Conmergence

2009 Nonprofit Software Development Summit

The 2009 Nonprofit Software Development Summit is just a few weeks away, taking place in Oakland, California. We'd love to have more NOSI energy in the circle!

You can check out the latest session list at

http://devsummit09.aspirationtech.org/index.php/Session_List

We invite your help in spreading the word; please tweet it, blog it, Facebook it to your networks. Hashtag #devsummit, http://bit.ly/2LmoiG

New sessions are being added each week, and we invite you to add a session and share your own nonprofit software development experiences, or to request a session to address your questions about nonprofit software.

Please join us for this year's Dev Summit! Complete details are at

http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/devsummit09

and we still have sliding scale registration slots available.

The 2009 Nonprofit Software Development Summit is generously sponsored by Mozilla, Google, and CiviCRM.

We hope to see you in later this month!

peace,

gunner

-- 

Allen Gunn

Executive Director, Aspiration

+1.415.216.7252

http://www.aspirationtech.org

Aspiration: "Better Tools for a Better World"

UCP Executive Director Post to Change.Gov

The inauguration of a new president takes place tomorrow. Like many Americans, I am proud that our country is an example to the world of what peaceful and orderly change in government means in a democratic society. The Obama Administration has developed a website called Change.Gov, where they are asking for input from indivdual citizens on how to change government. Following is the post I entered today:

I work for United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee. In our state, people with cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities other than mental retardation do not receive dedicated DD services. In fact, our State Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities doesn’t even serve people with Developmental Disabilities. In my job, I interact daily with young families who need intensive home and community based supports that are not available to them. To make matters worse, because our state has no intention of serving this population, their critical needs are not even registered on a waiting list.

More here.

Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination, Robert Compton on C-SPAN

<ed.note>Note: 1) China and India DO NOT emphasize junior high and high school athletics (because the chances that that will bring one out of poverty are amazingly low). 2) When a child shows an aptitude for a subject the parents hire a tutor (FWIW: South Korea sometimes hires from the States and Skylake Incuvest, a South Korean investment fund specializing in the technology sector, thinks there's money to be made here). Wouldn't it be weird if the US (the parents thereof) ACTUALLY valued STEM education (instead of just the politically correct rhetorizing about it)? Think of the boon a combined fiber and distributed clean energy generation smart grid build out model could be for rural economies and what a platform for virtual tutoring that eco friendly grid could be? BTW: I admin Project Net-Work Group on Linkedin.com -- invite here if you're about more than lip service.</ed.note>

Text from C-SPAN, links mine: Robert Compton talked about his documentary Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination (Youtube Trailer here), which compares and contrasts the education experiences of six students; two from each of the countries of India, China, and the United States. Video clips were shown as he talked about the statistics on the amount of time spent in the classroom, the influence of the students' parents on their decisions to pursue a certain career, and the degree to which those choices impact their free time during their high school years. Two million minutes is roughly four years, the amount of time high school students have to prepare for higher education and their careers. Mr. Compton talked about the importance of education to competing in the new global economy and that people in other countries took it much more seriously. He said that although many middle and high schools were using his video, schools of education had rejected any need to learn about the educational systems in competing countries.

Venture capitalist Robert Compton's travels to India in 2005 and 2006 laid the groundwork for his decisions to author a blog, publish a book called Blogging Through India, and produce the documentary.

2008 Nonprofit Software Development Summit, November 17-19, Oakland, California

The latest greatest sessions and trainings list is posted on the Dev Summit wiki. We welcome others to add additional discussion or training topics. Complete details are here and you can register here. We hope to see lots of you there! Scholarships and sliding scale seats are still available. And PLEASE spread the word via blog, forwards, and other shout-outs! Please let me know of questions.
thanks & peace, gunner

Allen Gunn Executive Director
Aspiration +1.415.216.7252
www.aspirationtech.org

Dave H. Crusoe, Public Learning Media Labs, On CodeKindness

We at the PLML have *just* finished building a technology called CodeKindness, which resides at http://www.codekindness.org. It's nonprofit, and designed to mobilize technology volunteers for nonprofit organizations by managing the distance volunteering experience.

We're already testing it (successful, so far!) and would love additional input into designing/shaping the technology. Please let me know if you're interested!

Cheers,

--Dave

dave at plml.org

Cambridge, MA

Remote Area Medical on 60 Minutes, Tennessee

<ed.note>It is both encouraging and discouraging to see that RAM does SO MUCH of its work here in Tennessee.</ed.note>

(CBS) This segment was originally broadcast on March 2, 2008. It was updated on July 9, 2008.

One of the decisive issues in the presidential campaign is likely to be health care. Some 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and that's just the start: millions more are underinsured, unable to pay their deductibles or get access to dental care.

Recently, 60 Minutes heard about an American relief organization that airdrops doctors and medicine into the jungles of the Amazon. It's called Remote Area Medical, or "RAM" for short.

As correspondent Scott Pelley first reported last March, Remote Area Medical sets up emergency clinics where the needs are greatest. But these days that's not the Amazon. This charity founded to help people who can't reach medical care finds itself throwing America a lifeline.

One Big Database In the Sky

<ed.note>Jay Deragon provided a pointer to the Plaxo acquisition by Comcast. Here's the comment I provided (with a little editing):

I've often thought that the United Way ought to have approached Plaxo to offer a private branded version of Plaxo to the US' 1.5 million nonprofits who all pay some mailing house or the USPS to de-dup all those newsletter street address corrections. How much more efficient (less redundant) and how much less wasteful of NPO/NGO funds to let the community update their own data once and for all. They (United Way) also could have launched an "open" version -- except that NGO|NPOs are all so paranoid about intrusion into their donor bases. What they haven't figured out is that once the public figures out there is such a high degree of redundancy in the NGO|NPO world, the sector is going to undergo the consolidation every other sector is facing -- especially now that they can pretty much be reduced to bank accounts and workers on the street who could be enabled by "one big database in the sky" collaborative tools.</ed.note>

2008 Fiber To The Home Conference & Expo September 21 - 25, 2008 Gaylord Opryland® Resort & Convention Center, Nashville, TN

<ed.note>The conference's theme is "Linking Communities at the Speed of Light" but more intriguing to me is the the scheduled appearance of Don Tapscott (The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs, Creating Value in the Networked Economy, Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Business, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence, Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World, Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology)  adreessing his latest work, Wikinomics How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Implicit in Tapscott's writings is management's buy-in of the distrubuted digital enterprise-enabled results-only collaborative work environment. If you happen to be one of those creatures (especially if you are from Nashville), I invite you to join the Linkedin.com Project Net-Work group and Technology Nashville.</ed.note>

Sunday, September 21, 2008
1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Registration Opens
Monday, September 22, 2008
7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Registration Opens
8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Developer Panel Workshop  *Additional fee*
8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Home Networking Workshop  *Additional fee*
1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.	Track Session - Series 100  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.	FTTH Executive Summit *By invitation only* Moderated by: Don Tapscott, Author
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.	Track Session Series 200  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.	EXPO Grand Opening & Opening Reception *Open to all registered attendees*
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Registration Opens
7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.	Opening General Session    *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only* Keynote Speaker - Don Tapscott, Author Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything Sponsored by: FTTH Council Awards Sponsored by: FTTxcellence Awards Sponsored by:
10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	Refreshment Break    *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
10:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.	Global Carrier Keynote Panel   *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.	EXPO Hall Opens   *Open to all registered attendees*
12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.	Luncheon in EXPO Hall  *Open to all registered attendees*
3:15 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.	ITCo Panel  *Conference Pass attendees only*
3:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Track Session Series 300  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
4:15 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.	Track Session Series 400   *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
5:00 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.	Track Session Series 500   *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.	International attendee Reception   *By invitation only*
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Registration Open
7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.	Continental Breakfast  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.	Government and Regulatory Panel
8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.	Track Session Series 600  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
9:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.	Track Session Series 700  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
9:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.	Refreshment Break  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.	Track Session Series 800  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
11:00 a.m. - 12:15 a.m.	Panel Session Series 900  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.	On Own for Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.	EXPO Hall Opens
4:15 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.	Closing General Session with Keynote Speaker  *Conference Pass and Day Pass attendees only*
7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.	EXTRAVAGANZA - Closing Reception with Entertainment *Additional fee* "Don't forget your dancing boots!"
Thursday, September 25, 2008
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Post Conference Workshops

NOSI's Survey of FOSS use in the nonprofit sector

Michelle Murrain posts:

We've finalized the report on the survey we did early last month. There are some interesting results, and it is worth a read. The summary:

Our sampling wasn't sufficient to allow us to draw firm conclusions about software choices in the nonprofit sector as a whole, but our responses did come from a broad range of organizations. These groups are diverse both in size, mission and their use of free and open source software, and it is clear from their responses that FOSS is actively used in the nonprofit sector. FOSS is common on web servers, and while FOSS desktop operating systems are still uncommon, many nonprofits use free and open source applications on proprietary desktop operating systems. Many people in the sector use FOSS everyday, or at least quite frequently. Nonprofits do have a clear understanding of the strengths of FOSS, and at least some organizations have made organizational commitments to open source and open standards.

Read it here.

Please take the NOSI survey on the use of FOSS inthe nonprofit sector

Greetings!

The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) is very interested in the use of free and open source software in the nonprofit sector. We want to understand better how FOSS is used, what people's attitudes are towards it, and what resources are necessary for organizations to choose and use FOSS.

This is the first of an annual survey, so we can understand and track trends of the use of FOSS in the sector, and so we can strategize how best to meet the needs of the sector. We'll be releasing a report next month with the results of the survey.

It will take about 5-10 minutes to fill out. We'd very much appreciate your time! Please take it no matter what the level of use of open source software is in your organization - data on as wide a range of organizations will be helpful to us.

Please encourage your colleagues and clients to take this survey as well.

The survey is here.

Thanks again!

Peace,
Michelle Murrain
Coordinator, Nonprofit Open Source Initiative