Citizen Speak Fundraising campaign is almost there

<p>OK, I feel remiss that I haven't mentioned this earlier but I have been super Busy.</p> <p>here is the Deal, [lk:citizenspeak.org|CitizenSpeak] = excellent<br /> I donated to the campaign to get the software rebuilt and ported to the drupal framework. Jo Lee is looking for a total of $1500 to pay a developer and she is now only $200 from the goal. </p> <p>Please consider making a donation.</p> <p>Here is the original message from Jo Lee:<br /> <cite><br /> For the past three years, CitizenSpeak has enabled grassroots organizations and individual activists to launch free MoveOn-like email campaigns across the US. Now CitizenSpeak needs your help. CitizenSpeak is seeking $1500 for a much needed systems upgrade to lower maintenance costs and support new services.</cite></p> <p><cite>Please help support this project by making a Tax-Deductible donation by going to <a href="http://tinyurl.com/dtnwj" title="http://tinyurl.com/dtnwj">http://tinyurl.com/dtnwj</a><br /> </cite><br /> <cite>In return for your donation, CitizenSpeak will publish its source code as an open source Drupal/CivicSpace module.</cite></p> <p><cite>To learn more about CitizenSpeak, please visit <a href="http://www.citizenspeak.org" title="http://www.citizenspeak.org">http://www.citizenspeak.org</a>, and/or add your comments at the wiki for this project – <a href="http://www.gnerd.net:2500/citizenspeak/show/HomePage" title="http://www.gnerd.net:2500/citizenspeak/show/HomePage">http://www.gnerd.net:2500/citizenspeak/show/HomePage</a>.<br /> </cite><br /> <cite>If you have any questions, feel free to contact Jo Lee at +1.401.338.5445 or jo_lee _at_ citizenspeak _dot_ org<br />...

I am Not Alone: Newsday article on street fairs

<p>[via <a href="http://sarahgarland.com/BigBite.pdf">BigBite.pdf (application/pdf Object)</a>]:</p> <p><cite></cite> </p><p>This is a PDF of an article that ran abotu 2 weeks ago in newsday. The article is a mixed bag in my crusade against street fairs. It seems that Manhattanites hate them (I am joined by Sue Goren, fellow NYU alum) and outerborough parents of small children love them. </p> <p>Street fairs are also not all "wine and roses" or should i saiy "zeppole and silk flowers" for the vendors. One pair in the article is trying to make lemonade of lemons (literally) and is not having much luck turning a profit.</p> <p>So, if it isn't such good business for the vendors, and the neighbors hate them, then why are we plagues by them? Perhaps teh non profits and charities that "sponsor" the street fairs need to get a little feedback from their community.</p> <p>And here is a little back of the envelope math: according to the article, the charities net between $1000 and $15,000 from these events, there are 388 total, so if we assume that the average net is something like $5k, that is about $2 million total. Why not just set up a fund for these charities and they can make an application for funding. I bet that delivery companies and private citizens alike would contribute to such a fund, a <i>Community Chest</i> if you will. It is literally 25 cents each from all the 8 million people in new...

The Fall Will Be Further and Harder Than Ever Before

<p><cite>As Prime Minister Tony Blair has said, in this new economy, “Talent is the 21st century wealth.� If you’ve got the skills, you’ve got the education, and you have the opportunity to upgrade and improve both, you’ll be able to compete and win anywhere. If not, the fall will be further and harder than it ever was before.<br /> So what do we do about this? How does America find its way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be?</cite></p> <p>That is from Barak Obama's [l:http://www.knox.edu/obamaaddress.xml|commencement address to Knox College] which you can listen to [l:http://www.rklau.com/tins/podcasts/Obama%20Commencement%20at%20Knox%20College.mp3|here]</p> <p>An here is some more<br /> <cite>What if we prepared every child in America with the education and skills they need to compete in the new economy? If we made sure that college was affordable for everyone who wanted to go? If we walked up to those Maytag workers and we said “Your old job is not coming back, but a new job will be there because we’re going to seriously retrain you and there’s life-long education that’s waiting for you—the sorts of opportunities that Knox has created with the Strong Futures scholarship program.</cite></p> <p><cite>What if no matter where you worked or how many times you switched jobs, you had health care and a pension that stayed with you always, so you all had the flexibility to move to a better job or start a new business? What if instead of cutting budgets for research and development and science, we fueled the genius and the innovation that will lead to the new jobs and new industries of the future?</cite></p>...

More on themeing drupal civicspace

<p>Ian Ward over at [lk:developmentseed.org] just posted a good article with some [l:http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/node/287|tips on themeing].</p> <p>He makes a good point, read [l:http://drupal.org/node/509|the documentation on...

CivicSpace Virtual Skills Share Audio: Themes

<p>You can download the audio of the Skills Share call on Archive.org<br /> <a href="http://www.archive.org/download/skillsshares/CivicSpaceVirtSkillsShare_Themes.mp3" title="http://www.archive.org/download/skillsshares/CivicSpaceVirtSkillsShare_Themes.mp3">http://www.archive.org/download/skillsshares/CivicSpaceVirtSkillsShare_T…</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?collection=opensource_audio&collectionid=skillsshares"...