At NetSquared 3, Thomas and Wendy of Green Map System got to know more about the OpenStreetMap project and parties from Mikel Maron & Andrew Turner. This is a kind of wikipedia for maps - a free editable map of the world, and anyone can add roads, bike paths and other geographic data to it. What a useful resource!   We thought, let's participate, parties like this could also become a good way to get people involved in our forthcoming Open Green Map, the social mapping website for sustainable communities (preview at http://OpenGreenMap.org).  So we are pleased to provide the venue for NYC's first open mapping party, hosted by OpenStreetMap's initiator, Steve Coast, at our global office this weekend! Steve says:

Next Tuesday and Wednesday, May 30th and 31st, not only will the face to face NetSquared conference be happening, but so will the Online Conference.

You can participate in the Online NetSquared Conference in Three Ways:

1. Participate in the NetSquared chatroom where speakers like Mike Linksvayer of Creative Commons, Scott Heiferman of Meetup.com, Robyn Deupree of Bloglines, Rolf Kleef  of Greenpeace and Micki Krimmel of Participant Productions will be sharing info. and answering questions.
http://www.netsquared.org/remote#chat

2. Chat it up in the Conference Hallway chat room. We're using Gabbly.com for both chats which is super easy and user-friendly.
http://www.netsquared.org/hallway

3. Post a question to be asked at a conference session, or write a blog post to start the conversation online.  Just peruse the conference sessions (link below) and click on a theme and session topic that interests you.  At the bottom of the session description you can add your question or blog post.
http://www.netsquared.org/conference/conference-sessions

Also, we will have folks recording the conference for you on our

blog: http://www.netsquared.org/blog

podcast: http://www.odeo.com/channel/41065/view

and vlog: http://www.netsquared.org/tags/vlog/

so you don't have to miss a moment!

For more information contact net2@techsoup.org

We're up to 109 case studies of how nonprofits and NGOs can use the social web for social change.  Check out some of the new ones.

Big thanks to the folks who took the time to write these up.

Malecare Prostate Cancer Support for Gay Men 

It is the only cancer community for gay men in the world. Being online helps men connect with other men in a supportive, dating neutral environment around life threatening and sexually diminishing cancer treatment.

Arts Engine

We 've done some moving around, adding and subtracting to the Participate section of the site and would love your feedback about what is and is not working.

What would be super helpful is if you could add your feedback either in the comment section of this post or as an email to me, bbravo AT techsoup.org, by filling in these blanks, as appropriate:

PARTICIPATE PAGES FEEDBACK

1. I LOVE this:
2. Uh, this is NOT working:
3. Here is the URL where the problem is so you can fix it:
4. My solution to the problem is:

Thanks for taking the time to review the site and we will try to incorporate your suggestions as much as possible.  We accept compliments too!

First, I want to say thanks to Paul Treadwell for posting the most recent nonprofit innovator profiles: the Food Museum Blog and the Circle of Life/Julia Butterfly Hill's blog.  Wahoo!

I have had so many folks send in great ideas for other organizations and projects to profile, and here at NetSquared we have some orgs we are interested in seeing up on NetSquared in Action too, so  I am including an expanded list from my "OK, 1,000 Case Studies" post of organizations and projects we'd love to have profiled for NetSquared in Action. 

Give 'em a click.  And if one (or more!) speaks to you, shoot me an email (so I can make note of who you're profiling and your efforts won't be duplicated) and write 'em up. It only takes 15-20 minutes.  Just register on the site, log in, go to the "Put Your Voice in the Mix" page, click on "submit your case study" and fill out the form.

Micah Sifry had an interesting post last week about how MoveOn has used Flickr to organize their members' photos of events and its added benefits:

"Apart from being able to save server space and involve volunteers, MoveOn’s engagement with Flickr has had some unexpected benefits that come precisely from using a platform that is designed to push power to the users." Kane recalls, “One of our campaigners wanted a slideshow of photos from a recent action and was able to put it together himself, just by selecting the tags he was interested in and using the Flickr slideshow app.” He adds, “It's also made finding pictures for the MoveOn homepage and other materials a snap -- MoveOn staff can easily browse photos by campaign or time period.”

Hey Net2 folks!

My name is Britt Bravo and I’m Net2’s Community Builder.  I’m the person putting together the Participate page on the site, http://www.netsquared.org/participate, and the one who can give you info. on all kinds of cool ways to get involved in NetSquared.

Have you check out the NetSquared in Action page lately? http://www.netsquared.org/casestudy  Well, if you haven’t, give it a browse ‘cause right now we have 37 case studies up profiling how nonprofits are using technology like wikis, podcasts, blogs and RSS feeds to create social change.