Beaconfire is proud to be selected as a 2009 Webby Honoree in the Activism category for Free The Slaves.

From the Webby’s Site:
“With nearly 70 categories, Website entries make up the majority of Webby Awards Winners, Nominees and Honorees. Some are beautiful to look at and interact with. Others are a testament to usability and functionality. And a handful excel across the board. To be selected among the best is an incredible achievement worthy of praise — and perhaps a little bragging.

Of the nearly 10,000 entries submitted to the 13th Annual Webby Awards, fewer than 15% were distinguished as an Official Honoree. This honor signifies an outstanding caliber of work. Congratulations to all of our Official Honoree selections!”

Wow. Just Wow. And yay! We’re very excited to be included with the other 11 fabulous projects in this category, and must thank Gravitate Design Studios for their partnership in creating this amazing site.

I’m very pleased to announce the release of Beaconfire’s new white paper – Is Multivariate Testing Right for You? A Guide for Nonprofits.

We’ve become big fans of multivariate testing (MVT) as a powerful, flexible, and often under-utilized way to optimize websites based on real users’ behavior.  We’ve also seen nonprofits gain insights through MVT that would have otherwise been difficult or impossible to learn.  It’s a great way to learn what drives your visitors to get involved or donate through your website, and can be applied to support almost any of your online goals.

This white paper is a guide to understanding just what MVT is all about, what’s required to take advantage of it, and whether it’s a good fit for your nonprofit.  You’ll also learn how the optimization process works, from planning to analysis, and how to get started with an MVT program that meets your needs.

The paper is available for download now at http://www.beaconfire.com/mvt.

If you are one of the record number of people attending NTC in two weeks, there is one session you will not want to miss: This is Iron Chef … Battle Non Profit.

Using just one secret ingredient (a small Bay Area nonprofit), three web teams will compete in the heat of battle, offering up exceptional tasting ‘menus’, each featuring a delicious new homepage design, a well-seasoned fundraising campaign and a perfectly balanced social networking plan. Only one team can prevail – who will it be? You be the judge, NTC! Come see how this unique project brought together a dozen web pros from competing firms, created amazing work for a very special organization, and taught us all the true power of our industry. We promise you won’t leave hungry.

Beaconfire’s own Ali Cherry and yours truly will be moderating this unique session at 3:30 on April 27th and Susan Finkelpearl of Free Range Studios, Andrew Cohen of Forum One Communications, and Maureen Wallbeoff of Firefly Partners will round out the panel’s incredible talent.

For more info on the session, listen to this podcast interview. Hope to see you there!

Editor’s note: Periodically, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. In light of Facebook’s recent changes to its interface, we thought we’d ask: The new Facebook – love it or hate it?

Tim, Functional Consultant: I like it personally, but I can see how this redesign is rubbing some users the wrong way. The reason I like it is that it has pretty much stripped it down to what I’m interested in: the status updates, postings, and wall conversations of my friends. I don’t really make use of groups or applications, so the feed on my homepage is pretty much just things that my friends have said or posted. It seems a bit shortsighted for Facebook to have assumed that all users will be interested in the same things I am. I guess I’m just lucky this time.

Just don’t get me started on the new Digg.com toolbar!

Elizabeth, Senior Consultant: Hate it – I can’t find anything, and I can’t seem to move certain elements around to where I want them (i.e., putting the birthday reminders at the TOP of the right column rather than the bottom) or control my settings for what shows up in my news feed as finely as I’d like to.

Also, some of the applications I have liked in the past are so buried now, I rarely think to go to them. And I can’t figure out a way to change where they show up.

Mark, Functional Consultant: I mostly like the new layout of Facebook. The home page body cleanly gives most of the real estate to what people really want most: a regurgitation of all the witticisms, “bon mots” and general brickety-brack from their friends. I also like the “hide all chatter from this person” feature (perhaps this isn’t new, but I like it) so that you can filter out overly eager types who give you three posts between taking the dishes from the kitchen table to the kitchen sink. The right-column gets glossed over and runs together, perhaps due to a lack of design elements, or perhaps because I’m just fixated on the body.

Rahul, Tech Lead: I love it. Except that the Filter to hide people and applications on the feed needs to be fixed so that I can set it to only show me people’s normal activities, and not what their favorite cities, philosophers, etc. are.

Jo, Production Specialist: I’m fairly indifferent to it. All the things I use most often (like status updates, posted items, etc) are still right there. So, I have no problems with it.

You betcha! Look for us at the Science Fair on Sunday and conducting these sessions:

Monday, 4/27, 3:30-5:00
Where Are They? What Are They Doing Online?, Michael Cervino
This is Iron Chef…Battle Nonprofit, Ali Cherry & Eve Simon

Tuesday, 4/28, 1:30-3:00
The Promise and Pitfalls of API Projects, David Sayre & Jennifer Bagnell-Stuart
When you want your buttons pushed: How to optimize your site with multivariate testing, Shiloh Stark

Be there or be square!

For the first time ever, the Nonprofit Technology Conference (www.nten.org/ntc) has sold out at 1,330 registrants. NTEN is keeping a wait list. So if you haven’t registered yet, it’s still worth getting on the wait list.

If you can’t make it to San Francisco this year, there are a couple of ways to remotely taste some of the delights of the annual NTC:

1. Virtual sessions – some sessions will be simulcast thru ReadyTalk and another group of session will be streamed live (courtesy of Causecast.org). The list of sessions available via these channels will be at http://nten.org/ntc-live
2. Follow the blog – NTEN has recruited a team of bloggers who will be live blogging from certain session. http://nten.org/blog
3. Follow the tweets – This year’s twitter handle is 09NTC
4. Check out the photos – Look on Flickr for the tag 09NTC