Hi everyone,

As part of the global SAP Corporate Social Responsibility team, I am responsible for managing our worldwide Technology Donation program that provides free reporting and data visualizaton tools to over 900 non-profts each year in 15 countries. We have been partnering with TechSoup for quite a while now and am excited about the many possibilites to engage.

Okay, I'm back.

Thanks to you who are emailing me privately and commenting here on the blog.  Let's jump right in.  I got this message anonymously (this is part of a longer email)...

"I have a somewhat specific interest that I thought I'd pass along in the spirit of two-way media.  I am a young professional working at a membership-based environmental nonprofit.  My background is nontechnical...  I am trying to transition some...academic knowledge into job skills.

Hey All,

So I received a few responsest to my post last week about how can N2 engage the community better.  Most came privately to my email address, and it is a theme in those emails that I want to use as this next engagement email.   Here is what one person wrote to me (this is only a portion of a much longer email about a variety of topics):

Happy Holidays, N2 community!!

I've been hush-hush for a while because the team over here has been discussing a critical issue - what do we need to be doing in order to get you all engaged a whole lot more?  The N2 blog is not churning up the type of engagement we had hoped to see and we're scratching our heads wondering why.  We're providing content - perhaps its not what you want or need?  We're focusing that content on social media strategies - perhaps we're missing the mark?  Essentially - we're rethinking our strategy and we want you, the community, to guide us.

A day or two ago I wrote about social networking and the Development 2.0 challenge.  Actually, I had something bigger on my mind, but I needed to try a small bite first. The positive responses suggest that there's a hunger out there for something bigger.  Well, maybe this could fly with enough help...  

Whenever a new administration comes to Washington, a cottage industry springs up to produce briefing documents, sometimes called white papers, to advise the government on priorities.

Hi. I just submitted a proposal to the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge called "Social Networking to Improve Advice on Development Priorities to Incoming Administration".  USAID rightly champions the principles of good governance as fundamental conditions for successful development - principles of transparency, participation of stakeholders in decision making, and access to information, for example.  I want your help to turn the spotlight back on USAID and give it the chance to bask in some governance goodness.  I think that social networking tools could help heighten the dialogue on priorities for foreign assistance in the US.

Hey All,

I wanted to beef up the book review with a little historical perspective on the authors.  This way, you not only learn about the one fragment of their careers, but also why you can trust their information and opinions when it comes to the topic of online media, communications, et cetera.  I figured this component to the review would be valuable - I know I find it refreshing when I open the dust cover and find out the author has been working diligently in the field relevant to the book, rather than hunting squirrel or formulating a new pancake recipe for the past 15 years...

This post is based on a proposal I created for MAPLight.org in early April '08. The mockups are also dated to that time.

Firefox extensions have a huge, largely untapped potential for social change. By changing the way we interact with the web, a browser extension can highlight issues, expose relationships, and raise awareness as people browse the web. More specifically, a Firefox extension could help illuminate the connection between money and politics when and where that connection is often most needed -- when people search for and visit legislators' websites.

Patrick Byers, CEO and President of OutSsource Marketing talks to us about responsible marketing, passions, and what social benefit organizations are missing out on if they neglect social media.

Eric Odom talks to us about how the Sam Adams Alliance is using open source software to bring transparency to the corners of American democracy that often go overlooked.

 

Jed Sundwall: What is the stated mission of the Sam Adams Alliance?

 

Eric Odom: The Sam Adams Alliance has existed for a year and a half. It's a 501(c)3 that focuses and education and information and it also has 501(c)4 because of our work across the country with activists and leadership training.