At the online Nonprofit Technology Conference, presented by NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, keynoter Ami Dar, founder and executive director of Idealist.org, made a splash when he described the "anarchic" state of the Idealist.org office in Portland, OR.
Dar spoke of the way his office has turned to cloud computing, in part to cut costs but, more importantly, to free the staff from wires and regimentation from the top.
At Idealist.org, employees have laptops (choosing their own), and use Google Apps and Skype to replace servers, LAN, and a phone system, said Dar. The only rules are that everyone must use Google Calendar and Salesforce.
Dar said there is no need for uniformity and finds uniformity for its own sake unnecessary. Security is minimal, leaving that up to Google, but Idealist.org does use Salesforce for sensitive documents and for some backup.
Memos are scarce in the Idealist.org office since employees communicate by email (email client of their choice), an internal blog, and through Skype plus video.
Dar wasn't always so laid back, he says, but cost savings and functionality, plus employee preference for personal choice, portability, and a relaxed working environment, drove the conversion to the cloud. He told the story of an employee traveling in India who didn't need to lug a computer at all, but simply went to an Internet cafe to work.
Oh, by the way, there is no IT person at Idealist.org. Every person is his and her own IT expert.
Idealist.org does all this while running a site where 84,000 nonprofit orgs from 180 countries have profiles; there are 500,000 individual members; and 50,000 unique visitors show up each day.
Listen to a podcast with Dar in which he discusses his "non-leadership" style.
Let us know in the comments if your org is in the cloud or not. You can follow the conference tomorrow at Twitter #ONTC.
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