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New Media? Web 2.0? Social media? Digital media?

No matter the buzzword, the bottom line is what is it and does it matter?  This is an important question given all of the demands for attention facing non-profit leaders and development professionals today. And even more so with budgets being tighter than ever.

Let’s first address the question of what New Media really is.

What is New Media all about?

A dialogue.  And about the technology available today that makes that dialogue possible.

New Media generally includes things like:

• Web Sites
• Email
• Social Networking
• Wikis
• Blogs, Vlogs
• Podcasts
• Online Video
• Widgets
• Mobile

Next — why should New Media matter to non-profits today.

Some ministries look at email as a fire hose — it is either on or it’s off. For the most part this is going to get people soaked, but not satisfied.

What you need is a soda fountain. Your constituents deserve the kind of control you have at any fast-food restaurant. They should be able to mix and match the communication they want to meet their needs. I recently came upon two ideas to think about as you set up your email soda fountain.

Originally posted on Silas Notes a blog of Trinet Internet Solutions.

A few weeks back I posted that Kintera might open up their platform a bit, well today the door got a little wider.

You can read more on their site, and NTEN has some more on this as well.

Originally posted on Silas Notes a blog of Trinet Internet Solutions.

From what I’ve read so far it seems promising, but it’s a “show me the money” moment. I’ve already contacted Kintera asking for documentation and code samples. A completely open API would be launched with all of this publicly accessible — that would have been a miracle.

Mashable is reporting that free Feedburner Pro features will be added to free accounts. Woo Hoo! That’s what happens when Google buys you.

Read more of Feedburner gets more free

Google Earth is a free piece of software that allows you to browse the globe from your desktop. Recently, Google was in the news for adding information to Google Earth on what is happening in Darfur.

Read more of Google Earth adds charities

I’ve posted about Twitter and how your ministry could use this technology to quickly update your constituents. A company called Frengo has launched a new way for ministries to create a mini Twitter network of their own, thanks to Mashable for the great write-up.

Originally posted on Silas Notes a blog of Trinet Internet Solutions.

Confusing your ministries speech with normal everyday speech can be a big problem on the web. It can make a well-designed website into a mess for an end user. We do a few things to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Read more of No Jargon in Your Navigation

Google is doing something that is certainly not evil, they are adding information to Google Earth about the crisis in Darfur.

Now international humanitarian crisis generally falls outside of this blog’s audience and purpose, but there are some things that we have to point out.

Originally posted on Silas Notes a blog of Trinet Internet Solutions.

Erin and I had Chipotle on Saturday. The food was great as usual, but there was a new thing that made me smile.

Read more of Good Design at Chipotle

Mashups are all the rage now days. If you aren’t a link follower, a mashup is the combining of two web applications to make a third one. I think they also give us a window on human behavior.

Alex from Read/WriteWeb dug a bit deeper and took a look at the popularity of various types of mashups. They found mapping mashups are the most popular. Then Alex post goes on to draw conclusions about why mashups are created and their rate of adoption, but I think there is another insight from this data.

Originally posted on Silas Notes a blog of Trinet Internet Solutions.