Michelle Murrain asks via a tweet:

I want to know why it is that domain registrar logins seem to be one of the most easily lost pieces of information in nonprofits. Ack!

Actually I think the problem is more pervasive than logins. Our work at AboutUs puts us in touch with lots of people who lose their domain names all the time. When I mean lose, I mean zip zero, don’t have a chance of getting it back.

Early on one of the ways that I saw people using AboutUs was to educate themselves about digital realties of virtual properties. Currently the best example of this is for people to simply note on a domain page at AboutUs that their site has moved. So, if anyone is looking for them by domain name and they land on AboutUs, they are easily found.

What also happens is that because people are not aware that they don’t “own” the digital property, they are merely leasing it and upon non-payment, you lose that property. There are tragic examples, such as the hospitalized burn victim losing their established non-profit website of 5 years. More commonly websites are lost by people who just aren’t aware of the tenuous nature of domain properties - they can be bought, lost and sold.. So there are many rants about cybersquatters taking their domain… it is usually all perfectly legal.

One thing that any organization needs to do is think in terms of properties. How often do you hear about a non-profit being evicted for non-payment? Never. Someone in the organization must have the responsibility of thinking about digital property like this, so it doesn’t get lost.

Sometimes even prestigious institutions lose.

So do yourself a favor, keep track of you digital properties, else you will have a headache and allow someone else to make a few pennies off of your traffic.

Kristina writes:

AboutUs is designed to make it quite simple to create a page about a business or organization, provided that it has a corresponding domain/website. In fact, you don’t have to do anything but search for the website in our “Find!” bar, and if the page doesn’t exist yet the AboutUsBot will create one for you to edit.

A lesser known fact is that because AboutUs is a wiki, pages don’t have to just be about another site, but can actually be a site of it’s own.

AboutUs can be a great place to give something a web presence in a much easier and economical way than a typical website. We may not be able to do some of the things that a traditional wiki host does, but the advantage with AboutUs lies in our already high visibility, and the fact that we exist to be a guide to businesses and other organizations.

Some examples include: Janoose the Goose, NIAYH, Thompson Homes Ltd., Florist in North Port, Learning Gardens Laboratory, and Valtech1 Home Inspection Services. (Also, some people have chosen to redirect their URLs to their page on AboutUs. See ChaosCafeAndParlor.com and RegulasJoyOfMovement.com as examples.)

There are two easy ways to create a new page on AboutUs. Either go to the URL bar and navigate to http://www.aboutus.org/TheNameOfYourPageHere, and then click “edit this page” or add a FutureLink to a page on AboutUs with the name of the page you want to create like [[TheNameOfYourPageHere]] and then click that link and add your content.

The other day the Customer Support phone rang and I picked it up. It was a client in New York City, he asked for Ayesha. I informed him that Ayesha wasn’t available, but could I take a message. He mentioned she was working on his article and sent him an email request for feedback. He really needed to speak with her because there was too much to put into an email. He seemed shocked, maybe even upset when I told him it’s not always easy to schedule phone number with her in the States because she’s in Pakistan. I wasn’t really able to read the reason for his reaction, but surmised maybe he was surprised that this “American” company had writers overseas. Further I surmised maybe he just wanted to talk with someone living in a nearby time zone. I wasn’t sure, so I asked him if we could talk.

I spent nearly 40 minutes on the phone, going through the wiki page for his comments and taking lots of notes for things we’d change. I also asked him about his personal history and how he got into the business (the website said online since 1999, but it turns out it’s a family business that his father has been in for 50 years!) Great stuff.

I also talked to him about how we don’t consider our office in Pakistan to be an “outsource” situation, that we have an office in Lahore with full-time employees, with all benefits including health and stock options. He seemed impressed by that and the kicker for him turning around his reaction was when I told him that I spent time there in January. He got more interested and wanted to know how it was over there.

When I told this story to my partner, she said that globalization is a fact of life in business these days and that the way we’re doing it at AboutUs is different than many (most?) other companies, and is a point to be proud of and promote.

A few other points: Both the development team and the Customer Service team are split between Pakistan and the US, with the majority in Pakistan in both teams. This means we’re an “around the clock” company, making us that much more efficient.

IBM uses wikis and has a WikiCentral as an internal MySpace.

The United Nations is starting one to help staff in 80 countries share information.

16 U.S. intelligence agencies use a top-secret wiki called Intellipedia.

How are you using wiki to further your business, organization or ideas

How can you use AboutUs?

Newsweek: Power In Numbers: How wiki software is reforming bloated bureaucracies and changing the face of communication.

Let’s chat, mingle, and wiki together.

One of this month’s topics may easily include the recent “Universal Edit Button” (http://UniversalEditButton.org) or the upcoming Wikimania event!

and we imagine the rest will self organize - itself.

at the AboutUs office, 107 SE Washington #520 5:30-8:30