Handwritten

Last friday I went to see a photo exhibtion with my friend Robert. The exhibition was nice but I want to tell you about my experience and fixation with 'Digital photobooth'. Photographer and installation artist Mark Van is the pioneer in using digital booth as an art exhibit, the concept is simple but innovative 'you click your own picture and see it immediately on a big screen'. The heart of this concept lies in a simple emotional equation. "You feel good to have the power to compose your photograph." What a digital fixation !

My volunteering experience with global giving can be summarized as a window, a window in the digital world of non-profits. A world where market is the driving force and market is controller. Whether it’s the fast changing technology or user-friendly services or the Internet tools, the market or rather Donor’s choice governs every thing. It was interesting to know how a common person like you and me can induce change by just a click as a ‘donor’ and how a single feedback can direct change in an organization. I belong to India; the largest producer of IT professionals but its application there in the citizen sector is negligible. My exposure and volunteering experience with GlobalGiving has shown me the enormous potential of IT & the use of online tools to further a cause that needs to be tapped by the ‘non profits’. For me the encounter with web 2.0 was most exciting. Whether its tracking website traffic through Google analytics, designing online surveys or poll or getting RSS feed ...

Recently I encountered the www.helium.com and came to know how they pay bloggers for their writings based on the readers’ ratings. This is very common in private sector for online marketing sites like Amazon and eBay but immediately it stuck to mind that why it can’t be applied to citizen sector organizations. Can we provide a transparent review of organizations to the potential donors? How was their giving experience and are they satisfied with the charity? I know it’s a pain spot for the charities with all sort of apprehensive questions about image brand and reputation. But with the growing demand of credibility, transparency and accountability citizen sector will definitely require easy to understand information regarding performance of charities and review by its donors or ‘customers’ as the lingo goes.

Usually cities are full of lights, fast cars, music and latest fashion. Few would argue that Washington DC is also same but there are city within cities, which remain hidden from the usual sight of visitors. I happen to be in one of such parts of DC, It is an African American Mosque on New Jersey Avenue named as ‘Masjid Muhammad’. I am doing a lot of generalization on the basis of my ‘Jumah’ (weekly Friday prayers) visits to this mosque. I was surprised to see the amazing full of life culture this small mosque presents to me. Here is what I found interesting: Cafe There is a cafe, kitchen, and a bookstore in the basement. The group is so vibrant and active that they utilize not only the space of Mosque but also build network to promote business, Raise funds for community needs like Education through selling game tickets and a lot more. Not to forget the DVDs and journals of Imam Muhammad who is the Man behind this community. Changing roles and speakers Each week a new person takes over...

Each month Atlas Service corps organises training and workshops for the fellows. the set up is good because it gives a unique theory -practical - transition and also takes care of our learning needs. First we were given "How to change the world" the famous book in citizen sector, written by David Bornstein, it gave us an overview of the 'Social Entreprenuerism' and some very good stories of people who are changing the world around them. Then we met Mark the founder of genocide International network, This guy is awesome in terms of how he mobilises support from people, we learned about how he built his network based on a simple idea and strong compassion. I like the genocide hotline started by him, its number is 1800-genocide ! easy to remember. Grant seeking basics were another workshop, that we attended in Foundation Centre, I was amazed by the detail and data about grants available in the center. one can easily use the online resources on a very reasonable rates. vi...

Recently launched America’s Giving Challenge is very exciting for me, it urges me to use technology as a way of inspiring people to support causes they care about. The Case Foundation and Parade Magazine started this challenge, which runs from now through January 31, 2008. The challenge is motivating individuals to champion causes they care about and raising donations online using Web 2.0 tools. What you see in the upper right corner of this page is a widget, one example of Web 2.0 tools. Now it is very easy to spread the word about your cause. Better get your tool box ready with latest and fine tools if you want to make BIG things happen! What is exciting about the challenge is that the eight “fundraisers” attracting the greatest number of donations for their causes will each get $50,000 for their chosen cause, and the 100 causes that receive the most donations will each get $1,000. Global Giving & Network for Good are the two partners selected by Case and Parade to support the ...

Let me tell you about my latest experience of "learning to learn”. I wanted to read about the latest things in the citizen sector as there are so many so many things happening in DC. Specially at this time of the year, when so much Giving takes place because of religion festivals and tax benefits etc. So I was struggling with whether I should use the search engines or subscribe news letter or ask somebody what to read My house mate Sergio told me about Craig list foundation, Robert told me about a couple of news letter and blogs & every day we encounter on or two good websites to keep us abreast about the new trends in the sector etc so I was regularly saving links and useful mails. As a result my mail box started filling with unread mails why? Because I never used to get enough time to read all that I wanted to read. Then today I finally explored the Google reader! (After hearing its name from three or four people) it’s simply great to have all your reading supply on a single...