I voted today.

When evaluating projects, I considered the six net2 attributes and also tried to imagine how, if implemented, they would affect the lives of Africans - and in particular the struggles of African civil society organizations to serve the needs of their communities. The projects I chose seemed to me to offer the most revolutionary impact across Africa (and indeed across the world) in part because they make creative use of Web 2.0 to leverage their impact.

WOW! What a Difference a Week Makes! Where to start.... Since I began this blog and really launched my serious research into what WYSE needs to do to get our new web presence and WYSE Community Communication System (I just made that up...but I like it) in place, so much has fallen in my lap and I am energized and inspired. Day 1: I did an orientation with two new board interns who were recruited from RVLDP. http://www.lajcc.org/rvldp/index.html They are both women, although we tried to recruit men. These women are like walking/talking gifts to our organization. One of them has extensive web marketing and development experience and connections.

In late February, Cheerful Givers will plan a walk in five locations to raise donations for children. Cheerful Giver's mission is "To brighten and celebrate the lives of families in need by providing toy-filled birthday gift bags for children who are homeless or living in poverty."

 To learn more about this walk, please contact Dexterhaven Rucker in SL or Karen Kitchell at www.cheerfulgivers.org/contact.htm

Thanks for your support!

The Commons is a free wiki-based online newsmagazine about non-profits that serve the Silicon Valley, the people behind them, and the people that they help -- written, edited & produced by students and other volunteers in the valley.

Purpose

There are hundreds of organizations and thousands of people engaged in good work in the Valley. They feed our hungry, shelter our homeless, heal our sick, teach our children, protect our communities, give strength to the powerless, and hope to those who had lost all hope. Their stories are extraordinary, but often left untold. The principal mission of this project is to get their stories told.

Volunteer Management guru Nan Hawthorne recently started a Volunteer Resources Management Clearinghouse blog.  In a January 11th post she included a link to an article by Joan Perry from CharityChannel's Volunteer Management Review entitled, "Blogging.  A Primer for Volunteer Program Managers."