The event is called The Big Blue Test because the blue circle is the international symbol for diabetes. The idea of a shared "blood sugar test-in" started with an activity organized in July 2009 by TuDiabetes. More than a thousand people participated then. Now, we seek to reach thousands of people with diabetes through seven other diabetes social networks and Twitter. The activity incorporates 14 minutes of physical activity to reinforce the importance of exercise.

People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar routinely. It can be a very lonely activity. So we want people to take The Big Blue Test, to shed light on this chronic condition and the importance of exercise on World Diabetes Day.

It’s election fever in British Columbia right now.   Interesting to see how the three major parties are handling their web presence…see how the 3 major parties stack up. Read more

Warsaw, Poland - Have you ever experienced that dreamy, hungry look on the face of non-profit staff when you say: “I have experience in fundraising”? No matter whom you speak to, be it directors or campaigners, the chances are good that you’ll grab their attention. Better yet, if you offer to help their fundraising efforts as a volunteer, they will veer between the wish to hug you and the attempt not to seem too enthusiastic. But once you go into detail, talking about fundraising strategies, possible financial sources and so forth, this lovely atmosphere might be replaced by misunderstanding. Are European non-profits stuck in the Dark Ages of online fundraising?

I have recently been learning another language and when I explained what I do, the need for the word 'volunteer' came up fast. 'What's the word for someone who works without pay?' I asked.

'A slave.' said my teacher.

Ah, yes. You know non-profit slaves! People with smarts and ethics and education who you stuck photocopying pages for an hour. Or markering a poster. Those slaves, the ones that don't come back after your first slave meeting.

I will give you some actual nuts and bolts, but let me first say this: all good online fundraisers have two basic directions they work in - in and out. ‘In’ is a webpage, where people visit you. ‘Out’ is as in reaching out, through emails, smsing, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook etc etc etc. You are aiming for flow between the two directions. Because - just like all really successful fundraising - this is not so much about asking a bunch of people for money. Actually, it’s about a personal exchange - exactly what the internet was made for. Hold that thought, here come the nuts and bolts…

(to read the rest of this post, click here!)

Inspired by Allison Fine's report for the Case Foundation, "Social Citizens," this month's Net2ThinkTank question was, "Is Online Activism Good for Social Change?"

Ivan Boothe of thequixoticlife says that online activism is good for social change, but the bigger question is:

Net Tuesday SF Vlogger, Ross Chapman, posted videos of the presentations from our February and May Net Tuesdays on NetSquared's Blip.tv Channel:

Building Nonprofit Online Community with MyBlogLog, Yahoo! Groups and Upcoming
How Nonprofits & Educators Can Use Wikis

Check 'em out and help us thank Ross for volunteering his time by giving his web site a click.

Last night at the Online Community Roundtable, hosted by Webex in Santa Clara, a fascinating discussion emerged: “What does it take to activate participants in an online community?”.

It was agreed that community managers need to tune in to the most important motivators of their individual members/participants/prospectives. To paraphrase the consensus “Every community participant asks themselves 'What's in it for me?' before they contribute to content or help to solve a problem”. Various sorts of psychic rewards systems using ratings, reviews, privileges, prizes, recognition, and other kinds of incentives were reviewed in-brief.

Here's some info about the Global JAM on Online Communities for Social Innovation from Nancy's White Full Circle Interaction Blog:

If you are interested in social change and innovation, I encourage you to participate in this (FREE) event coming up next week. The "price of admission" is filling out a survey by the 15th, so jump on this now! Here are all the details...

July 18-19 Global JAM on Online Communities for Social Innovation

You are invited to the first Global JAM on Online Communities for Social Innovation, July 18-19 . A JAM is an online discussion that is time limited, asynchronous, moderated, and subsequently analyzed.

The goal of this event is to collectively identify technology requirements for effective online communities to better support those working in social change and innovation. The intention is to share what we learn quickly and broadly.

Read the rest of the post.

Map of Online Community by D'Arcy Norman

1. Participate in the Remote Conference:

Tuesday, May 29, 4-5 pm PDT
How can online tools help organizations achieve their health-related goals?
With Guest Expert: Enoch Choi of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/health

Wednesday, May 30, 9-10 am PDT
How can online tools can help organizations achieve their environment-related goals?
With Guest Expert: Dawn Danby of WorldChanging
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/environment

2. Join the Back Channel Chat

Check http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo/n2y2-non-irc-irc-backchannel for updates on the backchannel chat locations. There have been some complications with IRC for those at the conference.

Go to http://netsquared.org/pjirc or log into the back-channel via IRC, on
irc.freenode.net | #NSRemote