[DDN] Don't forget to vote for TakingITGlobal too!

[Michael Furdyk]

Hi friends,

For those of you who are going to NetSquared to vote for one project or
another that has been mentioned on this list, we would appreciate a vote
for TakingITGlobal (you have to vote for at least 5 projects), who took
over DDN from EDC and have been operating the site (and fighting spam!)
and mailing list.

Funding to support our technology improvements and community management
team (many of whom are volunteers) would be a huge help for TIG and also
benefit our ability to improve the DigitalDivide.net site as well!

For those of you that have already voted, it's not too late to go back
to your ballot and add TakingITGlobal to your voting list.

Cheers and thanks :)

-- Michael 

--------------------------------------------------------
Michael Furdyk | Co-founder & Director of Technology
TakingITGlobal | http://profiles.takingitglobal.org/mfurdyk 


-----Original Message-----
From: digitaldivide-bounces at digitaldivide.net
[mailto:digitaldivide-bounces at digitaldivide.net] On Behalf Of Dave
Chakrabarti
Sent: April-09-07 8:56 PM
To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group
Subject: [DDN] Free Drupal CMS (and other tools) for nonprofits

Hi fellow DDNers,

It's been a while since I posted (my apologies) since I've been fairly
swamped with my new position at Grassroots.org.

I thought I'd send a note to let you know what we've been working on.  
Grassroots.org is developing a nonprofit toolbox that will include a
growing number of technology tools for every nonprofit, everywhere in
the world, for free...but we need you to take five minutes and vote for
the project, if you think it's cool :) I'd also welcome any and all
feedback on the project...what tools would you like to see in the
toolbox? What would be pointless? Which tools are a real pain for you
guys to host on your own?

Some of our planned tools will be Drupal-based, and others will include
EGroupware, Democracy In Action's Salsa platform (integrated with
Drupal, for online Moveon.org-style campaigns), free first-year domain
registrations, and free telephone consulting on topics like search
engine optimization for nonprofits. Partners include MAIN.org, the
Chicago Technology Cooperative, and Democracy in Action, along with a
couple of for-profits.

Of course, a lot of this stuff is free already (Drupal, Salsa, and
EGroupware are all open source, for example). So why aren't more
organizations using them? We think that if offer them to organizations,
hosted for free, with a comprehensive support and training system
(including screencasts and guides), it'll make a huge difference in how
nonprofits engage the internet. It seems like a small thing, but most
organizations *really* need a screencast on "how to create a Drupal
page" or "how to name your new page intelligently" ...not "how to
install and upgrade your uber-powerful tech platform". And I mean really
"hosted" by the way...not as a subdomain or as part of another site, but
a true hosted nonprofit CMS site, with a unique domain name, minus the
geek stuff.

And I really meant the "anywhere in the world" bit, too...this isn't a
US-only venture.

We're up for the NetSquared innovation fund that Michael Maranda posted
about earlier...it's a somewhat unique system where the community votes
for projects they like. If you think this project pitch sounds useful,
it would help us a ton if you could visit http://
www.netsquared.org/projects/vote and register / vote. Registration takes
five minutes (seriously, it's a Drupal site), and votes are due this
Saturday, April 14th.

And of course, all comments and feedback are welcome. Feel free to hit
me on list if it's a discussion relevant to the community, or off- list
otherwise.

  Thanks!

     Dave.

------------------------
Dave Chakrabarti
Director of Programs
Grassroots.org


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