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By Michael C. Gilbert and Ali Woolwich
Planetwork was founded in 1998 by Jim Fournier, Erik Davis, Elizabeth Thompson and David Ulansey. The organization’s stated purpose is to “illuminate the critical role that the conscious use of information technologies and the Internet can, and indeed must, play in creating a truly democratic, ecologically sane and socially just future.” On June 5 and 6, 2004, the authors attended the Planetwork Conference as observers and participants.
Jim Fournier’s background as an industrial ecologist came through in the conference design. Just as industrial ecology concerns itself with engineering solutions to environmental challenges, the Planetwork conference concerned itself with software solutions to contemporary human challenges of many kinds.
As a couple of skeptical geeks with strong affiliation with the nonprofit sector, our experience of the conference was bound to be mixed. The technological discussions were fascinating, but their occasional disconnection from the real work of nonprofits was frustrating. It reminded us a bit of the well intentioned invasion of the nonprofit sphere by dotcom entrepreneurs during the nineties. Of course, we chose to … [Continue reading...]
Contributing Writer
Ali Woolwich is a community organizer, communication consultant, and dancer. She has been a Contact Improvisation instructor since 1996 and her dance company, Humility Swim, is pushing the edges of dance, organizing, and social commentary.
Ali was one of the founding employees of Social Ecology, an innovative ASP in the field of communication technology for nonprofit organizations. She has also consulted with dozens of community groups.
Tags: New Media | Category: Articles
By Ali Woolwich
Note from the editors: This review is now fairly old and may not be as useful as it once was, except for historical reasons. For the latest thinking on internet fundraising, we recommend The Email Savvy Organization and other more recent feature articles.
The Philanthropy News Network’s Nonprofits and Technology Conference held in San Francisco July 22-24, 1999 featured an Internet Fundraising Seminar presented by AppNet’s Director of Strategy and Client Development Ken Weber, Director of Strategy and Client Relationships Michael Cervino, and Client Director Shirley Sexton. [http://www.appnet.com ]. They provided good context and examples for the web’s current capabilities, the audiences available, and the collaboration opportunities now available to the nonprofit sector.
A drawback to the workshop was … [Continue reading...]
By Ali Woolwich
The Support Center for Nonprofit Management [ http://www.supportcenter.org/sf ] held its 12th annual Nonprofit Day conference this past Tuesday. There was a noticeable increase in “technology track” workshops in this year’s conference, with topics ranging from privacy issues and filtering software to internet advocacy and volunteer recruitment.
In her opening address to the conference, Jan Masaoka of the SCNM addressed “two things to worry about, two things to criticize, and two things to celebrate about the nonprofit sector.” She worried that despite current trends, corporate investment should not take the place of the nonprofit sector in providing social services, and that “business superiority” – the attitude that business is better at everything – is an inaccurate opinion that undermines the power of the nonprofit sector. Her first criticism was … [Continue reading...]
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