EchoDitto

Description:

September's Net Squared Meetup featured two young student organizers who are using new media communications strategies and online tools to mobilize young people across the country to take action on the global issues of genocide and global warming.

Ivan Boothe, Director of Communications for the Genocide Intervention Network and Arthur Coulston, Co-Founder and Digital Organizer for the Energy Action Coalition, described how they go beyond the normal email list and empower members to take concrete actions and precipitate change on a limited budget.

Both organizations began as student groups at individual campus and have since evolved into national groups spanning many universities. Cutting-edge technology has remained a crucial component of their member outreach efforts as well as their pubilc relations strategies.

Ivan discussed how the Genocide Intervention Network's experiences encapsulate the exciting potential but also the challenges of reaching out to young people through online social networking sites and blogs.

The Energy Action Coalition holds contests, movie screenings, and other days of action to bring a global cause down to a local level. Arthur also discusses how they embrace new technologies such as widgets, mapping, and blogging to help over 30 different coalition groups work together as a collective movement.

Join us at next month's DC NetSquared Meetup on October 17th.

Description:

Ryan Ozimek, CEO and Founder of PICnet, joined us to discuss his vision for a new generation of constituent-to-representative communication tools. In the wake of the logic puzzle controversy, many non-profits and issue advocacy organizations are struggling to adapt to Congressional attempts to filter out messages from constituents generated through "Take Action" sites.

Ryan uses his experience working with non-profits as well as elected officials to propose an alternative to "Take Action" tools that flood representative's inboxes with constituent-submitted messages. His idea generated a lively back-and-forth discussion which touched on the deeper issues of using technology to promote democratic accountability. Check out Dillan M.'s post about the event for his analysis.

For those of you interested in learning more about Joomla, the free and open
source content management system that Ryan mentions, PICnet is providing a free introduction every week called Joomla Tuesday. Every Tuesday from 12pm-1pm you can learn about how your organization can use this Web tool to keep your Web site manageable.
Contact Ryan to RSVP for Joomla Tuesday.

Special thanks to the Meetup's organizers, Justin Perkins and Michael Silberman, as well as Sandy Hoar for providing this audio recording.

MP3:Net2July.mp3 (21.8MB)

Description:
Daniel Dickens of HelpArgentina stops to by discuss how technology, social networking, and (briefly) cows have contributed to his organization's success. HelpArgentina is a Buenos Aires-based bridge between the international community of social investors and transparent, effective Argentinian NGOs and charitable organizations.

Having developed a network of 53 NGOs and charitable organizations in its 4 years of operation, HelpArgetina has stepped up to the challenge of aiding a country recovering from a major economic crisis by engaging Argentinian communities throughout the world. Daniel tells us about how his organization applied several Web 2.0 tools to house parties in 24 cities, drawing in over 1200 supporters contributing to 26 Argentinian social causes.

"Bridge" diaspora philanthropy organizations have succeeded in other parts of the world as well, including Mumbai-based Give India and the Rio de Janeiro-based Brazil Foundation.

MP3:
HelpArgentina.mp3 (8.1MB)

Description:

A discussion with the co-founders of Bright Card, Professor Jon Isham (of Middlebury College), Andrew Rossmeissl and Jake Whitcomb, about their plans to develop a credit card that combats global warming.

The “Bright Card” will essentially neutralize a consumer’s carbon footprint by automatically investing in “carbon offsets” every time he/she uses the card. We discuss the unique role this idea will play in the broader context of earth-friendly innovation, as well as the importance of youth movements and practical solutions to environmental problems.

Related Links:
What Works
Project Bio Bus
Native Energy

MP3:
Bright Card.mp3 (8.5MB)

Description:

The first episode of D.C. NetSquared's Podcast Series! Organized by EchoDitto's Michael Silberman, this Meetup convenes once a month to discuss how technology canbe used to propel social change.

At our June meetup last Tuesday (June 20), we were joined by Ian Schuler, the ICT
Project Manager at the National Democratic Institute (or NDI) who kicked off a conversation about how mobile technologies can be used in the political realm. Specifically, he covered NDI's operation in Montenegro last month, during which SMS technologies were successfully employed to monitor the May 21 referendum on withdrawal from the Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

Check out Dillon M.'s Frogloop post for more details on the gathering!

MP3:
D.C. NetSquared Podcast Series (June 20, 2006).mp3 (8.6MB)

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It borders both Sudan and the DRC -- two of Africa's greatest hotspots -- and is in the middle of its own civil war. But that's where our guest will be leading two groups of college students and student ambassadors this summer.

In just a few days, Josh Goldstein, leaves the country for Uganda, where he'll be for the next 8 months. Josh is the Associate Director of Global Youth Partnership for Africa, an organization based in both in Washington DC and Kampala Uganda. In this episode, we talk about life in Uganda, cross-cultural awareness, and the ways in which GYP is using technology to cultivate youth as global citizens and partners in development and advocacy for Africa.

Links from the show:

• Global Youth Partnership for Africa
• Invisible Children
• Global Night Commute
• Gulu Walk
• Uganda Conflict Action Network

Music: Band of Bees

Description:

This weekend, tens of thousands of Americans will rally in front of the U.S. Capitol--and in dozens of other cities across the country--to send the message to Congress that it's time for America to step up and help end the systematic slaughter of more than 400,000 civilians in Darfur.

Yesterday, we caught up with two dynamic leaders at the forefront of this movement -- Mark Hanis and Ivan Boothe of the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net). Hear how GI-Net is using technology to rapidly mobilize hundreds of campus leaders and thousands of college and university students across the country.

And find out why celebs like Nick Kristof, Angelina Jolie, and Oprah are all asking their their audiences to head over to GI-Net to take action.

Join a rally in your city this weekend, or sign up for the virtual march

Links from the show:

• What you can do to help end genocide: Genocide Intervention Network
• Samantha Power's book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
• Aid worker blogging from Sudan (no longer active): Sleepless in Sudan

Photo credit: Darfur Eyewitness by Brian Steidle

Intro/Outro music from Earth 'n' Bass:
Intro: Zomaye (Bill Laswell Remix) - Gigi
Outro: Yo Afro - Temple Of Sound

Description:

We had just said goodbye to Nicco at the Green Festival in D.C. and were headed for our car to drive back to New York. We were admiring a veggie oil schoolbus (isn't that what you think of when you think french fry oil powered vehicle?) when a friendly guy stepped up and offered to show us his ride.

Ben never told us his last name when the recorder was on, but he did give us a great tour of his recently-modified 2002 VW Jetta. I had been obsessed with biodiesel, SVO, and WVO for just a few weeks at that point. I knew it was pretty simple to refit any diesel engine, but Ben made it clear.

It's not just for hippie buses any more.

Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems
Wikipedia - Biodiesel, Straight vegetable oil

Description:

Alan Rosenblatt writes,

About a year or so after I finished my dissertation on Presidential use of TV to move public opinion in 1992 I was introduced to Mosaic by a housemate. I was familiar with the Internet from my work at American U. I was on a team that prepared the University for becoming an Internet node in 1988.

When I saw Mosaic, I realized the potential impact on politics. I was already teaching at George Mason U. and started talking about the Internet with my colleagues over lunch. From those discussions, Bob Dudley and I decided to teach a course called The Politics of Cyberspace: The Luddite vs. the Technofreak. He played the luddite, I played the freak. We were each a little of both.

Today, Alan continues to teach at American University and heads up The Internet Advocacy Center. Friday afternoon, Joshua and Tim sat down with him to talk about how he's seen the relationship between politics and the internet change in the past 20 years.

Description:

For the past 10 days, a movement has been growing in Crawford, Texas in support of Cindy Sheehan's challenge to President Bush. Japhet Els has been on the ground there for the past few days; Tim Jones and Michael Silberman spoke with him Tuesday afternoon to find out what's going on.

• Japhet is blogging on The Crawford Update.
• You can learn more and help out at MeetWithCindy.org.

Photo from upfish on flickr