Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to connect with Colin Rhinesmith, Community Media Coordinator at Cambridge Community Television (Cambridge, MA, USA) and Adjunct Lecturer for the Media and Culture Program at Bentley University.  Colin told me that they recently held a very popular social media workshop for seniors at Cambridge Community Television (@cctvcambridge) but that it is a topic that would benefit from more coverage - so, I asked if I could interview him!  You can learn more about the workshop and the issues seniors face with social media in th

Wikispaces is looking for translators - interested in helping out?  Wikispaces wants to offer the wiki platform in additional languages and needs the help of others who have strong written fluency in English and the additional language of choice.  This is not a paid-for opportunity, but one that will greatly impact the community of Wikispaces users.

Desired languages include:

We can't believe that 2009 is already coming to a close! From in-person opportunities via Challenges and conferences, to online collaborations in blogs and Twitter, we know that the NetSquared Community is not just alive and well, reaching around the globe, but making huge contributions to the fields of social benefit work and technology. What's more, you, the NetSquared Community, are actively shaping the connected world where we live and work every day.

As a way to hold on a bit longer to 2009, this month's Net2 Think Tank asked for your best blog post from the year.  We know you wrote about some really interesting things, shared great ideas and even captured conversations and presentations on your blog or website this year.  And we want to put those great posts back in the spotlight one more time before 2010!

Rediscover some of the best blog posts from this year!

Here at NetSquared we are proud, honored, and in awe every day of the very special global community made up of local groups and their networks, the ties between local groups around the world, and the project teams from all over the globe focused on innovations that help us make the world a better place.  Reflecting on the Community and the work being done in every corner of the world, we've tried to articulate some of the aspects that make the NetSquared Community so unique and also so powerful.

The first major round of the NetSquared site redesign is now live, but as you click around the site you might be thinking, "Where's the beef?"

Much of this upgrade was focused behind-the-scenes and not as much on the side of the site you see; though that will flip-flop in the next round in a couple weeks.  Below is a run through of what we've implemented so far that you can see, an overview of the dramatic back-end improvements we've made, and a preview of what is still to come in the first half of December.

The event is called The Big Blue Test because the blue circle is the international symbol for diabetes. The idea of a shared "blood sugar test-in" started with an activity organized in July 2009 by TuDiabetes. More than a thousand people participated then. Now, we seek to reach thousands of people with diabetes through seven other diabetes social networks and Twitter. The activity incorporates 14 minutes of physical activity to reinforce the importance of exercise.

People with diabetes have to test their blood sugar routinely. It can be a very lonely activity. So we want people to take The Big Blue Test, to shed light on this chronic condition and the importance of exercise on World Diabetes Day.

Great news for the civic software movement!  One of the N2Y4 Mobile Challenge Featured Projects, SeeClickFix, has reported exciting new growth.  This program provides a medium for citizens to actively engage in identifying and solving community problems.  Using SeeClickFix, anyone can report local issues that need attention and then monitor any response made to said problem.

SeeClickFix has recently announced expansion to cover 25,000 towns and 8,000 neighborhoods.  They also outline the many features available through the service, including an iPhone app and upgraded widgets.  

FutureLab ("An Online Challenge for the NonProfit Community to Chart a Vibrant 2020") has just been launched by Independent Sector, and it provides an exciting new opportunity to share thoughts about the challenges and opportunities facing the nonprofit and foundation community now and in the future.  This site is essentially a nation-wide conversation about important nonprofit and philanthropic issues where you can share ideas and get feedback from others working in similar fields. 

FutureLab is open to anyone who has opinions and wants to contribute to the discussion - no official position necessary.