I saw a note from long-time friend Amanda Hickman this week announcing the release of the “Base Edition of NGO-in-a-box”. It reminded me of all the work that’s been underway (for some years now) at Tactical Tech to get the NGO-in-a-Box project up-and-running. NGO-in-a-box is probably one of the most impressively organized projects in the social-technology sector … from the NGO-in-a-Box site:

NGO-in-a-box offers a set of peer reviewed and selected Free and Open Source software (F/OSS), tailored to the needs of NGO’s. It provides them not only with software, but also with implementation scenarios and relevant materials to support this. read more »

So you want to run a DrupalCamp in your town? Well, reflecting on the experience of helping to organize and facilitate DrupalCampToronto, I have a few ideas to throw into the pot. By most measures, DrupalCampToronto was a success: the event was at capacity, there was a fantastic mix of people, the presentations were excellent, and we raised a bunch of money for the Toronto Drupal community. Add to the ingredients that it was relatively easy to put together and that our organizing team was doing it off the side of their desks, and you've got a pretty good recipe for low-stress face-to-face learning events that help to build the Drupal community. All of that said, I feel that we could have tried a few things that would have made the event even better.  read more »

After a year of writing several briefs and one, exceptionally large (by my standards), report for the Ministry of Citizenship — I can firmly say that I now know more than I ever dreamt I would know on the topic of successful non-profit technology initiatives. Add to that my own experience over the past few years and you’ve got a lot of blog posts. So here’s the first… Let’s call it the Canadian non-profit technology assistance manifesto. And why does Canada need a manifesto for non-profit technology assistance? Simple: because successful, sustainable, long-term, and hands-on information technology support for most Canadian non-profits simple doesn’t exist in Canada as it does in the US and elsewhere in the world. So, based on my experience, what does Canada need? I’m glad you asked — here’s what I think Canada needs:  read more »