Salsa Scoop
Before and After November 7: What to Expect, Why Elections Matter and What Your Organization Can Do to Prepare
Although much media attention focuses on the federal picture – i.e.,
will the Democrats take the U.S. House and Senate? -- it is at the state
level where elections matter most for very many progressives. The
outcome of some state legislative elections could dramatically influence
folks' work come 2007.
The candidates we elect on election day become policy-makers come
January. Now is the time to get to know them. What can we do? A wide
variety of things, depending upon 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 status. Or, you can set
aside organizational associations and act as an individual.
*This is the time to meet candidates. When someone is running, they are
more open and receptive than at any other time.
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03:30 PM Sep 28, 2006 -
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Neutrify or Horrify says Berners-Lee
Important read: In today's NY Times, Tim Berners-Lee speaks out for net neutrality. "Someone actually thought to challenge it." While it's not a front page story, his arguments have the potential to ring loud enough to reach more people. After you read this, head over to Save the Internet's map for a reality check on the number of Senators against the concept. Seems like some people just have to pick a fight...
(TechSoup has more on the net neutrality implications for nonprofits.)
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02:30 PM Sep 27, 2006 -
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E-xemplar: Flex Your Rights Goes Viral
That much-abused phrase for that much-imagined place, Virality, has been earned at the know-it-when-I-see-it threshold by one of the DIA asylum's more recent inmates, Flex Your Rights.
At Viral Video Chart, a site indexing online video buzziness, a MySpace upload of their recent video Busted: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters rates as the 17th-most-linked video with nearly 200,000 views.
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01:30 PM Sep 26, 2006 -
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Guest Bloggin': Using Social Networking to Stop Genocide
The Genocide Intervention Network and its partner organization, STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, both began their life as student organizations at Swarthmore College and Georgetown University, respectively. Now partners and visible leaders in the anti-genocide movement, STAND encompasses student groups at more than 300 colleges and 200 high schools, while GI-Net provides effective tools for all individuals to help stop genocide through advocacy and fundraising for civilian protection.
How did these organizations go from small student groups to national non-profits in less than two years? Among other methods, through online social networking, sites that promote connections and collaboration between people who share similar interests, geographical backgrounds or schools.
GI-Net and STAND were well-positioned to take advantage of social networking because their primary base was students between the ages of 15 and 25, some of the earliest adopters of new online technology. Yet even as the organizations have grown — and, for GI-Net, expanded well beyond its student origins — social networking has proven to be an important way to develop and engage our membership.
While our current focus is on Darfur, our larger goal is to create a permanent anti-genocide constituency so that when mass atrocities occur again — as they likely will — the world will be well-positioned to respond quickly and effectively. The primary reason countries take so little action to stop genocide is because there is no political will to do so. This is our long-term approach to building the movement, and it coincides quite effectively with many of benefits social networking: education, collaboration and collective action.
While STAND and GI-Net do some traditional fundraising and lobbying, our primary focus is on empowering our members. So, for instance, most of the donations we receive go to fund civilian protection in Darfur, rather than our efforts alone — meaning our members have a real, concrete effect on the ground in Sudan. Similarly, our advocacy is often focused on giving our members effective tools to engage in their own actions, such as our recently-released Darfur scorecard. With a social networking approach, we can extend this empowerment approach to people who otherwise would likely have not come in contact with us.
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11:30 AM Sep 25, 2006 -
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One Web To Rule Them
Just when you thought you were out of made-up Internet feast days -- it's OneWebDay. (Note: On the Internet, we don't use spaces. This is just one of the many benefits the web has brought us.)
On OneWebDay -- that's today -- you get to remember that the Internet totally rocks. In fact, that "it's about action" and the way the Internet affects real people's real lives. Though there's no meatworld join-up associated with OWD (note: acronym proliferation is another of the many benefits the web has brought us) here in the capital of this archaic "nation-state" political entity, we're totally on board with that. Action and the Internet is what DemocracyInAction is all about.
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09:00 AM Sep 22, 2006 -
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