NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org - Public outreach/publicity

How Do You Use Social Networks to Build One?

Cauzoo — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:58:38 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

Cauzoo

URL

http://www.cauzoo.com

Location

Los Angeles

Project Description

If you're building a social network, mailing list, or other social tool, how do you break through a crowded market? With MySpace, Facebook, and a host of new niche social sites popping up, how can you beat the competition?

Simple- you don't. You work with them to go places you never could before.

Cauzoo.com had a problem that most new sites had- gaining traction in a crowded field. For us, the challenge is making clear that we don't want to supplant MySpace or Facebook, but supplement the social experience by adding a new angle. Undoubtedly, most of your non-profit sites are the same. You aren't asking for all a person's time, just a bit of their attention. But how can you do this without scaring them away? In addition, how can you make a better site from it?

Our answer was simple- instead of fighting the competition, we promoted it.

If you look at the bottom left corner of a sample profile page, you can see "Social Me", an exciting example of our tool. We know that people have countless different social identities- so why not use them? It helps our users recognize that Cauzoo is a place to show part of yourself, not all of yourself. That lowers the barrier to entry and clarifies our concept. Secondly, it simply makes for a better site. Our pages have more utility if users know more places where they can reach their friends.

The great thing about "Social Me" is that it's not our idea- we used code from the Open Source site here- http://dbachrach.com/showyourself/. It wouldn't be tough to figure out anyway, but this is a good reference point for some of the social networks out there that your users might have. Naturally, we're not sure how many sites/non-profits this will help, but we'd love to definitely take a step to say one thing: you are on Social Networks for a reason- promoting them!

FreePledge

cbernadi — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:33:44 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

FreePledge, Inc

URL

www.freepledge.com

Location

Silicon Valley, California

Project Description

FreePledge is a young for-profit social venture that aims to help nonprofits tap into the Internet and technologies.
FreePledge has leveraged the power of growing e-commerce market to empower nonprofit organizations.

Users go through FreePledge for their online shopping, they pay exactly the same price as they would otherwise and a percentage of their purchases is donated to the nonprofit of their choice at no cost to them (or to the nonprofit).

Partnered online stores include Amazon, Ebay, Orbitz, shop.com, Target, BestBuy, Apple and many more.

The Cedar Cultural Center

Steve Hanson — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 11:37:45 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

The Cedar Cultural Center

URL

http://www.thecedar.org

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Project Description

The Cedar Cultural Center is a nonprofit music venue in Minneapolis, MN. August 23, 2006 The Cedar launched a new web site. The site was built in collaboration with Cruiskeen Consulting LLC

The new site has many features. It is very rich in audio and video material, and features information about upcoming performances.

One of the most exciting upcoming events at The Cedar is the annual Nordic Roots Festival, which features music from the Nordic countries.

More information about The Cedar:

The Cedar (also known as the Cedar Cultural Center) is a highly eclectic music venue located in the vibrant West Bank district of Minneapolis. Renowned for hosting some of the best acts in folk, blues, jazz, indie rock and world music in an intimate space, the Cedar is a 501(c)3 non-profit, largely volunteer-driven organization and welcomes your support!

Mission

The Cedar's mission is to promote inter-cultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance. The Cedar is committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach.

History

The Cedar is located in the historic Cedar Theater building, which opened in 1948 and operated as a movie theater until the 1970’s before falling into disuse. The Cedar Cultural Center was established in 1989 when local real estate magnate Keith Heller donated the theater to a non-profit started by Deb Martin and Mary Ann Dotsen, Minnesota STAR (Society for Traditional Arts and Resources). Their mission was “to support the preservation of cultural diversity by promoting and presenting traditional music and dance of many cultures.” Bill Kubeczko has been the artistic and executive director since 1993, and with the help of a small, dedicated staff and a legion of energetic volunteers, the Cedar has been presenting 150 or more high-quality shows every year since.

The legistics

Karin — Wed, 17 May 2006 14:49:10 -0400

Uppity Wisconsin

Sat, 13 May 2006 16:18:18 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

Cruiskeen Consulting LLC - Uppity Wisconsin

URL

http://www.uppitywis.org

Location

Menomonie, WI

Project Description

Uppity Wisconsin is an attempt at building a collaborative on-line web presence to promote progressive ideas in Wisconsin Politics. This is a new site (based on the Drupal CMS). It uses a combination of incoming and outgoing RSS, Blogs, Video, and email for communications.

Uppity Wisconsin is currently looking for authors and contributors of all kinds. The current challenge is to find enough contributors to build a vibrant community.

MobileActive

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 21:44:35 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

Green Media Toolshed and TechStrategy

URL

www.mobileactive.org

Location

Massachusetts

Project Description

MobileActive is a global network of organizations, technologists, organizers, and activists who are using mobile phones in their social change work.

Mobile phones have emerged as a campaign organizing tool across traditional socio-economic and cultural boundaries. Mobile phone campaigns have swung elections through innovative get-out-the-vote activities, have been used to ensure impartial elections through monitoring, have resulted in massive collective action to free political prisoners, and are being used in public health strategies.

Yet, while there is significant innovation all over the world, there is little aggregation of lessons learned from these campaigns and activities that is being collected and aggregated by civil society practitioners for their peers.

MobileActive seeks to better understand the strengths and limits of the medium, available technologies for campaigners, share lessons learned, feature campaign examples and tech tools so to increase activistsâ€™ ability to organize our constituencies with this new technology.

MobileActive 2005 convened in Toronto to bring together, for the first time, activists from around the world to explore the use of mobile phones in civic action campaigns. The MobileActive community and web site is an aggregation of the learnings from this convergence, stories from participants and their projects, and resources for activists interested in using mobiles in their campaigns.

MobileActive is now growing the network of mobile activists, to share knowledge and skills, and to provide a peer network, training, and resources to those interested in exploring mobile phones in their civic engagagement, mobilization, and civic action campaigns.

If you used mobiles in your campaign, please share your story at http://www.mobileactive.org! If you need resources, let us know! And if you want to join this growing network of activists from around the globe, profile yourself: http://www.mobileactive.org/profile

Welcome to MobileActive - http://www.mobileactive.org

People's Grocery

Britt Bravo — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 20:55:07 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

People's Grocery

URL

www.peoplesgrocery.org/brahm/

Location

Oakland, CA

Project Description

People's Grocery's mission is to:

[D]evelop a self-reliant, socially just and sustainable food system in West Oakland through community-based, youth-focused and innovative social enterprises, urban agricultural projects, educational programs and public policy initiatives that foster healthy, equitable and ecological community development.

They just started WordPress blog on their site.

Art project youths creating the peace

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:50:41 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

www.imaf.li

URL

www.ngoartstudio.org.mk

Location

Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

Project Description

The NGO Art Studio program provided the talented youth with concrete tools and
skills to be able to handle conflict in creative ways, as well as opportunities to work together and apply what was learned in fields in fine arts . This art project iis offering a Development Challenge Desired Condition for Peacebuilding Approaches Available Strong divisions exist
between ethnic and religious groups Entrenched attitudes of intolerance, hatred toward
those who are different. NGO Art Studio is from Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. This non-formal educational art school isfounded in 1998 and since then it grown in NGO with full time members. Trough our art programme,we helpa young people to create better positive self image are much more likely to stand up to pressure from violent forces. NGOâ€™s Art Studio ,training, and leadership programs provide youth with the feelingsof pride and self-worth that tend to lead them to choose peacebuilding over involvement in violent conflict.Youth with positive self-esteem tend to visualize more easily their own role in a peaceful, productive society. We encouragelocal philanthropy trouhg our art programme.

Tsunami orphan Owen the hippo

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:23:34 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

LaFarge Eco Systems

URL

http://www.lafargeecosystems.com/main/blog.php

Location

Mombasa, Kenya

Project Description

This blog chronicles the rescued baby Hippo, Owen, who was adopted by a 130 year old giant Aldabran tortoise, Mzee. This remarkable story of compassion has found its way on BBC and NPR and a documentary film will premier at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2006.

The supporting organization of Haller Park is Lafarge Eco Systems:

The vision of Lafarge Eco Systems is to create paradise from wastelands. We invented the wheel when it comes to rehabilitation of quarries in Kenya. We have been taking exhausted, barren limestone quarries, and turning them into premier attractions for over three decades.

Quarries that we have restored have won international acclaim for best practice. Our parent company has won awards for its stewardship of the environment and Dr Rene Haller, our founder, won recognition from the UN for his outstanding work.

After thirty years of experience and repeated successes behind us, we realise it is time to pass on the lessons. We aim to become an internationally recognized reference in tropical ecosystem restoration and the sustainable management of restored landscapes. We are already at the forefront of this cutting edge science and will continue to develop and improve in order to stay there.

Lafarge is committed to environmental and social responsibility. Central to its success in the cement business, is an unequivocal understanding that Lafargeâ€™s capacity to repair the damage caused by its mining activities is its license to operate. Lafarge cannot turn its neighbours against it, it cannot soil its own nests, for then Lafarge would have no future.

The new ecosystems must be enduring; it would be no good planting trees only for them to die in a few years due to ecosystem weaknesses or financial constraints. Lafarge Eco Systems operates with a keen awareness of the â€œbottom lineï¿½?; we must be both environmentally and economically sustainable.

We seek to not only to repair the land, but also to improve it, make it better than it was before quarrying begun. The result is more than just a green space, it is a living laboratory that is rich with diversity and shows us much about the way ecosystems function. They are reservoirs of endangered species in a region where biodiversity is shrinking quickly. They are open classrooms, inspiring young and old alike to take an interest in nature and the value of the environment. And they are paradise for the hundreds of thousands of visitors seeking refuge from the chaos of a post-industrial world.

NPower Seattle Promotes Online Tax Tools and the Earned Income Tax Credit

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:57:15 -0400

Project Screenshot

Supporting organization

NPower Seattle

URL

http://www.npowerseattle.org/education/eitcdetails.htm

Location

Seattle, WA

Project Description

Each year, low-income families miss out on the chance to receive a tax credit that could help them move out of poverty, as millions of dollars go unclaimed in the federal government's Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program. NPower Seattle, a nonprofit technology assistance provider, has launched a program to help community-based organizations take advantage of the free technology tools that exist to apply for the tax credit, and in turn teach their clients how to use these tools.

NPower Seattleâ€™s EITC Project is a partnership with nonprofit organizations that serve low-income communities. The goal of this two-year project is to inspire more widespread use of technology tools that can help to ensure that qualified families and individuals receive their tax credit. The short-term goal is to increase the EITC credits received by people in King County by $2 million in 2006 and 2007.

Participating organizations can
â€¢ attend free workshops offered through the summer and fall of 2006,
â€¢ download EITC resources from NPower Seattleâ€™s web site, and
â€¢ request training for staff on the use of online tax filing tools.

See www.npowerseattle.org/education/eitclinks.htm for a full list of classes and EITC outreach materials.