NetSquared teaming up with Sun Microsystems to produce global Hack Days. Sao Paolo, Brazil was a success on October 1, stay tuned for an update. Next up, China!
NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
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Ms. Tenby Goes to DC to Testify About Nonprofits in Second Life
TechSoup's Senior Manager of Online Community Development, Susan Tenby, testified today before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. The hearing's topic was, “Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium." Tenby is the Founder of TechSoup's Nonprofit Commons, a virtual community for nonprofits in Second Life.
A Light on Money and Politics: MAPLight.org
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
MAPLight.org illuminates the connection between money and politics. We connect campaign contributions and votes for U.S. Congress, providing groundbreaking transparency so that bloggers, journalists, and citizens can hold legislators accountable.
Technology Vision:
Our site is built on the Drupal open-source content management system, with extensive custom coding. However, the programming to scrape state websites (mentioned in Needs section above) does not have to use Drupal.
We need to worry about Congress
The intersection of technology and capitalism is the primary reason that we will continue have to work uphill to protect open access and free speech no matter what technology we are talking about. Indeed, we must remain vigilant. It is not the companies who created a new set of policies (1996 Telecom Act) that threatens access and open source -- it is CONGRESS. And we have to fight first against the undue influence telecomm companies have over Congress through CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS. What do we have in response? PEOPLE POWER. So sure, we need though leaders, but we need to MOBILIZE PEOPLE POWER in defense of our consitutional rights in the "information age".
The National Nonprofit Congress: An Interview with Rick Cohen
Rick Cohen is the Membership and Communications Associate for the National Council of Nonprofit Associations (NCNA) and is in charge of web strategy for the Nonprofit Congress. The Congress is an effort to build a grass-roots directed and unified front for the non profit sector to gain strength on the national scale. It is a new two year initiative of NCNA and the DC Central Kitchen.
Rick and I discussed the aims of the Nonprofit Congress, open source software and where the organizing cultures of both intersect.
