EchoDitto

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.

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)