Comments on: Another social network for activism on the horizon, Part II http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii Confessions of a Non-Profit Executive Director Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:36:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Allan Benamer http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii/comment-page-1#comment-18306 Allan Benamer Thu, 24 May 2007 03:16:44 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii#comment-18306 Todd, there's competition here but I don't think LinkedIn for Good knocks out either change.org or chipin.com out of the running, not by any means. However, there's only so much room for nonprofit widgets. Starting from one widget to several widgets and even more in the future, it's hard for prospective microfundraisers to choose from the cornucopia of different widgets out there. In the end, LinkedIn for Good gets instant credibility since LinkedIn is a well-known brand. Will that crowd out other widgets? Sure, in this case, I'm pretty sure ChipIn won't want to be pushed out to the right-hand side of a Long Tail of widget wannabes with LinkedIn sitting in the alpha widget position. Todd, there’s competition here but I don’t think LinkedIn for Good knocks out either change.org or chipin.com out of the running, not by any means. However, there’s only so much room for nonprofit widgets. Starting from one widget to several widgets and even more in the future, it’s hard for prospective microfundraisers to choose from the cornucopia of different widgets out there. In the end, LinkedIn for Good gets instant credibility since LinkedIn is a well-known brand. Will that crowd out other widgets? Sure, in this case, I’m pretty sure ChipIn won’t want to be pushed out to the right-hand side of a Long Tail of widget wannabes with LinkedIn sitting in the alpha widget position.

]]> By: Allan Benamer http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii/comment-page-1#comment-18305 Allan Benamer Thu, 24 May 2007 03:10:24 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii#comment-18305 Geez, sorry for the late reply. I didn't realize there were comments here since I was so mesmerized by the Meebo chat room then left to hang out in Ft. Greene in Brooklyn so my apologies. Sure, I agree with you Beth, that LinkedIn for Good right now probably doesn't have nearly as many job listings as Idealist did but again, I'm sure the folks at OpportunityNOCs were surprised by the quick adoption of Idealist, too. It's just too enticing for LinkedIn to enter the nonprofit employment market. I would suspect that private sector people looking to transition to the nonprofit sector would at least give LinkedIn a spin around the block and LinkedIn for Good's free pricing for nonprofit job postings is sure to attract attention from nonprofit HR directors with nonexistent hiring budgets. Don't get me wrong, I think free pricing can be beaten on the basis of perceived value. However, free pricing with a well-known brand is a difficult proposition to counter. Ami, besides the enhanced RSS feeds, I would suggest that Idealist make it easier to find a job from the first page of Idealist.org. It's not actually that easy to find a job on Idealist despite the fact that job search is the Idealist "brand" for most people. The link to find jobs on Idealist is mystifyingly represented as: http://www.idealist.org/if/as/Find?sid=92898443-192-OaG I think it should just be http://www.idealist.org/jobs or http://jobs.idealist.org (both would be ideal). Also, there should be a large FIND JOBS button and not just a text link in the right hand sidebar. In fact, many of the URLs on idealist.org are not human-readable which I believe is simply a UI no-no when building large enterprise sites. It's not clear whether or not these URLs are permalinks either. It's been my experience that I go to Idealist for jobs and THEN I look at the rest of the site. If there was a way for people to take an Idealist.org job search "widget" and embed it into their Google homepage that would be great. It would allow for more searches to be done from the comfort of people's own daily homepage. Also, I believe that Idealist needs to geocode its data especially those regarding meeting and job locations and perhaps even feed that data into other meeting sites such as upcoming.yahoo.com and eventful.com. A geo-aware Idealist would attract a lot of press but also give new users a chance to understand the breadth and scope of Idealist's real-world offerings. I would love to see Idealist jobs and meetings on a Google Maps mashup so that I could find ONLY the jobs or meetings I'd be willing to sign up for based on their location. See housingmaps.com for an example. I'd love to see an Idealistvision just like the one over at Twittervision.com. Looking forward to your comments... Geez, sorry for the late reply. I didn’t realize there were comments here since I was so mesmerized by the Meebo chat room then left to hang out in Ft. Greene in Brooklyn so my apologies.

Sure, I agree with you Beth, that LinkedIn for Good right now probably doesn’t have nearly as many job listings as Idealist did but again, I’m sure the folks at OpportunityNOCs were surprised by the quick adoption of Idealist, too. It’s just too enticing for LinkedIn to enter the nonprofit employment market. I would suspect that private sector people looking to transition to the nonprofit sector would at least give LinkedIn a spin around the block and LinkedIn for Good’s free pricing for nonprofit job postings is sure to attract attention from nonprofit HR directors with nonexistent hiring budgets. Don’t get me wrong, I think free pricing can be beaten on the basis of perceived value. However, free pricing with a well-known brand is a difficult proposition to counter.

Ami, besides the enhanced RSS feeds, I would suggest that Idealist make it easier to find a job from the first page of Idealist.org. It’s not actually that easy to find a job on Idealist despite the fact that job search is the Idealist “brand” for most people. The link to find jobs on Idealist is mystifyingly represented as:

http://www.idealist.org/if/as/Find?sid=92898443-192-OaG

I think it should just be http://www.idealist.org/jobs or http://jobs.idealist.org (both would be ideal). Also, there should be a large FIND JOBS button and not just a text link in the right hand sidebar. In fact, many of the URLs on idealist.org are not human-readable which I believe is simply a UI no-no when building large enterprise sites. It’s not clear whether or not these URLs are permalinks either.

It’s been my experience that I go to Idealist for jobs and THEN I look at the rest of the site. If there was a way for people to take an Idealist.org job search “widget” and embed it into their Google homepage that would be great. It would allow for more searches to be done from the comfort of people’s own daily homepage.

Also, I believe that Idealist needs to geocode its data especially those regarding meeting and job locations and perhaps even feed that data into other meeting sites such as upcoming.yahoo.com and eventful.com. A geo-aware Idealist would attract a lot of press but also give new users a chance to understand the breadth and scope of Idealist’s real-world offerings. I would love to see Idealist jobs and meetings on a Google Maps mashup so that I could find ONLY the jobs or meetings I’d be willing to sign up for based on their location. See housingmaps.com for an example. I’d love to see an Idealistvision just like the one over at Twittervision.com.

Looking forward to your comments…

]]> By: Ami Dar http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii/comment-page-1#comment-18258 Ami Dar Wed, 23 May 2007 21:38:58 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii#comment-18258 Thanks Rob! That's on the list :-) Ami Thanks Rob! That’s on the list :-)

Ami

]]> By: Rob Johnston http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii/comment-page-1#comment-18189 Rob Johnston Wed, 23 May 2007 15:55:58 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii#comment-18189 I'm pleased that Idealist enabled RSS feeds for job searches. I have quit the email notices since the feeds were started. Now if they would only make the headline a real link and label the job listing pages with a real title they would be somewhere. I’m pleased that Idealist enabled RSS feeds for job searches. I have quit the email notices since the feeds were started. Now if they would only make the headline a real link and label the job listing pages with a real title they would be somewhere.

]]> By: Todd http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii/comment-page-1#comment-18188 Todd Wed, 23 May 2007 15:51:23 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii#comment-18188 LinkedIn for Good is fairly different from ChipIn. LinkedIn for Good starts with a social network and then tries to attract these users to a given cause, while ChipIn (and others) start with the nonprofit and then gives them the tools they need to raise funds from their supporters, and their supporter's social networks in turn. They both "compete" for donations, but take quite different approaches. And as Ami says, the more options nonprofits have, the better. LinkedIn for Good is fairly different from ChipIn. LinkedIn for Good starts with a social network and then tries to attract these users to a given cause, while ChipIn (and others) start with the nonprofit and then gives them the tools they need to raise funds from their supporters, and their supporter’s social networks in turn. They both “compete” for donations, but take quite different approaches.

And as Ami says, the more options nonprofits have, the better.

]]> By: Ami Dar http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii/comment-page-1#comment-18183 Ami Dar Wed, 23 May 2007 15:04:49 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii#comment-18183 Hi there, Thanks for the thoughts and also for the feedback on Idealist. I think it's great that LinkedIn is doing this. There are more than enough problems in the world, and the more people who want to get involved, the better. As to Idealist's email alerts, we are doing our best to make them better all the time, and we'll be launching a new version of them later this week. Thanks! Ami Hi there,

Thanks for the thoughts and also for the feedback on Idealist. I think it’s great that LinkedIn is doing this. There are more than enough problems in the world, and the more people who want to get involved, the better. As to Idealist’s email alerts, we are doing our best to make them better all the time, and we’ll be launching a new version of them later this week.

Thanks!

Ami

]]> By: Beth Kanter http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii/comment-page-1#comment-18182 Beth Kanter Wed, 23 May 2007 14:57:04 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/another-social-network-for-activism-on-the-horizon-part-ii#comment-18182 Just because linked in has badges, does that mean I'm going to promote my charity to LinkedIn users and ignore everyone else? I admit I haven't been looking for a job lately, but I don't think job seekers look in only place for potential employment, particularly when the job listings aren't necessarily completely duplicative or one source a particular type of job. Also, right now, I tend to get more job/networking type requests via email versus friend of friend via LinkedIn. That may change. Finally, I'm not sure doing a head to head comparison of idealist and LinkedIn is useful - what would be more useful is a direct comparison of traffic of nonprofit job seekers for both sites. Ah, well gotta do my breakfast dishes - want to watch? ;-) Just because linked in has badges, does that mean I’m going to promote my charity to LinkedIn users and ignore everyone else?

I admit I haven’t been looking for a job lately, but I don’t think job seekers look in only place for potential employment, particularly when the job listings aren’t necessarily completely duplicative or one source a particular type of job.

Also, right now, I tend to get more job/networking type requests via email versus friend of friend via LinkedIn. That may change.

Finally, I’m not sure doing a head to head comparison of idealist and LinkedIn is useful – what would be more useful is a direct comparison of traffic of nonprofit job seekers for both sites.

Ah, well gotta do my breakfast dishes – want to watch? ;-)

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