recommend TuneUp Utilities. I’ve been using the application for about a year and it does a much better job than the Windows tools in telling you exactly where that file or application came from. Do I really need to have that installed? Would I miss it if it were gone? If I still want the application, does it really need to start with Windows?
A couple of hours later and it feels like i have a new machine. Everything feels faster, and I like ZoneAlarm’s task bar icon that shows when activity is actually happening.
And that startup? Now down to under 3 minutes. 
Final word on the NetSquared thing
Posted on April 27, 2006
Filed Under Nonprofit | 3 Comments
I’m not going. I don’t want to go. Hopefully this will be the end of it.
The NetSquared folks address the criticism they received over the conference here, and since they quote this very blog I thought it fair to report back.
Having just gotten back from an event I organized, I fully understand how tough these things are and how things look very different on paper than what happens in reality. It’s one thing to push code or push pixels, it’s entirely different when you’re pushing people, even if it’s simply to get them from one side of the room to the other (or in our case…to meet at a building across from the Capitol so you can get a group picture). To make sure that you’ve anticipated every possible "what if" scenario and you have the answer or "Plan B" ready. There’s always going to be something that will throw you off…always. But at least let it be something big. One of our attendees got into a car accident on the way to the airport…she’s fine, thank goodness, but no way I could have anticipated that one.
That’s where the NetSquared folks fell flat on their faces. Sorry. They blew it. They meant well. Their heart is in the right place. But if you’re expecting people to make an investment of resources and time, yikes…you owe them better than that. They missed the first "what if" out of the gate…With their attendance so limited, and the fact that they only want a certain number of people from each area, it’s hard to believe they never asked themselves "What if we get more people interested in this thing than we have room for?"
Good luck, folks…you’re going to need it.
Mrs. Sohn goes to Washington
Posted on April 27, 2006
Filed Under Nonprofit | Leave a Comment
I know what you’re thinking…don’t you have a job that’s based out of Washington, DC? Aren’t you going there every other week or so anyway?
Well, yes and no.
I’ve got around 4,000 Amtrak reward points in my account so going to Washington isn’t a new thing. This time, though, I made my first Hill visits. It’s the difference between going to Washington and going to where Government happens.
It was a gorgeous day and an incredibly empowering experience on many levels. I hope I never get too jaded in the politics/lobby “game” that I forget what it’s really all about.
We were there for One Voice Against Cancer’s annual lobby day. For the first time in 40 years, after you factor in inflation, Congress may be considering a budget that will cut funding that will go to cancer research. We are working to make sure that doesn’t happen. We’re at a tipping point…no time to let up on the pressure.
Update 4/28: here’s a picture of some of our crowd (I’m the one holding the yellow bag…did it intentionally so when I used the picture in the future it would have some context…that’s the One Voice Against Cancer logo).
Just what is so “best” about Best Practices?
Posted on April 23, 2006
Filed Under Nonprofit | 1 Comment
Best Practices.
We’ve all heard the term. What exactly does it mean?
I’ve been taking crash courses in Salesforce.com, as we’re working to get it ramped up for C3.
When you have something that is as infinitely flexible as Salesforce, the concept of “Best Practices” becomes a big deal. You’re looking at a lot of roads that take many different forks. Eventually patterns start to develop that end up in favorable results and you hope those folks who find those patterns have the good sense to write it down. Bingo. Best Practice.
Salesforce Heretic is a very good blog devoted to all things Salesforce. I’ve learned quite a bit from it. Today, he takes the term “Best Practices” to task:
Looking at it from the angle of using what is arguably the most cutomizable on-demand CRM appliction, why do Best Practices seem so… static, fixed, rigid? And how can a practice be Best for everyone from a B2B org, B2C and even not-for-profits? Why should a company who’s been in business for 1, 2, 5, 50+ years change a successful way of doing business to fit a Best Practice?
I left a longish comment, which I’ve decided to repeat here because it’s something that I say all the time, knowing exactly what I think I mean, but I never thought about the words in themselves:
We’re currently configuring SFDC for our nonprofit, and even though I could probably set it up myself, we’re working with implementation partners because I want to learn Best Practices.
What does that mean? Well, given a company of our size and structure (small, nonprofit), our needs (integration with GetActive, volunteer management, basic inventory management, grant tracking, mailing list management, etc.) “Best Practices” to me are those successes and mistakes that someone else has already made and learned from so I don’t have to make and learn from them myself.
So “Best Practices” is unique to the situation that it is being applied. Where does it say that it has to be “best” for everyone? It’s “best” for people who have a similar common baseline. “Best Practice” for people with 10 fingers is to use a keyboard. For people with more or less than that, “Best Practice” is something completely different.
For your second question, see the answer to the first question. “Best Practice” is based on common assumptions. So assuming that your company is this size and this structure, and assuming that you use SFDC, best practice is… It doesn’t mean that it’s the best *period*, it means that it’s the best using the same baseline starting point.
Best Practice says that you apologize if you make an inappropriate body noise in public. Is that the best thing to do? No, the best thing is not to make the noise in the first place. But that wasn’t the question.
So what do you think? Does the term “Best Practices” annoy you, or like me do you use it freely and intentionally thinking about it as anything but the literal meaning?
Non-profit blogging: keep your eyes on the road
Posted on April 21, 2006
Filed Under Nonprofit | 1 Comment
Emily painstakingly looked for non-profit related terms in blogs using Blogpulse and came to the conclusion
From this analysis I found out that these non-profit related terms were less than 1% of all blogs in the blogosphere. The only term that reached 1% was donate.
In conclusion, I have decided that there needs to be more non-profit related blogs and blog entries.
Sorry, I disagree. We need less people talking about non-profits and more people doing the work of non-profits and talking directly to the communities they are trying to engage. Less talking only to the tiny crowd that already “gets” the social web and more talking to the entire population that is affected or can be moved by the issue you are engaged around. Don’t get me wrong, I love Emily’s blog and this isn’t anything against her personally…I just think her analysis, while thorough, misses the mark.
You can’t look for words like “donations,” “charity,” and “non-profit” and draw a conclusion about non-profit blogs any more than you can search for “corporate,” “privately held company,” or “for-profit business” and think you are going to draw a conclusion about corporate blogs. Corporate bloggers, the good ones at least, rarely talk about corporate blogging or the spreadsheet they’re using. They’re talking about the products they are developing, the communities they are trying to build, the challenges and successes they have had in the marketplace. They’re focused on the same principles of business that they had before they started blogging, they’re just talking to their key communities in a more immediate, accessible and transparent way. Their blogrolls, if they have one, are of other bloggers who are talking in the same space. Not necessarily lists of other corporate bloggers who have nothing in common other than the fact that they are corporate bloggers. At some point you stop saying, “Look at me, I’m driving!” and you just concentrate on getting where you want to go.
Sure, there are blogs that talk about the work of non-profits and non-profit technology. Many days, this is one of those blogs, which is why I’ve lumped these posts into a “nonprofit” category. But that and a couple of bucks will get you on a subway. It ain’t going to get you a cure for cancer. There is a larger network if-you-will of blogs by non-profit organizations that are using tags, but not to reach out to non-profits and bloggers. Any more than I’ll tag this post with “keyboard” because that’s what I’m using to type this message. I’ve got the C3 bloggers tagging to the community we want to reach…those who are touched by or professionally involved in colorectal cancer. The fact that we have 501c3 status or get our funding from foundations is not the point.
