NPSL: Nonprofits in Second Life

I was asked by a good friend if I could merge the NPSL Offside Links and the Deli.cio.us NPSL links feeds into a single feed on nonprofitcommons.com in a block on the left side of the site.  I took care of it this evening, and it is actually a piece of cake to do.  These steps work in Drupal 5.x.

Plaxo is a social networking tool that allows you to dynamically update your address book. I've written a couple of posts on my personal blog about how the tool can be used.

In my intersection with other nonprofits through the NPSL group and on the TechSoup site I am expanding my focus to deal with emerging technologies in general and how they can be utilized by the nonprofit community as a whole.  My background is in the arts, so expect to continue to see some bias for that industry but my personal experiences over the last two years have shifted my sense of self toward social justice (although being Canadian probably has something to do with that too.)

I was working on trying to furnish the WESTAF office last night. I looked into the "object" containing all manner of lamps and lights and quite by accident clothed myself with a myriad of lighting objects in one fell swoop. This was the outcome...

Aggregators are tools that allow you to access the RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds from different sites.  You can tell that a site has a feed if you see this icon on the page.  Aggregators allow you to mix the feeds from many sites into a single place.  In other words, no need to surf when an aggregator can deliver the content to your desktop.

Some of my favourite aggregators include:

Social networking sites are gathering places.  When they are successful, they build community.  That community can interact through chat, forums, blogs and comments, virtual environments, text messaging and wikis. 

> Docent_Alturas
> Bluewave
> rikomatic
> msirkin
> Xin
> janimyriam
> tuesday
> Johnny_Austin
> bfelice
> mrmaroney
> ange
> Susan_Tenby
> Glitteractica_Cookie
> kanter
> Creech

I've updated all of these accounts to be able to post comments--some already could. If you want to be able to blog or post comments let me know.

Today, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, approved a budget for the National Endowment for the Arts of $160 million. This is a proposed increase of $35 million over funding in FY 2007. This represents the largest increase in many years.

This is great news for Arts nonprofits in the United States.

The American Arts Alliance has posted a summary and a way to say "Thank-you" the committee members.

Eventful is a social networking site that allows loose or formal groups to create gatherings. Groups can be based on physical location, interests, subjects, and events.

You can create groups or join groups that you have interest in. You can search through the many groups that are available through a system based search engine.

Skype is a terrific tool.  It is a software based phone that allows VoIP calls anywhere in the world.  If you place a Skype call between computers--your computer and the computer of the person on the other end--the call is free.   It costs pennies a minute to call to a cell phone or land line.

Skype will allow you to do video calling, share documents, and IM others on the Skype network.