To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Have you accepted online technology as your organizational savior? – Small Act – “When your leadership has Shiny Object Syndrome, you’ll often come to work to find newspaper clippings on your desk or links in your email all about the Next Big Thing. There will be a note attached that says, “Let’s do this!” You’ll sigh inwardly, instantly thinking of a dozen reasons why it probably won’t work or why you lack the time and energy to give it the best shot possible (mainly because you’re probably still wrestling with the previous Shiny Object du jour), but you’ve fought and lost enough battles of this type to know that you might as well suck it up and do what they’re asking. The problem with Shiny Object Syndrome is that it operates on the assumption that because something is “popular” (like, say, Foursquare), then simply using it will guarantee success for your organization. This isn’t always the case. In fact, it rarely is.”
• 10 Non-Profits Leveraging Pinterest for Social Good – “There’s no question that Pinterest is the hottest social network right now. From your friends and family to celebrities, athletes and designers, everyone’s pinning visually interesting content. But did you know that non-profit organizations are pinning, too?” Have you tried Pinterest? Do you think it would be valuable for your organization or a waste of time?
• Forget Generation Y: 18- to 34-Year-Olds Are Now ‘Generation C’ – Interesting inforgraphic about the “Connected Generation” – what do you think? “It’s hardly news that young adults are the most digitally connected, but now Nielsen has come up with a new name for this group based on their common behaviors: “Generation C.” The C stands for “connected,” and the group comprises Americans between 18 and 34 — who are defined by their digital connectivity, Nielsen and NM Incite’s U.S. Digital Consumer Report says. They consume media, socialize and share experiences through devices more than other age groups.”
• Infographic: Do people still trust the news during election season? – Very interesting new infographic helping dissect data from a national poll examining whether or not Americans trust the media during political peaks. “The survey revealed the dramatic lack of trust Americans hold for sources of election news of all mediums. Of the six media types explored in the survey (cable news stations, network news, newspapers, talk radio, internet news sites, and blogs and social media), ‘traditional’ news outlets scored highest in terms of perceived credibility compared to newer and less traditional mediums…”
• Business competitiveness is defined by social innovation | Guardian Sustainable Business | guardian.co.uk – “There are few companies that can afford to not label themselves as green and something similar is happening to the word social. From corporate social responsibility to social business to social investment, previously limited to charitable activities and workers’ rights, social is on the march to becoming the new green. As with any label, ubiquity is as much a measure of success as a sign of abuse. And as with green we have to smarten up and learn to ask the right questions. For social impact some judge by good intention, while others measure by human development indicators or complicated calculations on social rates of return.”
• Spring of Code – “The OccupyLondon tech team is pleased to invite Occupiers and friends from the Open Source software community all around the world to participate in the biggest series of global Occupy code sprints yet, the Spring of Code.”

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Have you always wanted to be a 'climate insider'? | TckTckTck – The 350ppm movement is doing a lot of hard work in the lead up to the talks in Copenhagen this December. "Our latest feature is a global rapid response community we launched last month, called ClimateInsider. ClimateInsider is fast becoming the new media hub that will support a digital rapid response network leading up to and during Copenhagen climate change summit." Check it out and apply to be an Insider now!
• Facebook Charity Interview Questions – Earlier this year, John Carnell created a series called Twitter Charity Interviews that has over 40 interviews with nonprofits using Twitter talking about how, why, and what they do with the micro-blogging tool. Now, John is looking to replicate the process but focus on Facebook. If you want to share the ways your organizations is using Facebook to engage with supporters, visit this link to get the questions and the submission information.
• Give to the Max Day – GiveMN – giveMN.org created Give to the Max Day as a way to kick off use of the new giving platform. It was more of a success than they expected with huge numbers of participation and donations! You can see the full results here and check out the site, too.
• Strategy stuff – a three pronged approach – "Drawing together a few discussions I have been involved in recently about the different types of documents an organisation – such as a council – might need to put together to define its approach to engaging online, I thought it might be useful to set out how I think it could be done."
• New Start Magazine: The toolkit for practitioners in regeneration, economic development & sustainable communities – "New Start is the toolkit for regeneration practitioners. It's a creative and informative magazine, but it's more than that: it's an online news service, a recruitment aid, a partner for organisations wanting to spread learning and to showcase good practice, and the place that the sector's leading thinkers use to kick-start a debate on key issues."

Oakland Local is launching today!

About Oakland Local

Oakland Local is launching in partnership with 35 local nonprofit, neighborhood & community organizations: it combines postings of partner organizations’ news and information with blogging and with reported stories from a top quality news team.  The news team includes: Susan Mernit, Amy Gahran, Kamika Dunlap, Kwan Booth, Ryan Van Lenning and others.Oakland Local is also media partners and collaborators with Spot.us, Newsdesk.org, The Center for Investigative Reporting, New America Media, Endless Canvas, Youth Rising, Youth Radio and Youth Outlook as well. The site offers forums, a directory of 320 local nonprofits and a blog directory of 180 active local bloggers!

You can also connect with Oakland Local on twitter and facebook.

Getting Local

There’s a lot of very cool activity happening lately around local websites.  The social web has opened a lot of doors for communities and collaborations and changed the way many people view the definition of community—on the web, communities can form easily and quickly around ideas, interests, and anything else—as physical geography isn’t important.  Now that social media tools have reached a certain level of ubiquity for those online (we can’t forget that many people are still not even online at all), we see people and groups turning the tools back around to help connect those who ARE geographically close.

The latest work we’ve been doing with the Social by Social concept (using social tech for social good) is to help apply the ideas and lessons we originally wrote about for nonprofit organizations to also be applicable to the work of local governments and communities (moving from connecting communities of interest to communities of locality).  It is fun and interesting work and I’ll probably be blogging more and more about it soon.

I’ll be watching Oakland Local to see how it evolves and grows and how the community reacts and uses it.

What do you think?

Have you used a local website before or started a local community network online?  What would you want to see included on a community website for your area?

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

• 2008 Tech Awards Laureates Announced
  Applied Materials and The Tech Museum and Innovation have announced the 2008 Tech Awards Laureates! The 25 winners come from around the world, representing 12 countries, with projects applying technology for social change.  READ MORE!
• SF Halloween Festival needs a website, now!
  The San Francisco Halloween Festival committee has enjoyed an organic community growth around the planning process for the city’s October 31st celebration, but now needs help making a website. Following the closure of Castro Street last year for the annual celebration, the SF Halloween Festival committee plans to bring together all ages, all cultures, and people from SF and around the world in both free and ticketed activities and celebrations all afternoon and evening in Lot A, next to SF Giants AT&T Ballpark, and Terry Francois Boulevard.  READ MORE!
• Intel Asks for Technology Solutions for Global Issues
  Intel’s INSPIRE•EMPOWER Challenge is looking for ideas from individuals, developers, organizations, and the public at large for using technology to address a global issue in the areas of education, health care, economic development, and the environment. Winners will get $100,000 USD to get their idea off the ground!  READ MORE!
• More opportunities added to Social Actions
  NABUUR is an online community that connects individuals with communities in developing countries, and together they formulate plans and projects to address local issues and sharing the solution-making. The connection and process is less about giving money, and more about sharing ideas, knowledge, skills, and connections. And now you can hear about opportunities to get involved through Social Actions! READ MORE!
• NetSquared – Collaborate for Change: Sao Paolo, Brazil and Beyond!
  NetSquared is teaming up with Sun Microsystems to create community hack days in conjunction with a series of recruiting events that Sun hosts called “Tech Days.” Collaborate for Change Registration. READ MORE!

• View the 2007 Winners, including FollowTheMoney.org and Sustainable South Bronx
• Learn more about the Innovation Awards
• Learn more about the Young Innovator Awards (18-25)

Applications are closed at October 15.  Check out the Guidelines, and submit your project!