Since I'm here, and I have at least as many questions as you must have, I cornered Marnie Webb and Billy Bicket and browbeat them into a mini-interview I could share with you here.

CompuMentor has been around for 18 years now, assisting a community of non-profits that has grown to over 60,000 organizations. Marnie is VP of knowledge services, and has been with CompuMentor for five years. I asked her to say a few words about the project.

Chris Locke: So Marnie, what's your vision for Net²?

Marnie Webb: Why are we doing this? I want the nonprofit sector to be considered as important as business. When the Vice President of the United States calls a meeting about energy, or a congressional commission meets to discuss the education system in this country, or a local county is working to improve its recycling, I want them to call nonprofits to the table along with businesses. And not just because they're being nice. But because nonprofits, and the engaged constituency they represent, are as important as dollars.

I believe that the net-based tools we'll be showcasing on N² -- and the opportunities for ownership and engagement they provide -- can get us there.

CL: Billy, you're relatively new blood here. I know you were previously at MeetUp. Did that work prepare you for what you're now doing at CompuMentor? Did it help form your decision to work in the nonprofit end of things?

Billy Bicket: Yeah, it was highly relevant. I spent a lot of time in DC working for Meetup during the 2002 campaign and witnessed how a small group of people in Vermont shook things up. The Dean team lost in the end, but it raised enough money to gain the attention of the NY Times and the rest of America, while engaging a large base of voters who had never before donated a cent to a political campaign. The experience was incredible. I made the switch to the nonprofit sector to help progressive organizations use technology to engage and mobilize people.

One example of really smart collaborative use of technology is Wikipedia. Lot's of other similarly promising tools are popping up online, and Net² wants to help nonprofits take best advantage of them. A couple examples of progressive organizations already using such new technologies are Global Voices Online and Worldchanging.

CL: Marnie, this one's for you, following on what you said before. You want nonprofits invited into business venues. Will businesses be invited into Net²?

MW: This is where I brag a bit on the organization for which I work. We have 24 corporate partners represented on TechSoup Stock. We have a history of not just partnering with businesses but creating programs that leverage those corporate partnerships for the sake of the nonprofit sector. And we get that by connecting the mission of the organizations we serve with the concerns of the people who work at a variety of businesses.

We plan to continue that connection with Net². We want to build a platform that connects people to issues, tool makers to needs, ideas to implementers. How can we not have the engineers, the marketers, the HR staff be a part of that?

CL: Billy, how do you see N² connecting technical talent with NPOs in such a way that nonprofits can better meet their goals?

BB: The tech community's hacking of open APIs* for social change organizations will help nonprofits re-imagine their assets the way public companies like Amazon and Ebay are doing.

*Application Program Interfaces: see, for example, Google and Amazon.

CL: Marnie, you've spoken to the intersection of business and the non-profit sector. Why do you expect technical talent to plug in and help here? What's the attraction? What's in it for them?

MW: Look at KatrinaList.net, a part of the Katrina PeopleFinder project. Really. Click and take a look, then come back.

Okay, that's an example of people coming together around an issue. I'm coming back to the same answer -- people are going to connect to issues. We're creating a platform to help these connections to happen. To help people hook into existing efforts -- like Aspiration's Penguin Days.

What's in it for the technical folks? An opportunity to be more than a wallet. To use their talent to move the issues they care about.

CL: Billy, there's a lot of enthusiasm about these new sorts of open tools that are emerging bottom-up on the web. People are having a lot of fun figuring out innovative ways of using them to solve all kinds of interesting problems. Do you think NPOs are going to be challenged by the notion that meeting social goals can be combined with actually having fun?

BB: Yes, definitely, this sort of work can be fun!

MW: Billy's right. Fun is possible. But there's an intervening step. Fun is an indicator of confidence. And nonprofits need to have confidence that they are bringing something valuable to this particular party. Really believe it. That's what is going to allow them to have fun. And to take risks.

CL: I know there's a lot more to say about all this and myriad related issues. We've barely scratched the surface here. But that's the advantage of a blog. There's always a chance to expand and explore further. For now, I think I better post this so we don't look as if we crashed and burned on takeoff.

More soon, stay tuned...