Earlier in the month I taught a Nonprofit Blogging 101 workshop at the 2008 Making Media Connections Conference.  At the beginning of the session, I asked folks what their burning questions were.  Below are their questions, and my quick answers.  What questions and answers would you add?

 1. How do we decide if our organization should have a blog?

Answer these questions:

1. What is the goal you want to achieve?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. What are the communication tools you could use to achieve that goal?

If a blog is one of the tools you think would meet your goal, ask yourself:

Thank you kbaird for the photo!

I'm loving the conference and seeing tons of value for the nonprofit sector and the citizen sector. Nevertheless I'm wondering: why are there a relatively small number of major institutional nonprofits, community foundations, and nonprofit technology savvy folks here? Who do you think would benefit from this event that isn't here? Are there some benefits to the unique set of people who are here? I'm finding the event nicely cooperative and collaborative, with strong connections across projects naturally occuring given the size and scope of NetSquared.

LIVE BLOG: Alexandra Samuel of Social Signal is presenting on "Bringing Your Community to Life" at the NetSquared Conference.

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"You can't just open a room and put out your content, and expect people to start contributing." Use new opportunities for partipation.

PLAN your community participation!

All over!

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Give people micro-participation options — low barriers to some kind of "gateway" opportunities. Go to your community for help and expansion. Invite volume, promote quality.

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Hi everyone--

I'm Megan Keane (aka Penguin Kuhn in Second Life) and I'm the Online Community Manager at TechSoup. I'm excited to be attending my first Net2 conference and have been overwhelmed already by the amazing people, interesting ideas, and innovative projects that are here!

Greetings, fellow Net2 attendees!

I arrived in San Jose last night, and am eagerly awaiting the NetSquared conference!

After the conference, I'll be going on to San Francisco for a few days. My home base there will be the SF Nonprofit Technology Center (http://www.sftechcenter.org/).

I'm interested in all ways that needs and resources can be brought together seamlessly through information and communication technologies.

Hi, I'm Rich Reader. I produce media for organizations. At N2Y3, you'll see me interview project reps and vlog hallway chats with attendees, hosts, and sponsors. I want to better understand how to strengthen working relationships through mashups. I can't wait to meet you. When you see me, come on over and mash it up!

Hi everyone - I'm Jim Craner; I'm the managing partner of a nonprofit-focused web development group, the Chicago Technology Cooperative, and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone at N2Y3! I'm an Advocate and one of the volunteer developers for the Movesmart.org project (N2Y3 profile) - a mashup providing housing-seekers with information on neighborhood amenities, quality of life indicators, affordable housing opportunities, and the services and programs of community based organizations.

TechSoup’s free day-long online event is coming up this Wed. May 14th: Online Activism: Social Media Tools for Social Change in the TechSoup online forums.

Dive into the conversation with hosts Heather Mansfield, owner of DIOSA Communications and Online Community Manager for Change.org and Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager for the Humane Society of the United States, as they explore the ins and outs of using social networking sites and strategies for determining how, why, and when to use different applications to broadcast your message. In discussing the dos and don’ts of effectively fundraising and promoting your cause, we’ll also look at lessons learned from successful (and not so successful) online campaigns.

Join us Wed. May 14, for a free, one-day online event, in the TechSoup Emerging Technologies forum as we discuss issues such as:

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