Paul-Brian McInerney sent me an email, to let me know that a new book is out: Nonprofits and Technology: Emerging Research for Usable Knowledge.
It's edited by Michael Cortés and Kevin Rafter; I'm not familiar with the work of the latter two gentlemen, but am keenly interested in reading any book on nonprofit technology that can boast of chapters by Paul-Brian, Dale Fitch, Peter Dobkin Hall, and the inimitable John McNutt.
I'm particularly looking forward to reading Paul-Brian's chapter, "Geeks for Good: Technology Evangelism and the Role of Circuit Riders in IT Adoption among Nonprofits." He wrote his Ph.D. thesis on this topic as a graduate student at Columbia, and I was one of the folks that he interviewed on the history of the circuit rider movement. (My buddy Gavin Clabaugh reports that he was extensively interviewed, which is great, because Gavin was definitely present at the creation.) I couldn't help Paul-Brian with any eyewitness accounts of the movement's earliest days, since I came along in the second or third wave of riders, but it was certainly delightful to find that someone was taking a scholarly interest in the subject.
I hope that this book can help us to keep our eyes on the goal of combining the best insights of researchers and nonprofit technology practitioners... more »
