Fri, 8 September 2006  A few quick updates about what's happening at NetSquared including info. about upcoming NetSquared Meetups, Microsoft's Develop Without Borders Challenge, the League of Technical Voters, and NetSquared Conference recordings.Direct download: This_Week_In_NetSquared_News_25.mp3 Category: This Week in Net2 News -- posted at: 11:00 PM Comments[0] |
Wed, 6 September 2006  Two of the most fecund technologies emerging online are tagging and RSS aggregation. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a means of subscribing to new content from any online source of information. That means you can keep up with far more web pages, blog posts, search results, podcasts, tagged items and more - in a lot less time than ever before. Tagging typically means users applying a tag, metadata of their own creation, to any online item that they want to later retrieve or share with others using a keyword or tag. On the corporate end of the spectrum, for example, defense contractor Raytheon also uses a tagging system - wherein employees tag web pages of interest with keywords and are then able to search the organically grown database by tag. The company's head librarian reports that the system has proven invaluable.In the nonprofit world, the NPTech tag stream is a way for nonprofit technologists to share web pages, photos and upcoming events of interest with each other. Anyone can search inside this tag stream or subscribe to the RSS feed of all items tagged nptech, particular users' items tagged nptech or items tagged nptech and any other term. Since being originated by Compumentor's Marnie Webb a year and a half ago, the nptech tag stream has had thousands of items tagged into it. Studies performed at the beginning of 2005 found that between five and twelve percent of US internet users were using RSS to gather information. The New York Times has offered RSS feeds for almost four years.The possibilities are nearly endless. Some Public Relations professionals, for example, subscribe to search feeds regarding their clients and receive Instant Messages or cell phone Text Messages at the moment that their searches find new results. Wiki watchers maintain topic areas of interest by subscribing by feed to the changes people make. Nonhuman feed creation is expected to increase. For example, beacons at sea are sending weather data back to shore by RSS. Feeds are being combined into subscribable OPML files, a format that can express any information in outline form. Any of these feeds can be displayed as they are updated in HTML on a web page. Despite the incredible usefulness of feeds, tagging and aggregation for research, promotion and community building - the use of these tools is still far from widespread in the nonprofit sector. What needs to happen in order for that to change?What are some other examples of these technologies being used for social change? Is the nonprofit sector in general positioned to take advantage of these tools, or is a world of rapid, portable information organized by users too chaotic to fit into nonprofit methods? What is the best way for an organization to begin to use aggregation and tagging? Some people believe that the cognitive load required to add tagging to our relationship with information is too much to be practical. Others say that aggregation only leads to information-overload multiplied many times over. Do these concerns have to be overwhelming, or is there real potential in these tools for the nonprofit sector? Photo of Marshall Kirkpatrick Comments[0] |
Wed, 6 September 2006  Comments[0] |
Wed, 6 September 2006 
The American political process is changing. Although the end-goals may differ (win an election vs. solve a large, complex, often intractable social problem), political campaigns and other social change efforts share many characteristics, e.g., the needs to do fundraising, to influence public opinion, and to convince people to become actively involved. The oft-cited example of the Howard Dean presidential campaign demonstrated how technology can amplify grassroots movements into national groundswells. Since that campaign, the communication technologies available have continued to evolve. Some of the most mobilization of huge numbers of demonstrators against congressional visited sites on the web are now political blogs, left and right. Myspace and cell phone text messages were instrumental in the organic action concerning immigration to the US. Politicians are podcasting, watchdogs have wikis and nonprofits concerned about political appointments are opening their own media channels. We can see how the sausage gets made like never before. How are technology enabled campaigns and initiatives changing the political process? What are the key trends affecting this change? What lessons are applicable to social change efforts? Photo: Joan Blades - Co-Founder, Moveon.orgDirect download: Net2Con__Grassroots_Netroots_and_t.mp3 Category: Conference2006 -- posted at: 3:33 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 4 September 2006  Panelists:
The Internet and ICT have increasingly become platforms for commerce, and after the dot com bust, viable Internet and ICT-based business models have arisen. For example, Google has achieved an enormous market capitalization due to its advertising-based business model. oogle ads have also benefited many web site publishers, especially in the developing world where ad commissions stretch further. At the other end of the scale, sales of ring tones have been a surprising success. In the nonprofit world, Amnesty International has used online video to solicit various forms of support. Wikipedia is supported by donations, but also by a commercial arm that sells services for private use. The Dean presidential campaign was supported by a historic groundswell of small donors found online. Many smaller organizations use blogs to communicate consistently with their funders and supporters. Fundraising is a perennial issue for community-based npos, and especially for community-based NGOs in developing countries. As npos and ngos increasingly interact with their constituencies via the Internet and ICT, can they tap into new business models to develop revenue streams? Is there real change possible in the business model side of the ICT revolution - or will the basic dynamic of agents of change being beholden to the wealthy elite remain? In an information economy, will your constituents expect something different from you in exchange for their financial support? If your favorite nonprofit ran contextual advertisements on their web pages - would you click on them?Fundraising is a perennial issue for community-based npos, and especially for community-based NGOs in developing countries. As npos and ngos increasingly interact with their constituencies via the Internet and ICT, can they tap into new business models to develop revenue streams? Is there real change possible in the business model side of the ICT revolution - or will the basic dynamic of agents of change being beholden to the wealthy elite remain? In an information economy, will your constituents expect something different from you in exchange for their financial support? If your favorite nonprofit ran contextual advertisements on their web pages - would you click on them?Photo: Jim Fruchterman Direct download: New_Web_Tools_Revenue_Model_Breakout_Session.mp3 Category: Conference2006 -- posted at: 11:51 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 4 September 2006  Panelists:Opportunities for information and web-based human rights and social justice work are available like never before - but how can activists take advantage of this changing world of new communications technologies? Our challenge is to build an architecture of participation, to grow activism and involvement and to allow people to speak for themselves. The prize is an empowered engagement that could change our relationship with our members & supporters. The risk is that, despite the tools, people won't take part, or that by taking part they will put themselves at risk. We need to recognise where we are being naive about the users themselves or naive about the determination of corporations & governments to control them. What are we going to do about it? How can human rights and social justice organizations use new technologies to respond to the state of the world? What's already being done that needs to be more widely known about? What are some of the early lessons-learned from the nonprofit adoption that has occurred? Or are these new tools just an overhyped fad - irrelevant to the bread and butter concerns of most nonprofit organizations? Photo: Anna Feldman Direct download: 2Human_Rights_New_Communication_Technologies_BreakoutSession2.mp3 Category: Conference2006 -- posted at: 6:20 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 4 September 2006 
Communities around the world are implementing or considering the creation of free or low cost wireless internet systems so that their citizens can go online in any location. The balance between public and private infrastructure is being worked out and debated. At least 212 cities around the world have built public access wireless internet networks, and many more-including high-profile cities such as San Francisco and Philadelphia-are on the way (MuniWireless.com). The municipal approach makes wifi a utility, with business models running from local advertising to monthly payments to simply making city government more efficient. Mesh networks are especially useful in areas with little infrastructure-building the "last mile" to an under-developed area. A key debate has been over whether city governments should partner with private wifi providers or wait for the market to fill the demand for wifi on its own. Incumbents are fighting to keep cities off their turf; SBC, Cablevision, and Verizon all spent over $10 million on lobbying from 2003 to 2004 (Center for Public Integrity). FON, a project funded in part by Google and eBay/Skype, offers yet another alternative: creating a network of people around the world who let FON members use their wifi connections for free and charge non-members for access. In the developing world, wireless offers similar advantages over wire networks that cellular networks offered over land-based telephone infrastructure -much lower cost of implementing the infrastructure in an area where land-based infrastructure does not already exist. But in the developing world, there are also significant barriers to development related to regulation, monopolistic industries, and government control. Is getting the government involved worth the risk of mismanagement? Are the benefits of wireless in the developing world more than just hype? Are we willing to trade our privacy for access? Should we open up our own wireless networks for the greater good? Photo of Lauren-Glenn Davitian Comments[1] |
Fri, 1 September 2006  Panelists:People have been trying to harnass the power of the successful viral marketing campaign by encouraging people to spread the message themselves. This technique was served to great effect for environmental causes with the (anti) Chevy Tahoe campaign, which generated a lot of buzz to the effect that environmentalists had turned Chevy's marketing on itself. However, it's an open question as to who took advantage of whom. Two recent campaigns were SpreadFirefox and the outreach for the first BlogHer conference. These efforts reached large audiences, without expending large advertising budgets. According to the Pinko Marketing Manifesto, you have to believe in your product or message, and then let those with the passion go spread the word for you. Give the power of communication away, don't try to control it. Can this work in the social change world? Are the words "marketing" and "advocacy" compatible? What are the best techniques for spreading the word via online tools? How do you encourage those who believe in your work to spread the word for you, and how can you make it easier for them to do that? Finally, what can you do when people adapt your virus to their own purposes?Photo: Chris Messina Direct download: 1Distributed_Grassroots_Marketing_Team_BreakoutSession1.2.mp3 Category: Conference2006 -- posted at: 11:31 PM Comments[0] |
Fri, 1 September 2006 A few quick updates about what's happening at NetSquared including information about upcoming NetSquared Meetup Groups and an excerpt from the NetSquared Conference session, Gender and the Social Web.Direct download: This_Week_In_NetSquared_News_24.mp3 Category: This Week in Net2 News -- posted at: 8:29 PM Comments[0] |
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NetSquared: Remixing the Web for Social Change News and interviews about nonprofits and NGOs using the social web for social change.
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