NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org - web design

Western water and very good karma - can you help?

Kimery Wiltshire — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:02:57 -0400

Can you help? Here in the West, our rivers and drinking water supply are in peril - from climate change impacts, drought and a growing population. Environmental groups are working hard to address these problems - and their work would be greatly helped by access to an on-line community forum - a virtual meeting ground where they could get it touch with colleagues across the West, find experts, learn about best practices, get information on cutting edge issues, get postings on conferences of interest, etc.

You Mean to tell me that a Technology Plan would avoid headaches?

WYSE Monkey — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:37:12 -0500

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.

Wufoo makes online forms easy

marshallkirkpatrick — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 19:15:30 -0400

Some readers here may know that I've started writing over at the Web 2.0 review site TechCrunch. One new service that I wrote about this week stood out as something that could be very useful for nonprofits. It's called Wufoo and it's an easy way to make online forms that can be inserted into your web page or used as separate pages. It is very flexible and honestly takes very little technical knowledge.

Mobilizing communities around tech access for disabled

Sharron Rush — Thu, 18 May 2006 14:17:30 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

Knowbility.org

URL

http://www.knowbility.org/air/?content=home

Location

Austin, Houston, Boston, Indianapolis, other citeis

Project Description

Since 1998, Knowbility's AIR (Accessibility Internet Rally) program has introduced tech professionals to the concept of making applications accessible to everyone - including people with disabilities. Using tech sector networks and listserves, Knowbility issues a challenge to the local technology community in cities throughout the country:

Create a team of 4 - 6 people. Come take our classes about how and why technology can and must be made accessible. Then, have the chance to win glory for your team when you demonstrate your new skills in a web design contest.

While this challenging message is distributed in the community, the AIR program teaches small local nonprofit organziations how to think about putting relevant parts of their mission-based work online. NPOs are prepared to be effective clients and to communicate their needs to their tech team. After Web 101 training for the NPOs and successive accessibility training for the tech pros, each team is assigned to their NPO "client" for one high-energy work day in a local tech center.

The result:

Dozens of nonprofit organziations that serve the arts, health, human service, environmental needs of local communities receive professionally designed web sites that they could otherwise not afford;
People with disabilities experience improved access to online resources and nonprofit servics, because the sites are designed to be accessible.
Tech pros learn useful accessible design techniques that they can incorporate into their daily work, improving accessibility throughout the greater Web
Everyone understands more about how and why to make technology accessible
Relationships are forged throughout the city between the tech sector and the nonprofit community.
Everyone has a meaningful volunteer experience, using skills in which they are expert.

AIR is a unique community collaboration that produces benefits far beyond the basic goal of raising awareness of technology access issues for people with disabilities. It has been recognized for excellence and innovation by the Peter Drucker Foundation, the US Department of Labor and many, many others. To bring AIR to your city, contact Knowbility at knowbility.org.

Conversation about Nonprofit Wed Design - Last Minute Invite?

CoreyP — Tue, 09 May 2006 22:27:58 -0400

I apologize for the last minute offer but I’d like to invite anyone who has been involved with web design or web site communications for nonprofits to join in a discussion about nonprofit web design for my podcast that I will be publishing shortly. I had planned for three participants to join a “forum” discussion on the topic via a Skype conference call. One person has cancelled at the last minute and I’d like to have more people contribute. A few questions that I have presented to the other participants so far are:

1) What are some considerations that organizations promoting social change should keep in mind when designing their public website?

Netsquared on Web Creme - Web Design Inspiration

eweinb04 — Thu, 04 May 2006 01:06:51 -0400

While searching for more Netsquared badges and text links, I found out something interesting. Netsquared was listed on Web Creme as a site for web design inspiration in March.