by gregoryheller | Mar 25, 2005 | Uncategorized
<p><em>I updated this now that i am back in NY and had a little time.</em></p> <p>But a cute little joke, one of the panelist from <a href="http://www.ashoka.org">Ashoka</a> said some people in her org have come to call open source "Open Sores" because of their bad experience with some OSS.</p> <p>This session started with a conversation about CMS selection, the process by which an organization should go about selecting a CMS. Usha Venkatachallam from <a href="http://www.beaconfire.com" target="_blank">Beacon Fire Consulting</a>suggested it is best to sit down and identify all of the functionality that you are looking for BEFORE you start looking at CMS packages. Once you start looking at the systems, their avialable features will influence your scoping. Having done the later, I will agree 100%. This was the best vendor presentation i saw, the presentation was completely agnostic. There was no sales pitch (or at least not an overt one) from the vendor.</p> <p>The second part of the session was a speed geeking circuit where folks presented 5 minute schpiels on <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org" target="_blank">CivicSpace</a>, <a href="http://www.mamboserver.com" target="_blank">Mambo</a>, <a href="http://www.picnet.net/soapbox_preview.html" target="_blank">Soap Box</a> (a package of Mambo from PicNet.net) <a href="http://plone.org/" target="_blank">Plone</a>, <a href="http://openconcept.ca/index.php/besupport" target="_blank">Back End</a>, and Midgaard and while it seemed totally cool, it didn't seem like the right tool for the groups I work with.</p> <p>I was impressed with Plone, as presented by Andrew Burkhalter from <a href="http://www.onenw.org" target="_blank">OneNW</a>. and Mambo/Soapbox also seemed like it could work for some people I work with.</p> <p>I have an obvious bias toward <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org" target="_blank">CivicSpace</a>, and after talking with Andrew about Plone, he confirmed that for the civic engagement tool that I place...
by gregoryheller | Mar 25, 2005 | Uncategorized
<p>What do I mean by "On THe Fly Web Tool Deployment"? </p> <p>So we tried to set up a web chat yesterday, or rather "online" chat. we used an IRC channel at free node. The barrier to entry was kind of high. How many people are used to using irc? well not many. We had maybe 8 people in the chat, and not much happened in it.</p> <p>Last night I installed <a href="http://manuel.kiessling.net/projects/software/arsc/" target="_blank">ARSC (a real simple chat)</a> after Rich Cowan suggested that it might work. This morning some people logged in during the plenary, but guess what? IT DIDN'T WORK!<br /> Doh, well it worked in TXT only browser setting. </p> <p>Phillip from Canada sitting next to me suggested trying out this other chat client called <a href="http://www.atutor.ca/achat/index.php" target="_blank">AChat</a>. I downloaded it, I uploaded it up to my web host, and untared it, and it is UP and RUNNING.</p> <p>Check it out here <a href="http://www.gregoryheller.com/AChat"...
by gregoryheller | Mar 24, 2005 | Uncategorized
<p>The Panel has grown to include Jo Lee from <a href="http://www.citizenspeak.org/" target="_blank">citizen speak</a> and Kaliya Hamlin <a href="http://www.integrativeactivism.net/" target="_blank">Integrative Activism</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.network-centricadvocacy.net/" target="_blank">Marty Kearns</a> from <a href="http://www.greenmediatoolshed.org/" target="_blank">Green Media Tool Shed</a></p> <p>Dan Robbinson of <a href="http://www.civicactions.com" target="_blank">CivicAction</a>.</p> <p>Marty Kearns: Things are connected. Society is changing, suspend some of your assumptions. Social networks are not new. The strategies and the AMOUNT of connectivity is new. We can "play with networks" now, because we can really see them and analyze and computer model them. </p> <p><a href="http://forwardtrack.eyebeamresearch.org/" title="http://forwardtrack.eyebeamresearch.org/">http://forwardtrack.eyebeamresearch.org/</a><br /> soft credit for petition signing. this is an open source application for petition collection.</p> <p>Kaliya: <a href="http://kaliyasblogs.net" title="http://kaliyasblogs.net">http://kaliyasblogs.net</a> One time in person connections that can lead to ongoing online activities. Tolls can increase capactity, they are not the end, they are a means to the end. We cannot forget that we are human. Think about distributed work teams: virtual organizations. Creating social connections of verime ans space will build familiarity trust and cooperation leading to action. RSS Feed Aggregators (post some info to the wiki)</p> <p>Doc Searls: the Cluetrain manifesto (the end of business as usual)</p> <p>Dan Robinson is moderating a discussion about the feaer of adopting the new technology, or testing out the technology. Rubey S talked about Planned Parenthood and message control in terms of blogging.</p> <p>Citizen speak was fundamentally in the center of the action. The systems is now being freed up<br /> Jo Lee: Citizen speak is a distributed activism tool.<br /> It is a moveon like system. allows the organization to create an online "campaign" with a target. people visit the site, add tehir info and send...
by gregoryheller | Mar 24, 2005 | Uncategorized
<p>This session includied GReg Nelson from CTSG and Sheeraz from Get Active and Adam from move.on. The talk is ranging around from The MoveOn Bake sales to get active's clients work. I didn't find much take aways from this, other than that when you do virtual organizing you need to do LOTS of meat space organizing to go along with it. Coming from a traditional grassroots organizing background, this wasn't a major lesson.</p> <p>That there is a bar (barrier) to action, if people don't see others taking the lead in online action, they are not likely to take action (or leadership in the action) themselves, but once a few poeple (relative to the size of the action you are looking for) take that action, more people will then take that action. MoveOn's bake sale campaign followed this model.</p> <p>Also, important to give people feedback on their action, after they take action, let them know what it did. If it had no effect, ot not the desired effect, the "failure" needs to be reframed and future goals need to be adjusted to be slightly more "realistic".</p> <p>I just asked a question about traditional grassroots organizers dismissing online activism.<br /> Greg says there IS no substuted for the f2f meat space stuff, but that the online work can augment that, and the efficiency of reaching out on the web is the key.<br /> Adam agrees that there is this problematic dicotomy of thought in the realm of organizing (online vs traditions grass roots) the two can be blended well because of the speed and scaleability of using the internet.</p> <p>He also...
by gregoryheller | Mar 24, 2005 | Uncategorized
<p>Just got done with lunch. We had a civicspace table that was bursting at the seems. I didn;t talk much about CivicSpace, but did have an interesting conversion with some folks (Sheldon from <A href="http://www.prwatch.org/" target="_blank">Center For Media and Democracy</a>) about media and fake news, parking, suvs and running a campaign to make suv owners realize the true cost of their vehicles (damage to roads and infrastructure, the additional space they take up, impact on the environment…."</p> <p>CivicSpace and CiviCRM folks will get together at 5:15 in linolnshire...
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