John Lyman from Google.org talks to us about how social benefit organizations are using Google Apps to enhance their operations and collaborate.

Our goal is really for non-profits to have access to the same technologies that Fortune 500 companies have… And the way that you do that, basically, is you make the same technology available to everyone, which is what Google has done.

Jed Sundwall: What are you working on with Google.org?

John Lyman: Google.org has five initiatives. There are two in Climate Change, one in Global Health, and two in Global Development. Although, I think your audience is going to be more interested in the Google 101 training sessions, which are these sessions that we do for non-profits, so that they can better use technology and better use all the products that are out there, including Google's, of course, which are free and everyone has access to.

I helped put together a training session in DC for international development NGOs. But, it's actually really something that the company is driving, and Google.org is working on tangentially. They've done probably, I don't know, three or four sessions, with more planned for the future. I'm going to be involved in some of them, but then, they also do their own separate from Google.org.

I watched the Spanish language Google 101 session that Google did with LULAC in DC, and I've got to admit, I mean, it seemed like it was just like an infomercial for Google products.

Well, I would say two things. A: The non-profits actually really want it. They want to come in and learn more about the product. And B: it's actually a lot of times not even the Google product managers or the engineers who are talking about the product; it's the non-profits, themselves, that are up there. So, if you watch the another one we did in DC, many of the sessions are led by the Holocaust Museum or Mercy Corps. And they're just out there talking about how they use technology in different products. So, I mean, I'm not sure that it's really even the Google product teams that are driving it, if that makes sense.

The sessions talk about the different Google products that are available and basically, try to help the non-profits understand them a little bit better and use them more effectively.

I think there's a big demand for it for two reasons. The first is that all the products are free, so there's no barrier to entry, right? And they're especially just for non-profits. I mean, our goal is really for non-profits to have access to the same technologies that Fortune 500 companies have, right? And the way that you do that, basically, is you make the same technology available to everyone, which is what Google has done. The second thing is that the thing about the tools is that some of them are very intuitive, but some of them you actually do need a little bit of help with. You know, the applications like Docs, Spreadsheet, Calendar, things like that are pretty easy to understand.

But then, there's stuff like You Tube, Maps and Earth, which really, there's a little bit of playing around that you have to do with it. We could just have sent out somebody that really knows the products talk to them about it. But we believe that if you have other non-profits there who are in your space, everyone will be able to learn from one another. That's why we did one with only international development NGO's, because, ostensibly, they have a lot in common and would want to talk back and forth about the different issues that they're facing. And, in fact, that's exactly what happened. A lot of them were saying, "Oh, I've got this great data set, but how do I apply that to Google Map? How do I use this new tool?" So, I really think they learned more from each other than they did from us.

How are these non-profits using any of the products to collaborate within their teams?

That's really where the products come in, right? Like if you have somebody in the field who is working on the document, and then, you have somebody back in New York and they need to look at the same stuff, it's counterproductive to e-mail all these files back and forth and everything, where all you need is an Internet connection on each end.

Beyond that, we've seen our products operate as bridges to merge individual organizations' data sets. The Holocaust Museum did this map with all the villages in Darfur that had been burned down in the genocide. They talked to different organizations and got data from the different organizations and collaboratively created a layer on Earth. It's on the Holocaust Museum's website.

Mercy Corps is another group that's done a lot with the different tools, not so much Maps and Earth, but a lot with like Docs and Spreadsheets and stuff like that, so that would be another group you might want to check into.

Have you noticed like any particular product gaining the most traction? You mentioned Maps as being interesting.

I think some of the most useful tools are the applications like Docs, Spreadsheet, Gmail, and Calendar because those are really easy and they're well understood. And it also means that you don't have to go out and buy your own software for your non-profit. So, you've got like a 10-person non-profit, then you could just set up Gmail accounts for everybody and run it that way.

There's a ton of excitement around You Tube. And actually, when I was in DC, I went to the You Tube session. And people really had a lot of questions about it, and it's funny because their question is always, "How do I make a viral video?" You know, "How do I get my video to be huge?" I mean, that's the whole secret! If everyone knew how to do that, then everyone would be doing it.

But it's clear that people want to learn to use YouTube effectively. But to do that, they also want to learn how to make short, effective videos so they can get their message out there. A video can spread the word about their work so much more widely than almost any other tool and for free and quickly. You can put a little bit of time into it and get a huge reward.

Then, after that I would say understanding of Maps and Earth is in demand because it's new technology that really doesn't exist anywhere else. And there are non-profits that want to really show their data a lot of times in different forms and Maps and Earth offer them a means to do it.

Are you involved with any sort of political non-profits or anything like that?

In DC they've done a training for the Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative think tank, and another one for the Center for American Progress, which is a left-wing progressive think tank. The team works across the political spectrum.