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Maryland Troopers Put Peace Activists on Terror Lists

I can't quite believe that I'm linking to the Washington Times, but they have good coverage of how Maryland troopers spied on activist groups and put people on lists marked with "crimes" such as "terrorism - anti govern(ment)" and "terrorism - anti-war protestors". These are people who attend meetings of small nonprofit organizations concerned with U.S. foreign policy. The focus in the article is on the state troopers, but don't we have to ask why these categories are even listed as "crimes" in the first place? There are over a million people on these lists now (no doubt you know and work with several people on them) and the utter political purpose of the lists has reached a level of absurd obviousness. Posted: 7/28/08; 5:00:20 PM #

Helping the Almost-Journalists Do Journalism

As mainstream journalism continues its sad descent into cronyism, civil society organizations (either in partnership with the media or alone) are stepping up to the need for genuine investigation and analysis. While this does return us somewhat to the early days of partisan journalism, I'm not entirely sure this is a bad idea. And for those organizations that find themselves becoming a kind of investigative news operation, Dan Gilmorr has some decent advice. I also recommend you follow the link to Ethan Zuckerman's concerns about the sustainability of the current rise of nonprofit journalism. Posted: 7/28/08; 4:54:03 PM #

The Web Will Not Kill Traditional Organizing

I have studied and taught traditional community organizing and I tend to think of the Internet as a powerful tool for those strategies. Thus I get a little frustrated by some of the arguments that suggest there is an inherent conflict between the two. Nevertheless, while it may not be inherent, there is indeed a conflict, with some arguing that online tools encourage disconnected individualism and others saying the old strategies are passe. I was pleased to read Michael Connery's The Web Will Not Kill Traditional Organizing, in which he shows pretty clearly that this is a false dichotomy. Posted: 7/28/08; 4:39:13 PM #

Should Your Nonprofit Use Social Networking Sites?

My basic rule for whether a nonprofit should have a strategy for social networking sites is whether the organization's stakeholders are using such sites. In Should Your Nonprofit Use Social Networking Sites?, IdealWare's Brett Bonfield offered some additional advice, including these six signs that you should not be using such sites: (1) You're still trying to get a handle on your basic software infrastructure. (2) Your target audiences aren't using social networking tools. (3) You don't have time to experiment with something that might not work. (4) You're not willing to deal with technologies that don't work as well as they could. (5) You're not ready to invest in gaining a real understanding of the medium. (6) You want clear editorial control over your brand and message. Posted: 7/28/08; 4:34:40 PM #

What obligation? Maximise what?

I'm no fan of the corporate model, largely because of the way that it insulates people from personal responsibility for their actions. In What obligation? Maximise what?, Daniel Davies has written a great rant on the topic of whether (for profit) corporate executives are obliged to maximize shareholder value at the expense of everything else. The facts appear to be that corporate leaders can pretty much get away with justifying anything (I won't end the sentence there) as being in the long term interest of their shareholders, including things that might actually be in the public interest. How fascinating. Posted: 7/28/08; 4:27:59 PM #

Amnesty Int'l Focuses on Americans' Voting Rights

You know your democracy is in trouble when Amnesty International Starts focusing on voting rights in your country. What country am I talking about? The United States of America. Despite the best efforts of hundreds of civil society organizations, thousands and thousands of people across the U.S. (especially in so-called swing states) are being removed from the voting rolls. The mechanisms for counting votes are less and less transparent. The ballot box is one of the republic's insurance policies against violent change. (Nonviolent non-cooperation, an arguably still more powerful alternative, is increasingly suppressed by violence or the threat thereof in this country.) This makes me wonder if our policy is about to lapse. Posted: 7/28/08; 4:01:17 PM #