Hybrid Power:
Mashups for hitching facts to other info

By Marnie Webb
It is said that information is power. Information is often the fuel that drives your nonprofit in pursuit of your mission. You need compelling information to raise funds, to do effective outreach to your stakeholders, and to reach new audiences. Chances are, you’re sitting on mountains of information, but harnessing that power of all the data can be a challenge. Fortunately, there’s a new type of information engine that can give you a real boost -- quickly and easily.

Like the revolution that’s transforming the automobile industry, the key to boosting the MPG you can get from your raw information is the power of hybrids. In the realm of information, the hybrid concept is all about hitching your facts to other existing sources of information.

For example, your organization might have reports about the incidence of childhood asthma in various locations. By itself, that’s good information. But couple that data with Google Maps and EPA data on the location of Superfund toxic waste concentration, and you’ve got a real powerhouse on your hands.

On the Web, these kinds of information hybrids are called mashups, and their popularity is exploding. They’re pretty easy to create, since many of the information powerhouses (like Google, city and government Web sites as well as census reports) have made their core data publicly available in a format that’s easy for developers to access.

The basic recipe of a mashup goes like this: Combine your specific data with one or more public sources of baseline data, and present it in a format that translates your message into a compelling presentation. What makes the presentation compelling? Often it’s the power of visualization -- showing, rather than telling, your story with a map, a graph, or a timeline can have far more oomph than posting thousands of words on your Web site.

Another key to powerful mashups is personalization. If a visitor to your site can enter their ZIP code and instantly generate a mashup that shows how your story plays out in their own backyard, you’ll capture their attention in a way that reams of statistics generally won’t.

Creating mashups is pretty easy, but it may require pulling together different types of skill sets. Here’s whom you’ll need to bring to the table:

• Someone who knows the ins and outs of your own organization’s information;
• A Web developer familiar with the various sources of data (such as maps and government data) and the mechanics of combining the data streams; and,
• A designer who can create a visually compelling presentation of the data mashup.

And you’ll need one more skill set: the visionary who can not only come up with the creative spark that will make a real impact, based on their understanding of your sector, of your stakeholders, and of what kind of mashup will create a real impact.

Don’t panic if you’re missing any of these skill sets. There are lots of all of these types of folks looking to hook up with each other. A good starting point is the NetSquared community (www.netsquared.org), which is hosting a Mashup Challenge that is bringing developers, volunteers, and organizations together. Another good starting point is to take a look at some of the best nonprofit and activist mashups on the Web.

Some great sites include:

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Marnie Webb is co-CEO of TechSoup along with Daniel Ben Horin and Rebecca Masisak, with whom she rotates writing this column. Her email is eebb@techsoup.org

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This article is from NPT TechnoBuzz, a publication of The NonProfit Times.

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