This week, the online community of online communities was shaken by the April 16^th announcement by that the online networking company, Ning, would be phasing out its free product. Ning had cornered the market for building online communities in a fast and easy way. It was also free. It was a non-profit’s dream.

But now, if your non-profit has its community data in a free Ning product, Ning has just become a nightmare. This highlights the problem with “free” software. Free is rarely free.

We come to depend on the fact that this software will be available for us tomorrow.  But when your software is hosted and free, your data, your community, your images may not really be yours. Google can rescind Analytics tomorrow, and there is not much we as users could do about it. It’s unlikely, but it’s always a possibility.

I love recommending free and fun tools, but you must always remember the caveat: online software that is free today may be gone tomorrow.

Now that it’s almost a full week behind us, I’ve asked Beaconfire’s NTC attendees to reflect on some of their favorite moments at NTC.

What was your favorite Session?

• Marissa , Jeff: Browser Automation, FTW!
• Cara: Innovations in Social Media.
• Michael: Without a doubt it was the Science Fair. Don’t get me wrong, there were great sessions this year. Yet, there was a quality in the energy of the Science Fair that took me back to 2000…that feeling that “something’s happening here,” things are breaking, new stuff is on the horizon.

What was your best piece of Swag?

• Jeff, Marissa: The Freerange Tee-shirt. Marissa loves it because it is the perfect color orange for her upcoming MS Walk in DC.
• Cara: Instead of swag, a glass of Champagne.
• Michael: I bypassed all the swag this year. Reducing my carbon footprint and all that jazz.
• Lynn: Champagne and Strawberries

What was the biggest bummer?

• Jeff:  No food at the after the Coca Cola party, particularly since I missed dinner.
• Cara:  The after party felt like it never got off the ground – or maybe I just left too early
• Marissa:  Not being able to see/hear the session on Online Training.
• Michael:  Closing reception on Saturday night.
• Lynn: That I had to leave Friday night.

What was the best surprise?

• Marissa: After giving up on the Online Training session, finding the Browser Automation session.
• Cara:  Running into past colleagues and clients I wasn’t expecting to see, it amazes me how much the conference has grown.
• Michael:  Going to the Salsa fest and catching up with so many colleagues I wasn’t expecting to have time with.
• Lynn: That we had over 1,400 registrants at the conference this year.

What was your favorite one line?

• Marissa: Open source is free. Free as in puppies (Said by Chris Lundberg in the session on the Future of Online Organizing)
• Michael: Squirrel – The Real Housewives of Social Media.

What was the best meal you had?

• Jeff, Marissa, and Cara: The meal they had at Six Feet Under was  the best. Marissa and Cara reveled in their fish tacos, and Jeff, the blackened Catfish.
• Michael: A chili dog at the Atlanta airport.
• Lynn: Roast pork at The Woodfire Grill.

What story will you tell about this year’s NTC over and over again?

It’s unanimous – Polar Bears!

• Marissa : Being made uncomfortable by a large polar bear.
• Jeff:  The crazy coke bear that was oddly creepy.
• Michael: How 12 people, after being hugged by a massive Coca Cola polar bear, all shared a similar thought:  Hmm, polar bears smell a lot like a high school boys locker room when you get up close.

Each year, the Council on Foundations recognizes a number of individuals and organizations for their outstanding leadership and contributions to philanthropy. This year, our client and friend, The Skillman Foundation, has been named a double-Silver Award winner for excellence in communications by the 2010 Wilmer Shields Rich Awards Program. The Skillman Foundation received the awards for its 2009 Good Schools Guide and its website. The awards program recognizes effective communications efforts to increase public awareness of foundations and corporate giving programs.

Created in 1960, The Skillman Foundation is a private philanthropy whose chief aim is to help develop good schools and good neighborhoods for children.

For more information on the Skillman Foundation:
http://www.beaconfire.com/Clients/Success%20Stories/skillman.php
http://www.skillman.org

For more information on The Council on Foundations award winners:
http://www.cof.org/events/conferences/2010Annual/awards.cfm

A few days ago, I posted on the ubiquity of Smart Phones at NTC. It’s no wonder that we get requests from clients to “make the site work for mobile,” or “maybe we can make an app for that.” But any developer can tell you, it’s not that simple. Developing for the mobile web is itself an art form, different from developing a site for the (kind of) big screen.

That is why I was a little disappointed at the lack of sessions on the mobile web at NTC. There were a few sessions on mobile fundraising, but they seemed to primarily focus on using SMS.

There seems to be a lot of interest in the non-profit world on creating mobile-enabled web sites and applications. Hopefully, next year, that interest will manifest itself in a few sessions demonstrating some great non-profit work.

I’m into tech. But as I confessed in yesterday’s reflection, there are few pieces of tech I do not possess. One was a Twitter account.

But after NTC, that all changed.

I’ve sung variations on a theme of Twitter detractors: Who has the time for all this; Is anyone really so important that we need to know what they are doing all the time; The 140 character limit is destroying the English language.

But I was thoroughly impressed with the use of Twitter at NTC. Tweeters took notes, asked questions, and gave feedback during the sessions. This was extremely useful to the presenters. And you could get many of the highlights of panels you were not able to attend (check out the tweets of the Data, Data Everywhere panel). And as a presenter, I was able to easily response to post-presentation questions and load a few URLs.

So now I’ve jumped on board the Twitter express. I’m not sure how long I’ll stay on, but while I’m here, you can follow me at @mjgoldsmith.

I attended my first NTC conference four years ago. A few people had Smart Phones back then. They mostly used Blackberries and Palms. I had a phone that made phone calls.

For me, not much has changed (although my phone does text). But now that I saw the ubiquity of Smart Phones at NTC, I’m ready for a change. I was jealous at all the Blackberries, iPhones, and Androids. Poor little old me – I had to do all my note-taking and email-checking on my big, bulky laptop! When it’s time to renew my mobile contract on June, you can be sure I’ll be asking about a data plan.

My favorite Smart Phone display of might occurred on Thursday night, as our very own Michael (Android) and Cara (iPhone), raced to see who could look up the address for a restaurant (Six Feet Under – Primo shrimp tacos!) and make a reservation faster. And the winner…Android! However, once we were in the taxi cab to the restaurant, the Android couldn’t hold a candle to the iPhone — which gave us excellent directions.

Cara and Michael battle it out for Oysters Rockefeller

We here at Beaconfire have made no secret of our love for the Google Grants program. It is an incredible resource that allows nonprofits to get $10,000 per month worth of free advertising on Google and has resulted in some measurable success in new supporter acquisition and brand awareness. At the same time, Google gets advertising to fill less-competitive keywords and gets to improve it’s reputation for corporate citizenship. So now that Facebook traffic has surpassed Google, isn’t it time for Facebook to develop a nonprofit grants program of its own?

A new Facebook page is asking that very question. Call to Action: Launch an Ads Grants Program for Nonprofits was created to encourage Facebook to create a nonprofit grants program. The page administrators note that nonprofits have put a lot of time and energy into promoting Facebook as an online gathering place for their constituents, building fan pages, online engagement tools, putting links on their websites and emails, and making initial forays into using Facebook ads. The page administrators are hoping a large number of people will become a fan of their page in order to demonstrate to Facebook the demand and support for such an effort.

Normally, we’re not ones to jump on a bandwagon, but we’ve seen the good that Google Grants has done for many of our clients, and have really enjoyed working with organizations to optimize their Adwords programs. Facebook’s ubiquity and reach already plays a significant role in a nonprofit’s online marketing toolbox, and a grants program could help many cash-strapped nonprofits grow their supporter base and build their brand online. We encourage you to become a fan of the Call to Action: Launch an Ads Grants Program for Nonprofits page and pass the word on to others!

Do you like Facebook?  I mean, do you really like them?

Think carefully about your answer.  Personally, I like Facebook a lot – even though I’m not always a fan of their decisions.

But if you’re not really a fan, it may not matter.

Facebook is changing how your supporters connect with your page.  Until now, Facebook users have been asked to “become a fan” of pages – showing that they are a fan of your organization, company, or brand.  Soon, they will instead get to “like” your page, and “liking” a page will grant the same connections and privileges as being a fan.  They’ll be able to “like” your ads as well.

This is a very clever move on Facebook’s part.  It might be too clever for their own good.  Think about everyday language: there’s a bit difference between “liking” something and being a “fan” of it.  For example:

I like the AFI Silver, my local independent movie theater.  I go there all the time.  I like them so much that I bought a membership.  I’m interested in their events, and invested in their success. Really, I’d call myself a fan.  Not coincidentally, I’m a fan of their Facebook page.

There are a lot of other things I like.  I like most of the movies I’ve seen recently (but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Up In The Air).  I like chocolate, and Godiva makes good chocolate (but I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Godiva).  I even confess that I like Twinkies, that they taste good even though their ingredient list disgusts me (but I certainly wouldn’t call myself a fan of Twinkies).  I am not a fan of any of these things on Facebook.

Let’s add another layer of semantic complexity: “like” already has a meaning on Facebook.  I like the interesting link from my friend.  I like that my cousin posted how they’re having a good day.  I like the photos of another friend’s new puppy.  Liking is an easy, low-bar action with few long-term consequences.  I can like as many things as I want.  I will never be overwhelmed by liking too many things.  In Facebook, it’s always been safe to like things.

Combine these factors, and it seems likely that Facebook users will connect with many, many more pages when these changes roll out.  After all, they already know how to “like” items in their news feed, and “liking” a brand appears to be a lower bar than becoming a fan.  These two words have very different meanings in our minds, but in Facebook, they’re about to become synonymous.

This is good and bad.  It’s good for page owners, who will suddenly have a lot more connections (fans? likers?) on Facebook.  It will be easier to gain new supporters.  That’s a good thing.

(It’s good for Facebook, too – I don’t doubt they have a plan to make money by making pages more marketable.)

But it’s bad for all the users (unlike me) who don’t spend lots of time thinking about the implications of each action on Facebook. Some may not even notice the change, and they may be confused about why so many brands are suddenly showing up in their news feed, over and over – when all they did was “like” them.  Depending on how you message your Facebook supporters, that could be bad for you, too.  If your updates are too frequent, or not relevant to what these casual “likers” want to know, users may be confused and annoyed.

Facebook says they’ve dealt with this confusion by making “like” look different on a page or ad than it does on the news feed.  In fact, you can “like” an update from a page, and it means something completely different than “liking” the page itself.  I’m not sure I see the distinction – I’m still confused, despite having read explanations of how it will work, so how will the average user make sense of it?

It remains to be seen whether this is a good thing overall, but in the short term, I would recommend caution.  Watch for when Facebook makes the switch.  Watch your subscribe and unsubscribe rates.  Watch for negative (or confused) comments, too.  If you see increases in either, think hard about the messaging you’re using, and whether you can provide a gentle on-ramp for new supporters.  Unlike email, you can’t control which users see your content on Facebook.  If you see trouble signs, you may want to slow down your communications for a while to keep your newer, less fervent supporters engaged.

So, do you like Facebook’s decision?  Are you a fan of it?  Or would you rather “dislike” it (if only you could)?

I love a lot of geeky things – data, free tools, usability theory behind online NCAA basketball brackets. So when I saw the “unconference” on Open Data and APIs sponsored by NetSquared Open Space, I was all in. But I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What is an “unconference” anyway, and what place does it have at a conference.

Now that I’ve received my education in the Unconference, I’m hooked.

At a conference, the agenda is set perhaps months ahead of time by conference planners. At an “unconference,” the agenda is set by the attendees ten minutes. At a conference, attendees are talked to by a panel of experts. At an “unconference,” the attendees are the experts, leading and following in discussions of their choosing.

This was a fantastic way to keep a conversation lively and relevant, especially for a topic that may seem narrow, but is actually quite broad. I myself wound up with a group talking about more open exchanges between CMSes, and particular, CMIS. I can’t wait to learn more.

On Friday and Saturday, we return to the more traditional conference format here at NTC (though one might say that an NTC conference is anything but traditional). So if you’re at NTC this Saturday, check out two of Beaconfire’s panels: Data, Data, Everywhere, and Will Kiva Kill your non-profit.

Periodically, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors.

What was the best April Fools joke you’ve ever played or been a victim of?

Mark, Functional Consultant: Best and worst joke I’ve fallen prey to… VA Beach’s Mount Trashmore Methane explosion joke of 1992 – #9 on museumofhoaxes.com all time worst April fools day jokes: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/worstaprilfools.html

We thought it was real for awhile, as 2 local DJ’s pulled off a total ‘war of the worlds’ type thing on their rowdy morning show.

Scott, Functional Consultant: Victim – http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/31/youtube-rickrolls-users/
terrible.

Marissa, Functional Consultant: One time, someone in my family put a rubber band around the spray nozzle attachment to our sink. When you turned on the sink for the first time, you’d get soaked.

Cara, Project Manager: My kids get me with this about once a month….they have the timing down to a science….I don’t always laugh…

Marissa: I changed my mind. This is my new favorite: http://www.trainsignal.com/windowstraining.aspx

Kesah, Client Manager: In the spirit of the day, I played an April Fool’s Day joke on myself this morning.  I accidentally got on the blue line train instead of the orange line.  There’s nothing like starting your day with a surprise trip to Arlington Cemetery.

At Beaconfire, we are constantly scanning the horizon for new technologies to help our clients make the most of their investment in the Web. However we’ve come to realize that sometimes the best and most elegant solutions are the ones that have withstood the test of time. That is why we are excited to kick off our newest project with the National Foundation for Cute Animal Rights.

During the NFCAR discovery process, we evaluated 8 well-known content management systems in order to best house and leverage their wealth of adorable animal photography and accompanying snarky, yet educational commentary. However, while each CMS offered a solution to fit some of the organization’s needs, none of them truly had the ability to make NFCAR’s impactful imagery the centerpiece of an immersive and interactive user experience. That is when we realized that the most compelling–some would say radical–solution was right under our noses. We decided to redesign their entire Web site to be an interactive Flash showcase.

There were, to be sure, some initial concerns about doing an entire site in Flash. Would search engines be able to index it? How would we be able to easily and accurately measure site traffic? But NFCAR assured us that they were not worried about these issues because their compelling stories and high-traffic partner sites would lead people to the site, and the innovative concept would lead to it becoming a viral sensation. Furthermore, their belief that analytic data does not truly capture the essence of success helped free Beaconfire from the time-consuming effort of placing tracking code on each site page and setting up dashboard reports.

While the final design is yet to be approved, we are proud to report that we have been able to acquire the rights to the song “You Are My Sunshine,” which will be recorded exclusively for NFCAR’s use by last season’s American Idol winner Adam Lambert. This music will provide a continual cheery backdrop for the stunning high-resolution photography of kittens, bunnies, hamsters, and puppies. NFCAR has also purchased the rights to the Archie’s version of “Sugar, Sugar,” which will serve dual purposes–being a prelude to the “meat” of the site, and providing visitors with toe-tapping entertainment during the estimated 7-minute load time.

Keep your eyes on Beaconfire Wire for news of the site launch, which we anticipate to be some time around September. And stay tuned for next week, when we tell you about our forthcoming strategic partnership to help ensure that Internet Explorer 6 remains the gold standard of all Web browsers!

* Photo of cute kitten from Flickr user clevergrrl, adapted under a Creative Commons license.