There’s a great overview of how non-profits are using blogging, over at the Oakland Tribune. And not only will you find out about amazing projects like Interplast and Kiva, you’ll see the first print mention of Social Signal.

(Cue drunken revelry.)

Paul Summerville is taking a break:

Been blogging every day since mid-August with some podcasting and videocasting.

Taking a break until 6th March.

Egads. Suddenly, I feel like a piker.

I remember the speech at my university graduation only dimly. Something about barely being able to stay awake through it… and wishing the damn thing would end.

That was nearly 20 years ago, and according to Fannie Mae speechwriter Jeffrey Denny – who took us on a ride through the worst and best of commencement speaking in 2005 – they haven’t improved a bit since.

Neither have the audiences. The students would rather be partying with their friends and saying tear-filled goodbyes than listening to your speaker. And this “whatever” generation is skeptical and cynical; they’ve already seen and heard it all. Add in the rotten acoustics typical of most graduation venues, and you have all the makings of a bomb.

Denny doled out mock awards to some of the past year’s most egregious examples.

• The most memorable address for the wrong reasons award, for instance, went to the Pepsi executive whose speech compared the five continents to the five fingers on your hand. Guess which finger represented North America? Pepsi issued a formal apology.
• The most unabashed use of a cliche: A former CIA director started off “Life is filled with challenges and opportunities” and concluded “May the challenges ahead always be opportunities.”

It wasn’t all bad, though. Denny mentioned Carly Fiorina, who had been the CEO of Hewlett-Packard when the commencement invitation landed on her desk and was out of a job by the time the day of the speech rolled around. Her comment (winning the “silk purse from a sow’s ear” award): “If there are any recruiters here, I’ll be free around 11.” (See more here.)

The best opening hook award went to MTV founder Dwight Tierney: “So. A couple of things. Wednesday is visitors’ day at Abu Dhabi prison. The Chinese prefer red wine. And Rudy Giuliani doesn’t know who Green Day is. Bear with me, because I have a point.”

And the best speech of all, Denny suggested, was Steve Jobs’ now-legendary address at Stanford. He tied three memorable stories into a compelling case for following your heart. (You can find the full text of Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford’s site.)

That address typified the very best in the year’s commencement speeches. They were modest, personal and self-deprecating. They recognized that graduates already had a lot of knowledge and insight, and instead of trying to set out a philosophical worldview, they told stories and offered the lessons the speaker had learned. From his survey, Denny distilled several pieces of advice. Here are a few:

• “First, do no harm.” You will get more publicity from a bad speech than a good speech.
• Write something your own kids would enjoy.
• Keep it short, funny and insightful. And don’t work your jokes too hard.

Want to check out more commencement speeches? Brace yourself… then head to C-Span for a few dozen of them.

Will has announced his availability with a blog post entitled Web Marketing Prodigy and Sales Rainmaker Seeks Awesome Job. Frankly, any awesome job worth its salt ought to be seeking him:

I’m moving on from Raincity Studios, because I’ve done my part in getting this startup off the ground and now it’s time for me to take on my next challenge. In just one year we’re now recognized as the best Drupal design firm in the world and one of the best web 2.0 professional services firms in the world. I hit over 170k worth of sales in 2005 and 230k already in the first quarter of 2006 (this could rise before I leave). We’ve almost tripled our staff to meet client demand. [...]
What I’m Looking ForA great job with an awesome company, filled with people who “get it”. I can do the best work for firms that provide web services or are building web application products, work with open source (Drupal is my forte) or social software of any kind. I could also do good things for companies that want to stand apart in industries that need help figuring out Web 2.0 opportunities; such as media & entertainment.

I’d like to stay in Vancouver if possible (it rocks here). Willing to relocate to the Bay Area, Seattle or Toronto; but since I’m a self taught genius type it might be a bit difficult to get a work visa in the US. If your lawyers know how to figure that part out, then game on.

If that intrigues you, then let me just add this (something I’ve already said on his blog): I’ve worked with Will on a few projects now, and I’ve loved every moment of it. Some lucky employer is about to get the whole package: a friendly, smart, talented guy who thinks big but attends to the details.

Ah, chaos theory. Somewhere in Africa yesterday, a butterfly flapped its wings. Here in Vancouver last night, I bought The Drivers’ “Tears on Your Anorak” and Squeeze’s greatest hits from the iTunes Music Store.

A short while later, that very purchase turned one Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan into a minor celebrity. Instead of being just the guy who bought the 999,999,979th song from iTunes, which he would have been had I not made my purchase, he bought song number one billion.

And instead of being the proud owner of a Coldplay song, he’s now the proud owner of a Coldplay song, a 20-inch iMac, ten video iPods and a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Plus Apple is naming a new Julliard scholarship after him.

I’m not trying to suggest he owes me, the man who made this all possible, a thing. Whether he sends me one of those iPods, or better yet that iMac, is of course entirely up to him. It’s not like the entire blogging world is watching and judging him.

I think I’ll go downstairs and wait for the UPS guy now.

I just overheard Kermit the Frog on TV singing “It’s not easy being green” and flogging the new Ford hybrid SUV.

That news again: Kermit the Frog is selling SUVs.

Send the four riders home early; the apocalypse has clearly already happened. It’s only a matter of days before Marlboro product placement starts showing up in Elmo’s World and Prairie Dawn’s out there hawking cruise missile guidance systems.

• Let Evan Leeson show you what might be the iPod’s ultimate role: as both a nifty media gizmo in its own right and as the world’s most talented remote control. “Depending on where you are, the iPod is either your main device, or your remote. If it is your remote, all the functionality is taken over by the Mac and your entertainment/communications experience takes place through your home system with a representation of it on your iPod for remote purposes. This puts the iPod in your hands at all entertainment moments. Talk about brand awareness.”
• Want to add video and audio to your blog, but not sure how to do it? TechCrunch reports on a handy new service called Stickam that may be the answer. “Stickam is free, has no bandwidth restrictions and up to 500 mb of storage.”
• This is promising: Britt Bravo has launched the Big Vision Podcast, which “talks with individuals and organizations that are creating positive change”. I’m really looking forward to listening to the inaugural episode.
• This is less promising: when someone like blogging pro Arieanna can’t use your shiny new web service, you have trouble. But the interesting part is how she’s handling the issue: by posting her problem to her blog, and hoping they’ll find it when they search on their own name. Could it be that the future of tech support looks less like call centres, and more like the ski patrol?
• As you know, bloggers who disagree never really talk to each other, and instead explode at the slightest provocation. The medium is doomed, doomed! …Or maybe not so much. Check out the respectful debate between Darren Barefoot and Todd Wong on preserving Joy Kogawa’s childhood home.

Once more, with feeling: this over here is how you handle a crisis, and this over there is how you don’t.

As I type this in the departure lounge at Ottawa International Airport, an Air Canada staffer is on the horn, patiently explaining why it is that standby passengers won’t be getting to Toronto tonight. She’s walking people through it step by step: flight crews are stranded too because of the ice storm; they’re very sorry; they’re trying to bring a larger plane tomorrow to absorb the overflow; here’s how to get on board.

Meanwhile, a hundred metres away, this is the scene:

According to several passengers I spoke to, Zoom staff left them on the plane… on the runway… for seven hours, starting at six a.m. The lucky passengers got a drink of water, a snack and if I remember correctly, pop.
Then, when they finally left the plane at one in the afternoon, Zoom ordered them not to go home, even though the revised departure time was eight o’clock at night. By the time Zoom relented, going home was pointless.

Meanwhile, frustrated passengers had to hector the staff into coughing up the traditional food vouchers; Zoom insisted you don’t get vouchers when the weather’s to blame.

Throughout the day, passengers – Zoom’s customers – have been starved for both food and information. It’s a spectacularly lousy way to treat the people who ultimately pay your bills.

Oh, one more thing… the last time I encountered anything like this, it was these guys running that particular show. As history and the bankruptcy trustee have noted, karma wasn’t too impressed.