Social Networking items from NetSquared

If you’re a news junkie, and you haven’t tried NewsTrust, don’t. It’s addictive and should be banned. But if I can’t stop you, there a few things you should know: (1) it’s a news rating service, (2) it allows ordinary people to judge the quality of sources and stories, (3) it provides structure within which to make such judgments, so you don’t have to make stuff up, (4) the process reveals a lot about what good journalism is and isn't, (5) it will tell you things you did not know about yourself, (6) if you’re already suffering from too much information, you can read just the highly-rated stories, or just those which were given high ratings by raters you trust, (7) it’s a community of some pretty smart people who care about the truth, (8) it’s run and backed by some very very good people, (9) I’m the volunteer host for its National Public Radio section, so am completely biased and not credible (if you want to draw more attention to an outlet that you trust, you too can sign up to be its host). If after all this you still click this link and get hooked, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Ami Dar of idealist.org saw the wiki I made for the Silicon Valley group, and now I'm working with them to develop a new wiki site to improve collaboration on the Imagine Initiative worldwide. If you could please look at our wiki and tell me how we can improve it as a possible template for all the other groups, that would be a huge help.

 “On different floors of an apartment building somewhere in your country, two people are looking out their windows and wishing there were a garden or a playground below instead of a dirty courtyard. But acting alone can be difficult, and in many neighborhoods, both rich and poor, there is no way for people to know that they are not alone - that down the street, or two floors above or below them, there may be others who would gladly work with them if they only knew where or how to find them.”So began the invitation sent the other night by Ami Dar, Director of Idealist.org. He asked members to “imagine a better community and a better world, and to see how we can build it together”, then to launch a series of start-up meetings around the world, on the week of February 5-11.I forwarded Ami’s note to members of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, wondering if anyone wanted to get together to form a Silicon Valley group. Several said yes, so I submitted an event request, which was approved yesterday. If you’re in the valley and want to join the meeting, please register here. (Please note that the venue is tentative, will depend on the number of registrants, but will be thereabouts).I also created a wiki for members of the Silicon Valley group. You can use it to post your ideas & suggestions for the meeting. Please join us, or host your own meeting by clicking here.

We're thinking about setting up a NetSquared group on LinkedIn.  Has anyone ever used a group on LinkedIn, and if so, whaddya think?

During this month's Net Tuesday in San Francisco, Matt Flannery and Pim Techamuanvivit talked about how web-based fundraising works because of community and trust.  Why does that community and trust work?  Because we are a small world.  Today Randal Moss of FI Space posted about an ABC Primetime report called the "Human Chain":

WorldCoolers by Collactive allows users to download WorldCoolers' Collactive Desktop, receive articles about global warming, and share opinions and resources with others.  I can't test it 'cause it requires Windows XP/2000, and I'm on a Mac, but it looks cool.  Would somebody on a PC test it out and let me know what you think?

Our fabulous San Francisco Net Tuesday podcaster, David Collin, posted his interviews with Larry Halff, the founder of Ma.gnolia, and Nica Lorber, the organizer of Rootscamp in San Francisco, over the weekend. David also recorded Larry and Nica's presentations. Here are the links so you can check 'em out: Larry Halff's presentation Interview with Larry Halff Interview with Nica Lorber Nica Lorber's presentation

Hello Net2,Last night, I launched the beta version of My Pet's Project.   This is the first initiative that I know of that permits cats, dogs, and other pets to use social networking tools to promote a fundraising campaign.Here's the mission statement:My Pet’s Project, an initiative of First-of-its-kind, helps passionate individuals raise money for non-profit organizations by combining social networking tools and fundraising with the universal appeal of cats, dogs, and other animals.

Hi Net2,Here's a link to my latest article on the emerging field of group fundraising.  I have written up a profile of ChipIn, Inc., a web 2.0 company based in Honolulu, Hawaii. The new features and web widget on ChipIn 2.0 are really amazing.  This company is definitely leading the industry with respect to the financial implications of social networking.

Hello Net2, Many of you will probably be interested in a "how-to" article I've written for my website.It's about using the internet for group fundraising. As I started to research the subject, I realized that people (including myself) can get rather lost in their attempt to select an appropriate group fundraising website.So I wrote this article for First-of-its-kind. The article is called How to use the internet for group fundraising. Please have a look and let me know what you think.