I just sent a memo to Change.gov. Hopefully the Obama administration will use web tools to keep a dialogue open with the public and keep the administration more transparent.

Just fetched this from Technology Reports. Obama's leadership on tech continues. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Fed once he's in office.

Change (Dot Gov) Is Here
President-elect Obama's transition website launches.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
By David Talbot

I've been bookmarking articles for some time about the Obama campaign's use of technology. This is the URL to my list on delicious. http://delicious.com/david.cancer/politics

What strikes me is that success came from using a robust online infrastructure, a whole bunch of technologies, and good old-fashioned engagement both online and face-to-face. They trusted that the technology would enhance the campaign and made a total commitment to it.

I think nonprofits big and small are going to need to stop hesitating and commit to doing as much as they can with the resources they have. There are platforms designed specifically to make setup cheap and easy. Recruiting "digital natives" to help might be a way to start.

The Obama campaign harnessed to talent and enthusiasm of many internet techies to put together an internet infrastructure and strategies to win. Here's a video interview by Technology Review with one of the head technologists with scoop about how Obama's get-out-the-vote worked and what might happen in the future.

I think it might be possible that nonprofits will benefit from this burst of tech development for their own operations in the near future.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1460879066/bctid1902591156

Britt Bravo was the NetSquared blog director and coordinator for the Net Tuesday meetings in San Francisco until recently. She moved on to other projects, but the other day I caught up with her in Oakland and talked to her about her recent presentation at the Graigslist Nonprofit Bootcamp about "Internet Strategy on the Cheap."

http://www.vimeo.com/2122824

Frozen Pea Friday is a demonstration of how Twitter can be used by nonprofits. People on Twitter change their avatar each Friday to be something about peas ("peavatars") to draw attention to the Frozen Pea Fund, a fundraiser for breast cancer research inspired by the cancer experience of Susan Reynolds. The Frozen Pea Fund clicks through to the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer donation site.

For more about how this came about check:

Frozen Pea Fiday, Twitter, and the American Cancer Society

and

I just want to bring to everyone's attention the article in today's Washington Post about Steve Cases' new online giving experiment, America's Giving Challenge. They're evidently launching a similar project on Facebook and getting big play in Parade Magazine this coming weekend.

Excerpts:

I just want to say thanks again to the CumpuMentor people who made the NetSquared Conference a big success. Thanks to my special buddies: Marnie, Britt, Laura, Gina, Michelle, Billy, and, uh...everybody else. Something good with great potential was started there, and I'm confident you'll keep in moving forward.

 And thanks to the sponsors.  Cisco, HP, the American Cancer Society (heh, heh) and the rest.

So now I'm having a table topic about Skypecasting. It's led
by an "expert" who's done four Skypecasts. That qualifies him as an
expert. Skypecasting has only been around a couple of months.

So what is a Skypecast? Skype is a voice over internet protocol (VoIP)
service.  It enables you to make voice calls over your broadband hookup.
Make those computer-to-computer calls for free. That's pretty standard for VoIP
services, but Skype is now beta-testing a service to enable you to hold
conversations with up to 100 people anywhere in Skype's worldwide network--also
for free--for now.  So it's a lot like a broadcast.

Things I learned: No way to restrict it at this time. It's open to the
world.  Skypecasts are listed in an open directory. But you can mute or
eject callers you don't want in. (Seems kind of rude.) So if you want to
convene your group you can email to the people you wanted. You could mute or
eject other people. Has used it to put together a group to talk about higher
education on Fridays with a specific set of friends. subject. But another idea
discussed at the table is to put the conference public address directly into a
laptop and then out to Skypecast. For nothing you could have another 100 people
in on the event.

When you see this emerging technology your wheels begin to turn about
possible uses. But this is definitely early-adopter technology. Lots of issues
to deal with. But in a couple of years...

Tools for moving a message are evolving a huge pace. The limited access of the past is giving way to participation. Different expectations happening with communication and with advocacy base, according to Micah Sifry. The base of advocates is expecting more transparency and participation about where things go. So the topic is about how to amplify messages by involving more people with traditional media strategies. The recommendation is that a solid communication strategy should involve about any medium you can think of.