More than 1.6 million Americans have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of August 1, 2007, 67,000 of them had been killed or wounded. In addition, more than 250,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans had been treated at Veterans Administrations hospitals since their return home from combat.

KPFA launched this website in an effort to put a human face on the conflict. Only by truly listening to the stories of soldiers who've come home, can we appreciate the realities of war and what we can do to help.

Assistive technology (AT) can be a lifeline for students with disabilities. As more students with learning differences, physical impairments, and cognitive and emotional disorders are educated in general education classrooms, teachers are challenged to meet the needs of those students. Kids with disabilities do better in school when they have access to the right technology supports.

ATSTAR brings AT expertise directly into the classroom. Using a series of online training modules, an online community of AT experts to mentor teachers, and fully accessible captioned video case studies to guide teachers through the process of AT assessment and implementation, ATSTAR pilots have demonstrated that teachers gain expertise and kids benefit.

A teacher in a rural Montana school house, teaching grades K-8 in one classroom, used the ATSTAR program to find a technology solution for a second grader with cerebral palsy. The student is bright and because of mobility and speech impairments needs alternative input and output devices for communication of lessons. The ATSTAR method guided the teacher and parents to the right solution so that the student has the support she needs to succeed in school.

Recent technology improvements have made the ATSTAR program ready for national dissemination. Contact Kathy carmain for more information: kathy at knowbility dot org .

ImaNote - (Image and Map Annotation Notebook) is a multi-user tool for viewing, zooming, and annotating arbitrary-sized images using a web browser. Multiple users can display a high-resolution image or a collection of images online, being able to almost instantly see and edit each other's modifications.

Palo Alto Partners in Education (PAPIE) is a primarily board-driven organization with only 2 staff and a budget around $2+ million. We raise private funds to supplement public funds for all the public schools in our school district.

Challenge:

We needed a tool to ensure communication and collaboration amongst the board members, staff and volunteers. We also wanted to keep a history of documents, activities, decisions, etc. to ensure continuity due to volunteer turnover year-to-year. The tool had to be easy to use and very accessible. It had to be flexibly private, meaning that it needed to allow proper permissions for each person - ensuring that only the proper person(s) could see or do what was appropriate. It needed to combine a website and email communications to reduce duplication of effort.

Solution:

www.nexo.com

Nexo allows us to create a free group for PAPIE. We have a highly customized, private website that any authorized person can add to, change, or read. We also get an email group integrated with the website so that updates, alerts, news, etc. are easy to distribute (even automatic if desired) to the group. We also can have live chats on the site if desired. We have multiple pages and multiple sub-groups (board, marketing committee, development committee, etc). The site essentially defines our own social network.

The website allows us to share blogs, files, pictures, videos, calendars, events, to do lists, budgets, plans, press releases, contact information, RSS feeds, etc.

Impact:

Not only has nexo improved communication, collaboration and participation, but a by-product is that we have a back-up for our most important files such as board minutes, budgets, etc. These used to just be stored on one computer which is scary for many reasons. The site also makes is much easier to transfer knowledge from year to year since new  leaders/volunteers have the roadmap from the year before.

FreePledge is a young for-profit social venture that aims to help nonprofits tap into the Internet and technologies.
FreePledge has leveraged the power of growing e-commerce market to empower nonprofit organizations.

Users go through FreePledge for their online shopping, they pay exactly the same price as they would otherwise and a percentage of their purchases is donated to the nonprofit of their choice at no cost to them (or to the nonprofit).

Partnered online stores include Amazon, Ebay, Orbitz, shop.com, Target, BestBuy, Apple and many more.

The Cedar Cultural Center is a nonprofit music venue in Minneapolis, MN. August 23, 2006 The Cedar launched a new web site. The site was built in collaboration with Cruiskeen Consulting LLC

The new site has many features. It is very rich in audio and video material, and features information about upcoming performances.

One of the most exciting upcoming events at The Cedar is the annual Nordic Roots Festival, which features music from the Nordic countries. 

More information about The Cedar: 

 

The Cedar (also known as the Cedar Cultural Center) is a highly eclectic music venue located in the vibrant West Bank district of Minneapolis. Renowned for hosting some of the best acts in folk, blues, jazz, indie rock and world music in an intimate space, the Cedar is a 501(c)3 non-profit, largely volunteer-driven organization and welcomes your support!

Mission

The Cedar's mission is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach.

History

The Cedar is located in the historic Cedar Theater building, which opened in 1948 and operated as a movie theater until the 1970’s before falling into disuse. The Cedar Cultural Center was established in 1989 when local real estate magnate Keith Heller donated the theater to a non-profit started by Deb Martin and Mary Ann Dotsen, Minnesota STAR (Society for Traditional Arts and Resources). Their mission was “to support the preservation of cultural diversity by promoting and presenting traditional music and dance of many cultures.” Bill Kubeczko has been the artistic and executive director since 1993, and with the help of a small, dedicated staff and a legion of energetic volunteers, the Cedar has been presenting 150 or more high-quality shows every year since.

 

www.nabuur.com is a new concept in people-to-people global citizenship. The world is a global village and Nabuur facilitates contact among the neighbours.Nabuur builds virtual neighbourhoods around local communities in developing countries, to assist the latter to deal with their problems in their own terms. It links people in third world communities with their Neighbours on the internet. The locals say what they need, the virtual village helps them to find their future.

The characteristic features of NABUUR.COM are:

• Person to person contact, no bureaucracy between the local community and persons who assist
• The local community is in the lead. It is not thematic; they determine what needs to be done.
• It is not about giving money but about jointly working towards solutions
• It is transparent; the progress is visible to all
• Everyone can contribute, not just experts. What is needed is time, contacts, know-how, tools, manpower

After careful preparation NABUUR.COM is ready to expand. The basic tools, procedures and systems are in place. 75 local communities now take part. 200 local communities will be served by the end of 2006, 1000 by the end of 2007, many more after that.

Background.

There is no shortage of resources to assist Local Communities in their daily struggle. But, as William J. Clinton says, we do not have the systems to respond in a comprehensive way. Ngo’s, corporations and governments are all hierarchies and can therefore only deal with a limited number of projects. What is needed is something complementary, that can tap into the huge reservoir of resources in a self organizing way.

NABUUR.COM tries to create part of that structure, by combining the self organizing and time tested principle of neighbourship with the factor that makes the resources worldwide accessible, the Internet.

NABUUR.COM is a lab for democratized development assistance. It mobilizes world citizens. Not an amorphous anonymous mass, but as a collective of capable committed individuals ready for concrete individual tasks and responsibilities.

Nabuur is an old Dutch word for neighbour. Neighbours usually are not experts, funders or friends. But they do help each other in times of need by tapping into the resources out there. They organize themselves until the problem has been dealt with. That’s how it had worked for ages in a real communities, that’s how it can now work via the Internet. Today world citizens ARE neighbours in the Global Village .

The massive popularity of wireless networking has caused equipment costs to continually plummet, while equipment capabilities continue to increase. By applying this technology in areas that are badly in need of critical communications infrastructure, more people can be brought online than ever before, in less time, for very little cost. The authors hope to not only convince you that this is possible, but also show how they have made such networks work, and to give you the information and tools you need to start a network project in your local community.

 

The material is available as a freely downloadable PDF, a paperback bound book available for purchase, and on the collaborative wiki.  Contributions via the wiki are encouraged.