Archive for the 'events' CategoryPage 2 of 4

Election Day Reminder: Go Vote!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on November 4, 2008
in events
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

In the U.S., today is election day. This is your reminder from NetSquared to make your voice heard by voting today and helping get others to do the same.

This year, we have seen social media leveraged within candidate campaigns like never before.  We even posted about some of the tools and strategies being used - you can read that post here.

One tool that has really seen a lot of press and interest lately is the Twitter Vote Report: “a non-partisan, all-volunteer network of software developers, designers, and other collaborators have teamed up with the award-winning blog techPresident to launch this effort.  The only resources contributed to this project are the participants’ time and expertise!”

Millions of Americans will be voting this Election Day. Many of these voters will have terrific experiences and we’d love to hear about those.  But many voters will experience voting problems that we have been hearing about for years: long lines, broken machines, and registered voters who can’t vote because their names aren’t showing up on the registration rolls.

Using Twitter Vote Report, voters will be able to share their experiences and resources with one another (e.g. “#wait:120″ meaning that the wait time is 120 minutes). These messages will then be aggregated and mapped so that we can “see” voting problems around the country in real-time.

This election cycle has seen, as usual, some ups and downs but the new ways of engaging with supporters and energizing voters via social media are worth paying attention to and learning from.  It’s been a long time coming, though - so get out and vote!

How are you, or is your organization, engaging in get out the vote efforts?  Are you using social media in your efforts?  We’d love to hear from you, just comment on the NetSquared blog here!

Net Tuesdays arrive in London!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 16, 2008
in events
. 0 Comments

I’m thrilled to announce that the London Net Tuesday is officially here! The community in London and around the UK is ready for a solid, monthly event that brings together social changemakers (whether a nonprofit organization in the traditional sense, a group of interested citizens, social venture capitalists or an individual with an idea) and technological forerunners together to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and collaborate on new projects.

Join the fun!

Details for the first event:

  • Date: 4 November, 2008
  • Time: 5:30-7:30 pm
  • Topic: Head-to-head Blogging (see below)
  • Location: CTT, 1 London Bridge
  • Provided: Snacks and coffee/tea
  • Bring: Your brain, your energy, your business cards
  • RSVP: London NetSquared Group

The 4 Nov. event topic is blogging. But not just some folks talking about blogging who already use it, or only want to talk about their own blog. This is going to be a bit more fun: we will have a select group ‘representing’ their preferred blogging platform go head-to-head over the capabilities, functionality, and general goodness of their chosen platform. This way we can hear the ins and outs of platforms in a way we may not usually experience. This discussion will be followed by a conversation with questions and answers about the various ways nonprofit organizations can introduce and utilize blogs to connect with communities.

We hope to kick these monthly events off right with a great group of people, some lively presentations/conversation, and lots of networking - come join us on the 4th!

What is Net Tuesday?

Every month, social changemakers and Web innovators come together at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce the online NetSquared community. Net Tuesdays take place in 22 cities around the world with more cities joining in every month. Find out more and check out other Net Tuesdays here.

Join in!

Here are some simple steps to participating in London Net Tuesday:

  1. Join the Meetup.com group for free, to stay up to date, network with other participants, and more!
  2. Mark 4 Nov on your calendar for our first event!
  3. Spread the word and invite your friends and colleagues along!

I’m so excited to be part of the London Net Tuesday and think it is really going to be something special. Nonprofits and social changemakers, see you on the 4th!

Blog Action Day: Global Poverty

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 15, 2008
in community, events and socialchange
. 9 Comments

Blog Action Day logoIt’s Blog Action Day 2008! This year, the focus of thousands of bloggers from around the world is on poverty.

What’s the point of bloggers (over 11,000 at the time of this posting!) all talking about poverty today?  The more people talking about poverty and its related issues, the larger and larger the conversation.  When lots of people start talking about something, they naturally get excited and start sharing ideas and making plans and then start taking action to make change!

So really, Blog Action Day = Action Day!

There are so many bloggers in the discussion today, and many great ideas, organizations and projects highlighted, and so much more - I really encourage you to check out the rolling list of participating blogs to read more and jump into the conversation!

Here’s what I’m thinking…

The social web is really about aggregation and redistribution. So, we should be pulling together opportunities for people to do something about poverty, both locally and on a global scale.  Many groups, individuals and even platforms are working on doing this already, at least for social change in general, including poverty-related actions.  Tools like SocialActions aggregate the social web of social actions for you, and then let you repurpose the results the way you want - like in a widget on your blog, on an automatic footer, etc.  SocialActions still has a long way to go with how much functionality and opportunity it hopes to provide users, so check it out and see how you can participate!

We should also be pulling together and pushing out resources and information about services for people in poverty looking for help.  I’ve seen this take shape in various forms, including One Economy’s Beehive websites that provide localized information and connections to services.  But, I still think there is a lot more to be done that doesn’t require too much ‘new’ work, just new combinations.

What if…

What if there was a way that someone looking for a social service could use a touch screen monitor in a grocery store to locate the physical building where they could get help? Grocery stores are much more abundant and easily accessed than pretty much anything else in most cities, and using the touch screen monitor means you have much less technological experience required to use the tool.  Finding the address, the specific services available, hours of operation, etc. in an easy-to-access way means that person could then get on the bus, taxi, or walk to the location without having to find one social service facility just to start the process.  I love maps though, so we should add in some mapping to the process :) maybe a map can show all of the locations providing the service needed and the user can pick and choose if they want.

What if there was a shared technology van for your city that would travel between homeless shelters, social service centers, and adult education facilities providing exposure and on-the-spot training to individuals on using a computer, a digital camera, navigating the web, creating an email account, etc.? This would give people facing an uphill battle to find a job and improve their financial/economic situation some basic tools to be on their way to working in an office or even just participating in the technology-heavy demands of the 21st century.  One van wouldn’t need to cost that much, especially if a national organization was behind it and regulating it.  I’m sure that software and hardware developers (whether it is laptops, cameras, video cameras, phones, or computer applications, etc.) out there would gladly donate machines or discount them (just think of how many people they are helping to become customers!); the vehicles could be donated or discounted or come from vehicle donation services; staffing of the vehicle could be a full-time standard hour job paid for by a grant or membership fees that are very small contributed/combined from all of the facilities who have a share of the exposure.

What do you guys think of either of those ideas?  Are they doable?  Do you have better ideas?  I’d LOVE to hear them!

Knight News Challenge is back with meetups!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 6, 2008
in events, fundraising and workblog
. 2 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

knight news challenge logoThe Knight News Challenge is giving away around $5 million in 2009 for the development and distribution of neighborhood and community-focused projects, services, and programs!

What fits the challenge?

Knight wants to hear your ideas for improving local online news, growing community engagement, integrating Web 2.0 tools with local neighborhoods, developing publishing platforms and standards that support local conversations or innovatations for visualizing, experience or interacting with information. Share your ideas and you can win the funding for your project and support within a vibrant community of media, tech and commnity-oriented people who all want to improve the wold.

Who should apply?

Applications for the 2008-09 cycle will be taken starting September 2, 2008 and close on November 1, 2008. For more information, visit the Knight News Challenge site. Here some easy rules for application in the 2008-09 Knight News Challenge:

  1. Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.
  2. Serve the public interest.
  3. Benefit one or more specific geographic communities.

You can even get support for your application before you submit! The brand-new News Challenge Garage is a site where prospective applicants can talk with mentors and peers, check out previous winners’ applications and improve applications before the final submission.

Connect in person!

Knight is hosting meetups around the country to connect with interested participants in person, to share ideas, ask questions, and start brainstorming. Here are some upcoming events:

An RSVP is required for all events; contact Susan Mernit for more information.

For more information, visit the Knight News Challenge site.

Net Tuesday London in the works!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 3, 2008
in community and events
. 1 Comment

As most of you know, I’m now located in London, UK and the community builder at NetSquared.  I’m really excited to be here and to connect with the nonprofit technology community on the ground in the UK.

As part of my offline community building for NetSquared here, I’m laying the ground work for the first Net Tuesday London!  I’m hoping we can hold our first monthly event this November, and want it to really be something that fills a niche, connects nptechers, technologists, consultants, nonprofits and social changemakers.

If you are here in London or the UK, below is a link to a survey to help gauge what your goals and preferences are for Net Tuesday London.  I’d really love to hear your thoughts, and to see you there in November!

Thanks so much for taking the time to fill out the short survey; it should only take 5 minutes or so.

Here’s the survey!

Let me know if you have any questions about NetSquared, Net Tuesdays, the survey or anything else!

Online Engagement: London Fundraising Summit

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on September 25, 2008
in events and fundraising
. 1 Comment

Today was the second day of the London Fundraising Summit from the Center for Nonprofit Success.  I presented with Jonathan Waddingham, the Charity Champion at JustGiving.org, about online engagement and fundraising.  It was a three-hour session and we could have gone all day!  Great attendees, conversations, and learning taking place.

Jonathan’s presentation focused on some great examples of nonprofits using a range of social media tools.  My presentation concentrated on the why and how side of things, including some examples from the e-Nonprofit Benchmarks report.  You can see Jonathan’s slides here.  After our presentations, we had a few rounds of small group activities with short scenarios and prompts calling on the new online engagement and fundraising ideas Jonathan and I talked about.  The groups did an excellent job creating strategies for engaging their fake organizations’ communities.  Thanks so much to everyone who was there!

Here is my presentation:

Lfs Online Fundraising Preso Asw

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: engagement fundraising)

Here is the PDF version with all my speaker notes:

LFS Online Fundraising PDF Asw
View SlideShare document or Upload your own. (tags: engagement fundraising)

My main points included:

Conversations = Conversions

  • shouting rarely works!
  • two way conversation empowers your constituents and the larger community to:
    - give you feedback when things are bad
    - give you praise when they are happy
    - ask questions
    - get involved
  • two way conversations also turn your staff into real people.
  • if a conversation is taking place online and you aren’t there to hear it, does it still happen?  YES!
  • by putting yourself and your organization online, you can be part of the conversation that is already taking place.

Management = Messages

  • people are all different, even if they are all interested in your organization.  what they want to do for you, how they want to hear from you, what they plan to say about you and even how they want to support you.
  • comprehensive donor/volunteer/constituent management software will let you track, trace, separate
    and sort your members.
  • better messages means more messages, but not drastically different.  just enough so that your online
    activists have something they can do when they get an email from you, your donors can donate, your
    supporters can spread the word, and your lurkers can keep hanging on.

Testing

  • testing can be small scale to large scale - really just depends on your budget, your time, and your staff capacity.
  • start small and in-house and see how much you can learn right away
  • try changing simple things with small groups: subject lines, images, calls to action, etc.

If you were at the session today, what questions did you leave with?  What conversations helped you the most?

NetSquared & Sun Microsystems in Brazil!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on September 22, 2008
in events
. 0 Comments

Do you have friends at nonprofits in Brazil who might benefit from having hands-on techies help them address technology needs?

The short story:
NetSquared.org and Sun Microsystems are organizing developers to kick-off a project designed to help NGO’s harness the power of open source and web-based technologies to address the social issues they’re working on.

We need help from people with experience at the intersection of tech and civil society beyond the U.S. in order to mobilize Brazilian NGO’s, University Computing Clubs, and others to participate at this October 1, 2008 event, Collaborating for Change.

Next steps:
Know of organizations, friends, or colleagues who would be interested in participating?  Here is a quick message you can send to them:

My friends at NetSquared.org (a technology nonprofit based in SF, CA) are working on a project that leverages the technical expertise of University developers on behalf of Sao Paolo-area NGO’s working on social-benefit Projects.

I’m writing today to invite your participation. Find all of the details below!

Here’s the easy next steps:
1. Register at https://events-at-sun.com/collaborate/register.php
2. Please let NetSquared know how it goes! (http://netsquared.org or net2@netsquared.org)

Questions about this event?
https://events-at-sun.com/collaborate/english/index.php

You can contact collaborate_saopaulo@sun.com with additional questions.

Thanks!

I appreciate your help and outreach - we are so excited to offer such great, on the ground expertise and assistance for nonprofits in Sao Paulo.  Check out where we are headed next!

News and updates from Net2 and London

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on September 18, 2008
in community, events and workblog
. 1 Comment

I’ve made it!  We are safely in London, UK, now and staying with friends of friends who we had never met before and are much too hospitable.  The pieces of life for finding housing, food, friends, and fun are all falling into place so far, and we’ve been here less than a week!  Now, to find reliable and consistent internet!

Here are some great news bites I wanted to let everyone know about, straight from my blog on the NetSquared site:

Blog Action Day 08: Focusing on poverty

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on August 28, 2008
in community and events
. 2 Comments

I plan to participate on October 15th in the Blog Action Day 2008 and hope that you will, too!

"Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion."

Blogging, as I have talked about many times in the past, is really about conversations and I think the idea behind Blog Action Day is the perfect example of that.  By encouraging as many people to focus on the same issue for one day we can ignite ideas, conversations, and even actions to help fight poverty and the issues related to it.

I’m excited to participate and hope to blog about some great examples of social media use by poverty-focused organizations as well as the missions and work of those groups.  So, join me for Blog Action Day this year and help further the reach of the conversation!

Where can you find BlogHer without going to the conference?

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on July 15, 2008
in events
. 0 Comments

Right here!

This Friday - Sunday is the annual BlogHer conference, taking place in San Francisco.  “BlogHer’s annual conference is like no other — it is the thrilling diversity of the blogosphere come to life! Featuring technical labs, educational workshops, intense discussion sessions, relevant sponsors, speakers from every corner of the blogosphere, established and new, and plenty of opportunities to network and socialize.”

Unfortunately, I can’t make it to San Fran for the conference.  BUT! I can make it all the way to my computer and into Second Life!  What’s Second Life? It is an “online, 3D virtual world imagined and created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.”

The BlogHer conference will have simultaneous events taking place ‘off-line’ and online in Second Life.  I will be attending events throughout the conference via my virtual Second Life self. Are you attending it on or offline?

I will be live blogging from within Second Life - so you can follow along with me, ask questions and leave comments in real time whether you are in Second Life, at the conference, or sitting back at home.

All you have to do to be included is watch this blog!  The live blogging (with CoverItLive) will be hosted here.  I’m excited to share with you all the experience of attending this conference virtually, as well as getting participation from you while I’m there!

Other BlogHer folks will also be live blogging and commentating on the events throughout the three days on the BlogHer website.

Have you attended a conference in Second Life before?  Has your organization considered using Second Life as part of its social media strategy?