"The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit." - Moliere

Some of my favorite calls that come in to TechSoup's customer service start with something like "I've read the program information and restrictions about the products on your website but since this is my first time placing a request I'd like to make sure I'm doing everything right!" I know the feeling. There's a lot of information to understand and absorb, and decisions to be made when requesting donated and discounted products through TechSoup.

I have experienced working in a number of unique and cutting-edge environments and with "unique and cutting-edge" there is always a bit of a learning curve and TechSoup is no exception.

Sure, you can go to a retail store and buy whatever you want whenever if you have the money and you can usually return it if the boss says "No. Not THAT one. That OTHER one." But of course you are paying full retail price for these products. At TechSoup, nonprofits and public libraries have an opportunity to request products through specific discount and donation programs — so you should really know what you want as well as the ins and outs of the partner program BEFORE you submit a request.

Today I'd like to highlight the layout of our Partner and Product pages — both of which have a lot of helpful information for nonprofits and libraries who may be requesting donations through TechSoup.

Ozzy Osbourne is quoted as saying, "Of all the things that I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most." Well, that certainly applies in the case of Encarta. After nearly 20 years, Microsoft has decided to bow out of the electronic encyclopedia business. This is a watershed moment for many of us who've enjoyed the Encarta CD-ROMs packaged with PCs for years.

To hear that Wikipedia has taken over the market is a little scary to me. Wikipedia is an open-source knowledge repository, which is fine, but one issue with open-source technologies continues to be quality control. If I were a teacher, I would be skeptical of any information sourced from there. In order to truly verify information, you would need to track down the source of the information, if possible, and verify that source. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer a knowledge source that I can trust the first time.

For another take on the discontinuation of Encarta, see Elliot's recent post.

Update: Donations of Encarta are still available at TechSoup Stock for qualifying nonprofits and public libraries, but they must be processed by May 27. The electronic encyclopedia is available either as a standalone product or packaged with Microsoft Student. Either donation is available for an administrative fee of three dollars.

Are you interested in conducting webinars but not sure how to get started? Well, here's a great resource to help you understand what goes into conducting them and how to get started.

In this TechSoup Talks! webinar, Kami Griffiths from TechSoup interviewed Emily Inlow-Hood, formerly of WebJunction and Shawn Cardinal, from ReadyTalk, to share their experiences of conducting webinars and what they've found to create interesting, engaging presentations.

Here's a comment from one participant:

View the recording and check out a full list of recorded webinars here.

Do you get your LAN mixed up with your WAN? Your CMS confused with your CRM? Or are you just curious what exactly those specs on your computer mean?

If you're not a techie, it can be easy to get confused and overwhelmed by the myriad of technology terms and acronyms out there.