Comments on: My LinkedIn network says nonprofits need to be more accountable, transparent and professional http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional Confessions of a Non-Profit Executive Director Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:38:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: uggboots http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-100638 uggboots Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:05:20 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-100638 <p><a href="http://www.linksbracelet.com/" target="_blank">ugg boots sale</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.linksbracelet.com/" target="_blank">ugg boots store</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.linksbracelet.com/ugg-classic-cardy-c-26.html" target="_blank">ugg classic cardy</a></p> ugg boots sale

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]]> By: Doug Yeager http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-48512 Doug Yeager Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:45:27 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-48512 Allan- sorry not to see this before... I just got finished doing the same thing with some process analysis inside a client's organization. two tools stood out: http://www.tagcrowd.com/ quick and useful for a cloud http://wwww.usingenglish.com/ requires a free membership, but gives you more analytics pattern recognition is a powerful tool. doug Allan- sorry not to see this before… I just got finished doing the same thing with some process analysis inside a client’s organization.

two tools stood out:
http://www.tagcrowd.com/
quick and useful for a cloud
http://wwww.usingenglish.com/
requires a free membership, but gives you more analytics

pattern recognition is a powerful tool.
doug

]]> By: Allan Benamer http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-46857 Allan Benamer Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:30:05 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-46857 <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=12055843" rel="nofollow">James Lewis</a> has been kind enough to <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/answers/government-non-profit/charity-non-profit/GOV_CNP/83699-12055843" rel="nofollow">reproduce this experiment over at LinkedIn</a>. You will see that the 15 answers here are somewhat different but there are several responses with "transparency" or "visibility" as a keyword in them. This experiment isn't finished but my guess is that similar responses will occur with similar keywords. Disagree? Try it yourself on your own LinkedIn account but please report back on the results. James Lewis has been kind enough to reproduce this experiment over at LinkedIn. You will see that the 15 answers here are somewhat different but there are several responses with “transparency” or “visibility” as a keyword in them. This experiment isn’t finished but my guess is that similar responses will occur with similar keywords. Disagree? Try it yourself on your own LinkedIn account but please report back on the results.

]]> By: Gayle Roberts http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-43665 Gayle Roberts Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:07:45 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-43665 Cool, thanks! Cool, thanks!

]]> By: Allan Benamer http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-43657 Allan Benamer Fri, 31 Aug 2007 03:45:46 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-43657 Thanks for the kind words, Gayle. I use a two step process: 1. Extract the key terms at Blogoscoped. 2. Use http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/tools/word_counter.html to do a word frequency count or do it via Microsoft Word (one key term at a time). It's a darn shame that LinkedIn doesn't have an API that we can use for this sort of thing. We could use LinkedIn as a kind of personal Oracle hehe. Thanks for the kind words, Gayle. I use a two step process:

1. Extract the key terms at Blogoscoped.

2. Use http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/tools/word_counter.html to do a word frequency count or do it via Microsoft Word (one key term at a time).

It’s a darn shame that LinkedIn doesn’t have an API that we can use for this sort of thing. We could use LinkedIn as a kind of personal Oracle hehe.

]]> By: Gayle Roberts http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-43554 Gayle Roberts Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:44:51 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-43554 Hi Allan, Loved this post. Though many others seemed to want to challenge the scientific validity of your technique (not a big enough sampling or the question's phrasing impacts the results) as a professional fundraiser my sense is that your results are spot. Good work! I've one tech question for you. I tried using the form provided by Blogoscoped to run though some of my own text files. It extracted the key words, but not the number of times each word appeared. How'd you make that happen? You didn't manually count them did you? Am trying to create more of a tag cloud like you did. Thanks for any tips. Hi Allan,

Loved this post. Though many others seemed to want to challenge the scientific validity of your technique (not a big enough sampling or the question’s phrasing impacts the results) as a professional fundraiser my sense is that your results are spot. Good work!

I’ve one tech question for you. I tried using the form provided by Blogoscoped to run though some of my own text files. It extracted the key words, but not the number of times each word appeared. How’d you make that happen? You didn’t manually count them did you? Am trying to create more of a tag cloud like you did. Thanks for any tips.

]]> By: Allan Benamer http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-42043 Allan Benamer Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:36:42 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-42043 Ed, You want signal without noise. Good luck on that one. That's not how people will answer a LinkedIn question. A question that demands a one-word answer will be seen as offputting by much of the LinkedIn community. Again, why not try the experiment on your own -- see if the question you propose to ask will be answered. "Science" is not a mass of comments on a blog page or just generally being snarky and cynical, you have to see if the experiment can be repeated and report back on the results. Go back to your LinkedIn network, do not pass go, do not receive $200 and see if you can repeat the experiement. Ed,

You want signal without noise. Good luck on that one. That’s not how people will answer a LinkedIn question. A question that demands a one-word answer will be seen as offputting by much of the LinkedIn community. Again, why not try the experiment on your own — see if the question you propose to ask will be answered. “Science” is not a mass of comments on a blog page or just generally being snarky and cynical, you have to see if the experiment can be repeated and report back on the results. Go back to your LinkedIn network, do not pass go, do not receive $200 and see if you can repeat the experiement.

]]> By: Ed Schott http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-42035 Ed Schott Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:57:30 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-42035 I'm still very pessimistic about keyword extraction for this purpose. It's just bad science. How can one make assumptions based on single words in essay answers? The first answer posted includes the phrase "I might be answering with too narrow a focus...". Would keyword extraction lead you to conclude that that person would like to see more "focus" among non-profits or perhaps non-profits should be more/less "narrow" (in what?)? If I had answered "I think non-profits are accountable and transparent enough, I'd like to see them narrow their focus". You would have assumed simply by the appearance of the words "accountable" and "transparent" that I was another person who wished non-profits to be accountable and transparent. The only way I can see this analysis working to gain any real insight is if you made the question so specific that people could only answer one word, eg. "In one word, what do non-profits need to work on the most?" and then only allow space for one word in the answer. I’m still very pessimistic about keyword extraction for this purpose. It’s just bad science.

How can one make assumptions based on single words in essay answers? The first answer posted includes the phrase “I might be answering with too narrow a focus…”. Would keyword extraction lead you to conclude that that person would like to see more “focus” among non-profits or perhaps non-profits should be more/less “narrow” (in what?)?

If I had answered “I think non-profits are accountable and transparent enough, I’d like to see them narrow their focus”. You would have assumed simply by the appearance of the words “accountable” and “transparent” that I was another person who wished non-profits to be accountable and transparent.

The only way I can see this analysis working to gain any real insight is if you made the question so specific that people could only answer one word, eg. “In one word, what do non-profits need to work on the most?” and then only allow space for one word in the answer.

]]> By: Allan Benamer http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-41625 Allan Benamer Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:51:41 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-41625 When you ask a question of your LinkedIn network, you're not asking just the people in your immediate 1st degree relationships. The question is asked of everyone down to your 3rd degree. For my network, this is roughly 390,300+ people. Does it reach a cross-section, no? My network is split 60/40 between software industry people and nonprofit types. Again, this is why I say that "my" LinkedIn network is the different from say, YOUR LinkedIn network and again, this is why I ask them to repeat the experiment. However, my guess is that because of the large networks that are derived from even a handful of connections, is that there will be a strong correlation between the answers I got and the answers people will get on their networks. I'm willing to be wrong on this but it does make some sort of intuitive sense, right? So, again, let's try the experiment -- if you ask your LinkedIn network the same question, would you get similar results? When you ask a question of your LinkedIn network, you’re not asking just the people in your immediate 1st degree relationships. The question is asked of everyone down to your 3rd degree. For my network, this is roughly 390,300+ people. Does it reach a cross-section, no? My network is split 60/40 between software industry people and nonprofit types. Again, this is why I say that “my” LinkedIn network is the different from say, YOUR LinkedIn network and again, this is why I ask them to repeat the experiment. However, my guess is that because of the large networks that are derived from even a handful of connections, is that there will be a strong correlation between the answers I got and the answers people will get on their networks. I’m willing to be wrong on this but it does make some sort of intuitive sense, right? So, again, let’s try the experiment — if you ask your LinkedIn network the same question, would you get similar results?

]]> By: Catherine Carey http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional/comment-page-1#comment-41622 Catherine Carey Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:40:02 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/my-linkedin-network-says-nonprofits-need-to-be-more-accountable-transparent-and-professional#comment-41622 Allen, 18 responses is not enough. 18 responses from people in your Network is worse. It's worse because it's likely folks in your network are like you - while they probably like you what I mean is that they are similar to you. Being similar means they are biased. Bias is bad. If you were asking your network for dog food, vacation locale or doctor recommendations bias is good. You trust opinions more when people are like you. Bias is bad when you are trying to act dispassionately using data. The best group of people to ask is everyone. However, how can you ask everyone? Serious drawback - I'm a former New Yorker who thinks there are 8 million people in the world (talk about bias!) - how can you ask everyone in the world. Ok,Ok maybe everyone in the world is dumb, but we need to ask the question of everyone who donates. You could slice it down with parameters like in the USA or donations of 100 dollars or more, etc. Here's what I want to know - does your LinkedIn network reach a cross section of folks who donate money to nonprofits? I'd say no. No way, not at all likely. I can' agree with this: “A large portion of them were asking for accountability, transparency and professionalism.” Why? 5 divided by 18 is about one-quarter. 4 divided by 18 is about one-fifth. I love this: “It’s also a neat demonstration of how to use Web 2.0 properties to actually derive knowledge from a mass of unstructured data.” Catherine Allen,

18 responses is not enough.

18 responses from people in your Network is worse. It’s worse because it’s likely folks in your network are like you – while they probably like you what I mean is that they are similar to you. Being similar means they are biased. Bias is bad.

If you were asking your network for dog food, vacation locale or doctor recommendations bias is good. You trust opinions more when people are like you.

Bias is bad when you are trying to act dispassionately using data.

The best group of people to ask is everyone. However, how can you ask everyone? Serious drawback – I’m a former New Yorker who thinks there are 8 million people in the world (talk about bias!) – how can you ask everyone in the world. Ok,Ok maybe everyone in the world is dumb, but we need to ask the question of everyone who donates. You could slice it down with parameters like in the USA or donations of 100 dollars or more, etc.

Here’s what I want to know – does your LinkedIn network reach a cross section of folks who donate money to nonprofits? I’d say no. No way, not at all likely.

I can’ agree with this: “A large portion of them were asking for accountability, transparency and professionalism.”

Why?

5 divided by 18 is about one-quarter.
4 divided by 18 is about one-fifth.

I love this: “It’s also a neat demonstration of how to use Web 2.0 properties to actually derive knowledge from a mass of unstructured data.”

Catherine

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