e-STAS 2007
Innovation and NGO Technology
Allen Gunn
Aspiration
www.aspirationtech.org
gunner@aspirationtech.org
23 de marzo de 2007.Diputación Provincial, Sevilla
These materials are distributed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5

Three Perspectives
►Lessons Learned in NGO Tech Innovation
►3 Drivers in NGO Tech Innovation
►Social Source Commons

Innovation is Double-Edged
►“Innovations” can take NGOs backwards
►NGOs should strive to retain control of their
technological destiny
 “Bleeding edge” technology is rarely advisable
 There is power in the trailing edge
 Less is more
►Innovate by letting technology magnify your
work, not define it

Power Dynamics in NGO Tech
►Too few NGO stakeholders understand
technology well
 The technology-literate hold disproportionate
weight in technology decisions
 Tech values can crowd out mission values
►NGOs feel pressure to use innovative tech
 From funders, peers
►Technology is often disempowering for NGOs
 This drives risk-aversion

Language as Power
►Innovationshould be discussed in the
language of NGO mission and audience
 Not in the language of whiz-bang tech
►Innovation should by driven by “user stories”
 How will users of new technology benefit”
 Will the value be enough to get them to use it?
 Do all stakeholders understand the stories?
►Unsustainable innovation is no innovation

NGO Innovation Checklist
►Questions to ask when introducing new tech
 Can we articulate the benefits in simple terms?
 Do we feel in control of the process?
 Do we understand the tech fundamentals?
 Are we considering the full innovation life cycle?
 Do we have a plan for addressing failure?
 Will this allow us to focus more time on mission?
 Have all stakeholders been engaged?
 Do they want the innovation?

3 Drivers in NGO Innovation
►Free and open source software
 Properly deployed, offers many new options
►Free and open content
 New models for sharing knowledge
►Open interfaces for accessing data
 Freeing “hostage” NGO information

Social Source Commons
►Designed to let NGOs share tech knowledge
 Inspired by Wikipedia, del.icio.us, flickr
 Collaborative editing
 Democratic categorization
 Open source, open standards
►Maps the NGO software landscape
 Goal: distribution center for software knowledge
 Connect the unconnected resources

www.socialsourcecommons.org

www.socialsourcecommons.org

www.socialsourcecommons.org

The End
Thank You!
These materials are distributed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5