Nonprofit Bridge

Came across an interesting blog posting this week on the Career Hub blog that described networking as a career management tool, not as a job search tool.  I also received an email invitation to connect with someone on LinkedInwho said he’d only recently discovered the value of connecting with people despite having signed up on LinkedIn a while back.

Before the Internet (if my younger readers can imagine such a time), it was much harder to keep in touch with people.  Now, the problem is choosing which tool to use.  For many years I believed that excelling in your job would be enough to insure career success.  But now I’ve realized the importance of keeping up with your network, regardless of whether or not I am seeking a job change. I’ve actually started to enjoy the interaction and have looked for ways I can help others.  So while I work hard for my current employer, I also make sure I attend (and speak at) conferences, as well as participate in nonprofit email lists and keep in touch with my contacts.

Would I be open to a new job opportunity if one came along?  Yes.  But it is not my main purpose for networking.  I also find that my involvement with many people in other organizations gives me a broader perspective that I could never develop from working at any one firm.  I’ve recently started to subscribe to many of my peers’ blogs, and comment when I can.  As described in Never Eat Alone, networking doesn’t have to be difficult, it can be very enjoyable in addition to helping your career.

Spent most of last week joining over 1,000 nonprofit techies from across the US as well as other countries at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington DC.  I also spent the following day at Penguin Day, a celebration of open source software.

As usual, the educational sessions at NTC were great.  Despite the large crowd, the many sessions planned concurrently helped keep the crowd size small – but made it harder to select which session to attend.  Some takeaways:

• much to my surprise, many sessions focused on the challenges of data integration and using APIs.  I have joined NTen’s affinity group to help further these efforts
• an interesting summary of how web 2.0 tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, SecondLife etc.) have been ’smuggled’ in to organizations that originally resisted them
• a ‘nonprofit soapbox’ that allows nonprofits to take full advantage of open source content management with some technical assistance
• importance of the IA (information architecture) in web project management
• open source software has become more mature – and is even more of an attraction for nonprofits, although having a relationship with a consultant or other support network is essential.

I also moderated a session on online registration tools.  Thanks to Mark Becker (Event 360), Cary McQueen Morrow (Center for Arts Management & Technology) & Eric Leland (Leland Design) for joining the panel.