Tech Trends and Best Practices for 2014

Tech Trends &Best Practices for 2014

Jane Zhang, Executive Director at TechSoup CanadaDirector of Online Services at the Centre for Social InnovationSlides and presentation prepared by Joyce Hsu

What is the World of Tech Offering in 2014?

3D Printing

3D Printing can now be used for printing customizable prosthetic limbs.

ChefJet, the first restaurant-approved food printer, uses water to melt sugar into shapes. Unfortunately the samples didn’t taste very good, but the technology is there.


Wearable Technology

FitBit tracks daily activity, calories burned, sleep & weight. The data is uploaded wirelessly so you can check progress via mobile or an online dashboard.

Google Glass is a hands-free, optical head-mounted display that shows and captures information.


Wearable TechnologyThe Hövding is a wearable technology that relies on advanced motion sensors to employ airbags for cyclists.


Robotic Technology

Amazon is experimenting with Prime Air, an unmanned aerial drone that aims to deliver packages in 30 mins or less.

The Parrot AR Drone is an app-controlled helicopter, equipped with a camera. Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices with iOS & Android operating systems are compatible with Parrot AR Drone.


Even More Advanced Robots

Tawabo, a robot tour guide at Tokyo Tower, speaks Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English.

ACM-R5, an amphibious snake-like robot from HiBot Corp, Japan is designed to aid in search and rescue operations.


Even More Advanced Robots

Google’s driverless car is a project that involved developing technology for autonomous cars. There are currently 3 states in the US that allow the testing of automated vehicles.


Modular Phones

Motorola’s Project Ara aims to develop a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphone.


Virtual Reality

Oculus Rift is an upcoming virtual reality head-mounted display. Consumer version is expected to become available later this year.

However …

These cutting-edge technology trends are unlikely to impact your charity’s day-to-day operations in 2014.

5 Tech Trends for Nonprofits #1 Responsive & Adaptive Design

Why is this important? Mobile devices are overtaking PC sales

BetChemy Ventures, May 2013

There are 1 billion smart phones in use and this number will grow to two billion in two yearsEricsson Mobility Report, June 2013

Your website needs to be optimized to respond to any device your supporter is using, otherwise your call-to-actions, important content and donation forms may be missed

What’s the difference? Responsive web design is a single template with

flexible images and fluid grids Pro: Easier and cheaper to implement

Con: Pages load slower, content not fully optimized

Adaptive web design utilizes scripting to adapt to various sizes Pro: Pages load faster, content and web design fully

optimized

Con: Requires advanced knowledge of JavaScript and CSS

You can also combine both responsive and adaptive


Resources to help you get started: Free Responsive Templates

HTML5 & CSS: HTML5up, HTML5Templates,

CMS: Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla

Email templates: ZURB, Antwort, Campaign Monitor

Coding resources for creating adaptive design LessFramework

StackOverflow


5 Tech Trends for Nonprofits #2 Dynamic Data

Why is this important?

There is an oversaturation of static infographics on the web – people are becoming dull to the mediummoz.com/ugc/infographics-are-dead-long-live-infographics


Dynamic Data?

Dynamic data combines both static images and text (searchable content is better for SEO). Create dynamic data where users can watch, click and really explore your data


Good Examples Why Your Brain Craves Infographics

neomam.com/interactive/13reasons Air BnB’s Annual Report

airbnb.com/annual


Good Examples Google’s Think Insights Databoard

think.withgoogle.com/databoard WarChild Holland Annual Report

annualreportwarchild.org


5 Tech Trends for Nonprofits #3 Modular Technology & Integration

Modular technologies and a good integration strategy will determine how agile and “future-proof” your nonprofit can be – especially with little or no internal IT support.

The modular approach allows you to:

Customize your tech solution to fit your needs

Better integrate with existing technologies

Customize Your Tech Solution to Fit Your Needs


Taking a modular approach to CRMs will help your nonprofit find the best fit for your needs without paying for features that you won’t use:

Sumac offers add-ons that have distinct functionalities. All of the add-ons are useful, but not all nonprofits need them (i.e., course registration add-on, case management add-on, etc.)

Integrating with Existing Technologies


Think about how to integrate the technologies you are using to improve efficiency.

Salesforce, integrates with over 250 applications, including EventBrite, Social Media, SAP, Oracle EBS, Microsoft Dynamics, etc.

A Few Tools that allow Modular Design


Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) CiviCRM

Salesforce

Sumac

Content Management System (CMS) Wordpress

Joomla

Drupal


5 Tech Trends for Nonprofits #4 Hybrid Cloud & Internal IT Infrastructure

Allows all nonprofits (including healthcare organizations) to enjoy benefits of both:

Benefits of the Cloud: User-friendly, self-service features without expensive IT resources

Benefits of Internal servers: Store sensitive information that cannot be hosted outside of Canada

If your nonprofit has not set-up a hybrid cloud/IT system, design your cloud service usage with a hybrid future in mind and make sure future integration is possible

What it could look like:


Highly sensitive information hosted internally (e.g. patient information)

Productivity processes on the cloud (e.g., meeting minutes, collateral materials)

Cloud Productivity Tools


Dropbox

Smartsheet

Huddle

Evernote

Skydrive

Google Docs

Cloud Productivity Suites

Office 365 for Nonprofits

Google Apps for Business

Zoho

Dropbox

Smartsheet

Huddle

Evernote

Skydrive

Google Docs


A Word on Data …Technology has made data collection and data sharing very easy. As a nonprofit, consider:

What kind of data are you collecting? (And why?)

What can you accomplish with the data that is freely shared?

Are you contributing data to the sector/larger mission?

How are you collaborating with other nonprofits on a national and international scale?

Read more on TechSoup Canada’s website:

Under Blog > Take The Next Step with Data Sharing for Nonprofitswww.techsoupcanada.ca/en/community/blog/take-the-next-step-with-data-sharing-for-nonprofits

5 Tech Trends for Nonprofits #5 Mobile Beacon Based Sensors

What is it?Essentially a wireless sensor network that can be used for routing, monitoring and tracking.


Gives nonprofits the potential to create more engaging experiences and to improve operations

5 Tech Trends for Nonprofits #5 Mobile Beacon Based Networks

Geofencing is a virtual perimeter around any geographic area. It can be used by nonprofits for:

Improving event participants’ experiences (e.g., attendees could automatically check-in to an event zone using a geofence app, you can send a phone alert/notification to an event attendee when they enter or leave a geofence area)

Keeping track of your nonprofit’s assets (e.g., your office manager can receive a notification when a laptop leaves your office)

Example: Geofencing

5 Tech Trends for Nonprofits #5 Mobile Beacon Based Networks

Example: Apple’s iBeacon

Apple’s iBeacon is a transmitter that notifies nearby iOS 7 devices of their presence.

Best Practices

There are certain trends in the use of technology that are essential for success: Content Marketing & Curation Targeted Communications Data Informed Decisions

Content Marketing & Content Curation

The “spray & pray” approach is no longer effective when it comes to marketing.

Good content marketing & curation is the best way for your nonprofit to build brand loyalty and engage with your supporters.

Targeted Communications

Donors and supporters have different motivations to give and different experiences interacting with your nonprofit. Speak to them properly to inspire positive responses. Loyal Donors don’t want to read

“Let me introduce you to our mission”

Prospects don’t want to read “As you may know, we’re raising money for … ”

Data Informed Decisions

Questions? Comments?

Jane Zhang, Executive Director at TechSoup CanadaDirector of Online Services at the Centre for Social InnovationSlides and presentation prepared by Joyce Hsu

Date post:	27-Jan-2015
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