And yet another tip from Tech Soup - this one about backing up all of the crucial information you have stored in Outlook. (Some Outlook users use Microsoft Exchange Server, and some don’t. This tool is for the folks that don’t have an Exchange Server!)
If you are using Outlook and your organization does not use an Exchange server, all your Outlook information, including your contacts, calendar entries, and e-mail, is stored in a personal folders file (.pst file). This add-in simplifies the oft-neglected backup of this file, by adding a menu item directly on your Outlook client, and can be set to remind you of your backup. This backup and then be stored on a file server or taken off-site for disaster recovery purposes.
And the link to get the tool!
It’s a tough world out there - just when we were all getting used to Virus and Spam problems - we had to start figuring out how to protect against Spyware. Then along came “Phishing” (when you get email that looks and feels like someone else and they trick you into giving up important information).
There’s another one - it’s called a Root Kit Attack. The folks at the City of Seattle have a great article about it. The good news is that all of the things you’ve learned about spam and spyware and phishing apply - make sure you have great anti-virus, a firewall, you’re up to date on security patches and so on.
If you’re managing all of your own technical infrastructure - you’ll want to read that article and double check your protections. And if you have a vendor - you should ask them to make sure you have the proper tools in place to keep your computers and network safe!
The online storage wars are heating up - there is a new tool available from DivShare, which is free. Here’s what they say about their service:
DivShare is a new type of web host. We’re all about freedom and simplicity. Upload your videos, photos and other files, and we’ll host them forever, for free. You can embed your files anywhere, and co-brand your download pages. How? We’re ad-supported, but fear not, we’ll never invade you with obnoxious or offensive ads.
That seems like a pretty good deal to me. Of course, the proof is in the pudding - will this tool work effectively, stay free and thus be a contender for storing mission critical data as part of a disaster recovery plan?
They have a remarkably short and readable privacy policy, too.
Microsoft has two new tools out, one which appears to have similar functionality to Evite, but with an emphasis on what happened after the event (pictures, blogs, and so on) as well as a home server software package.
The planning service is called Windows Live Events, and it will allow you to use a series of templates (again, like Evite) to modify the way the event looks and so on. The major difference appears to be that the organizer can also create a website post event to maintain those pictures notes and so on.
The Home Server software has also been released to retailers. The NPower team hasn’t had the opportunity to review this new tool - but many of the promised features might make this an attractive tool for nonprofit who are just getting started. Features include a daily backup, file sharing to others in your network, PC health monitoring tools, and more.
I’m always delighted to see new tools being offered - and can’t wait to see if the nonprofit sector can leverage either or both of these to deliver on their mission!
Amazon provided a service level agreement to go with their S3 online storage offering - I haven’t read all of the details yet, but they are promising a 99.9% uptime guarantee - and if they miss that mark - you receive a discount on your bill!
I’ll leave the debate regarding this as an effective online backup to some of my colleagues with better hardware skills than I have - but I suspect that for a mini-disaster recovery plan - this might be both attractive and affordable.
I used their online calculator to see what it would cost every month to store 20GB of data, including moving 20GB from your machine to S3 (that would be to get your backup to their site initially) and that price was $11.00.
Your monthly cost (assuming you didn’t need to update that emergency set of information) would be $3.00, and when you moved all 20GB back to your local machine, it would cost $4.00.
With the new service level agreement - this might be a terrific way to build redundancy into your backup solution - copy your mission critical data once a month (or once a quarter, or once a week - depending on your risk tolerance) and continue using your local backup tools for your everyday needs.
NPower Seattle (in conjunction with NPower Indiana) has crafted a set of key benchmarks for evaluating the technology infrastructure of nonprofits. We believe that every nonprofit should be able to use this tool to measure where they are - and then make plans to address any areas that might need fixing.
Creating those benchmarks was a lot of hard work - but we’re not stopping there. We’re hosting a Stable and Secure Technology Scan on September 21st, from 9:30 - 1:00.
Tech-savvy volunteers will use a web-based survey tool and answer a series of questions about your nonprofit’s technology infrastructure. These questions test to see if nonprofits meet each of 12 key benchmarks and immediately produce an appropriate set of recommendations and resources.
You can register online now if you are in the Greater Seattle area!
There’s that old adage that goes something like this: “it takes a computer to make a really big mistake”. I think this is true - if you’ve ever accidentally sent a newsletter to the wrong distribution list, hit the enter button too fast, or simply lost all of your data - you know that the speed and power of the Information Age can work for you - or against you!
In the last few years, many nonprofits have had to figure out how to comply with HMIS requirements, HIPAA requirements, Charitable Solicitation requirements for nonprofits, and much more.
NPower is pleased to be partnering with the experts at Seitel Leeds and Associates to present a two hour mini workshop on Information Security for Nonprofits. You’ll learn how to defend your data against many threats, and how to take next steps regarding your information security.
Laptops are ubiquitous - they are affordable (mostly!) small, easy to carry around, and can let you work at home, at work, in a coffee shop, or (here in Seattle) anywhere in Colombia City, where there is City sponsored wireless access!
So - what should you get?
The Winston Salem Journal has a terrific write up on many of the moving pieces, and I recommend that article as a great starting spot. It has lots of great information that will help you understand hardware needs.
In addition - here are some things that I would add:
- If it is a personal laptop that you will use for work - make sure you get an operating system and a productivity suite that matches what you have at the office - but only if you don’t have to go backwards in software! For instance - I have Outlook 2007 at home and at work - and that means that I only have to get used to one interface for reviewing and sending mail.
- Back up your new laptop a lot! Perhaps daily! You are more at risk for data loss for the reasons I mentioned in the first paragraph!
- Buy from a name brand vendor with a national presence. You’ll pay a bit more than if you get a “white box” from a local agency that puts the box together in their shop - but you’ll know that you can return your laptop for service.
- Consider a strong warranty. My current laptop at work has traveled back to a name brand vendor twice - all on their dime!
Good luck - and enjoy!
The Seattle nonprofit community has bragging rights to both Steve Andersen (at ONE/NW) and Evan Callahan (here at NPower Seattle) - two top notch database experts. In addition to their database skills, they both bring a huge commitment to the nonprofit sector, and their individual and collective work to help nonprofits use Salesforce for their data tracking needs is making an impact on the sector.
Steve and Evan recently attended a conference hosted by the Salesforce Foundation - the goal of the conference was to find out how the Foundation could continue to help nonprofits adopt Salesforce. Steve has a terrific write up from the event, which I’d recommend to anyone considering using Salesforce. Here’s a quick excerpt from Steve’s write up:
“Just the fact that the Foundation put on a gathering with the explicit goal of asking us how they can serve nonprofits better is very telling.”
One of the things that is great about the work of NPower Seattle is that our work is complemented by a lot of sources - the folks at TechSoup, Idealware, ONE/NW, to name just a few.
On top of that - there are also great resources such at the column that Craig Crossman writes for the Seattle Times, called Small Office / Home Office. I was delighted to see that he’s identified another online backup tool called called Carbonite. I’d recommend that you take a look at his article as well as at the Carbonite website to see if this tool might work for you.
Remember, your mileage may vary - you should always choose software in the broader context of your mission, the tools that you have on hand already, training needs, price, and so on.
