Many of the tools we are integrating into the Grassroots.org Toolbox are open source, and thus have been freely downloadable for years. However, “Free” though they may be, these tools cost thousands of dollars to install, learn, configure and support. In short, these tools may have no list price, but they are far from free to implement. The result? They're not empowering as many nonprofits as they could be.

The Toolbox will automatically:
• provision and install these technology tools,
• configure them correctly for immediate use,
• host them permanently,
• -provide comprehensive training and support resources (both in traditional text and in new media, such as screencasts and training videos)

All for free.

To achieve this, we'll build an integrated user interface to manage Toolbox applications and services, under which we'll develop a flexible and scalable automatic provisioning system. We are assigning multiple staff members to develop exhaustive training and support materials in response to the needs of incoming clients and creating a publicly-available end-user guide for each of the tools we offer. The goal is the technological empowerment of nonprofit organizations everywhere.

We want to make it dead simple for social entrepreneurs to integrate amazing online media into their sites and to find an audience interested in their stories. Our media platform is built on Wordpress MU, SimplePie RSS, and a variety of web services like Amazon S3. We use a process called “assisted podcasting” to enable even the least tech saavy, busiest social innovator to tell their personal story online by recording podcasts with their ordinary telephone.

We are developing a system enabling organizations to not only create their own content for their web sites, but to simultaneously pull in relevant feeds and stories from other organizations and sites.