Lightstalkers is a networking tool designed for mobile journalists, especially photographers. Media professionals constantly on the move, wrestling with gear, visas, and communication, depend on each other for up-to-date intelligence and resources. By connecting them directly with each other, Lightstalkers and November Eleven support independent photography, journalism, and humanitarian awareness.

www.lightstalkers.org

www.novembereleven.org

The Civic Footprint is a website dedicated to helping residents of Cook County, Illinois determine the political and civic geographies associated with where they live. These geographies include:
• Wards
• Police Districts
• Community Areas
• Judicial Subcircuits
• County Districts
• State Representative Districts
• State Senate Districts
• Congressional Districts

A user just types in his/her address and a form returns to him/her their unique “Footprint.� The tool is designed to help residents get more engaged in their community and to better understand the different jurisdictions in which they might get involved. Healthy, sustainable communities, after all, are dependent upon active citizens who help make democratic institutions work.

The Civic Footprint civic participation tool is a project of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (www.cnt.org).

This wiki was used to plan and dynamically record the agenda and event proceedings for the Africa Source 2 Conference that took place in Uganda, Africa from January 8-15, 2006. Africa Source II was an eight day hands-on workshop aimed at building the technical skills of those working with NGOs in Africa. The wiki also contains feedback from participants, reports of the event, blog entries and more. The group also kept a blog and used tags on the wiki.

Never Again, an international youth network, was founded at the Institute for International Mediation and conflict Resolution’s 2001 Symposium at The Hague by a group of students and young graduates from around the world who created a collaborative international partnership. Never Again aims to alert the international community to both the causes and effects of genocide and facilitate the exchange of ideas between young people - those who have lived through genocide and those who wish to learn from them. Never Again aims to provoke ideas and action for the prevention of future conflict by bringing people together to cross borders. For more information, see also our recent Never Again Net2 interview.

"Connect for Kids makes the best use of communications technologies, specifically the Internet, to give adults—parents, grandparents, guardians, educators, advocates, policymakers, elected officials and  others—the tools and information they need to improve the lives of children, youth and families."

Under The CFK Umbrella, the blog for Connect for Kids, provides a space for staff and guests to share their views on news and events that effect children and teens.  Visitors to the blog can join in on the conversation by adding a new comment to each posting.

Providing Internet access, website hostng, media development and training for partnering organizations and communities effected by the Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

Coming Soon:

New Orleans Voices For Peace Mobile Media Lab

* Our goal is to assemble a Web 2.0 mutual empowerment mobile media labs which will provide technological access in the name of solidarity.

MISSION:
*With an understanding of culture, class and racial divides we strive to engage in mutual empowerment of residents, activists and grassroots organizations in the Gulf Coast region who have been left without a voice in the digital age. In short, to give voice to the voiceless.

*In order to create fusion in ideas and put those ideas to action the Mobile Media Lab will provide a common ground where organizations working from all over the spectrum can unite in order to bridge the disconnect often found between local organizations and our natural allies working on a national level.

*We will do this by providing free internet access and conducting multimedia training(s) in a mobile media lab where Gulf Coast residents and area organizations can create testimony to their continuous struggles and document progress made since the disaster. To properly address the clear connections between the disaster in New Orleans as a microcosm of the injustices created by Western Society, we will provide technological assistance and education to aid in the assembly of folk stories related to the tragedy of New Orleans. This project can be conducted both locally and throughout the diaspora.

PROJECT:
*Create a mobile news team to document events in NOLA, and around the country (demonstrations, disaster relief, educational tours, etc.). In addition, we will promote training with partnering organizations in media production.

*Provide an open source web portal to both socialize and focus the information of all participants. This will be conducted through the following hosts: http://www.neworleansvfp.org, http://neworleansnetwork.org http://www.commongroundrelief.org, http://www.ivawdeployed.org, and others.

*Create a mobile computer literacy lab to remove the technological hurdles to equal media access (including printing, fax, internet skills, social networking, & access/management of information that has been recorded).

POSSIBLE COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS:
*9th ward history project -mapping the history of the residents in the 9th Ward, documenting their survival, rescue, relocation and recovery through collaboration with residents, volunteers, universities, faith-based groups, and grassroots organizations.

PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS:
United Peace Relief (http://www.unitedpeacerelief.org)
Common Ground Relief (http://www.commongroundrelief.org)
New Orleans Voices For Peace (http://www.neworleansvfp.org)

PASSED INTERNET ACCESS AND MOBILE MEDIA LAB PROJECTS:
Veterans For Peace, chapter 116, Internet access, IMPEACHMENT BUS
CAMP CASEY I, Internet access, Crawford, TX
Camp Covington, Internet access, Covington, LA
Common Ground Relief, Internet Access, New Orleans, LA
Emergency Communities, Internet access, Buras, LA
Four Directions Solidarity Network, Internet access, Dulac, LA
Camp Liberty, Internet Access, Slidell, LA

PROGRAM NEEDS:
*media equipment - imacs, audio/video equipment, satellite Internet, digital video and still cameras, digital videon projector, PA system.

TRANSPORTATION NEEDS:
*Bus - Retired school buses or entertainer tour buses.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Mobile Media Lab will generate operating capital and travel budgets through grants, contracting of production services, retail sales of concessions, tickets and soliciting donations.

More information (http://www.neworleansvfp.org/node/2269)

Contact: gordonsoderberg@mac.com
504 613-0174

This case study describes a unique mapping project now being undertaken by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, an umbrella group for New York's more than 1,100 charitable soup kitchens and food pantries.

Most social service agencies exist in a culture of scarcity, unable to invest resources in anything beyond coping with immediate needs. This project, the first of its kind in the nation, demonstrates a complementary use of ArcGIS, ArcWeb Services, and the Google Maps API allowing such agencies to utilize online mapping systems in order to network, recruit volunteers, and see themselves as part of a larger movement.

Simultaneously, these maps serve as both a public disclosure of need and a gap analysis, encouraging targeted charity and volunteerism while sparking the political will to confront the size and complexity of the hunger problem.

Currently, this project is in the beginning stages - users may look up emergency feeding programs by zipcode, or see a map of the entire city. In the near future, static GIS maps highlighting specific neighborhoods and themes will be created, and layers consisting of various food access streams (farmers' markets, CSAs, community gardens) will be incorporated into the interactive mapping system.