Elijah van der Giessen

I help nonprofits build community.

Category: NetSquared

Moving On: Leaving My Role as TechSoup Connect Community Manager — March 28, 2023

Moving On: Leaving My Role as TechSoup Connect Community Manager

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I’ve been the TechSoup Connect (originally called NetSquared) community manager for 10 years and 10 months. I’ve volunteered as the host of the Vancouver chapter for 13 years and 9 months. That’s a long time, so it’s time to stretch my wings and build new skills. Starting on March first, I transitioned into a new role at TechSoup. I am the Community Manager for a new division focused on app for good developers. Web3 distributed apps will be my first project, so I want to talk if you’re working with Filecoin, web3 technologies, or the decentralized web! 

I’ve been blessed to stumble onto two callings in my career – jobs perfectly aligned with where I can bring the most value. First, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival introduced me to the power of volunteer-led community, and then the NetSquared/TechSoup Connect opportunity allowed me to help a community scale globally through the web. It has been a pleasure getting to know the 300+ volunteers who have worked so far to help nonprofits master technology.

Thank you for everything, and you inspire me daily with your commitment to growing a better nonprofit sector. Supporting your efforts has been a dream job,

Elijah van der Giessen

P.S. I’m still the co-host of TechSoup Connect Western Canada, so please join my chapter!

3 Event Reporting Tools for Non-Bloggers — February 12, 2013

3 Event Reporting Tools for Non-Bloggers

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NetSquared’s local organizers hold over 450 nonprofit technology events annually. The best way to participate is to attend in person but our organizers also create event reports so that they can share the lessons learned with a global audience. You can find many of those event summaries here on the NetSquared blog, but some organizers just don’t like blogging! I’m one of them. For those more visually-oriented organizers the NetSquared community and I have been experimenting with some non-blog ways to document NetSquared local events.

Here are a few tools and techniques that will help you easily create event reports:

Storify

NetSquared events create a huge amount of digital ephemera: tweets, slides, videos, links mentioned, photos… Storify.com offers an online tool that helps you collect your event’s online clutter and shape it into a coherent story using a drag and drop interface. Here’s an example from Vancouver’s January event with Cambridge organizer Mel Findlater.

Google+ Hangouts

Several NetSquared groups have been streaming their events using Google+ Hangouts and then automatically uploading the event to youtube. Amanda in Burlington has been doing this regularly as has Judy Hallman in North Carolina. For an example of a more complex, multi-city event streamed via Google+ Hangouts check out the four city NetSquared Downunder camp organized by our team in Australia and New Zealand.

Live screencast recordings

The newest and laziest form of event reporting I’ve recently discovered is to create a screencast from your event. This is a perfect solution for demos and other presentations that feature slides or a lot of on-screen activity. You use screencasting software (here’s 12 options from free to expensive – I used Screenflow) to record a video of all on-screen activity and record audio using the computer’s built-in microphone. Now you have a file with presentation audio and video that you can upload to youtube or video. It’s SUPER easy as long as you set-up your presenter’s computer ahead of time! Check out this example from Vancouver’s data visualization event.

Visualizing data using maps and other tools – NetTuesday Vancouver from Mack Hardy on Vimeo.

How do you document your events? Please share your favorite tricks and tools in the comments.

NetSquared January update — January 7, 2013

NetSquared January update

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Here’s what happened in my NetSquared gig in December/ 2012.

Happy New Year ! 2013

Happy New Year!

I’m looking forward to supporting your local community activism in 2013 and I’m delighted to welcome new members to the NetSquared local organizer team. In fact, I received more than five new organizer applications over the holidays and several inactive groups including Seattle and Montreal are also planning to relaunch.
Let’s use the new year to commit to holding frequent NetSquared local events and if you know anyone who might be a good prospect for launching a new group please refer them to me!

Here’s an update on our latest activity:

Highlights from the NetSquared community blog

The NetSquared community blog is alive again! We welcome your contributions. Use the blog to promote your upcoming events, share your nonprofit tech thoughts, or show off (don’t be shy!) with highlights from your meetups. We welcome your blog posts, photos, storifys, videos and more!

Top posts from December:

Platform

The eleventh of the NetSquared platform is now live. Highlights include the ability to add non-meetup events to your user profile and projects. We have improved the local organizer map to make the pins bigger and easier to navigate. The local organizer profile pages have been fixed and now show your city and link to your group pages.

Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest

The Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest invites both new and seasoned developers to create an app for “social good” – and you could win cash prizes to help fuel your dream and keep it going!

The contest is open to pre-existing applications, so if you know of a Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 app that meets our definition of social good please encourage the developer to register.

Note: the contest is only open to residents of the USA. But anyone can vote and share!

January events

So far 14 events have been scheduled in January, with several still in gestation. Are you planning an event that didn’t make it onto this list? Let me know!

Image: JUAN RAMON RODRIGUEZ SOSA on Flickr.

NetSquared December update — December 7, 2012

NetSquared December update

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Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last month in my gig as NetSquared Local Community Curator.

NetSquared snowglobe
It’s December, which means we’re on the last page of our calendar. Team NetSquared is working hard to wrap-up some this year’s projects. We’ve now completed all seven of our NetSquared Camps and have just one more Global Leadership Council meeting left. But just because some things are coming to an end there’s no reason for tears – rather let’s reflect back on what we’ve learned over the year and share the gift of knowledge on the Washington DC group’s quora page.

The future of NetSquared

The recent reorganization of NetSquared sees the emergence of a unified content and community team for both the NetSquared and TechSoup brands. Sheetal Singh is our new TechSoup champion, taking over from Billy Bicket who is going to take on platform work.

What does that all mean to NetSquared organizers? I’ll be able to share more by mid-December when Sheetal sends her community update, but in the short-term you’ll start to see a regular stream of new content on the NetSquared community blog.

NetSquared Camps

This fall’s major initiative was the NetSquared Camps, which were seven regional unconferences and workshops produced by our local organizer network. The camps were an amazing opportunity to expand the NetSquared local experience from a brief daytime or evening event into an all-day extravaganza. It was also a great excuse for us to get local organizers together for face-to-face meetings, since the big lesson from the Global Leadership Council experiment this year was that we can kickstart inter-organizer relationships by getting people together in the same room. Which, honestly, shouldn’t have been too much of a shock since that’s the key insight that keeps all of us local organizers doing our meetups from month to month.

Each of the camp organizers has written a blog post sharing their insights, photos and video. There are lots of great ideas to steal for your own events!

Platform

The tenth release of the NetSquared platform is now live. Many of the changes were beneath the hood, but you’ll definitely notice the improvements to the community blog. We’re now randomly featuring bloggers from the local network. You may see your face next time you go to http://www.NetSquared.org/blog!

NetSquared organizers as bloggers

Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest

The Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest invites both new and seasoned developers to create an app for “social good” – and you could win cash prizes to help fuel your dream and keep it going!

There are already five entries in the contest. Check out their project pages and use the social share buttons on the one you think is coolest.

Note: the contest is only open to residents of the USA. But anyone can vote and share!

December events

A quick scan shows ten events happening across the NetSquared local network. That’s a big drop from the 21 in November… Curse those holidays! :-)

Are you competitive? — November 16, 2012

Are you competitive?

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A blog post from NetSquared.org encouraging local organizers to host events on a monthly basis. It’s the key to growth!

Black Lab Mother & pupLocal organizers:

Are you curious about how big your local group is compared to everyone else? Well, wonder no more because you can see the leaderboard on meetup.
The top five
  1. San Francisco: 1962
  2. Wasington, DC: 1335
  3. Vancouver, BC: 1329
  4. Toronto, ON: 1194
  5. New Orleans, LA: 1019
You may have heard the saying “it’s not big it is, but how you use it”. I think they were talking about meetup groups. But most of us are in this to make a big impact in our communities, and having a bigger meetup helps. :-)
Factors of group growth
I’m sure there’s lots of patterns we could find in this data, but to me there are two key factors. One we control and the other we don’t.
  1. Big groups are usually in big cities (naturally!)
  2. Big groups hold events consistently every month.
Consistency is the biggest factor in group growth. It’s as important as event quality!
Need help coming up with event ideas? Check out this list of event formats and topics. I can also help you find a co-organizer, which makes it much easier to hold events every month.
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Photo by blogdnd. Creative Commons-licensed on flickr.
NetSquared September update — November 11, 2012

NetSquared September update

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fall leafHere’s what I did as the NetSquared Local Community Curator in September 2012.

 

September is here, and even ‘tho the new year doesn’t come for another four months I still think of September as a time of rebirth and renewal (I’ll always think like a student, I guess.)

Check out all this rebirth and renewal:
Camps

We’re already had two NetSquared Camp events (Honolulu and Cameroon/Nigeria) and there’s another six  coming between now and November.

Platform
We released the latest release of the NetSquared platform this week and the old blog posts are back!
September events
The NetSquared local organizers are going to keep you busy this summer. Here’s a taste of some of the events planned so far.
NetSquared update October 2012 —

NetSquared update October 2012

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My Geek-o-Lantern.

What I did at NetSquared in October 2012

October is here! This is going to be a big month for NetSquared. Not only are we going to be holding three regional camps, but there’s also 18 local meetups scheduled and a major local organizer-focused update to the NetSquared platform.

Camps

There are three NetSquared camps scheduled for October:

And in November there will be two more:

Platform
Notification feed

The seventh release of the NetSquared platform is now live. It includes several new features including notification feeds (Facebook-style!) and NetSquared camp pages which appear as green dots on the local map.

What comes next? A major revision of the local organizer pages, to be rolled out October 23, 2012. Hopefully that will solve some of the ongoing bugs y’all have been struggling with, including an unpredictable meetup integration and hunt ‘n peck map icons. :-)

October events

A quick scan shows 18 events happening across the NetSquared local network. Did I miss any? I think our local organizers have put together an impressive lineup. :-)

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Photo: My Geek-o-Lantern. Creative Commons licensed by Neal Gillis

NetSquared November update —

NetSquared November update

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Here’s what I’ve been up to in my gig at NetSquared Local Community Curator.

Winter is finally arriving in the northern hemisphere (and we’re getting jealous of our southern friends). This November the NetSquared community is holding the last of this year’s NetSquared Camps and is holding even more monthly meetups than last month (at least twenty-one!). This month also saw the launch of the Microsoft Windows 8 Contest, which is open to US-based developers.

The future of NetSquared local

What does the future of NetSquared’s local meetups look like? Please join Billy Bicket, TechSoup’s VP of Community & Platform and Sheeta Singh, Development Director for a community meeting to discuss the future of the program. Please indicate your availability on this doodle poll if you’d like to join this conference call.

NetSquared Camps

Late October saw NetSquared Camp Europe and NetSquared Camp Vermont. In early November it was Guatemala’s turn and in late November the Australian and New Zealand organizers are holding NetSquared Camp Downunder. This four-city meetup will be streamed live over the internet and you’re invited to join them! You can RSVP on the Virtual NetSquared meetup group.

Platform

Events shown based on location

The ninth release of the NetSquared platform is now live. Most of the changes are improvements to the challenge functionality of the site, but it also includes the display of events to logged-in users of the platform. When a user is on the site they are now shown their closest local meetup event (because we know their location). This will help bring more people to your meetup.

I’ve also created a screencast overview of the local organizer pages on the platform as well as a guide to creating and editing your local organizer page. Let me know if something isn’t clear.

Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest

I’ve been pretty quiet for the last few weeks because I’ve been supporting the launch of a joint project between Microsoft and NetSquared. Want to help people find the closest organic produce? Interested in making it easier for people to conserve more energy? Can you make online donations easier? How about making math easier for kids? The Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest invites both new and seasoned developers to create an app for “social good” – and you could win one of three cash prizes to help fuel your dream and keep it going! There are three cash prizes starting at $15,000. Good luck! Please note, the contest is only open to residents of the USA.

November events

A quick scan shows 21 events happening across the NetSquared local network. Did I miss any?

Photo by Tim on Flickr

NetSquared: what have I done for the last two months? — July 26, 2012

NetSquared: what have I done for the last two months?

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It’s been two months since I joined Marc and Anka on the NetSquared community team. But what have I been up to? It’s time to report back.

I started off with a survey to the NetSquared Local organizers, which helped us focus our work initiated by the 100 Day Challenge.

Survey Results and Actions

What you said

You want to bring local organizers together.
connection chart

What we did

We launched the Regional Gathering Fund to fund NetSquared Camps that will bring local organizers together for face-to-face meetings.

What you said

You want event recipes and templates.
Recipe chart

What we did

We’ve been updating the Organizer’s Handbook, have tested the Social Media Surgery format (inspired by organizers in Manchester, Adelaide and Burlington) and will be publishing a new event format called a Tool Jam to the wiki for September 2012. The Tool Jam is a rapid introduction to the software tools used by members of the social benefit technology community, and is inspired by the Ignite and PechaKucha format.

In Progress

You asked for regional Google+ hangouts. We haven’t delivered on these yet, although the NetSquared team has been offering experimental office hours.
Regional hangout chart

Items of less interest

The survey showed that there was less interest in these areas. We’ll ignore them for now!

  • Peer mentorships
  • best practice webinars

What Else?

In addition to following up on the tasks identified in the survey, the NetSquared team has been hard at work on our ongoing project, which is to act as cheerleaders for the amazing work local organizers are doing in their communities. We’re doing that by highlighting NetSquared Local organizers in our monthly Digital Bites newsletter and by launching the new NetSquared platform, which will feature dedicated pages for each of our local groups and automatically import your meetup.com events into the site.

Complete Survey Data

Taking local to the next level

Taking Local to the Next Level

Strengthening your local group

Strenthening your local group

Net Tuesday September 11 2012 — July 17, 2012