- Gmail
- Most people are now aware of Gmail as a rich, free email service, but while their existing services are unproblematic, they see no need to change. What they don't realise is, Gmail provides a free backup and excellent spam filter, it offers IMAP access which enables you to syncronise your mail between two computers, as well as accessing it online, it has an advanced storage and search system, so mail is easy to organise. Plus there are convenience advantages with integrating Gmail with other Google applications.
- Chat
- Many office workers now use chat networks such as Skype, msn messenger, or Gtalk to communicate with friends. But how many use it to ease communication within the office. Perhaps it is counter-intuitive, but the more interaction we have with people, the more ways we can use to do it appropriately. Chat within the office is excellent for sending links and files between workstations, getting attention on fairly urgent, small issues, communicating without leaving an email trail.
- Video Conferencing
- While a video conferencing suite is beyond the resources of small organisation, many organisations, especially in Geneva invest huge resources in flying staff around the world. As the price of fuel increases, and the moral implications of flying start to nag, organisations need to be looking at alternatives to travel. Videoconferencing can be done with Skype and a web cam, but NGOs which are hosted should consider pooling resources to invest in a shared videoconferencing suite. The hope is that the richer the suite, the more it will be able to replace physical travel.
- Google Docs
- Google now provides a free, and largely compatible, alternative to Microsoft Office. The advantage of doing it online are: It's free, requires no installing, bugs are fixed automatically, staff can collaborate on a document simultaneously, and version control is built in. It's not perfect, but it beats emailing documents around. For a compelling explanation, see https://www.commoncraft.com/video-googledocs
- RSS reading / blogging
- RSS tools allow nuggets of content to be composed, broadcast, collected, filtered, skimmed, tagged, diverted, rebroadcast, and archived. In a few minutes every day, colleagues can share the burden of processing rivers of information, directing relevant items to each other, and storing the rest as institutional knowledge. For compelling explanations of rss reading and publishing see https://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english https://www.commoncraft.com/blogs
- Online backup
- How backed up is your organisation's data? Do you retain old versions of files? do you have automatic backup? Do you have off-site backup, in case of fire, sabotage or earthquake? When you consider the cost of losing data, you should leave nothing to chance. Consider using a commercial online backup service such as ibackup, and many others.
- Social networks
- Many organisations now have used Google groups and are now switching on to the idea of social networks. They want to support this level of interaction on their web sites, but this is potentially expensive. Software is not the problem however, check out https://www.ning.com to see how you create a social network in minutes and for free.
- Project management software
- When your constituents are doing more than discussion or editing one document, and they are remote, you can use software to track and manage the projects. Again, there are free web services which can help. Have a look at goplan and see how it can help a distributed team to get things done.
- This service will Google you every week and tell you the new references it finds. This is very valuable to find out who is linking to your organisation, which is useful for search optimisation, and to learn how the organisation is being portrayed, essential for Public Relations.
This page suggests recent developments in web technology which work, and which could improve the efficiency of some NGOs with minimal effort. You should know about these things, and consider whether they might improve efficiency.