Tag Archive for 'netsquared'

USAID Development 2.0 Challenge: Extended Deadline Dec. 5th!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on November 19, 2008
in challenge
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If you have an idea for mobile technologies for good and you haven’t submitted to the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge project gallery yet, it’s your lucky day!

The Challenge submission deadline is extended to December 5th!

To participate in the USAID Development Challenge please Register and Login and submit your idea. To view, comment on or star a project, visit the USAID Project Gallery.

About the Challenge

Mobile technology, including everything from inventive applications for smart phones to simple text messaging, is increasingly ubiquitous in the developing world. USAID challenges you to explore its potential through an innovation for maximum development impact in areas such as health, banking, education, agricultural trade, or other pressing development issues.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Government agency that delivers economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide on behalf of the American people, is sponsoring a challenge to find the best in mobile innovations for good. Through a NetSquared community vote, fifteen finalists will be chosen. A panel of judges, selected by USAID, will then select the winners. The first place winner will receive a grant of $10,000, the two runner-ups will receive grants of $5,000 each. All three winners will have the opportunity to present their ideas to senior USAID officials, experts, and the public in Washington D.C.

How It Works

Individuals and organizations working with mobile technologies to create change are invited to share their projects with the community through the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge submission form. Once you’ve hit submit for your challenge, it’s public. This provides you with an opportunity to get feedback from your community, the USAID community, the NetSquared community and other friendly collaborators.

Once the project submission process has closed, we will hold a community vote to select the top fifteen projects. Those projects will then go in front of a panel of USAID-selected judges who will determine the three winners.

Four Easy Steps to Participate:

  • Register and/or Login
  • Click on Username
  • Click on “Submit a Project to the Project Gallery” under My Project Idea
  • Select “USAID” from the Prize Tag menu located below Additional Cause Area Tags on the Submission Form

Learn more about the Challenge and enter your idea here.

Follow along with Millennials Changing America!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 21, 2008
in issues
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

The tour is underway, and you can follow along!

Millennials Changing America is a research tour that seeks to paint a portrait of millennial activism as it exists today by traveling throughout the United States talking with millennials of all backgrounds, ideals, upbringing, and political persuasions.

Check it out!

What is a ‘Millennial Activist’

Here’s how Alex Steed, the Millennial behind this project, describes it:

To put it simply, a millennial activist is someone who is:

a) an activist

b) a member of the millennial generation (Generation Y; those born between 1980 and 1992), defined by their digital connectivity

and thus:

c) integrates computer savvy into their service, civic participation, and activism.

Or in the words of someone who has been focusing on this topic for longer than I have, social entrepreneur and writer Allison Fine, “Young people, ages 15-29, who practice a nascent model of civic participation that combines immersion in social causes, idealism, digital fluency.”

A great example of a Millennial Activist is Alex Steed, who is developing and carrying out the MCA tour.  A freelance journalist and activist, he has worked with The Point, Change.org and even NetSquared.  Learn more about Alex here.

How to follow the MCA tour

Throughout October, November and December, Alex will be traveling around the country posting audio, video, observations of, and interviews with millennial activists.

With the content collected and created along the way, Millennials Changing America aims to:

  • Inspire young, budding global citizens with the stories, techniques, and testimonials of millennial activists far and wide.
  • Share with as large an audience as possible the empowering potential of interactive communication technologies.
  • Highlight new and existing ways that young people are using the Internet to come together both on and offline.
  • Shift reportage of activity within the millennial realm away from non-millennials.
  • Observe what Internet activism and civic participation looks like beyond the well-covered campaigns of Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Barack Obama.
  • Pump some constructive and positive stories into the info-sphere.
  • Dispel disproportionately reported stories about the dangers of Internet usage (without undermining efforts to ensure intelligent and cautionary usage).

Because the goal of the MCA tour is to ignite conversation and open dialogue, all of the media produced throughout the tour is posted and distributed in many different locations.  You can check out the MCA website and see an archive of all information, videos, and updates here.

Are you or do you know changemakers of the Millennial generation?  Let Alex know!

Net2ThinkTank: Key Questions about Social Media Training

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 21, 2008
in roundup
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

This month’s Net2ThinkTank Question was: What are the key questions nonprofit organizations should ask to help them determine how to prioritize social media training and experimentation as they do their technology and organization-strengthening planning?

Below is a roundup of your answers!

Beth Kanter reminds us to choose a social media strategy before selecting or committing to specific training. She also explains

If your technology plan will have long-term sustainability, you must include many strategies for technology professional development.

  • What is the best way to deliver this social media training so that we build our organizational capacity?
  • Does the delivery match our organization’s culture for learning?
  • Who will be hands-on?  Who needs the overview?
  • How will you take into account different learning styles for individuals and generational differences?
  • How will staff make the time to put what they’ve learned into practice?  Time to experiment?

Beth also includes some tips for social media training.  Read more…

Britt Bravo provides 9 great questions nonprofits can ask to help identify organizational goals, internal resources, level of interest, and measurement mechanisms.  Read more…

d1st4nc3 posted four key questions for nonprofits, including “What are the key factors that determine whether someone will become involved in our cause?  Do they vary according to the social networking site/group page/amount of advertising and promotion/etc.”  Read more…

Emily’s World provide three areas of questions: those nonprofits should ask before adopting social media tools, when putting social media into action, and when evaluating social media usage.  Read more…

Gregory Heller of the CivicActions blog focuses on the main questions nonprofits can ask to identify if social media tools are a good fit.  He reminds us: “It is important to remember that the social media landscape is continually evolving. When developing a social media strategy or deciding whether to train staff on the use of social media remember that the tools are different than the techniques.  Training should focus far more on the techniques of using social media, not the specific tools (websites and services) because they will always be changing.”  Read more…

lnorvig lays out a couple questions for nonprofits, the first of which asks to identify staff already using social media tools.  “Getting involved in social media as an organization should not feel like a chore. Let staff who already have a passion for this take the leadership in ways that work for them.”  Read more…

JYStewart emphasizes the importance of identifying staff members already using social media tools, as well as the inherent opportunity with social media to let your staff ‘play’ and engage in the game of it all.  Read more…

Nancy White brings up a great point to consider:

Why are you doing social media training? I rarely recommend that organizations do pure social media training, but instead weave it into preparation and execution of real work. If you are planning a social action, ask how social media can contribute and build the training into the campaign training. In isolation, this stuff takes up time and attention without the crucial element of context and purpose.

As to experimentation, this is a very different and important activity. Again, it can be woven into existing activities (15 minutes play with Twitter at a staff meeting) and/or it can be something a smaller group takes on. This “scanning the social media” landscape can be informal — the key is the communication of what is learned back to the other members of the team and the organization.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Net2ThinkTank! If you want to participate in the next round, stayed tuned to the Net2 blog for the next Net2ThinkTank question, or join the Facebook group.

What do you think?  Has your organization included social media in technology training?  What worked best?

Flickr photo: Siebuhr

Net2 & USAID: Development 2.0

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 16, 2008
in challenge and socialmedia
. 0 Comments

NetSquared is proud to announce the launch of the 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge. Brought to you by the Global Development Commons.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Government agency that delivers economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide on behalf of the American people, is sponsoring a challenge to find the best in mobile innovations for good.

The first place winner will receive a grant of $10,000, the two runner-ups will receive grants of $5,000 each. All three winners will have the opportunity to present their ideas to senior USAID officials, experts, and the public in Washington D.C.

Interested in finding out more?  View complete Challenge details at 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge.  Be sure to read the Rules and Guidelines.

Easy Steps to Participate:

  1. Register and/or Login
  2. Click on Username
  3. Click on “Submit a Project to the Project Gallery” under My Project Idea
  4. Select “USAID” from the Prize Tag menu located below Additional Cause Area Tags on the Submission Form

If you have questions, we are here for you!  Please contact us at usaidchallenge@techsoup.org.

Millennium Development Goals in Action!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 14, 2008
in socialmedia
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

WSYA logoThe World Summit Youth Award is a global contest to create inspirational online content promoting the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations to create a humane, just and liveable world.

“The World Summit Youth Award showcases you as young developers and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together on the efforts of reaching the Millennium Development Goals!”

Award Guidelines

The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is the global contest for online or mobile initiatives to raise awareness and help resolve the most pressing global issues.

If you rely on the web for creating culture, overcoming gender inequality, lack of education and access to clean water or to address hunger, poverty, disease and environmental degradation, then you should take part!

There are five categories for online content development, including:

  1. Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease!
  2. Education for All!
  3. Power 2 Women!
  4. Create your Culture!
  5. Go Green!

To be eligible for the contest, platforms/projects must be led by youth under the age of 30, be fully functional, and accessible online.

The reward in the WSYA contest is primarily global recognition through the UN, invitation to the winners event in Mexico, and networking contacts on a worldwide scale. The last WSYA contest was in 2005; you can read about the three winners on the WSYA site.

Award Timeline

Sept. 2008 - WSYA website relaunch, online application form open for submissions at
http://competition.youthaward.org/reg/reg.asp

Dec. 31, 2008 - Deadline for online submissions (midnight, GMT) at http://competition.youthaward.org/reg/reg.asp

Jan. 15, 2009 - First round of judging to select finalists

Feb. 15, 2009 - Second round of judging to select winners

March 1, 2009 - WSYA winners and finalists announced to the public and media

March –June, 2009 - Winners and finalists showcase projects and get honoured at the WSYA Winners Events and Gala

To learn more about the Youth Award, visit http://youthaward.org

Net2 ThinkTank time again!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 7, 2008
in blogging and community
. 0 Comments

It’s time again for the Net2 ThinkTank!  Here’s a question for everyone to think about, blog about, and discuss.  Thanks to Marie Deatherage for helping with it, too!

Topic:
What are the key questions nonprofit orgs should ask to help them determine how to prioritize social media training and experimentation as they do their technology and organization-strengthening planning?

Deadline:
Saturday, October 18th

How to contribute:

  1. Blog your answer to the question either on your blog or the NetSquared blog. (For directions on contributing to the NetSquared blog, click here)
  2. Tag your blog with net2thinktank
  3. Send me the link to your post! (You can leave a comment here, on the NetSquared site, email me, etc.)

Thank so much ahead of time!  I’m really looking forward to your answers and insights.  Be sure to send me the link to your post by next Saturday so that I can be sure it is included in the roundup on Monday, October 20th.

The Net2 ThinkTank roundup will be posted on the NetSquared site on Monday, October 20th

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!

2008 Digital Media and Learning Competition

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on September 23, 2008
in digital learning
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared site.

The second Digital Media and Learning Competition from HASTAC and the MacArthur Foundation is here!  This year, the competition focuses on participatory learning, including “the many ways that learners (of any age) use new technologies to participate in virtual communities where they share ideas, comment upon one another’s projects, and plan, design, advance, implement, or simply discuss their goals and ideas together.”

Awards range from $5,000 to $250,000 in the categories of Young Innovator Awards and Innovation in Participatory Learning Awards.  The deadline to apply is October 15th, so get your submission in now!

Innovation in Participatory Learning Awards

This category is intended for large-scale projects, most likely involving collaboration, of new learning environments, whether it be adaptations or entirely new products.  “Awarded projects must demonstrate a strong commitment to making possible new ways of valuable participatory learning, as opposed to simply creating new content.”

Organizations from outside the US are invited to participate in this category, including groups from Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Nigeria, The People’s Republic of China, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, or the United Kingdom.  But collaboration can include organizations/individuals from all places.

For more information, visit the Digital Media and Learning Competition site.

Young Innovator Awards

These awards target innovators between the ages of 18-25 to support smaller-scale, participatory learning projects.  “The aim of this category is to encourage young innovators to think boldly about “what comes next” in participatory learning and to contribute to making it happen. These awards are designed to support young innovators in bringing their most visionary ideas from the “garage” stage to implementation.”

Young Innovator awards consist of two components:

  1. Support for project development, including the awardee’s independent work on the proposed idea, and
  2. An internship with a sponsoring organization that would be beneficial to the awardee’s project. Internships can involve physical placement with a sponsoring organization or a mentoring relationship maintained by other means, including online communication.

For more information, visit the Digital Media and Learning Competition site.

Next Steps:

If you apply, be sure to let the NetSquared community know about your project and progress!  It is a great place to find collaborators!

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!

Building Community with NetSquared!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on September 18, 2008
in networking
. 4 Comments

Below is Britt Bravo’s post to the NetSquared community announcing my new post as the NetSquared Community Builder.  If you don’t already know Britt, you should!  Her blog and website are below - check them out!

Welcome New Net2 Community Builder Amy Sample Ward!

I’m thrilled to announce that Amy Sample Ward is the new NetSquared Community Builder! You can contact her at award@techsoup.org.

Many of you are familiar with Amy’s great work through her NetSquared Blog, her personal blog, Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech, and as the Organizer of the Portland, OR Net Tuesday. Amy recently moved to the UK, where she will be starting a Net Tuesday London.

Here’s a little more about the fabulous Amy:

Amy Sample Ward is dedicated to supporting and educating nonprofits and the progressive social change sector about evolving technologies that cultivate and engage communities. Her passion is in connecting nonprofits with new media technologies, watching the field of nptech evolve, and having conversations about where we can go next while still getting everyone on board with what we have already.

She has worked both in private philanthropy and advocacy nonprofit
organizations, with job responsibilities that include communications,
technology, information, organizational learning, and more—Amy has
felt firsthand the weight of too many hats on staff in small
nonprofits and is excited to help organizations leverage the social
web to make reaching goals and attaining visions more efficient.

After three years as NetSquared’s Community Builder, I’m thrilled to be passing the reins into Amy’s capable hands. I’ll be moving on to other projects, but will still be blogging once in a while for NetSquared. You can stay in touch in a number of ways:

britt@brittbravo.com
@Bbravo
Big Vision Consulting
Have Fun * Do Good
Big Vision Podcast
Changeblogger Network

Thanks for a life-changing 3 years!

I’m thrilled to be taking on this new role and excited for the learning opportunities, conversations, and connections I can both be a part of and help facilitate within the nptech community.  Let me know if you have any ideas, questions, requests or other comments!