Apple’s Newsstand is going to do for the publishing industry what iTunes did for the music industry. How much of a game changer? The week Newsstand was launched, electronic subscriptions to The New York Times increased seven times. I love my iPad, and have already realized that I will subscribe to more magazines having it. I stopped so many subscriptions over the years as I became buried under past issues, some of course, not read. No more guilt of recycling so much paper and ink – even if it is soy-based!

So why should a nonprofit take notice? One company has launched a publishing app that offers an incredibly inexpensive way to publish newsletters and journals electronically. PubsReplica offers professional associations and other nonprofit corporations the opportunity to publish in digital print replica format for a flat rate of $250.00 per issue. They say: “There is no set-up, hosting or other hidden fee. Alternatively, you can choose to publish your magazine for 15 cents per download. Again, there would be no other fees. It is completely up to you which price model you would like to adopt. We can accommodate traditional, members-only or free subscription models.”

The savings for national organizations may seem obvious, but consider the benefits to smaller, more local organizations. An electronic newsletter can reach more potential donors than the current methods that most organizations use: donate and then we start mailing to you and report past activity. How many organizations could market themselves far more effectively be providing rich content that does not get lost with other mail circulars? Emailed newsletters limit content and even the best email service cannot ensure that email is opened when most people’s email boxes are overwhelmed.

Sponsors could be treated as featured advertisers with embedded links to their websites, offering a measurement that corporate donors would appreciate. The newsletter can shift from a pretty tame donor communication to an effective stewardship tool to engage leading donors. Or this app can open up the possibility to create an entirely new publication. PubsReplica provides a sample publication, the Utah State Bar Journal.

More sites are either going dark on January 18th or joining in the protest in some way.  Google, Scrbd and WordPress are joining Wikipedia to voice opposition against H.R.3261 — Stop Online Piracy Act (Introduced in House – IH). Okay, reading all that is a commitment. Those in opposition believe that there are other, smarted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet. Those in opposition believe that global intellectual property rights should trump all and that the ideal of a free and open Internet can still exist.

Since Wikipedia will be dark, here is the beginning of the SOPA citiation as of the day before:

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites. They cite examples such as Google’s $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to illegally import prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.

Here is one take on it all.

Sometimes the simplest of solutions is the best. I was fascinated with this report on NPR on solar light bulbs in the Philippines. Here in America we have numerous interest groups attempting to frame the move away from the incandescent light bulb as somehow unAmerican and a conspiracy of epic proportions.  While we whine over getting used to new technology (and the color of light is improving folks) so many people sharing this planet cannot afford to light their homes with a single bulb, having to chose between paying the electric bill or buying food.

This report on NPR, In the Philippine Slums, Capturing Light in a Bottle,  describes light bulbs consisting of discarded plastic soda bottles filled with water and wedged in a hole cut in the roof.  With the help of a tropical sun, the makeshift bulbs give off about 55 watts of light and require no electricity. This lighting program called “A Liter of Light” truly illustrates the power of a great idea and the nonprofit community.

Learn how!

Certainly not a surprise, yet a quarter of Wisconsin nonprofits responding to a survey about their financial health reported that they do not have sufficient cash reserves. Gayle Worland reported on the study in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Nonprofits appear to be treading water like many Americans. In may own experience with several nonprofit, the  past few years have been a constant to struggle to do more with less or trim activities that could be viewed as non mission critical in an attempt to hand on.  What is distressing is if more and more organizations have had to dip into savings to fill an income gap.

2012 could be the year of consolidation as similarly positioned organizations merge in order to retain some level of identity and purpose. Just as with the housing market and foreclosures there will be winners and losers. Financially stronger nonprofits may find a silver lining of sorts. If there are fewer organizations  seeking donations from a limited donor pool (as in locally based and funded nonprofits) those organizations ready to embark on a capital campaign or major service change, could find a donor community interested to learn more.  Donors with a strong commitment to a cause are most always interested to learn how other organizations are addressing the same issues. In today’s (and tomorrow’s) new normal, it will be the organizations that are creative, entrepreneurial, nimble and not afraid of change who will make it to 2013.

I am  interested in collecting real world case studies of nonprofit organizations who see the need for wholesale change and are pressing forward.

I thank Jonathan Liu of GeekDad for posting a good commentary on the implications of paper books vanishing with the rise of e-readers. So much of the discussion complaining about e-books seems to center on paper book (or newspaper) aficionados as being luddites holding on to “old technology” all for the feel of paper and smell of ink.  Well, I have whined about that at times. There are times I prefer the heft of a book and at other times love the softly lit screen of my iPad as I read in bed. Bruce Feiler had a great column in  New York Times lamenting that he could no longer snoop the books shelves of others if they had made the shift to e-books. And how does one lend an e-book? There goes my book club.

But seriously, in all this I have a choice. I have the money to buy an iPad so if some literature shifted entirely to electronic formats vs. paper, I would still be able to access it.  I work with a wonderful nonprofit in Milwaukee uses the visual arts to underscore reading comprehension. SHARP Literacy works in some of the most vulnerable schools in the city of Milwaukee. Each year, with donor support, they give books to first to fifth graders to take home and build their own libraries. For many of these children,  they are the only books they have in their home.  It may be the same in your schools system, as much as they would like to give each child a laptop or iPad, it is not going to happen any time soon, given the state of the economy and state and local budgets for education.

So what does this mean? Study after study shows that having access to books at an early age is a major predictor of success. It may soon be that the very children who already experience an uneven playing field when it comes to education will be priced out.  The Kindle may continue to drop in price, but can it drop to just a few bucks? And you do need the electricity in your home to charge it. As Jonathan Liu observes:

Gutenberg took literature from the wealthy and put it into the hands of the masses with his printing press. E-Readers are doing the opposite. Is this the fate of our country (or our world) — the rich become richer, the poor become poorer, and even the most basic tools of education and upward mobility are no longer available to those who need them the most?

He is right, it is a scarey story.

Surf’s up, so no long swims for Gypsy on Sunday. Being on the shore was a bit of therapy after reading Dan Egan’s story in the Milwaukee Journal about the demise of commercial fishing on Lake Michigan as the the quagga mussel has destroyed the fish population. It just underscores how important it is for the federal government to recognize the affects of invasive species like the quagga mussel on the Great Lakes and begin doing something to prevent another disaster. Green Bay is no longer green!

Thank you Dan Egan and the Milwaukee Journal for sticking with this issue!

And an update. Published on 8/17/11 in the Milwaukee Journal, another in Egan’s great series. This time we explore that fact that whitefish are adapting to the changing food web and beginning to eat fish even though they have no teeth! Whether they can fight back the invasive species or not, Gypsy and I are cheering them on. What havoc we humans have on our world.

Loophole comes from the Dutch word liupen meaning to peer as in from a slit in a castle wall while staying protected.  From there it gains a meaning a gap, omission, or ambiguity that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation – as in taxes.

So when is closing a loophole a tax-hike? Well of course it is a tax increase to the organization or individual who has benefitted from its existence here-to-date and it is removed. Our tax code is chock full of incentives that made sense to congress and past presidents at some point in time to encourage investment, favored industries or innovation. They have just never perfected a way to close them in the face of lobbyists.

Grover Norquist’s continued linguistic parsing that removing a tax loophole equals a tax hike ignores basic economics, common sense and even the beliefs of the endangered species – the moderate republican. Former Republican Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson, interviewed on NPR, cut no slack. (OK Simpson is not exactly remembered as a moderate anything, but he is looking that way today in comparison.) Well he did spend 10 months with 17 other members of a bipartisan committee to offer a plan that was completely ignored. (So now we call it a super committee and expect a different outcome? Not if Mitch “there is no compromise” McConnell chooses the players.)

Simpson said of Norquist (and Republican leadership rigid stance on no taxes): “He’ll (Norquist) be irrelevant in a couple of years. Because if you can’t get rid of these tax expenditures, which are just loopholes – they’re really spending by any other name – if you can’t get rid of those and then get a better tax rate, broaden the base, lower the rates, get spending out of the code – all of that is in our plan.”

And: “if we and this government and these congresspersons are enthralled to the AARP and Grover Norquist, we ain’t got a prayer.”

And how about: “The word compromise is not a filthy word. If you can’t learn to compromise an issue without compromising yourself, then you shouldn’t be a legislator.”

Ouch.

Not everyone would agree but there is a reason to use the tax code to provide incentives in the marketplace. The increase in taxes on cigarettes, for example, resulted in a decrease in sales and increased people’s attempts to kick the habit.  The mortgage deduction was put in place as an incentive to increase home ownership. That one may not be looking as shiny and pristine as it once did.

A busted tax code that can make it possible for GE to pay NO corporate taxes in 2010 while the hardworking family who runs a toy, gift, and variety store down the street certainly does pay taxes makes no sense. (They cannot concentrate their profits from sales of school supplies, cards and gifts offshore I guess.) And while GE has increased offshore profits from $15 billion to $92 billion since 2002, they eliminated one/fifth of their US workforce and increased overseas employment. Trust me, the small store has a better job creation record. Hmmm, and much of these tax breaks came from a law brilliantly named, the American Jobs Creation Act.

Our congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle will spend the next months tied up in linguistic loops calling a loophole a tax increase, and a tax break, a job-creating-incentive and ignore the obvious that the majority of America realizes: you cannot cut enough spending to reduce a deficit created by not funding wars for a decade. Tax revenue is down because of the number of people out of work. Any of the unemployed would be most happy to begin paying into the system again in exchange for a job. But they need to know that everyone, including corporate American pays their fair share. To say that the revenue side of things is “off the table” is insane and frankly feeds a notion that the Republicans want to deliberately wound the economy so they can take the presidency. Not sure what they think they will be handing the candidate elected in 2012 or to leaders in the rest of what he see is a very connected global economy.

Seems fitting that loophole comes from a military history. Legislators (both parties) hid under the cover of terrorism and a strong economy to escalate military spending while allocating no revenue for it, whether taken from other programs or through increased taxes. How long did they think the party would last?

Get ready for the best Simpsonism, How painful will it be to get us back on a fiscally responsible path? “It’s going to be like giving dry birth to a porcupine.”

I have become a follower of McKinsey Quarterly and this article and the graph was a stunner. Whenever clients seem to dismiss the importance of smartphones and the shift here to consume digital media from devices other than a computer I try to find ways to challenge their assumptions. My interest is to get them to make a mind shift now so that they do not end up lagging so far behind technology that their organization falls behind their  competition. It is easy to think that this is just for retailers, it is only a matter of time when other private sector business, nonprofits and the public sector see potential in this digital revolution.

Mobile India could lead the world

India could become the first mobile digital society. Although just 7 percent of its people currently have Web access, Indians consume—offline—an average of 4.5 hours of digital content daily. By charging fees to load it onto mobile devices, some businesses in effect serve as physical iTunes stores, a market estimated at more than $4 billion a year. If demand were unleashed through the mobile Internet, McKinsey research forecasts, the number of users would soar to 450 million by 2015, and digital-content consumption would rise as high as $9.5 billion. To learn how the country could blaze a trail for other developing markets, read “Can India lead the mobile-Internet revolution?” (February 2011).

Did you see it? The Apple roll out of OS 5 and iCloud was impressive, but I could not take my eyes off the split keyboard on the iPad and the beautiful anonymous hands thumb typing away. Looks to be that Qwerty typing may soon be dead.

Standard touch typing skills are still quite useful, yet an entire generation has learned to type by preschool on Mom’s cell phone and with the thumbs. As a hybrid touch and hunt and peck type, the idea that standard touch typing may not be as critical in the future is really is not a big deal to me. But there are more than a few folks out there who feel if touch typing goes, so goes broadcast TV. (Is that bad?)

I recently spent a huge amount of time hunting for an iPad case with a wireless keyboard. Thankfully, I did read all these reviews and saved the money. All of these cases want to keep to the iPad size and so therefore provide you with a keyboard that is just as cramped as the one it is replacing. Even hunt and peck typists find it hard to get used to. But good touch typists really suffer. Their angst-filled reviews of typing on the iPad make for good reading. Better to use a standard wireless board for long stints at the iPad, and improve my thumb technique, I guess.

With the ability to thumb type, as so many folks younger than me have become expert at ( and fast) who needs to know the “right” way to type? Heck, I may live to see the death of the Qwerty keyboard altogether.

A colleague passed this on to me weeks ago as we started redesigning a website for a local nonprofit. Today, I finally get around to sharing it. Jakob Neilsen’s research and commentary on usability issues surrounding nonprofit sites is a must read.

Many smaller, local nonprofits get the majority of their donations the old fashioned way, by check and in response to a mailed solicitation. But I will argue that those days, they are a’ changing. Why? Because as more charities look to engage new donors, they will need to meet the next generations where they are and that is in the digital space. And I am not thinking of just 20-somethings. Older, wiser and perhaps with more disposable cash, plenty of 50-somethings are spending more time on their iPads.

Nielsen’s test included major national nonprofits and smaller organizations. They tested:

• Choosing a recipient: Participants used two non-profit sites in a given category and decided which of the organizations — which had roughly similar missions — was most deserving of a donation.
• Making a first-time donation: Using their own credit cards, participants made an online donation to the chosen charity. We reimbursed users for this expense after the study.
• Making a repeat donation: Participants gave money to a charity that they’d previously donated to (prior to the study).
• Making a non-monetary contribution: Participants located information about giving a tangible item, such as pet food or used toys. For this task, we didn’t direct users to specific sites; they used the Web to find a suitable charity to receive their item.
• Purchasing a product: Participants were asked to buy an item for themselves that a nonprofit sold on its website — such as a cookbook from the American Diabetes Association.
• Volunteering: Participants researched information about volunteering at one of the organizations in the study.
• Using Facebook to research charities: Participants compared two similar nonprofits on Facebook and selected one to receive a donation.

What they found is that it is harder to give money away than to buy stuff on the Internet. This is not a surprise to many of us who work with nonprofits. Until recently, e-commerce capabilities have been very expensive to add to legacy websites. Today, the barriers to creating a good user experience for donors are not insurmountable. Donations will still come in via traditional routes, but all nonprofits need to invest in the technology to be able to engage donors via social media and let them give electronically. Read the study – it’s a quick read.

Addendum: Read this to start thinking where things are going! 15 Facts about the Internet in 2015.