Introduction

where the specific IT system might not be doing something especially exciting, but it's in the service of doing something that you care a great deal about.

Information support for public interest work
Natural outgrowth of difference in technology infrastructure.

Canada calls it 'the third sector.' Not profits, Non government. Private action in the public interest. Some group of people who have no official governmental mandate. Unofficially, they decide that "X would be good." "We think it would be better if there were more plays put on in Ann Arbor." NGOs abroad tend to focus on high-need missions. Not arts and theater NGOs in general. (???)

As a brief intro, I've been working on a project to develop a system to help manage food aid. As 70%+ of our programs involve food aid, it is a big issue and currently there isn't a system that wholistically deals with managing food aid informtation. So -- armed with good commentary from here and elsewhere, I pushed forward on the design. The accepted iteration is a combination of contact management, help desk and inventory / accounting functions that allows us to receive food, distribute it to centers and follow centers as they distribute to beneficiaries.

May 30-31. Details here.

vibrant, action-oriented dialogue among five communities (broadly defined):

1. Cutting edge futurists, innovators, developers, and mediastes
2. Leaders from both core technology and social web tool companies and from venture capital firms
3. Philanthropists
4. Public Interest Technology practitioners and supporters
5. Nonprofits and NGOs- large and small -- from the U.S. and the World - early
   adopting and on the cusp - united by a vibrant interest in
   understanding the potential of the social web and realizing that
   potential to accomplish their missions.

March 22-24 http://nten.org/ntc

What is the 2006 Nonprofit Technology Conference?

It's the premier conference for the sector and the best opportunity for anyone with an interest in helping nonprofits use technology more effectively to meet colleagues, collaborators, and clients; learn from each other and from leaders in the field; and share information and resources.

Sahana means "Relief" in Sinhalese.

As the name itself implies, Sahana is a free and open source Disaster Management System.It mainly facilitates management of Missing people, disaster victims, Managing and administrating various organizations, managing camps and managing requests and assistance in the proper distribution of resources.

http://cvs.opensource.lk/

As a brief introduction, I graduated in 2004 and was a very active member of the CIC. Since August, I have been in Benin, West Africa, working with Catholic Relief Services as an international development fellow. The work thus far has been eye-opening and overall a great experience for me even though I have found it incredibly frustrating.

To the project at hand. I was in Ann Arbor for Chrismas and had the opportunity to visit with professor Resnick. We were discussing a number of things including my current work and the CIC website. It came to mind that I might be able to use the site to get some feedback on my current project.

Guest speaker: Tom Reis, Program Officer, W. K. Kellogg Foundation

Check out the audio (mp3) and video (quicktime) recordings of the talk here.