While looking for anything to watch other than Tom Delay shake his bum on Dancing with the Stars the other night, I came across one of the new commercials from Microsoft about their upcoming release of the Windows 7 operating system. The commercial featured the cutest little spokesperson you've ever seen. Since Microsoft will be donating Windows 7 upgrades to eligible nonprofits and libraries through TechSoup beginning on October 22, this reminded me to post this little "save the date" announcement, as well as give you a heads up as to what you can expect to see from TechSoup as we approach this launch. If you're interested in checking out reviews of Windows 7, the commercial featured a couple of interesting ones from Gizmodo and CNET, though there are many others online and they're overwhelmingly positive. If you want to check out the cute ad, you can see it here.

What to Expect from TechSoup:

• Windows 7 upgrade products will be available for donation to qualified nonprofits and libraries through TechSoup on October 22 –  specifically Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise upgrades (32 and 64 bit).
• Your organization can request Windows 7 through TechSoup even if you've already received a Microsoft donation this year. Microsoft is allowing organizations to place one extra order this year for ONLY Windows 7 (or Vista) up until January 31, 2010. Learn more about Microsoft's donation program through TechSoup.
• The team at TechSoup is putting together information and resources to help nonprofits and libraries make the best decisions for their organization, so check back soon for more resources to help you evaluate.
• In the meantime, as you evaluate whether Windows 7 is right for your organization, here are a few things you should know about your current system and computers:
  
  • Read more

Have you checked out TechSoup's new Disaster Planning and Recovery Toolkit? We've updated and expanded our downloadable book, The Resilient Organization: A Guide for Disaster Planning and Recovery, and hosted two webinars on disaster planning.

If you've used any of these resources, it's time to let us know what you thought and how we could improve. Please take three minutes to respond to our very short survey. This is your chance to tell us what you think of the toolkit and what resources we should add to it.

As a part of the disaster campaign, we've been blogging about disaster planning and recovery over the past few weeks:

• Free Webinars: National Preparedness Month: Did you know that September is National Preparedness Month? Agility Recovery Solutions, a disaster recovery specialist, together with FEMA, is hosting a series of weekly webinars this month.
• Pangea Foundation's Disaster Relief Communications Hub: ReliefPoint is "a real-time communications hub for national disaster relief coordination and information dissemination." Pangea Foundation developed the tool in response to the October 2007 wildfires that destroyed land and homes in and around San Diego.
• Mobile Phones and Disaster Planning: Cell phones and "smartphones" are easily the greatest additions to accessible emergency preparedness and disaster response. Actively helping staff and volunteers to program their phones will directly and immediately increase their personal as well as your organization's preparedness.
• Freestore Foodbank: Standardized Practices and Disaster Planning: Learn how one organization's overhaul of its tech infrastructure made it ready when a disaster came.
• Back That Mac Up: Isn't Time Machine enough? Maybe not. Learn how to back up your Mac computers and recover them quickly in the case of hard drive damage or failure.

Photo: Random McRandomhead, CC license

Did you know that September is National Preparedness Month? Agility Recovery Solutions, a disaster recovery specialist, together with FEMA, is hosting a series of weekly webinars this month. Readers and followers of TechSoup are no doubt familiar with our resources on disaster planning and recovery, and Agility's webinars introduce some interesting topics as well such as "Pandemic Planning: How to Prepare your Business for the Upcoming Flu Season" with a former associate Chief Medical Officer from the Department of Homeland Security on September 16, and "Social Media: What Role Does It Play in Business Preparedness" with a Public Information Officer from FEMA on Sept 23. The free webinars are also archived in case you can't make those times.

Photo: Robert Thomson, CC license

If you haven't already, check out TechSoup's new Disaster Planning and Recovery Toolkit. In addition to our free book, The Resilient Organization: A Guide for Disaster Planning and Recovery, you'll also find webinars, articles, and links to other information around the Internet. We think that this toolkit can be a great resource for organizations in times of health as well as those facing disasters.

A point that we emphasize throughout the book is that disaster planning isn't just a matter of being ready for a natural disaster. It's about rethinking the way your organization works and adopting technologies and procedures that emphasize flexibility and adaptability throughout your organization. An organization that's ready for a disaster is also ready for a new opportunity to expand its impact when a need arises.

I can't think of a story that better illustrates this concept than that of the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati, one of the winners of our Microsoft Show Your Impact contest.

Freestore Foodbank serves over 7000 individuals a month in the greater Cincinnati area, and those numbers double in November and December. Before undergoing a major overhaul of their tech infrastructure, the Foodbank’s multiple branches had a lot of trouble communicating and working together, both internally and externally. In making major infrastructural improvements and standardizing practices across all of their branches, the Foodbank was able to serve the community more swiftly; what's more, when one branch was struck by a natural disaster, the Foodbank was ready for it.

This post is mainly for Mac users. If you're not a Mac user, many of the points here will still apply to you, but some of them won't. You might prefer this video of a dog eating Potato Olés.

If you haven't already, check out our new guide, The Resilient Organization: A Guide for Disaster Planning and Recovery. This book represents several months' worth of research and numerous people's expertise, and we think it'll be a helpful resource for nonprofits and public libraries.

Working on the book got me thinking about my own backup strategies for my home computer. About two years ago, my old iBook G4 started to get slow and it seemed that the hard drive was probably on its way out. I was still covered by AppleCare at the time, so I bought an external MyBook drive and downloaded SuperDuper, in hopes that I'd still be under warranty when the internal drive inevitably died. No such luck.

Like most backup programs, SuperDuper gives you the choice of whether to back up only your own personal data (your home folder) or your entire drive, including the operating system and applications. To back up the entire drive, select "Backup - all files." (This is often referred to as a mirror image.) The benefit of this sort of backup is that if you need to, you can boot the computer from it. That's a huge plus for a lot of reasons: if something happens to your internal drive, you can still boot from the external drive. If you need to send the computer to the shop, you can boot from your backup drive on a separate Mac and keep working as usual.

Does your organization have a plan to keep your technology, data, and assets protected in the event of an emergency or disaster? What if it's not an actual disaster like a hurricane or flood, but a staff member simply loses or breaks a laptop carrying essential supporter data? How much time or money might your organization spend trying to recover even a fraction of what's been lost? If these questions have crossed your mind and your answers are less than ideal, you should join us for our two-part webinar series on disaster planning to protect your technology.

Join me on Thursday, August 20 at 11 a.m. Pacific as I interview nonprofit tech expert Chris Shipley from Nutmeg Consulting and Elliot Harmon, TechSoup staff writer and editor of our soon-to-be-released The Resilient Organization: A Guide for Disaster Planning and Recovery. We'll also be joined by Michelle Baldwin, Executive Director of Volunteers in Service to Others, which runs the Cooke County emergency food bank. They experienced a flood two years ago and she'll be offering advice for other nonprofits trying to plan ahead.

Have you ever checked out TechSoup's Disaster Planning and Recovery Toolkit? It's a good place to turn for any organization whose tech infrastructure has suffered a disaster, natural or otherwise. We're overhauling the manual and toolkit, and we need your help!

If you have ten minutes to spare, please take our Emergency Preparedness Survey for Nonprofits and Public Libraries. Even if you haven't been impacted by a disaster, your input is still important. We want to learn what steps organizations are going through to protect their computers and data, even if they've been fortunate enough not to experience a disaster.

The survey is completely confidential, but if you are interested in sharing more information, we're also looking for people to interview about their own experiences in disaster preparation and recovery. The survey will give you the opportunity to express your interest in further participation.

We will select one respondent at random to receive a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate. Respond by July 10 to be eligible for the drawing. Please forward this survey to your colleagues at nonprofits, NGOs, or libraries. The survey is open to organizations anywhere in the world.

Photo: Random McRandomhead, CC license

Back in January, we blogged about the Downadup worm on the rampage. Fast forward two months, and not only has the problem not been suppressed, Downadup (also known as Conficker) has evolved and its variations have grown more sophisticated and potentially more virulent.

For example, it is said to have encrypted P2P (peer-to-peer) communication mechanisms to ensure a distributed command structure and disrupts Windows Update or other antivirus software from cleaning it. Currently it is still lying dormant.

Based on the code, some experts think that starting on April 1, infected computers can be activated to receive instructions as a massive botnet. If you haven't allowed Windows Update to address this issue since October 2008, or hadn't scanned your computer using updated virus definitions, at this stage perhaps the best protection may just be to ensure that your data is backed up and intact.

If your computer is infected with Conficker — as with any other instance of infections — be prepared to take any infected computers offline and even reinstall your operating system. Learn more about building stronger security for your personal and office machines in TechSoup's Security Corner.

Is Google backing up your data? Yahoo? Your donor management software vendor? Your Web hosting company? Probably, but occasionally their procedures fail, or they lock you out of your account intentionally for security or other reasons. In other words, there are no guarantees. Even responsible, well-managed companies screw up from time to time. And some companies are just not very well-managed or responsible. 

My friend and fellow consultant John Kenyon is fond of saying that, after people, data is an organization's most important asset. An organization's databases store its history: contact records; people served; donors, funders, and prospects; VIPs, volunteers, and vendors; event attendees, and more. Yet many organizations don’t pay enough attention to the care and feeding of their databases.

Without policies, procedures, training, management, and ongoing attention, databases will become filled with inconsistent, unusable data, and data will be scattered hither and yon in spreadsheets, shadow databases, and desk drawers.