NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org - website

SecureOurDream.org: How Not to Fundraise on the Web

Channing — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:38:33 -0500

In our last post, we wrote about the brilliance of the Obama internet campaign. Apparently, Joe the Plumber is now joining the fray - with an internet fundraising site.

Secure Our Dream is a terrific example of what not to do. Let’s take it apart…and learn some lessons along the way...more

Put Your Non-Profit Website to Work!

Channing — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:39:12 -0400

Your nonprofit has a fabulous website. You attract thousands of admirers each day. You update it with fresh content, you communicate with your donors. You rock.

You've also invested blood, sweat, tears and cash into the beast. So is it possible to make some money back from your website?

Having a decent website is a given for most nonprofits. It's a key communication tool, with your stakeholders, the media, donors, the world. Given that, let's assume that your website has some inherent value for your organisation. But can you actually create a revenue stream from your website?

(More...)

SF Halloween Festival needs a website, now!

amysampleward — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:20:05 -0400

The San Francisco Halloween Festival committee has enjoyed an organic community growth around the planning process for the city's October 31st celebration, but now needs help making a website. Following the closure of Castro Street last year for the annual celebration, the SF Halloween Festival committee plans to bring together all ages, all cultures, and people from SF and around the world in both free and ticketed activities and celebrations all afternoon and evening in Lot A, next to SF Giants AT&T Ballpark, and Terry Francois Boulevard.

Get Ga-Ga for Google Grants...

jamesvito — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:10:20 -0400

Yes, that’s the lamest article title I’ve ever thought of and, worse, actually published. But 5 G’s? Would you be able to resist?!? Regardless, Google continues to allude the day when someone with a reputation publicly calls them the next evil empire to pick up Microsoft’s torch (and I happen to like Microsoft and think those people are a bit too harsh.) FYI – this article will be published in several parts so as not to inundate you with content as you work to absorb the work necessary to implement. If you want to educate yourself before the next installment, visit http://www.google.com/grants/tour/1.html for a full tour developed by Google of this program.

NetSquared.org Down August 26 7-8 AM PT

Britt Bravo — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:45:24 -0400

Just a heads up that NetSquared.org will be down tomorrow, Tuesday, August 26th from 7-8 AM PT for maintenance.

Photo Credit: Men at Work by Luca Masters.

The Open Municipal Geodata Standard Organization Website

metromapper — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:10:06 -0400

I'd like to announce a new website that I'm starting up called The Open Municipal Geodata Standard Organization Website, or OMG Standard for short, at www.omgstandard.com. The idea behind it is to have an open forum to discuss and collaborate on how to involve governments to effectively release their public data to communities.

The goals at the moment are to:
1 create an open standard for the structuring of municipal data
2 convince governments it's in their best interest to make the data easily available
3 provide tools to let this happen efficiently

Translate your Nonprofit Blog or Website with Worldwide Lexicon

Britt Bravo — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:00:36 -0500

"The language barrier is the only remaining barrier on the Net, but in a way, the most significant because comprehending human language is something only people can do. Breaking the language barrier is more about finding a successful organizational structure and economic incentives, than it is about technology."

Does your organization's work serve people who speak a language other than your own? Do you wish there was a way to translate your web site or blog's content so that you could reach a more diverse population?

Worldwide Lexicon is an open source, collaborative translation system for websites and publishers.

in the following e-interview, Brian McConnell, the project's leader, talks about how you can use Worldwide Lexicon with your nonprofit's blog or web site. Brian is an author, inventor and entrepreneur. Prior to WWL, he founded three telecommunications companies. He often writes for O'Reilly Media on topics ranging from programming to science and technology.

How does Worldwide Lexicon work?

The Worldwide Lexicon is a collaborative translation system, similar to Wikipedia, where people can view, create and edit translations. The translations are all created by people, not computers, so the quality can be quite good. The key idea of the system is that websites with a loyal audience often have bilingual readers without knowing it. With WWL they can organize their own users to contribute translations, for free, or for a small fee, or other incentives. WWL is usually integrated into participating sites, so they can promote it to their user communities who, in turn, can contribute translations. WWL is open source, and we are producing a wide variety of tools that can be embedded in virtually any website or web service.

NetSquared Site is Back Up and Running

Britt Bravo — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:40:40 -0400

If you tried to log on to the NetSquared web site today to post a comment or a blog post, you probably got a message like, " Access denied
You are not authorized to access this page."

Sorry about that.

It took us a little bit, but it's fixed now.

Photo Credit: Repair Bug by AZRainman/Rainmaker

Social Change Website Directory

Britt Bravo — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:10:37 -0400

Last week at the BlogHer Conference I had the pleasure of meeting Rochelle Robinson, the Online Program Manager for Ms. Magazine. Rochelle specializes in online advocacy using technology for positive change in public consciousness, law, and social policy.

One of the cool things on her site is a link to Social Change Websites, a directory of nonprofit, grassroots and advocacy campaign web sites. The site is Rochelle's brainchild.

You can submit your social change web site here. (Check out the guidelines before you submit).

Little Fish, Big Pond - Save the Center and My SEO Enlightment

JJ_Lassberg — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:47:26 -0400

Google:
1,310,000 for little +fish +big +pond
Ok, I make websites for a living. Well, I do a lot of other stuff too, but one of the things I do is make websites. I make these sites 90% of the time for small to medium sized companies, and of course these days everyone knows (well just about everyone, I do occasionally still run into a person who thinks just cause they have a website for their TOTALLY off the wall widget they are going to instantly sell a million of the dang things and retire on an island they buy with the money, anyway…) almost everyone knows if you build it, it doesn’t mean they’ll come. Enter SEO, Search Engine Optimization that is: SEO, SEM, META-Tags, Pay-Per-Click, etc.