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The Internet as a Tool For Democracy? A Survey of Non-Profit Internet Decision-Makers and Web Users

First Monday is out and I'll resist linking to every article in this edition. Today, I'll just point to this one, by Linda Jean Kenix: The Internet as a Tool For Democracy? A Survey of Non-Profit Internet Decision-Makers and Web Users. The author asked a number of interesting questions about both behavior and opinion of nearly 700 people from mostly small nonprofit organizations. In particular, she focused on the creators of online content for the organizations, with an interest in six practices: promoting a cause, interacting with members, reaching potential donors, providing information, gathering information, and general interconnectedness. Definitely worth exploring. Posted: 7/8/08; 5:26:15 PM #

The State of Fundraising On-line: Results of a Giving USA Survey
	Melissa Brown has prepared an excellent summary of those results of the Giving USA Survey that relate most to The State of Fundraising On-line. If you find it useful to compare your organization to others, you'll find this very handy. Posted: 7/8/08; 5:09:53 PM #

Rights Like Free Speech Don't Always Extend Online

If you've tried to speak out in a mall, through signs or leaflets perhaps, then you know that free speech doesn't exist in private spaces, no matter how public they may appear. More and more of our public commons are in essence being subject to the same enclosures that drove people and their farm animals off of shared pastures during the industrial revolution. And as much as we may feel that there is more free speech online than off, in most of the large online services, this is not so true. In the newswire article entitled Rights Like Free Speech Don't Always Extend Online, we get a vivid sense of just how much like a mall many online forums actually are. Posted: 7/8/08; 4:54:55 PM #