International

Social Source Commons will apply "del.icio.us and flickr-style tagging and social networking to the tasks of enumerating, categorizing, finding, and collaboratively documenting software tools relevant to nonprofit needs".

Going live in June, it has been tested by sector techies around the globe, and may make it easier to locate useful specialist software, and also identify needs. http://www.aspirationtech.org.

(Source: Information Systems Forum)

Online reissues of classic books and articles on philanthropy, nonprofits, civil society and related topics are being made available by Harvard's Philanthropy Classics Access Project. While it doesn't explicitly say so, we guess that most texts will be from the United States.

A few are available already - http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/hauser/philanthropyclassics/.

(Source: Chapel and York Grants and Resources email)

Why voluntary organisations attract bad press while 'good news' is ignored, reasons for their higher vulnerability and what can be done about it.

These are the focus of 'Trust, But Cut the Cards', an article first published in the Nonprofit Online News Journal: http://news.gilbert.org/TrustButCutCards.

The local e-democracy national project is the only one of 22 local e-government projects to get significant continued funding. A new centre of excellence will initially be based in North Lincolnshire, with its remit expanding to community groups and parishes as well as local councils. One of the 3 workstreams includes developing products for engaging communities online, such as the rollout of the Voice suite of web site building software - http://www.e-democracy.gov.uk/voice.

The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law is a quarterly publication, available online at http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/ijnl/index.htm.

A limited donation programme of Cisco networking equipment is on offer to UK charities working in the International Development field on projects that address basic human needs, access to education and healthcare provision (the largest charities are excluded). There is an admin fee of 8% of retail value.

See Charity Technology Trust at http://www.ctt.org/cisco_shop.

'Strengthening Global Civil Society' is a research paper from the Institute for Public Policy Research which argues that "while global civil society is not inherently progressive there are plenty of recent examples" and identifies ways that progressive forces can be strengthened.

Download in pdf (188kb) via http://www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=447.

(Source: VSSN list)

Organisations in the United States are attempting to create a national platform for U.S. nonprofits, to:

• Forge a common identity based on shared values;
• Develop a unified vision and message;
• and Exercise a collective voice.

The Nonprofit Congress will hold Town Hall meetings around the country leading up to a national meeting in October. http://www.nonprofitcongress.org.