I am often asked what I see as the biggest potential game-changers in tech — particularly as it relates to social good. Mobile, social, the cloud, and analytics continue to emerge as key themes. However, analytics is emerging as the true game changer — catalyzed by advances in open architecture.

Let me unpack what I mean by "open architecture." Open means that anyone can access it, contribute to it, and innovate on top of it. At Blackbaud, where I serve as chief technology officer, one of our core tenets has been to design an open, cloud-based software and data architecture. We're cultivating a technical community of partners, customers, and engineers (inside and outside of the company) who are innovating in different ways and contributing to this ecosystem.

From this vantage point, I see the way that openness accelerates the velocity of innovation. Looking at it from a different angle, open ecosystems also yield data and analytics that enable everyone who is part of them to gain more insights and intelligence.

This data can power intelligent software solutions, surface actionable events, maintain accurate and current data assets, and generally drive more results for users. In other words, an open cloud-based architecture elevates usage, which in turn generates more and more data and intelligence that make the system even more powerful.

With data, analytics, and intelligence in mind, the following capabilities emerge as candidates to have a great positive impact.

The Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) technology is cheap and accessible and can transform normal household items into network devices that generate data. In my house, the lights, thermostats, appliances, cars, doors, and windows are all connected devices. These connected devices generate data and intelligence (such as trends in usage, optimization of electricity consumption, and so on). Much like a household, there are many IoT possibilities for nonprofits and other players in the social good space to generate valuable, actionable data.

Instrumentation

Instrumentation provides us with the ability to understand what's happening within our software. As Blackbaud ships features and capabilities within solutions, we monitor usage. We do so to understand if our customers can easily discover the new capability (do they use it the first time they log on?) and to determine if our customers find it valuable (is their use ongoing?). This data-driven approach is an extremely effective way of measuring both the quality of the user experience and the overall value of the work we're doing.

We can learn a lot about our customers just by observing what they do. Across the software industry, instrumentation is driving advances in understanding that enable more targeted solutions to users' challenges.

Usage Information

Like instrumentation, usage data enables us to understand the leading indicators that yield the best, most effective outcomes. For example, through usage data, we were able to understand that nonprofits who proactively thank donors within one week of giving have an advantage. They were much more effective at converting those individuals to longer-term supporters and recurring donors.

Predictive Intelligence

Predictive analytics showcase some of the most stunning and innovative applications of data. At Blackbaud, we think of predictive analytics as a kind of "self-driving car." It guides and sometimes fully automates tasks for our users, enabling them to gain much greater results. A few examples of predictive analytics scenarios that we're working on include

• Extending the most compelling message to a specific person at just the right time via the best channel, to keep them engaged, generate a donation, invite them to an event, or simply share a story.
• Intelligently connecting nonprofits, corporations, individuals, foundations, faith-based organizations, schools, and other stakeholders across the ecosystem we serve. That action enables us to more efficiently coordinate efforts and services and drive greater good together.
• Leveraging social information, an understanding of a person's network, geographical context, and other analytics to help connect an advocate with a nonprofit, school, or foundation, in just the right way.

We leverage the correlation of many different, disparate data sources to drive true intelligence and to power new, predictive user experiences across our applications. Our data platform is what powers this intelligence. This platform drives value across our solutions in other ways, including

• Correcting, appending, and de-duplicating data across the system
• Business intelligence and reporting that shows trends in data
• Real-time data pipelines that spark events across the system based on changes to the data

I’ve included only a few examples of technology capabilities we're researching that we believe will have a strong positive impact. The central theme of these capabilities is providing more actionable data and intelligence. Our commitment to delivering a robust, scalable, and flexible data architecture as well as open, cloud-based software enables us to take advantage of this technology. It also enables us to harness these capabilities to drive greater value for the customers we serve.

This blog post was written by Mary Beth Westmoreland.

spanhidden

Eighty-one percent of Americans have social media accounts, and that number is expected to grow each year. Nearly all brands have a social presence, and libraries are no different. Libraries are using social platforms now more than ever before.

The New York Public Library has 2.2 million followers on Twitter, more followers than the celebrity Kathy Griffin. Social media is playing a significant role in helping libraries stay relevant in our ever-growing digital society.

TechSoup recently teamed up with WebJunction to find out the details on how libraries are using social media. We wanted to know how often libraries are using platforms and what some of their biggest challenges are. We surveyed 311 libraries throughout the country and found out some interesting things.

In our survey, we found that 55 percent of respondents serve fewer than 25,000 patrons, so nearly half of the respondents were smaller libraries, probably mostly in rural areas. We found that libraries are using social, and they are eager to grow their channels.

More than half (55.7 percent) of libraries spend less than 5 hours per week on social media, and 28 percent spend only 6 to 10 hours a week.

Libraries use Facebook more than any other social platform. Twitter is the next most popular platform, and then Instagram.

Forty-four percent of libraries post daily on Facebook, and 25 percent also post daily on Twitter.

Libraries are using social media to share events and pictures, educate people about services, highlight their collections, and support other libraries.

Growing followers and finding staff support are some of libraries' biggest social media challenges.

Learn How to Grow Your Library's Social Media Channels with Our WebJunction Webinars

Registration is now open for the Social Media and Libraries Webinar Series, hosted by WebJunction and TechSoup for Libraries in collaboration. We'll help you build a social media strategy, including how to select platforms that work with different types of library content to create brand awareness, increase traffic, and meet community goals. This series will highlight social media best practices to keep patrons and library staff engaged, develop measurable goals, and cultivate new readers and learners in your community.

On October 24, join us to learn how libraries can effectively use social media tools, even with limited staff and time. Learn how to identify the appropriate social media platforms to market library services and events, and how to integrate best social media practices in your library's marketing plan. We'll help you build a foundation for your social media strategy and provide practical ideas and tactics for immediate use in your library.

Register for October 24

On November 30, join us to learn all about social media analytics. Now that you are using social media to engage with your community, how do you know if it's working? If you don't know where to start when planning your social media metrics, join us to learn the best methods to measure your library's social media outcomes. During this event, you will learn how to establish measurable goals, identify key performance indicators (KPIs), and evaluate your social media results

Register for November 30

On December 19, join us to learn how to take the next steps toward amplifying your library's social media program. During this third webinar in our social media series, we'll discuss best practices in growing your library's social media program and managing user engagement. You'll learn tips on assessing the members of your library's audience based on their preferred platforms, and ideas for converting your in-person library community into an online community.

Register for December 19

How Is Your Library Using Social Media?

Our survey is still going on! Take our survey and tell us how your library is using social media.

spanhidden

Over the past three years, the UK has led Europe for financial services FDI, with the US as top investor. Emma McCoy reports.

In an announcement that was celebrated by the solar industry, yesterday U.S. trade officials said that bi-facial solar modules, which are solar modules that produce energy on both sides of the panel, would be exempt from import tariffs.

Iowa economic development officials are tentatively endorsing a tax credit for battery storage to complement the state’s wind and solar generation.

Commercial property owners with existing energy storage systems, or owners considering implementing an energy storage system, may be able to benefit from a recent order by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) allowing utility companies to pay customers who agree to rely upon their energy storage systems and dispatch the energy during peak events.

Energy generation and consumption is rapidly transforming into a decentralized, decarbonized, and digitized model due to a number of market forces. The declining costs of solar energy systems, as well as the increasing price of energy from the grid has led to grid parity. This has caused PV proliferation to accelerate to such an extent that in the past five years alone, PV installed capacity has increased by 300%. Simultaneously, the EV market is also on the rise and is expected to reach the electrification tipping point by 2030. This is due to support from governments trying to limit the effects of climate change, thus leading to automotive manufactures transitioning their fleets from standard petrol- and diesel-powered cars to EVs. As a result of the acceleration of both of these markets, EV charging has created demand patterns causing an even steeper and faster ramp-up in the evenings than the PV duck curve. , This is causing the grid’s balancing act to be increasingly complex. In order to support this new energy dynamic, advanced management software is required to ensure grid stabilization and to unlock the value of these energy resources.

The Lockett Wind farm in Wilbarger has the potential to generate more than 700,000 MWh of renewable energy per year, enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes. 

Lekela announced that it has reached financial close on its first wind project in Egypt, West Bakr Wind. Construction will begin shortly, delivering 250 MW of clean, reliable power at a highly competitive price.

This week LONGi announced that it would be supplying modules to what it says is the largest “bifacial+tracker” power generation project in the United States. The 224-MW project will be built in Mitchell County, Georgia and is expected to be complete this year.

In an announcement that was celebrated by the solar industry, yesterday U.S. trade officials said that bi-facial solar modules, which are solar modules that produce energy on both sides of the panel, would be exempt from import tariffs.

Iowa economic development officials are tentatively endorsing a tax credit for battery storage to complement the state’s wind and solar generation.

New state energy goals and innovative utility program offerings have been making headlines in recent months. These types of regional policies and incentives are important, especially as we face challenges ranging from grid constraints and fluctuating electricity prices to environmental concerns, but significant portions of the country are outside of the direct influence of energy use mandates and incentives.

As part of its acquisition of Maximum Solar, Ameresco said, it will further develop in-house services to operate and maintain solar facilities. Maximum Solar currently manages about 150 MW of solar throughout the northeastern U.S.

In early December, I put out a call to the online energy professionals community to find participants for the world’s first Fantasy Energy League. Perhaps I saw the pending end of the 2018 fantasy football season and I wanted something to fill the coming void, or maybe I was just curious to see who else wanted to approach energy projections from a gamified lens. Either way, I put out my energy-industry bat signal for the Fantasy Energy League only to see my email inbox and my Twitter feed blow up.

Commercial property owners with existing energy storage systems, or owners considering implementing an energy storage system, may be able to benefit from a recent order by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) allowing utility companies to pay customers who agree to rely upon their energy storage systems and dispatch the energy during peak events.

San Diego-based biotechnology company, Organovo Holdings (Organovo), has announced a tie up with a Melbourne research institute to help develop regenerative medicine in Australia.

New York-based artificial intelligence (AI) specialist, Dataiku, is expanding in the Asia-Pacific region with a major new office in Sydney. The company will be hiring dozens of local employees, from customer-facing staff to data scientists.

Attending the Ocean Energy Europe event in Paris recently the considerable presence of developers and manufacturers signalled a long-term transformation for the sector, which - for tidal stream in particular - is now emerging as a technological reality.

During the Ocean Energy Europe 2015 conference held in Dublin, Ireland, in late October, about 500 high-level delegates, which included European Union and Member States business leaders and energy ministers, were presented a draft of the “strategic roadmap” for developing the European marine hydrokinetics (MHK) energy sector.
 

Zambia and Zimbabwe have appointed the African Development Bank (AfDB) as lead financial adviser for the construction of the 2,400-MW Batoka Gorge hydropower project, according to Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) Chief Executive Officer, Munyaradzi Munodawafa.
 

Iowa economic development officials are tentatively endorsing a tax credit for battery storage to complement the state’s wind and solar generation.

Commercial property owners with existing energy storage systems, or owners considering implementing an energy storage system, may be able to benefit from a recent order by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) allowing utility companies to pay customers who agree to rely upon their energy storage systems and dispatch the energy during peak events.

Energy generation and consumption is rapidly transforming into a decentralized, decarbonized, and digitized model due to a number of market forces. The declining costs of solar energy systems, as well as the increasing price of energy from the grid has led to grid parity. This has caused PV proliferation to accelerate to such an extent that in the past five years alone, PV installed capacity has increased by 300%. Simultaneously, the EV market is also on the rise and is expected to reach the electrification tipping point by 2030. This is due to support from governments trying to limit the effects of climate change, thus leading to automotive manufactures transitioning their fleets from standard petrol- and diesel-powered cars to EVs. As a result of the acceleration of both of these markets, EV charging has created demand patterns causing an even steeper and faster ramp-up in the evenings than the PV duck curve. , This is causing the grid’s balancing act to be increasingly complex. In order to support this new energy dynamic, advanced management software is required to ensure grid stabilization and to unlock the value of these energy resources.

In May of 2014, Speaker of the House John Boehner responded to a climate change question with, “listen, I’m not qualified to debate the science over climate change. I am astute to understand that every proposal that has come out of this administration to deal with climate change involves hurting our economy and killing American jobs. That can’t be the prescription for dealing with changes to our climate.” Speaker Boehner is not the only one reluctant to enter into the debate on climate change. In a March interview Mitch McConnell responded to a climate change remark with, “For everybody who thinks it's warming, I can find somebody who thinks it isn't…”

In early December, I put out a call to the online energy professionals community to find participants for the world’s first Fantasy Energy League. Perhaps I saw the pending end of the 2018 fantasy football season and I wanted something to fill the coming void, or maybe I was just curious to see who else wanted to approach energy projections from a gamified lens. Either way, I put out my energy-industry bat signal for the Fantasy Energy League only to see my email inbox and my Twitter feed blow up.

Enel Green Power North America announced on Thursday that it has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) between its subsidiary White Cloud Wind Project, LLC and Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI), a power utility based in Springfield, Missouri. In line with the agreement, AECI will purchase the entire output generated by the 236.5 MW White Cloud wind project, currently in development in Nodaway County, Missouri.

Iowa economic development officials are tentatively endorsing a tax credit for battery storage to complement the state’s wind and solar generation.

The Lockett Wind farm in Wilbarger has the potential to generate more than 700,000 MWh of renewable energy per year, enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes. 

The coronavirus pandemic has many of us nostalgic for a simpler time — maybe when we were teenagers and/or watching our favorite early oughts sitcoms. 

Actress Cobie Smulders seems to be feeling that itch, and sensed we are too. The former How I Met Your Mother actress decided to recreate her character Robin Scherbatsky's hit song from the series, "Let's Go to The Mall."

For those who need a refresher, "Let's Go to The Mall" was released during Robin's short career as a pop star (under the name Robin Sparkles) in her homeland of Canada. While it has all the flair of an '80s banger — jelly bracelets, worshipping the mall — it was released in the '90s because apparently that's when '80s culture reached Canada.  Read more...

Latin America’s abundant and varied mineral resources attract a large portion of the global mining investment.

India’s consumers have embraced online retail, creating a market worth A$52 billion that is expected to reach over A$100 billion by 2026. With a fast-growing ecommerce sector, India is creating major new market opportunities for Australian companies.

The summer 2011 issue of 'FDIC Consumer News' features tips on how to prepare financially for a natural disaster, a fire or another tragedy, especially one that requires people to evacuate their home and not return for days or weeks.

The summer 2011 issue of 'FDIC Consumer News' features tips on how to prepare financially for a natural disaster, a fire or another tragedy, especially one that requires people to evacuate their home and not return for days or weeks.