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TECHNOLOGY GUIDE
Big PC Power, Small Package Technology and the space, cash, power continuum BY TED NEEDLEMAN wo things that many nonprofits are in short supply of are money and space. Organizations still require the same sort of technology as other types of entities but often don’t have the same resources to buy and/or use it. You have some new choices when it comes to replacing or adding a PC at your office. Whether you are space constrained, budget constrained, or both, new very small PCs might be just what you need. Small form-factor PCs have been available for years, but this latest generation shrinks the size even further. How small is small? Hewlett-Packard’s Pavilion Mini Desktops come in a case that is 5 ¾ inches square and a little more than two inches high. The entrylevel model, 300-020 has a Celeron DualCore CPU, 4GB RAM, a 500GB hard disk and even a wireless keyboard and mouse. It’s priced at $320. A spruced-up model, the 300-030, upgrades the CPU to a Core i3 and the hard disk to 1TB. It’s
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priced at $450, not much less expensive than some desktop machines, but in a package that hides comfortably behind a monitor. Acer’s new Revo One RL85 offers a bit more versatility. It’s a bit taller than the HP Pavilion, at 6 inches, but only four inches in width and depth. The RL85 also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse and has room for two additional laptop-sized drives in the case. Revo One prices start at $280 for a model with a Celeron Dual-Core CPU and run up to $580 if you need the power of a Core i5 and 1TB hard drive. Consider Intel’s NUC models if space is a bit more valuable to you than price. The NUC (Next Unit of Computing) are known as barebones PCs, meaning they come without memory, a hard drive, or operating system. What they do come with is a minuscule case measuring 4 inches square and either one or 2 inches high, depending on the model, as well as a power supply. Intel makes the NUC in
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models with different CPUs varying from entry-level Celerons up to the more powerful Core i7. The CPUs in the newest NUC models are Intel’s Broadwell versions, which are used in many Ultrabooks and are very power efficient. Adding RAM and a hard disk is easy. Just remove four screws, open the case, and pop them in. The 1-inch high models use a SSD (solid state drive) that’s in a form factor you have probably not seen before called M.2. This looks like a stick of RAM memory, except that the connectors are on the side of the stick, rather than on the bottom. It just slides into the connector and you can button up the NUC and install an operating system. The models with a 2-inch high case use standard laptop hard disks, rather than the M.2 SSD style, but it’s just as easy to put together. The NUC comes with a price. One with an i5 CPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB M.2 drive, and Windows 8.1 adds up to about $600. You can get a similar desk-
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top for that price. But you won’t have the ease of configuring it exactly to your specific needs. The NUCs have an additional advantage. Most displays sold today have VESA mounting capability, which lets them be attached to a wall or articulating arm. The NUCs include a metal plate that replaces the top of the case and lets you attach the NUC to the VESA mounts on the monitor, saving space and reducing clutter. Which of these tiny PCs you choose is going to depend on what you need to do with it. For example, an Intel NUC with a Core i7 CPU could serve as a network server for a small workgroup, and if what you need is a PC that will run office applications, the inexpensive base Revo One or HP Pavilion Mini should do the trick, not strain the budget too much, and hide neatly behind a monitor on your or a staff member’s desk. NPT Ted Needleman is a technologist and longtime contributor to The NonProfit Times. His email is
[email protected]
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TECHNOLOGY GUIDE
When Your Wi Doesn’t Fi Office connectivity challenges can be re-routed BY TED NEEDLEMAN t’s pretty likely that at some point your network is going to have to be expanded to an area that isn’t wired for Ethernet. The problem becomes even more pressing when you consider that most of today’s devices, such as smartphones and tablets, often rely on a Wi-Fi connection to communicate with the Internet. Even though most smartphones can access the Internet over a cellular connection, it’s usually more cost-effective to use Wi-Fi. While wired Ethernet is faster than WiFi, pulling cable through walls and ceilings is expensive. A Wi-Fi router or access point can provide broadband connectivity to your organization for about the same cost as one wired Ethernet drop. Perhaps you have found that Wi-Fi has its limitations. You might be running Wi-Fi and find it doesn’t reach into some areas of your offices that need a network connection. It might be because they are too far, or because there are just too many walls in the way, the walls are very thick, or there’s considerable metal, such as framing, in the walls that block the Wi-Fi signal. In this case, you could pull cable and add a wall jack. The standard for wired gigabit Ethernet cable runs is 100 meters, or about 320 feet. If your cable run is going to be longer than that, you’ll need a device called an Ethernet Repeater, which takes the signal on the cable and boosts it
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in both directions so you can have cable runs longer than 100 meters. Between the cost of labor for pulling a long cable run and the price of an Ethernet repeater (usually $150 or more), you’re looking at hundreds of dollars for adding a single wired Ethernet connection, especially if it’s needed at some distance from your Ethernet router or switch. There are a number of relatively inexpensive approaches to extending your network. You can try extending the network with a Powerline network adapter if you are going to need to use a wired Ethernet device at the network-less end. This approach requires at least two of these adapters. Powerline adapters encode the data and transmit it over the AC power lines you have in your offices. You need to plug one into a wall outlet near a switch or network wall drop, and the other into an AC wall outlet where you need the new Ethernet access. Some of these adapters have more than one RJ-45 plug so that you can plug in multiple Ethernet devices. If the Powerline adapter that you select has only a single EJ45 (Ethernet) plug and you need more, you can always run a patch cable from the Powerline adapter into an inexpensive Ethernet switch that has multiple ports. An example of a Powerline kit is the Linksys PLSK400 Powerline AV network kit. It has a single port adapter for the switch where the network ends and a four-port adapter to use where you need
the new Ethernet access. It costs about $60, which is far less expensive than pulling cable. The problem is that Powerline adapters don’t always work if the wiring in your office uses multiple breaker boxes, or is just not wired correctly. So, make sure the kit is returnable if it fails to work. Another answer that often works well is a Wi-Fi Range Extender. This is a device that’s placed at the edge of the range of your Wi-Fi signal. It picks up the signal, boosts the power considerably, and retransmits it in both directions. There’s no guarantee, but in many cases a Range Extender can increase your Wi-Fi network’s reach by several hundred feet when placed between your router or access point and the place you need Wi-Fi. An example of this kind of device is Amped Wireless’ TAP-EX2. It costs about $140, has a touch screen for easy setup, and high-powered radio amplifiers that can significantly boost your Wi-Fi network’s range. It also offers three Ethernet ports so you can use devices that need wired Ethernet at the remote location. Netgear is another vendor with a similar device, the EX7000 Nighthawk. At $170, it’s a bit more expensive than the
Amped Wireless device, but the Netgear offers four Ethernet ports in addition to its Wi-Fi range extending capability. Both of these devices (and others from additional vendors such as D-Link) act as a Network Bridge, providing both Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet connectivity to a location 100 or more feet from the Wi-Fi reach you have now. And, if all you need is to extend your Wi-Fi range, or if, like many nonprofits there’s simply not any money in the budget, you can purchase just a Range Extender without Ethernet Ports such as DLink’s DAP-1320. It won’t give you the range or wired Ethernet ports of the more expensive models mentioned here, but it costs less than $40. NPT Ted Needleman is a technologist and longtime contributor to The NonProfit Times. His email is
[email protected]
Netgear’s EX7000 Nighthawk
10 Things To Know About Crowdsourcing BY ANDY SEGEDIN ith crowdsourcing campaigns popping up all over the news and social media, nonprofit leaders might be tempted to incorporate the strategy into their organizations’ fundraising efforts. Many already have done so. Crowdsourcing campaigns solicit contributions from large groups of people simultaneously, as opposed to going from individual donor to individual donor. Campaigns are predominantly conducted online using social media, email and smartphones. Before diving into the deep end, here are 10 things you should consider when implementing a crowdsourcing campaign: • Plan. Crowdsourcing should be planned like any marketing strategy and be accompanied with questions such as “Why am I doing this,” and “Why will donors think this is a good way to fundraise as compared to others,” according to Miriam Kagan, senior principal at Austin, Texas-based software firm Kimbia. • Consider whether it is best to run your campaign in-house or through a third party. While it might make more sense to look to a third party for a one-off or modest-sized campaign, it could behoove larger organizations to work with a partner to create an inhouse system, Kagan said.
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• Whether you are working with a partner or third party, find out how much control you will have over the design and theme of your donation page, said George Weiner, founder of tech firm Whole Whale in Brooklyn, N.Y. Can you customize the page to match your brand or will your personal touches be limited to a photo and some text? • Calculate the cost of maintenance if you’re leaning toward creating a completely in-house system. Beyond set-up expenses, one should consider the potential cost of staffing, servers, web design and web security when bringing crowdsourcing completely in house, Kagan suggested. • Research the differences between the various types of technologies available. Different vendors might have diverse timetables in terms of providing organizations with donations and vary in donor data collected, Kagan said. Though there are hundreds of crowdsourcing tools, some are better suited for nonprofits than others, added Chad Elbert, senior vice president of sales and marketing at MobileCause in Calabasas, Calif. • Look at the business model of your potential partner. Is it based on transaction fees? Are extra fees taken out? Elbert has seen instances in which eight points were taken off of donations in addition to standard credit card
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fees, something to keep in mind with organizations looking to hold on to as much money as possible. • Limit the clicks. Each step between donors and donations reduces gifts. In instances in which potential donors are given a second page to visit before making a donation, 90 percent will not click to the next page, according to Weiner. • Think mobile. With the proliferation of smartphones, potential donors and fundraisers can be accessible with the text of a keyword. “Usually, crowdsourcing is an impulse, and there’s no better impulse device than a smartphone,” Elbert said. • Is there tracking available to see what drove donations, i.e. does the system integrate with Google Analytics? Without tracking, it might be difficult to tell whether donations were driven by a social media post, Google search or email, Weiner said. In general, it is easier to track analytics when donations can be made on your site as opposed to jumping donors to another site. • Once you have donors, build relationships with them as you would with donors through other campaigns, according to Kagan. Most services provide organizations with donor information. “If they are about to charge you for the people that just donated, run, don’t walk, from the relationship,” Weiner added. NPT
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