| Adopting Teleconferencing and Networking Technologies to Further the Alternative Fuels Movement |
The alternative fuels cause has now reached a tipping point. The juxtaposition of oil prices shooting over $110 a barrel and coal costs doubling has been critical in awakening a new sense of urgency about alternative fuel.
With US motorists paying close to $4.05 per gallon of petrol and California drivers paying approximately $4.15 per gallon, support is growing for a national commitment to accelerate adoption of alternative fuels. Whether these be wind, nuclear, or hybrid technologies, US consumers are now realizing that our nation's energy independence and economy are 100% linked to reducing our dependence on oil.
It would appear as if the political environment has never been more favorable for the alternative fuels community. To truly seize this opportunity, the organizations that comprise the community would be well served to consider the import of technology in improving the cross community collaboration needed to secure lasting impact.
Indeed, many alternative energy lobbying groups could experience benefits from adopting new technologies that facilitate collaboration. Examples include Rondee.com's free conference call solution which enables easy to deploy teleconferencing as well as online conference calling and networking tools.
First Tip: Use online tools for networking
The most successful alternative fuels lobbying groups create networks of supporters who believe in their values and goals. While the word networking frequently gets an unfavorable connotation, the clear reality is these networks can provide significant aid. Today in the Dulles technology corridor, the expectation is that professional folks will have at least a basic LinkedIn profile.
Meanwhile, other networking systems such as Facebook are starting to see adoption by more professional users. Such services also offer a relatively easy method of developing your network.
Tip #2: Leverage a free teleconference application
In the last several years, there has been escalating degrees of collaboration between geographically separate alternative fuels lobbying groups. One cause of this trend has been lower flight travel costs – a trend that may now be going the opposite direction with the leaping oil costs alluded to earlier.
A separate factor is the ubiquity of the sorts of free conference calling services described earlier. Most of these offerings, including those provided by Rondee.com work on the same central method. They give users a PIN and a toll number to dial. If all teleconference participants dial the same number and enter the same PIN code, they are put into the conference call.
Tip #3: Investigate technology to enable desktop sharing
Some alternative fuels advocacy groups have far flung leadership groups, and it is difficult to have in person meetings. Technology is addressing this problem by way of desktop sharing. Whether it's displaying a PowerPoint document displaying the group's development plan or a spreadsheet showing the performance desktop sharing can be quite useful for not a few green groups.
Fourth Tip: Deploy an electronic newsletter platform
It wasn't that long in the past that sending out an email newsletter was time consuming and tricky. This has now changed. On-line systems are making it possible to create templated and scalable newsletters. These services reduce the work load by at approximately ninety percent and in so doing enable green groups to focus on content creation as opposed to delivery of messages.
Fifth Tip Leverage data driven decision-making
One of the key trends recently affecting nonprofit organizations in the alternative energy community has been the escalating reliance on evidence driven decision-making. Managers can apply the same techniques with simple to use Excel or Lotus spread-sheeting applications to ascertain what works and what does not work. Increasingly, the hurdle for quality decision-making is rising and therefore reliance on conjecture is being systematically replaced by empirical evidence to justify decisions.
http://www.rondee.com
Article Source: UnArchived Articles
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