Organizers' Collaborative

Presenter: Adam Frost, Computer Care and Learning

This clinic-style workshop discusses real problems that nonprofits experience in
getting good computer care from computer professionals. Working together, we
will develop solutions to these problems, drawing on our collective experience and
expertise.

Scott Smith, Community TechKnowledge

Scott will guide participants through the Total-Cost-of-Ownership (TCO) framework in considering the merits of "build, buy, or lease". Participants will receive a grid to help them understand the prospective benefits and challenges of each approach. Two competing ASP solutions will also be briefly presented to illustrate the capabilities of mature options in that category.

NPOs are moving from give us your money, trust us to output oriented, Number of whales saved, etc, to outcomes oriented, focusing on the larger outcomes.

Tanya Renne, Orchid Suites, Claire McDonough, SEIU Headquarters, Wayne
Langley, SEIU Local 615; moderated by Steve Dondley, Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO

The current political climate both left and right has real implications on the labor
movement. With membership dwindling and aggressive reforms in the offing,
what can labor do to streamline, utilize more effective strategies in organizing, and
modernize its grassroots infrastructure? What is the role of technology in the future
of labor? What role has technology played in where labor is today?

(Gregory Heller of NY State Senate Minority Leaders office, Bob LeLievre of Lelievre
Information Services, Raj Singh of MIT Dept. of Urban Studies & Planning)

As open source tools are maturing, voter registration and mobilization
organizations with no in-house technical staff are beginning to reap the benefits.
Low cost technology solutions are now becoming available to advance your
(electoral or advocacy) campaign’s goals. Gregory Heller will moderate a discussion
on these tools including AdvoKit, an open source Contact Management
application developed through a collaboration in 2004 of progressive web
technologists, political activists, and funders. Bob LeLievre will discuss his work
with VBase, a voter contact management application, and Raj Singh will discuss
advances in open source Geographic Information Systems (Mapping).

(roundtable discussion facilitated by Brian Reich, Mindshare Internet Campaigns,
L.L.C., with Mark Brunswick, Jesse Gordon, Christine Williams, Jennifer Doe)

Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals (1971) revolutionized activism. Alinsky offered a
method for pursuing social change that remains relevant today. Now, technology is
revolutionizing how community politics are pursued. Will Alinsky’s rules translate
to online engagement? How will traditional organizers integrate online tools? Two
“online” organizers and up to two “offline” organizers will lead the discussion.

Presenter: Justin Ruben, MoveOn PAC, Andrew Stocking, care2.com, Lynn Benander,
OnLineCommunities Project at Cooperative Life

The Internet has proven itself as a tool that can mobilize millions, as well as bring
together activists in disparate communities. It has also shown phenomenal success
in engaging people who were previously non-participants. The workshop will
showcase how several organizations and campaigns have distributed techniques,
providing insight on what works.
Justin Ruben will talk about the experience of MoveOn during the 2004 campaign,
with a focus on using the Internet to encourage people to take offline action.

Al Essa, Sloan School of Management, Carolyn Meeks, Aristoi

Does open source have a role in the technology strategy for grassroots
organizations? We will consider the business, legal, and technology aspects of open
source with the aim of developing a technology and risk strategy. We will also
provide a hands-on demonstration of .LRN, a powerful but easy-to-use open
source application developed at MIT for managing online communities.

(Emily Thorson of EchoDitto, Sarah Bennett of Database Designs, Harold Jordan of
the National Coalition for Education Activists. Moderated by Liat Wexler, OC Staff)

The number of vendors offering “soup to nuts” web-based solutions to handle
online donations and web content management is growing every day. However the
price of these solutions is often out of reach for many small and medium sized
nonprofits. This panel will introduce nonprofit decision makers and techies to a
range of affordable content mangement, donation processing, and donor
management solutions. Emily Thorson from EchoDitto will discuss EchoDitto’s