Comments on: Three office technologies better than Web 2.0

By: Allan Benamer

Allan Benamer — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:36:49 +0000

Your Internet won’t be down. Just get a T1 line and backup DSL. Get a router that does auto-failover. No one will even notice the hiccups. For even more redundancy, add Internet via cable.

The buggy update problem applies to more than just thin clients. It’s actually harder to roll back on multiple machines than it is on a virtualized image. Providing special apps for certain users is much easier now. You can do it by profile. Heck, the new virtualization tech from MS will let you even mix and match versions of MS Office. I’m only talking about this in a Microsoft setting but there is a way to access your thin client’s using only a Web browser so you’re never without it.

I think you should certainly look into it. It beats the old school way of doing things.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:33:09 +0000

Thin clients? Really? That’s been tried and ditched before. It seems like a great idea until your internet is down and then everybody’s out of work. Can’t even write a Word document. Or, a buggy update gets applied to that *one* copy of the application on the server and everybody’s user experience is screwed up until it is fixed. Or, a virus. Or, you have employees that want to use their own applications rather than ones on the server. Or, you have employees who travel and therefore are not always connected to the internet (with thin-client all their files and applications are only accessible when they are connected to the internet). Am I missing something?

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 02:00:47 +0000

Sharps OSA API is great. For some early examples check out they have a cost recovery application called and a Legal Bates stamping and archiving system called

By: abenamer

abenamer — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:07:26 +0000

Yes, I’m not a big believer in custom apps. And your point is well taken that many NPOs have a “if it doesn’t say non-profit, then it must not be for me” mentality.” However, I prefer to make only modest promises on new technology simply because many technological gains require cultural acceptance and culture is not something that you can move easily. There’s a part of me that thinks that IT guys should read some of the standard academic texts in anthropology just so they can improve their understanding of workplace culture.

By: abenamer

abenamer — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 14:59:40 +0000

It would be even more useful if I pointed you at an article about my IVR – http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/the-magic-ivr

By: michelemmartin

michelemmartin — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 12:17:59 +0000

I do a lot of work with government-funded nonprofits and I find that they are very into proprietary systems that are hugely expensive and not particularly efficient. There seems to be a rampant belief that re-inventing the wheel is preferable to anything else, in large part because these systems are often developed for the benefit of the organization, rather than the benefit of the client.

An example–despite the fact that sites like Monster.com and Careerbuilder are more widely used and effective, each state has developed their own job order/matching service so that they are able to keep track of statistics about how many people get hired through their systems. This requires both businesses and job seekers to do double data entry if they want to use this system, which is completely idiotic.

My point here is that I think one of the big things getting in the way of adopting any new technology tools is the proprietary mindset of many NPOs where they believe that they have to create their own systems, rather than using existing systems that may, in fact, work better.

By: paulmorriss

paulmorriss — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:27:59 +0000

Thanks for a useful article which counters a lot of techie hype of the Latest Thing!