The A Spot

Idealware has come up with another good article on - A Few Good Tools for Sharing Files with Distributed Groups. I was happy to help Laura out with this article and provide some examples from my experience working with coalitions and geographically distant teams of consultants. We are often faced with how to collaborate effectively over long distances and produce a high quality product with input from the widest range of participants possible. The technology we use is just one variable in the equation but getting it right can help get us over big social and cultural collaboration hurdles.

Read the full text here. A key excerpt appears after the jump…
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April 4th, as you all know, marked the 40th anniversary of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, assassination. Taylor Branch’s April 6th NYT editorial “The Last Wish of Martin Luther King” offers up some interesting insights and lessons we can learn from one of the greatest advocates of the 20th Century. There’s little I can add.

Two recent articles caught my eye - using small, flash memory sticks to transmit viral videos in Cuba and the use of SMS in Zimbabwe for election and voter advocacy. In both cases citizens are making use with the technologies on hand and not relying on overly burdensome or complex systems they would have to create and maintain themselves. There is great potential in people making do with the types of technologies that already exist. What do these examples tell us about the potential for cyber activism in other countries with repressive regimes? How can we help community based advocates develop the most compelling campaigns, collect the information they need, understand their target audiences, craft their message and use tools such as these in their campaigns?

ZIMBABWE: Election campaigns go hi-tech

BULAWAYO, 5 March 2008 (IRIN) - Savvy text messaging and cheeky ring tones are the new face of cost-effective political campaigning in Zimbabwe in the run up to the 29 March election, despite the creakiness of country’s cell phone networks. (more…)

I really enjoy reading the Nonprofit Online News when it pops into my inbox. Michael Gilbert always provides an eclectic mix of references, links and observations. He uses a process and style of for the newsletter which is a million times easier to read then the HTML laden versions I get from other sources. Simpler is definitely better. Check out the post he wrote on the process. Now if he would just improve the searchability of the newsletter archive!

Last week he had several tidbits that jumped out at me as interesting including reference to a recent Casey Foundation guide to measuring advocacy and policy. You can find their guide here. It contains a strong focus on the development of a theory of change, and lays out alternative ways to measure the same outcomes…which helps organizations choose the best methods to fit their organizational culture and competency.

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I found this article by Laura Miller of Salon.com a fascinating look at how advocacy works in communities where civil order breaks down — as Miller puts it, whether you’re talking about “Afghanistan, Somalia, or the South Side of Chicago.”

The piece is an extended book review of Sudhir Venkatesh’s inside look at inner city housing projects, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes To The Streets. Venkatesh spent seven years following a Black Kings gang leader through the Robert Taylor Homes, the largest housing project in the United States. His account documents how when civil services are unavailable and ostensibly “legitimate” authority figures are unable or unwilling to act on behalf of their constiuents, all sorts of informal power structures will emerge. Citizens come to rely on back-door connections and unspoken agreements to advocate for their needs.

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