Netsquared.org blogs
Help Define the Future of Crowdsourcing at CrowdConf2010
Are you using or interested in using crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, or distributed work to drive success for your organization or project? The upcoming CrowdConf2010 is a promising event bringing together researchers, technologists, outsourcing experts, legal scholars, and artists to discuss the rapid growth in Crowdsourcing and the future of the evolving tactic. The event will include a series of peer-reviewed presentation tracks, posters, technology demonstrations as well as keynote addresses from leaders in crowdsourcing.
Submit your expertiseThe conference organizers are currently accepting papers, demos, and posters on all crowdsourcing-related topics. Submit your paper, demo, or poster for consideration before the submission deadline of September 1.
Join the monthly Community Building chats!
This is cross-posted from my blog at amysampleward.org - you can read the original post here, or copied below.
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TechSoup Webinar: TechSoup for Faith-Based Organizations
TechSoup provides donated and deeply discounted products and services to nonprofits and libraries. Some of our donor partners make their product donations available to organizations with religious missions . And, if your church or faith-based organization has a primary mission that is nonreligious, you might be able to register with an organization type that allows you to be eligible for even more of our donation programs.
This free webinar is designed especially for churches and faith-based organizations interested in learning more about the TechSoup donation program so they can get the most value from TechSoup.org.
Join #CitizenGulf Events to Benefit Fishing Families Affected by Oil Spill
Stories, ideas, and even events come together under the hashtag #CitizenGulf all focusing on the families affected by the oil spill. From twitter to blogs and social networks, people have come together to hold events offline around the US on August 25th. How can you get involved? Learn more and take action on and offline today!
Visit http://gulfcoastbenefit.com to find events in your area and contribute to the #CitizenGulf efforts.
Announcement: Site Maintentance
In order to update our website and provide you with some new functionality, the NetSquared site will be down intermittantly between the hours of 12pm and 5pm Pacific Time today.
If you have any questions, you can contact us via email or Twitter.
NetSquared Camp Vancouver's Internet Help Desk is live
Tap the wisdom of Vancouver’s experts in nonprofit technology and marketing at NetSquared Camp Vancouver on August 14, 2010.
NetSquared volunteer consultants will be staffing a desk and are available to answer any question in their field. Don’t miss the opportunity to pick their brains for free.
Internet Help Desk Consultants:
Location: SFU Harbour Centre Atrium
Time: 10:00 am – noon:
- Ben Johnson, Union Gospel Mission: Visualizing data
- Jenny Silver, David Suzuki Foundation – Customizing Facebook
- Kate Trgovac, LintBucket Media – Optimizing social media profiles
Time: 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Help GreatNonprofits Identify Nonprofits Affecting Change Through Science and Technology
One Week To Net2 Camp In Vancouver, BC!
The NetSquared Camp in Vancouver, British Columbia is just over a week away! The free tickets are now sold out, but if you're willing to volunteer or donate, you can still register to attend! Whether you can make it to the event or not, we hope you'll participate virtually to share all your great insights around the globe.
Blog for water and get to Africa
Changents is hosting a contest with P&G Give Health calling for bloggers to share why they are clean water Change Agents. What's in it for bloggers? A few great things:
Free Mobile App Lets You Accept Credit Card Donations
Square is a free mobile credit card processing app/device available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android. Transactions are completed using the swipe device (also free) that plugs directly into a headphone jack and documented with receipts that can be sent out and stored online. Unfortunately as a result of the widespread excitement (see the Mashable article), there is currently a shortage of hardware devices, though their co-founder did recently travel to China to find a new manufacturer.
Open Source CMS: A Net2Camb Event Wrap-up from Will Hall
Besides my role with NetSquared globally, I also organize a monthly NetSquared event locally, in Cambridge, UK. The July Net2Camb event was led by Will Hall, a PHP web developer and open source enthusiast. He discussed the options, benefits, and risks associated with using open source content management systems for SMEs, charities and NGOs.
Will has kindly written a wrap-up of the event to share with you, and included his presentation slides for your reference:
Net2 Think Tank: Going Digital
New organizations build their services and strategy to fit into the existing paradigm of the technology that is available today and the innovations that are expected to happen in the future. But, many enterprises and organizations have existed since long before mobile and web technologies were ever envisioned. How are you updating your previously off-line services to be available online?
Regular contributors, please note that we've broadened the ways that you can contribute, so be sure to re-read the "How to contribute" section below!
Building a Community for the Print Impaired: an Interview with Inclusive Planet's Sachin Malhan
I recently connected with Sachin Malhan, CEO and co-founder of inclusive planet, an online platform that enables people with print impairments to find each other, connect, interact, build communities, and share accessible content and solutions. Started in India, this project is rapidly growing to be a world-wide resource for the visually impaired to both learn and interact.
NetTuesday Notes in Words and Pictures: A Guest Blog Post from Melbourne Organizer Jasmin Tragas
Today we hosted our second NetTuesday event in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and decided to do things a little differently. I spread some large sheets of scrap paper out on the table and bunched together some textas and crayons in a jar. The atmosphere was informal, and everyone was encouraged to participate whilst sipping lattes and munching on muffins, although I ended up visually facilitating the session (people are afraid that they can't draw!) based on the discussion. The idea was to capture some ideas, experiences and general conversation about ways people are making a difference.
NextGen:Charity - TED-style conference for nonprofits (November 18-19, 2010)
NextGen:Charity is a conference on non-profit innovation (a "TED" for non-profits) to be held in Midtown, NYC on November 18 and 19, 2010. The audience is 500+ leaders of non-profits, foundations, and philanthropists. Each talk lasts 18 minutes or less and are fun and anecdotal, while providing inspiration and ideas for the charitable sector. The second day will include workshops for the participating organizations and foundations.
Interview: Melissa Nelson, Blackbaud TV
I recently had the opportunity to connect with Melissa Nelson, Blackbaud's Media Production and Outreach Manager, to learn more about their new initiative, Blackbaud TV. Blackbaud provides software and services to nonprofits to enable them to improve operational efficiency, build relationships, and raise funds. Blackbaud TV is the newest tool they’ve created in an effort to support Nonprofits through informational resources, and I hope this interview serves as a good introduction to the service.
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Networked Nonprofit: Get the book!
Beth Kanter and Allison Fine's book, The Networked Nonprofit, is now out and starting lots of conversations. But what's everyone talking about? Below I've shared some excerpts and resources to get you started and ready to join in!
Getting Started
Let's start at the beginning: what is a "networked nonprofit" anyway? As Beth and Allison explain:
Net2 Recommends - July's Interesting Posts From Around The Web
Net2 Recommends is a monthly series of news and blog posts from around the web that the NetSquared team recommend. It is a round-up of items that caught our eye that we want to share with you.
Web activism conference: dotActivist
Turnfront is organising a conference on using the web for activism on 7th August in London.
It will have a mixture of presentations from activists and technologists, along with time for more open conversations between the participants. The talks will cover activist video, open source social media, hi-tech direct action and online democracy (to name a few).
You can register at: http://turnfront.com/dotactivist

