Last week, I wrote about a request I got from Idealist.org to help them prepare a "How to Wiki" guide - to help hosts who are organizing groups around the world, in support of their "Imagine a Better World" initiative (see Britt's interview with Ami Dar about this campaign here).

I got the note below from Joanna Eng of Idealist.org. I have until Friday 3/2, to answer their questions. Between two jobs and my volunteer work, this is going to be quite a challenge, so if y’all can help by posting your suggestions in reply to this post, bonus karma points for you. Thanks; Leo

Subject: Idealist.org Start-up Meetings and your use of the wiki

Dear Leo, Thanks for taking the initiative to set up the wiki for your start-up meeting! We admire your effective use of online tools to enhance the start-up meeting for all of the participants. Would you like to help us make it easier for other meeting hosts to do the same? We are planning to provide a series of "How To" guides on Idealist for start-up meeting hosts, including "How To Use a Wiki for Your Start-Up Meeting." Drawing from your experience, you can help us create this guide!
Here are some things you can do to help:

We did our Idealist.org startup meeting on Sunday. People asked me how I thought it went, and I couldn’t really tell, since I was bouncing around so much. But going by the feedback that’s trickling in, I guess it went okay. And now for the hard part: how do we keep this new community going?

Introduced to Net Squared by Leo  Romero Idealist.org (Silicon Valley) Startup meeting.

 Openned up an account for DisabledCommunity.Org Project.

Not real clear what I am getting into because documentation on Net Squared pages are not real clear.

 It might be a good idea to have them list other non profits that have projects listed on their site from their main page, so that others interested in learning about NetSquared can quickly look to see what others are creating.

 

I will hold off on giving suggestions until I learn more.

 

Ami Dar of idealist.org saw the wiki I made for the Silicon Valley group, and now I'm working with them to develop a new wiki site to improve collaboration on the Imagine Initiative worldwide. If you could please look at our wiki and tell me how we can improve it as a possible template for all the other groups, that would be a huge help.

 

“On different floors of an apartment building somewhere in your country, two people are looking out their windows and wishing there were a garden or a playground below instead of a dirty courtyard. But acting alone can be difficult, and in many neighborhoods, both rich and poor, there is no way for people to know that they are not alone - that down the street, or two floors above or below them, there may be others who would gladly work with them if they only knew where or how to find them.”

So began the invitation sent the other night by Ami Dar, Director of Idealist.org. He asked members to “imagine a better community and a better world, and to see how we can build it together”, then to launch a series of start-up meetings around the world, on the week of February 5-11.

I forwarded Ami’s note to members of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, wondering if anyone wanted to get together to form a Silicon Valley group. Several said yes, so I submitted an event request, which was approved yesterday. If you’re in the valley and want to join the meeting, please register here. (Please note that the venue is tentative, will depend on the number of registrants, but will be thereabouts).

I also created a wiki for members of the Silicon Valley group. You can use it to post your ideas & suggestions for the meeting. Please join us, or host your own meeting by clicking here.

Hi Net2, Here's another article on the social networking potential of group fundraising campaigns. 

I wrote up the text in December, but haven't had a chance to post it until now.   The ideas re still relevant, even if Idealist.org has started to move in the right direction with its Imagine project.

Leave comments below, and I'll be sure to respond to them.  -Peter

Craigslist, Idealist.org and the Rise of Philanthropy Classifieds

For a brief period in 2006, everything I owned, earned, and enjoyed in life seemed to come from a classified ad on either Craigslist or Idealist.org.

Our newest episode of the "This Week in NetSquared News" podcast is up.  It includes interviews with Jeff Perlstein of Media Alliance, Ami Dar & Lea Policoff of Idealist.org, and Michalis Bletsas of One Laptop per Child.