Convio announced today that they had a security breach when a laptop was compromised. Personal data such as user names and passwords were on the laptop. Convio claims that only their GetActive clients information were on the computer, but until results from a forensic lab come back no one will know for sure what was the full loss of data.
Many of Convio's GetActive clients sent emails out to their constituents to let them know that their information may have been stolen. Experts say that even just user names and passwords are extremely dangerous as criminals may go straight to bank account sites and attempt to log in using the same account info. As many people use the same user name and password for their various online accounts, the full extent of the breach may not be known for a few weeks.
Convio Has Security Breach of Client Personal Data
Googe announces OpenSocial to compete with Facebook and Myspace
This week, Google made a huge move in the chess game it has been playing with Microsoft and Facebook. The search engine giant hopes to challenge the popular networking site, for control of the application friendly social networking nitch. Their platform is called OpenSocial and Google promises it will provide a common platform for developers to use in writing programs able to run on various social network sites.
The only problem is the sites Google is banking on are currently each struggling for their share of social networking atttention. They include Google's own Orkut, hi5 Networks, LinkedIn, Ning, Friendster, and others, representing a total of 100 million people. Other parties involved in the deal are Salesforce.com and Oracle.
Speculation on both sides has resulted in varied predictions. Those who have spent the past few years with their jaws dropped as they watch Google's stock soar are willing to put their money on anything Google puts their mind to. Others though, are skeptical that anyone can shake the strong hold on the market the Facebook and MySpace currently hold.
Non-Profits Online asked our communications specialists and web guru friends what they thought and almost every one explained that until Google offers something that is truly new for the average user, they will have trouble competing.
Google's announcement comes just one week after losing a bidding war for a piece of Facebook to Microsoft. Some seem to wonder if Google wasn’t purposefully driving up the price tag for Microsoft hoping to drain their allocated budget to compete in the market. To either company though the quarter of a billion dollar deal is pocket change.
We look forward to hearing what our readers think about Google’s chances for success.
Google.org
As many of you have heard, the internet giant Google has started a philanthropic wing to their organization. Here is their description of themselves from their website:
When Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin told prospective shareholders about Google, their vision included a commitment to devote employee time and one percent of Google's profits and equity toward philanthropy, with the hope of some day having greater impact than Google itself. Google.org is the philanthropic arm of Google and is the umbrella which includes the work of the Google Foundation, some of Google's own projects, as well as partnerships and contributions to for-profit and non-profit entities.
At google.org, we are looking to better understand the inextricable linkages among the changing environment, human health and global poverty. And we're also looking closely at innovative ways to detect the early warning indicators of disease outbreak, mass migration and other potential calamities affecting our increasingly crowded planet, so that the world's humanitarian resources will be in the position to best respond to minimize suffering. And we have some unique resources from the company in addition to money: innovative technology and most of all, the inspired community of Googlers.
We'll follow through on the other commitment — one percent of profit — by taking one percent of each year's profits and donating and investing that too. Our first step in meeting these commitments was a $90 million cash donation to establish the Google Foundation. In addition, we've announced our first three year target of up to $175 million in grants and investments across other google.org efforts.
While the results achieved by our grantees and partners are more important than the amount of money we give, we want to be clear about how we're going to keep those "one percent" commitments. There are two parts: equity and profit. For the one percent of equity, Google has committed one percent of the outstanding shares that resulted from Google's initial public offering; this amount began as 3 million shares. We have begun to donate and invest this amount and will continue over a period of up to 20 years. Because it is based on stock, the dollar value of this commitment will rise and fall with Google's stock price.
Social Networking For Non-Profits
MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut, Friendster, YouTube, Yelp, Flickr, Tribe, Doostang, LinkedIn, oh my!
Are you overwhelmed by the enormity of social networking sites out there?
Are you asking yourself...is this really something my organization should be involved with?
Well...we have some answers.
First of all, if you are looking to increase web traffic on your org's site, are interested in having greater online exposure, and would like to see online donations increase...then YES...social networking sites are for you.
Social networking sites, such as the ones listed above, can act like satellite websites for your main site. You have the potential to reach a vastly different audience than through conventional online means.
Those who stumble on your social networking profiles are able to interact with your organization. Social networking pages allow for your organization to truly engage the public. Members of the network can post comments and stories, send you messages, watch videos, join your circle of friends, grab and post banners, tell-a-friend, receive postings and emails, and click on links which feed them onto your main website.
In addition to engaging those who befriend you, social networking sites also allow you exposure to friends of your friends. Once someone befriends you, you show up in their list of friends. This allows for a more personal connection to your organization. Your friend, even though they may know relatively little about your organization, suddenly becomes a referral as all of their friends see that they are a fan of your organization.
You can imagine, if you have a friend you look up to, and they have an org listed as one of their friends, and maybe even have one of their banner ads posted on their page too, you are likely to be curious as to why they are into the organization. Your curiosity is easily satisfied as you click onto the org's profile. And wala...they may become your favorite new charity too.
We'd love to hear about your experiences with social networking sites.
Convio
One of our readers commented on Convio. For those of you not familiar, Convio is a for-profit company that provides online services to non-profits. Organizations can use the Convio platform to link their website to their database. This allows for personalized web content, tracking, and targeted email campaigns. The company's competition comes from Kintera and Blackbaud. They recently acquired one of their major competitors GetActive. The company has been operating in the red for many years now and are about to go public.
If you put your ear to the wall and subscribe to some of the leading non-profit tech listserves, such as Progressive Exchange, you will hear some very scary stories about organizations having some serious issues with Convio. Statistically, non-profits seem to have dramatic increases in their online revenue after signing on with Convio.
As we're sure many of our readers have had experiences with Convio, as well as many of their competitors, we welcome you to comment and share your own story.