NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org - news

Vancouver Green Web and Mobile Companies Merge - Press Release

DaveO — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:15:21 -0500

Cross-posted at:
happyfrog Evolves from Small Amphibian to Mighty Mammal - Say hello to 3rd Whale

A busy year in the pond

Since launching happyfrog.ca just over a year ago, the small band of eco-minded renegades worked hard to help sustainability-focused businesses and organizations gain valuable exposure on the web, and in close conjunction with this effort, help green-minded consumers find these great biz'es and orgs. Over this year, my colleagues and I attended all sorts of trade shows, conferences, meet-ups, presentations and camps to spread the message of sharing eco-smarts with your community. Indeed, we found great joy in seeing the positive impact we've made on green entrepreneurs and shoppers alike.

Evolution to a swimming mammal

Now, change is upon us. happyfrog has made friends with a pod of whales and announces happyfrog.ca has merged with 3rd Whale. This business merger means happyfrog.ca as we all know it will change significantly. Think of it as an evolution from a small amphibian to a giant mammal (and Darwin celebrates!).

The company will go forward as 3rd Whale with the aim of combining the happyfrog directory and social networking platform with 3rd Whale's mobile application (to be released for iPhone on in November, followed by Android and Blackberry versions) to markets down the West coast of North America, and to the world (and beyond! ;-).

Big Thanks

Good Housekeeping and Good News to Come!

amysampleward — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:53:28 -0400

A quick update from the NetSquared team!

There's been a lot of hard work taking place behind the scenes at NetSquared on a shiny new project submission form! You'll be able to view and use this new form soon - sometime in early October. So, if you were looking to submit a project, you just need to a wait a little longer and we'll be set!

Great news for everyone - Thanks!

Follow the Net2 Mashup Challenge Featured Projects' Development Online

Britt Bravo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:44 -0400

It's been a little over 2 months since the NetSquared Conference (N2Y3) where the 21 NetSquared Mashup Challenge Featured Projects presented their ideas. The Conference may have ended, but their work has not.

I've created a list below of the 21 Projects' web sites, blog feeds, Twitter feeds, news feeds and Facebook groups so that you can follow their work as it progresses. (Note: Many of the proejcts also have e-newletters or mailing lists that you can join through their sites). If I've missed any feeds or sites, please let me know in the comments and I'll add them to the list.

If you are interested in helping a project out, you can contact them directly, or contact Billy Bicket at bbicket AT compumentor DOT org about joining the NetSquared Innovator Support Network.

A Mashup of 29+ Social Action Platforms -- Social Actions
* Third Place Winner

Project site: http://mashup.socialactions.com/
Supporting org site: http://www.socialactions.com
Blog: http://blog.socialactions.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/socialactions
Social Actions on Facebook

Getting started...

Bryan H. — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:05:39 -0400

A little about Capitol News Connection:

Newspaper Coverage of Metro Mapper (and Your Mapper)

metromapper — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:12:47 -0400

Louisville's newspaper, the Courier-Journal, wrote their first full article about Metro Mapper on the front page of the Business section. It's a great distillation of about three hours of interview with the reporter, Bill Wolfe.

Courier-Journal Article

So far it's generated a lot of interest and traffic for the site, the Your Mapper project, and lots of interest in the NetSquared conference and N2Y3 contest.

Bija's Sustainability News

clementine — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:42:45 -0400

Hi everyone,

Latest news headlines from around the world demonstrating the need for Project Bija in America and around the world.

United States: American Institute of Architects chose community for design sustainability project

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080324/NEWS/803240310/1033/NEWS&template=kart

Sri Lanka - Provincial leader states: "Resources must be utilised in a proper way to achieve sustainable development."

Change Broadcasting Channels

vineet — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:01:11 -0400

I have submitted a project called Change Broadcast channels.

It brings advanced technologies and tools from Twitter, Daylife and Flurry together to create communities that would bring social change to the world.

Try out the Drupal Newsroom Module Beta Release

reifman — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:48:22 -0500

Today, I'm excited to announce the Drupal Newsroom Module beta powered by NewsCloud. The Drupal Newsroom provides an excellent way to add dynamic current events and news to your Drupal-powered Web site. It's also a great way to stimulate involvement and discussion in your online member community.

The Drupal Newsroom module provides a page for your Drupal-powered Web site with news stories based on specific topic(s) from NewsCloud.com or populated by your staff or site members. The newsroom module allows your members to browse headlines, read stories, vote, comment and post new articles.

Aid Workers Network

Britt Bravo — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:48:53 -0400

The Aid Workers Network is a UK-based nonprofit created in 2002 by a group of aid workers. According to the FAQ page on the site, over 12,000 aid workers are registered members of the community.

The site includes a news aggregator that pulls from aid workers' and aid organizations' blogs, including a great looking blog called, humanitarian.info. One of humanitarian.info's posts pointed me to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair's Virtual Humanitarian Information Centre for Lebanon. OCHA also has Virtual Humanitarian Centres for Pakistan, Niger, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Darfur and Liberia.

pingVision wrote up a short piece about their work on the Network that says that it is a "CivicSpace-powered site" that is "powered by Drupal's phpTemplate theme engine." They also designed the logo.

US House passes DOPA, schools must block access to social networking sites

marshallkirkpatrick — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 01:13:23 -0400

US House Resolution 5319, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), was passed by a 410 to 15 vote tonight. If the Resolution becomes law social networking sites and chat rooms must be blocked by schools and libraries or those institutions will lose their federal internet subsidies. According to the resolution's top line summary it will "amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms."

The rhetoric from advocates was all about MySpace. For example, Texas Republican Ted Poe says, "social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids."

I just covered this in more detail, with links to key resources for ongoing updates, over at TechCrunch.