Organizers' Collaborative Community Site blogs

Sunlight Foundation and the Transparency in Government Act 2008

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:33:23 -0700

This week, the Sunlight Foundation unveiled our draft of what could become model transparency legislation -- the Transparency In Government Act of 2008. Here's the twist: Instead of immediately approaching lawmakers to sponsor the bill,
the Foundation decided to first post the bill online at http://PublicMarkup.org in order to solicit public input to further shape, refine and edit the bill.

Participate in this collaboration. You don't have to be an expert. Just tell them what you like, and what you think about what they have drafted.

Developing this model bill via PublicMarkup.org offers an exciting opportunity to experiment with collaborative bill-drafting online. In addition, they hope the public evaluation of the draft bill will increase attention to the critically important issue of transparent government. Our hope is that the final product can be used as a model for transparent government.

Open Media Boston (OMB) Lauches Collaborative Progressive News Site

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:10:49 -0700

After months of development and testing by a few dozen folks, Open Media Boston, the new progressive news, views and arts web portal, has just launched and is now ready for your participation. Please check us out today at http://www.openmediaboston.org!

The Basics

Aiming to cover Boston's community, political and arts scenes using a balance of social media (anyone can publish to our Open Forum) and editorial control (we have an edited front page), OMB is easy to use. See the basic instructions below this message for more information, or just follow the instructions throughout the website.

Online Community Building and Engagement

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:18:06 -0700

Marc Osten from Summit Collaborative just posted this to the NTEN list. They are a series of five short video tutorials titles Online Community Building and Engagement. These are the first installments in a series on the topic that will continue. A 2nd installment will air in April.

These videos cover most of the content that Marc presented at the National UK Circuit Riders Conference last month in Birmingham. The five titles are:

Part 1: Getting Started
Part 2: Who is the online community?
Part 3: The Tool Trap
Part 4: Organizational Issues
Part 5: Setting Clear Objectives

Cash Grants for Progressive Voting Projects

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:19:11 -0700

The Progressive Technology Project is announcing a new initiative that builds on its new Voter TechKit (http://votertechkit.progressivetech.org.) In the Voter Organizing Technology Education and Resources Project (VOTER Project) PTP will work with community-led organizations to greatly increase their long-term capacity to conduct effective integrated voter engagement activities.

PTP will work with a select group of 501 C3 community organizing groups that are engaged in voter education and get-out-the-vote projects in 2008. This program is designed to develop, support and document efforts to integrate the organization’s voter engagement work with its on-going programmatic work.

Aidmatrix Opens Office in India, 4 New States Joined Aidmatrix Network

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:06:16 -0800

Four New States & 1 Territory Join the Aidmatrix Network®
Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, and Oregon recently joined the Aidmatrix Network. Further news includes the signing of our first territory, Puerto Rico as they prepare for the upcoming hurricane season. This brings the total U.S. state governments signed up to 16, plus the numerous other internationals, nonprofits, and donors, participating in the Aidmatrix Network.

View the full list of participants

Spring Storms Prompt Alabama & Arkansas to Activate

During the recent tornados and severe weather, both Alabama and Arkansas activated their portals on the Aidmatrix Network. Both states provide links from their websites as follows:

PTP's Training on Databases and Technology Assessment and Planning

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:32:01 -0800

Only 14 more days to sign-up for PTP’s Training on Databases and Technology Assessment and Planning taking place April 2-4, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN

If your organization is looking to improve its database, this is the program to dig in and find out what PTP has learned from the best practices in the field.

Our Database, Assessment, and Planning COaTI (Community Organizing and Technology Institute) is designed for organizers who want to build up their database skills, develop a better understanding of what databases can and can’t do, and deepen their understanding of how a specific technology fits into a broader vision for your organization and its technology use. This COaTI features a combination of large group, small group, and hands-on work. While we will provide computers for the training, participants are encouraged to bring a laptop and a copy of your organization’s database.

Enroll Now To develop your professional Skills for Social and Human Development

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:01:08 -0800

Providing Professional Education in Social and Human Development

PRIA Continuing Education (PCE) has been established by PRIA, an international center for learning and promotion of participation and governance, for transferring its experience, knowledge and learning of over 25 years. This vast pool of knowledge and learning has been synthesized and packaged into distance education programmes.

Overview of Courses starting 1st April 2008:

Duration: 3 months

Eligibility: Bachelor's Degree

Nature: Certificate Programmes in Distance Mode

Key Features:

(a) National & International subject experts;

U.S. Chamber Features Aidmatrix, Aidmatrix Hosts Volunteer Management Summit

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:59:02 -0800

AidLink
January 2008
The Monthly Newsletter of The Aidmatrix Foundation

Quick Links

The Governor's Blog
About Us
Donate

www.aidmatrix.org

U.S. Chamber Features Aidmatrix
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center featured the extensive relief work done by Aidmatrix and its partners: Adventist Community Services and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services in the latest newsletter "The Corporate Citizen."

Read the full story
Aidmatrix Hosts Volunteer Management Requirements Summit

The Aidmatrix Network solution is continuing to expand its offerings beyond just donations management. The Network, funded in part by FEMA, Accenture and UPS, plans to add a Volunteer Management solution to the list of components. A requirements summit was held January 22-23, 2008 bringing together more than 30 leaders from state and local governments and their non-profit partners to help better define the solution. The initial product is expected to launch later this year.

RootscampDC --

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:26:24 -0800

Super-Duper-Fat-Tuesday has come and gone, so now it's time to get ready for the next great event - RootscampDC! On April 12-13 campaign staff, organizers, volunteers and experts in our field will join together in Washington, DC for one of the most exciting, inspiring and, yes, productive "un-conferences" out there.

We've pushed the date back a few weeks to make sure that everyone who is doing amazing working on primary campaigns can join us. This will be the perfect time to get everyone together to take a deep breath, share innovations, failures, old wisdom and new discoveries, and then hit the road running towards November, and beyond!

Track Congressional Accountability

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:08:26 -0800

Welcome to YOUR latest tool for congressional accountability.

* Learn about the latest legislation of significance to the current and aspiring middle class.

* Find out how your member of Congress voted on that legislation. You can search by name, state or zipcode.

* Track the scores of your representatives.

Explore TheMiddleClass.org today! - http://www.themiddleclass.org/

MAPlight.org

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:04:45 -0800

MAPLight.org (http://www.maplight.org), a groundbreaking public database, illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways. Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws.

This common practice is contrary to the public interest, yet legal. MAPLight.org makes money/vote connections transparent, to help citizens hold their legislators accountable. They even have a useful widget to incorporate into your advocacy website.

COOL TOOL: Knowledge Messenger

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:01:29 -0800

KnowledgeMessenger (http://www.knowledgemessenger.com) provides a complete set of website components and services that enable elected officials, schools and non-profits the ability to entice::engage::activate their audience. They seem pretty affordable too. Their website components and services include:

Entice
eNewsletters - send electronic newsletters to your audience
Blog - engage in a dialog with your audience with a Blog
Event Calendar - keep your audience informed of upcoming events
Content Management - add and update web pages on your website - no need to know HTML!

NetSuite Launches Grants to Social Change Groups

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:54:29 -0800

NetSuite Giving has launched three pilot programs targeting three types of organizations:

* Registered Charities. Charities are increasingly asked to measure, manage and report on performance and outcomes. This reporting can be easier and less of an administrative burden when financial, operations and outcome data is stored in a single, web-based system like NetSuite.
* Fair Trade / Social Enterprises. Increasingly, companies are being formed with a double bottom line — profit and social impact. NetSuite is already designed to handle the challenges of supplier management and ecommerce for businesses. These same capabilities can help Fair Trade groups measure their social impact alongside their profitability.

New Congressional Watchdog Tools

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:14:00 -0800

With Congress returning Washington to start a new session,OpenCongress.org just launched several new features to help you track and rate what's happening on Capitol Hill and organize support for the legislation and issues you care about. The first, My OpenCongress http://www.opencongress.org/, is the first-ever social network designed for people who care about Congress. Now, OpenCongress makes it super easy to track any bill, senator, representative or issue area on the site, simply by clicking "track this" at the top of any page. Use your OpenCongress profile to make your voice heard: vote "aye" or "nay" for every bill in Congress, give a personal approval rating to senators and representatives on a scale of 1-100, and see the total votes for each bill and lawmaker.

ODB software ranks highly in national survey!

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:53:56 -0800

ODB, our flagship open source software project, was highly rated in a new survey of CRM systems for nonprofits released by NTEN in mid December. NTEN, the country's largest national nonprofit technology organization, surveyed over 700 nonprofits using CRM systems, and got useful data about 22 software packages.

A copy of the report is attached to the second article linked below, with permission from NTEN. The original article is here:

http://www.nten.org/blog/2007/12/11/2007-crm-satisfaction-survey

Get a su