I want to take a moment to disagree in part with both Andrew’s and Marissa’s recent posts about the story wherein a professor assigns his students articles on Wikipedia to write in lieu of traditional papers. First, a disclaimer: while both Marissa and Andy have Masters’ degrees, I do not, so I don’t have the experience with peer review that they do.

But as someone who went to college in the internet age, I can attest that there’s a lot of skepticism of research done online. I’ve had a variety of professors who ranged from full blown Luddite ("If it doesn’t have a Dewey Decimal number, it isn’t a fact") to mild traditionalist ("You can use lexis-nexus, but make sure your archaic citation formats are right or I’ll downgrade you to next Tuesday") to early adopter of academia ("Use the latest research you can find – just be prepared to defend your sources if they start with geocities.com").

By and large, there was a common skepticism of the web as a research medium – the thought behind it is is that if it’s easy to post and easy to find, anyone can do it. This is the sort of elitism that I’m predicting won’t survive my lifetime – check below the fold for why.

(more…)

Our Beaconfire offices in Arlington have been undergoing something of a transformation lately.  Our main conference room has been updated with fresh paint, new furniture and plush leather benches to accommodate our entire staff during large meetings.  Weâ??ve added additional seating areas to make room for new staff members.  However, the most stunning transformation has been to our two small conference rooms.

Beaconfire staff participated in an in-house design challenge to spruce up our boring, white-walled conference rooms.  The office was divided into two groups, with each group decorating the conference room on the opposite side of the office.  Secret meetings were held, budgets were planned, mysterious packages arrived in the mail, and during a 24-hour period, two dull rooms were transformed into Café Luz and The Lodge.

The Café features soft lighting, staff-donated books to exchange and a bench seating area with fun, fuzzy pillows.  The Lodge features a stunning view of the mountains and lake and�a moose.

View all of the before and after pictures!

The White House is famous for hiding unpopular policy announcements on Fridays when no one is paying attention. In this holiday week, it looks like two major developments are going on at Facebook that could see ramifications going far into the future, but which were probably scheduled to coincide with universities’ Thanksgiving break.

The first is the launch and response to Facebook Beacon (no relation to us, or so they would probably claim). Beacon integrates your site with Facebook and posts messages to your feed to say that you interacted with that site, so hopefully your friends will as well. The catch?

That it pops up a little notifier in the bottom right of the screen, telling you that a story will be posted on your feed unless you opt out within a few seconds. This bug already exists on such sites as Blockbuster and Fandango, and MoveOn has a quick demonstration of how it works right here.

More on the reaction, as well as a more positive new change, below the fold…

(more…)

Amy’s recent post on Facebook’s new social ads got me thinking about ways that non-profits could leverage these new ads to microtarget possible donors or members (incidentally, the social ads system confirms my theory of a couple months back that the infuriating fluff stories were a way to bolster interest filling out, which is the basis of how these ads do their targeting).

The system is  perhaps the ultimate affordable segmentation engine. While direct mail houses can segment out people to a very fine degree, it becomes prohibitively more expensive the more variations of a mailing you have to print to reach them all. What’s more, non-profits can’t go in and fine-tune their specifications in real time to see exactly who they’re hitting with each message.

Facebook social ads bring microtargeting to a whole new level. Let’s say that Beaconfire was looking for a Tech Lead (we are, incidentally – check our job listings for more!). I’ll walk through the process of creating the universe, and how you can do the same, below the fold.

(more…)

The other day, I was browsing Digg and came upon WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com. This site blocks Firefox users because of the prevalence of the AdBlock plugin, which, as the name implies, blocks ads and deprives sites of revenue, either directly in pay-per-click or pay-per-conversion arrangements or indirectly by lowering hit counts in pay-per-impression situations.

The site raised strong reactions from Digg users, who were almost universally opposed and had angry words (many of them misspelled) for the site’s creator. In a way, they ironically confirmed many of the arguments that the author makes in his article "Firefox – a New Religion."

The site raised the ethical question in my mind of who’s really at fault here: people depriving content creators from ad revenue, webmasters who monotize every pixel of screen space to the detriment of their content, or advertisers who create more and more obnoxious ads in an arms race for eyeballs?

I’ll explore each below the fold…

(more…)

My Must Haves:

• Web Developer
• Firebug
• Tab Mix Plus
• View Source Chart
• IE Tab

For Convenience/Fun:

• Context Highlighting
• Cooliris Previews
• del.icio.us Bookmarks
• Download Statusbar
• FireShot
• Split Browser

(more…)

Yesterday, we kicked off our newest relationship with IUE-CWA, the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers-Communications Workers of America. As the Industrial Division of CWA, IUE-CWA represents a force of 150,000 active and retired men and women united collectively to seek dignity on the job and a secure future for ourselves, our children and all future generations.

Over the next few months, we’ll be working with IUE-CWA on developing their new Web site and online communications program. This is an important initiative for the organization’s ability to improve how it serves its members. IUE-CWA has tapped Beaconfire to launch the new site and as an ongoing partner to create new content, roll out new site features like online training, and manage their online presence. We’re looking forward to helping the IUE-CWA team and it’s members get more from their online program!

If you work for/with a nonprofit and your success is dependent on technology, the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference should be on your calendar. And don’t think this is just for techies! The agenda is still being formed, but you can count on sessions for nonprofit leaders and folks from communications, marketing and fundraising, as well as the technology staff. We’ll come together to talk about tools and strategies that are reshaping how we go about our mission focussed work. The 2008 conference is in New Orleans March 19-21st and you can learn more at www.nten.org/ntc. See you in New Orleans!

Full disclosure: I’m the Board Chair of NTEN and think the world of the good work they do…

There is a lot of talk these days about "Serious Games". What are they anyway and how are they different from typical video games?  Serious Games is a term used to describe a movement in gaming where games are created and used for education, training, health, and public policy.

Darfur is Dying (http://www.darfurisdying.com/) is probably the most well known game created to raise awareness about a specific topic, in this case the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. A contest entry by MTVU and the Reebok Human Rights Foundation, the game puts the player in Darfur as a villager who must perform real-life tasks like foraging for water without being captured by the Janjaweed. The game ties in actual statistics about the life of people in Darfur and how you can make a difference.

Planet Green Game (http://www.planetgreengame.com), produced by Starbucks in collaboration with GlobalGreen USA, allows a player to pick a mode of transportation and travel through a city, finding ways to decrease the CO2 emissions. In addition to learning more about global warming, the game provides the ability for users to take action and pass along the game to a friend.

Do you know what edict means? At Free Rice (http://www.freerice.com), they’re turning your vocabulary knowledge into rice to end world hunger. The World Food Program’s internet game, Free Rice (http://www.freerice.com/), is simple in its execution and has two primary goals; providing English vocabulary to everyone and helping end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people. For each correct click to a vocabulary question, the website donates money to buy 10 grains of rice. Since its launch in October 2007 it has already raised over 1.7 billion grains of rice to feed the hungry – not bad for a little over a month.

Even main-stream games like SimCity are jumping on the Serious Gaming train by highlighting the impact of electricity generation on carbon dioxide emissions and climate change within the interface of the next release of SimCity Societies.

Serious games take learning to a new level. They target a generation raised on the net who eagerly spread engaging games virally through sites like MySpace and Facebook. The games attempt to teach people about the world in which we live in an interesting and engaging way. Would you rather learn about Global Warming as your cruise a virtual city on your skateboard? Or read page after page of text on a traditional website (with celebrity quotes, of course)? The answer seems almost too easy.

Do you think there is a place for a serious game to raise awareness around your nonprofit’s mission? Have you launched a serious game you are having success with?

Small towns hardly make big news in the world of online marketing technology; small islands even less so. While most of us have gotten over Google putting small town America on the mapâ??in the most literal of ways, the Caribbean is just getting around to celebrating their inclusion. Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad are just a few Caribbean islands that can be Googled down to 110 ft scaled maps in both satellite and hybrid.

Although, Googleâ??s Street View has not made it there yetâ??thatâ??s still only available for select neighborhoods in a few big U.S. cities such as NYC, Miami and Denver; the Caribbean maps provide the same detailed view of towns and infrastructure (and yes, beaches too) that it does for cities across the U.S. The only difference is that directions are not offered.

Still, if youâ??ve got a project in the Caribbean you can finally use Google Maps for a more dynamic presentation of your work. So far real estate agents and sporting fans (cricket, fishing, sailing etc.) seem to be the only folks that have been using the maps in mashups to reach their audience. Hopefully organizations such as Heifer International, Madre, Amnesty International and the many others doing great work in the region will jump on this opportunity to connect donors and volunteers to their work.

Facebook says their newly launched Social Ads will help you ‘reach the exact audience you want with targeted relevant ads.’ I’ve been toying around with this the last couple days and think Social ads are definitely worth a closer look. The ads come together in four easy steps.  This is how it works…

Get Started - You select whether your ad will direct to a Facebook page or your organization / campaign website.

Chose Audience – Determine who you want to reach.  Rich segmentation opportunities abound.  You can chose to reach out to Facebook users by several key parameters such as geographic location (down to city-level), gender, age, education (including schools attended), interests and political views.

As you manipulate the criteria within the Chose Audience Screen, the number of individuals your ad is targeted to reach adjusts in real-time.

Create Ad - Create a title, drop in some ad copy and upload an image.

Set Budget - Ads are pay as you go for the duration of your campaign. You set a daily budget and bid on placement by impression or click.

The payment minimums are around $5 / day the ad runs and the scenario goes like this…

For any available ad inventory, Facebook selects the best ad to run based on the cost per click or impression and ad performance.

If you choose a Pay for Clicks (CPC) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for each click on your ad. Facebook will display your ad in the Ad Space, News Feed, or both. The amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

If you choose a Pay for Views (CPM) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for every thousand impressions of your ad. You will need to select if you want your ad to appear in News Feed or the Ad Space. The amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

And then you launch. PRESTO!

You can find the link to Facebook Social Ads in the footer under Advertisers. When you try it out, let me know how it goes.

I found the post by John Timmer on ars tecnica regarding one professorâ??s use of Wikipedia entries in the place of a term paper quite fascinating. While I agree with a number of points made by my colleague Marissa in her post, I have a slightly different perspective on it.

When I was an undergraduate, I intended to complete a PhD in microbiology and enter the world of academia. Even though I ultimately dropped out of my PhD program to pursue an MBA instead, I had enough exposure to develop a profound, first-hand appreciation of the rigors of the peer review process.

Nothing in my undergraduate experience really prepared me for the debate, criticism, and justification the peer review process entails. Sure, professors make critical observations and suggestions about any work product that you turn in, but ultimately it is just one person evaluating your work, and that one person has dozens (or more) of other peopleâ??s work to review as well. The breadth and depth of their analysis is significantly lower than what one can expect from academic peer review.

Timmerâ??s post mentions that many of the studentsâ?? works were ultimately removed, significantly edited, or incorporated into other entries after a lengthy discussion process amongst Wikipedia contributors. While admittedly, the Wikipedia process is not controlled solely by well-respected academics and I am sure that the commentary may stray towards unfettered attacks rather than constructive criticism, the process remains roughly analogous to that of peer review.

Even though Wikipedia cannot be considered as a reliable source of information from an academic perspective, it seems to me that it could provide an interesting means of introducing students to the wonderful world of peer review. For those interested in pursuing a career in academics, it could be a valuable means of testing oneâ??s ability to defend a position, expand upon a thesis, and develop the tough skin required to accept criticism and use it to build a more solid foundation for an argument.

I’ll come right out and say it – I’m a Wikipedia skeptic, though I must confess I am a closet-clicker for those quick-hits that help you to win a trivia bet (so Olivia DeHavilland is still alive, but she’s not the oldest living cast member of GWTW – but I found that out on IMDB, the second greatest bet settler on the Internet).

That’s why I was so intrigued to hear about Martha Groom’s new term paper for her students. Instead of writing a term paper , she had them write Wikipedia entries.

The history buff in me nearly choked with flashbacks to Stephen Colbert changing the entries for George Washington. Imagine it – freshman around the world could be polluting cyberspace with their own version of information.

But maybe there are a few lessons in this lesson, for Ms. Groom’s students and for all of us.

Lesson number one is the oldest on the Internet – you can’t treat Wikipedia (and most of the Internet, really) as a reliable source. Ms. Groom’s A+ student probably wrote a stellar entry, but should we assume other students did the same? I don’t doubt that Ms. Groom’s students tried their best, but the fact remains that when it comes to serious research, most college students are amateurs. Sites like Wikipedia may be useful for resolving dead-or-alive conflicts, but should be considered only nominally for serious research.

The second lesson is that if you’re going to post your own user-generated content on the Internet, you’ll be prepared to defend it (I’m already lifting weights to defend myself against the coming onslaught of Wikipedia lovers). There were some comments posted about the students’ entries, some which Groom admits, were less than pleasant. On your traditional term paper, a mistake results in a red-pen swipe by your professor. On the Internet, it may bring on the wrath of angry legions (or worse yet, seen by no one).

Kos, of the Daily Kos fame, has had it with direct mail. He recently vowed that he would no longer fundraise for candidates who don’t allow people to opt out of snail mail appeals with their online gift:

It really is infuriating. I blame direct mail consultants who charge per piece sent. They must love these growing contributor lists because they get to send more crap to people who OBVIOUSLY prefer to donate online. I get direct mail from campaigns and it goes straight into the shredder and recycling bin.

[...]

It’s a waste of money, and it’s degrading to the environment. I’m tired of it. People are tired of it. And if campaigns won’t listen, then I’m through with them.

While this is certainly stronger antipathy toward direct mail than most people feel (though, to be fair, Kos has a bigger podium than most of us), it’s not completely unreasonable – donors give through a given channel, they’d prefer if you communicate with them through that same channel.

It’s a perfectly reasonable proposition… and one that non-profits and businesses ignore far too much of the time. Follow me below the fold for more:

(more…)

I do not own a Blackberry or an iPhone, but I still dish out a fair sum of money every month for my cell phone service and I would not say the device itself was too cheap either. So, is it too much to ask for a decent interface on my phone? The Open Handset Alliance does not think so.

According to them, it is estimated that there are close to 1.5 billion televisions in this world, and 1 billion people using the internet. Still the most successful consumer product is clearly the mobile phone with around 3 billion users [Source]. So why arenâ??t cell phones easier to navigate and customize to our needs, the way our computer operating systems are?

Google and others have come up with a way to change all this. Follow me below the fold for moreâ?¦

(more…)

Microsoft’s $240 million purchase for a 1.6% equity stake in Facebook had everyone buzzing recently (read more). While that’s a lot of money to you and I, it’s probably a drop in the bucket for Microsoft and well worth keeping Google out of the picture (if you’re Microsoft anyway). Microsoft had already struck a deal with Facebook (in 2006) to sell display ads on Facebook. With the new deal, Microsoft has also won the rights to sell ads on international versions of Facebook through 2011. While the international advertising spend online isn’t as high as the US, it’s not insignificant either. Research firm eMarketer reports that advertisers plan to spend $900 million advertising on social-networking sites in the U.S., compared with $335 million overseas. So Microsoft also stands to gain some piece of that pie.

While the deal represents a nice infusion of capital to invest in technology and people, it’s a double-edge sword on the people side. The Wall Street Journal expects the deal to raise the valuation on Facebook stock options, which may make it more difficult to recruit new key talent. Given that Facebook wants to double their workforce in the next year, how much of a hurdle will this turn out to be?

Three of Beaconfire’s online campaigns and marketing clients are coming together this holiday season to change the way people think about giving. Conservation International, Heifer International and Share our Strength are asking people to take the Better Present Pledge to make at  least one alternative gift this year instead of a material present. A gift to end hunger, save the environment, and lift a community out of poverty will make you feel great and look great at the same time.

Beaconfire is managing the groups’ partnership, built the Better Present Pledge microsite (http://www.betterpresent.org/), and is producing the email communications stream that introduces new donors to the three organizations, then asks them to give. We’re also working with exciting media partners, like MSN Shopping, to promote the Pledge to entirely new donors.

The microsite includes cool features like a widget that automatically updates with a count of pledgers and how much they’ve pledged in alternative gifts.

We also built an Alternative Gift Calculator that lets people tabulate their total holiday spending, and suggests a possible alternative gift in their price range from each of the three partner organizations. Try it out on the Better Present Pledge homepage.

Conservation International also put together a fantastic overview video about what the Better Present Pledge is all about – you can check it out on YouTube.

We’re really thrilled to be working on such an exciting campaign for the holidays – in addition to our work with the Better Present Pledge campaign, we’re also working on a lot of other exciting holiday marketing with Heifer International, Conservation International and Share our Strength. Be sure to sign up for email with all three groups if you haven’t already.

Congratulations to Jenny Bowen, Executive Director of Half the Sky. She has been selected to carry the Olympic Torch in Beijing.

Jenny was selected through an online election. She was the top vote-getter.

Half the Sky offers nurture and enrichment programs throughout 36 orphanages across China.

We applaud Jenny and Half the Sky for all their good work.

When was the last time this happened to you: you’ve got a killer new idea for a campaign. You’ve found a name that fits perfectly. You run a WHOIS check on it, and, because the ICANN gods are smiling down on you,  your domain name is open. You run it around the office to get the final approval, come back the next day to pick up the domain name and… it’s taken. And no, it wasn’t your officemate playing a joke on you (though you should consider putting his phone in jello to be safe).

While it may seem like bad luck when this sort of thing happens, it’s possible that you’re actually the victim of a new type of fraud called, "domain name front running." An AP story explains:

That has led to suspicions that someone with access to search requests has been using the information to gauge interest in a domain name.

By buying the domain first, that person can then try to sell it to the interested party for a profit. This is different from traditional domain name speculation because the buyer knows for sure that the address is of interest.

This is just the latest in a long line of abuses of the domain name registry system, and it’s causing companies and non-profits to have to go through costly procedures to get their good name back. Find out more, and what you can do to stop it, below the fold.

(more…)

Frequent Beaconfire Wire visitors may have noticed some format changes over the weekend – as the number of staff writing grows, so too does our post width. We hope you find it easier to read posts at our new 500+ px width, particularly those that employ graphics. Other changes you may notice include:

• Authors have post counts after their name, so you can see what else your favorite authors have written
• The RSS link now lives on its own in the top right – be sure to subscribe to our feed if you haven’t already
• Unordered lists have new red square bullets
• As Amy noted, new photos have been added to our Flickr account
• The “Recent Comments” box no longer ambles into the main post column.

Keep an eye out for other changes coming soon!