The Social Source Commons (SSC) helps nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations find appropriate software tools to support their programmatic work, and share knowledge about using those tools. It is the only venue on the internet striving to build a complete inventory of what tools are available for nonprofit needs, in both general and sector-specific categories.
SSC is a standards-based, open source web platform for mapping "what's out there” and “who's using what” in nonprofit software, based on a model that blends the sharing ethic and passion of nonprofit and NGO technologists with the best new internet technologies and information models. SSC builds on the "social network-driven" software selection paradigm that pervades NPO/NGO technology (“hey, what are you using for...?”), allowing users to discover tools and connect with allies by asking:
* What are others using? Which tools are most popular?
* Who else is using what I'm using, and what are they saying about it?
* What tools exist in a given category?
* What new tools are people discovering?
* What am I not using that I could be using?
The platform documents the landscape of software tools available for NPO/NGO use by letting nonprofit techies compare what tools they use. The architecture is based on sites such as wikipedia.org, del.icio.us and flickr.com that leverage collaborative editability, democratic categorization schemes, and ease of use to build shared knowledge stores. SSC is designed to enable peer supported, collaborative sharing of software knowledge.
SSC is not just an inventory tool; it aims to be an information "prism" through which relevant information feeds, updates, and new resources can be aggregated and redistributed per tool, per category, and per user. SSC takes advantage of the emerging RSS paradigm to "push" information to each user in a personalized fashion, and to allow other sites and sources to query and publish SSC data.
Comments
Multilingual software
This sounds like a great idea. How will you be relating to products in languages other than English? Israel has a large 3rd sector and I am interested in a one stop shop for tools that support or are in Hebrew.
Ruth
Awesome project, awesome team
Has my support, and we'll be including it as a staff pick in the emails Grassroots.org is sending out this week.
A great tool, with really great people behind it. If I were a better Koolaid maker, I'd offer to help directly.
Good luck!
Dave.
An outstanding project
Aspiration's SSC is a proven and widely used resource, and it will become more valuable as the number of users grows. The sub-community feature will be a tremendous feature. HumaniNet plans to use it in our Maps 2.0 initiative. No better way to nurture virtual tech communities!
dissemination?
Gunner, Very glad to see this project here. Can you say a little about how SSC will be marketed to nonprofit sector and the volume of use you expect to see over time? And how will you know if it is having the impact you believe is possible?
Thanks!
/daniel