By connecting compelling visuals to a story, a good video can inspire, inform, agitate, or promote an organization or cause. Just a few years ago, creating an inspiring video was out of reach for most small nonprofits, but advances in technology and the availability of free online tools have opened up a new way for any organization to tell…
Earlier this month, the Vermont Digital Economy Project organized a training for the Adult Outreach team at the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC). VSAC provides services to all adult Vermonters through the Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) program, so the training focused on the how social media can help or hurt an applicant’s educational or employment prospects.…
This post was written by Tracy Staples, the program’s Internet Intern at the Brown Public Library in Northfield, VT. I began working as an Internet Intern this past January after hearing that the program sorely needed an intern at the Brown Public Library in Northfield. After being introduced to the purposes of the Vermont Digital Economy…
Small organizations are at the heart of most communities, and they are often born directly in response to a community’s need. This relationship only deepens once these organizations are established. They depend on their community to help raise funds, to advertise their services and events, and to find volunteers. Across the state, organizations new and…
After twelve years of support and plenty of advanced notice, on April 8th of this year, Microsoft officially ended its service support for the Windows XP operating system. As a result, organizations that continue to use XP will be increasingly vulnerable to computer viruses and even hacking. At a minimum, these computers should no longer be used…
Vermont fruit and vegetable farmers produce hundreds of tons of edible, farm-fresh food, but often, not all of their production is sold. These leftover products are sometimes wasted, but through gleaning, they can be put to good use. Marcella Houghton, AmeriCorps VISTA, gleans apples at Yates Family Orchard in Hinesburg Gleaning is the process of…
Games have always been a great tool for teachers to engage students and make learning fun. For example, they have been used effectively to help students understand such diverse topics as historical events and environmental issues. I fondly remember learning about Westward expansion through the online game Oregon Trail as a sixth grader. This early…
Part of the matching funds for our grant was graciously donated by IBM, which, through its Impact Grants program, allows expert consultants to conduct in-depth analysis and workshops with nonprofits on a number of important topics. In the past, these IBM consultants have helped the Vermont Access Network and the Vermont Foodbank with Disaster…
The graphic above is used in the UK’s small business digital skills survey Vermont’s Digital Skills Roundtable was formed last year to discuss our readiness to fully utilize the power of the Internet not just at the basic level, but also at the highest levels. The third meeting took place last month and the diverse…
This past Saturday at the ACORN Sustainable Living Expo, I presented with Michael Wood-Lewis, co-founder of Front Porch Forum, on the question of how technology interacts with community to create sustainability. The discussion was rich with concepts and thoughts, and our attendees presented us with a number of inputs and opinions as well, which I…