PTP Blog

Amanda’s got a question about interesting use of Google Maps by community organizing groups.

I started to respond over there, but think elevating the conversation out of a comment thread is probably worthwhile since I think there are some folks reading here that aren’t reading over there, and I’d really like them (if you’re not sure if you’re included in that them, you are) to weigh in on this.

So this is what little I know on the subject: mapping mashups just haven’t reached into the organizations we know doing anything with GIS.

I think there are a few reasons for that.

1. online mapping tools have only very recently reached a point where you can do interesting things with them.
2. Organizations that do mapping a lot already have a great deal invested in their present toolset and workflow.
3. The advantages of online mapping “mashups” are unclear versus more traditional GIS mapping software.

I’ll expand a bit on each of these points: continue reading…

Hot on the heels of my new found fascination with the Web 2.0 logo generator comes this Official Seal Generator.

and because humor, especially mine, doesn’t translate well on the web, there is no COaTI Alumni Association, and this graphic is just a (not very funny) joke.

We saw Spike Lee’s documentary on the Katrina last week. While it’s very moving, he left an important part of the story untold. Gulf Coast people have been engaging in large scale grassroots organizing in response to the hurricane and the colossal missteps by the governments involved. The documentary is incomplete without coverage of Common Ground, PICO, ACORN and People’s Hurricane Relief.

so, we’re spinning up for another COaTI program launching in a few months and concluding sometime next year from the looks of it.

COaTI is one of PTP’s core training programs, and its a multi-session, multi-day extravaganza.  When we run COaTI, we bring together 15 organizations, as you can imagine, scheduling is. . . tricky.

Last year we started a decidedly low-tech system for scheduling that A) seems to be working, and B) is actually somewhat less work than calling back and forth between 15 organizations.

Here’s what we do: 

1. I print out calendars for a 6 to 9 month span of time during which we’d like to schedule the COaTI sessions.
2. I PDF that calendar and send it out to the participants, with instructions to cross off days on which they can’t attend a training, and a request to send it back to me.
3. Once I’ve got all the calendars, I merge the details back into a single calendar (using Outlook/iCal, recently Google Calendars because that makes it easy to share), and use the results of that merged calendar to pick dates. 

And as I said, the system is VERY low-tech, but so far, its worked better than anything else we’ve tried.

Earlier this week, I was talking to someone about spam and was asked why people do it.

This article from the BBC suggests an answer to that question: 

“Our analysis shows that spam works,” the team wrote.

“Among its millions of recipients are not only those who read it, but who also act upon it”

so there you have it.  The simple answer is that spammers spam because it works.  Read the article for more (surprising) detail.

as part of PTP’s Community Organizing and Technology Institute (COaTI) Program, we use a Drupal powered intranet website to help participants stay connected and share information and resources between sessions and after the program is over.  And lately, I’ve been wondering if Drupal is actually the best tool for the job. 

We went with Drupal because we didn’t really know what was going to happen, and Drupal seemed to give us the most flexibility in terms of being able to do things that we hadn’t anticipated. 

Three COaTI programs in, I find myself thinking that maybe Drupal isn’t the right choice as the program moves forward.  Mostly, this is because the actual usage that has evolved is much simpler than what is possible with Drupal.  I don’t know this for sure, but I suspect that we could do what’s needed with a simple online forum/bulletin board system.

So, what’s needed?  here’s the list I’m working from - anyone who’s participated in a COaTI, please jump in and suggest changes/disagree with me/etc. 

• ability to post questions and get answers from other COaTI participants - past and current
• ability to attach documents to posts
• ability to upload and share images/graphics
• ability to see a list of members along with some information about those members
• connection to email - you can email in posts
• connection to email #2 - posts are also sent out via a listserve, from the listserve you can respond on list and the email is connected back to originating post.

That last requirement is actually the one that has been most important, and its the one that I think only Drupal does (still).

This is filed under the brainstorming category.  Please share your thoughts.

just when you hoped it was going to be a quiet election season for the internet:

When Republican Sen. Conrad Burns briefly struggled to keep his eyes open at a Montana farm bill hearing last Thursday, a state Democratic party operative was right there taping it. Within hours, the video of Burns was on YouTube and available to viewers around the world.

Not at all surprising that campaigns are using YouTube and similar services for this kind of thing.  At a recent PTP training, I gained some insight into how groups are using MySpace in similar ways. 

I’d love to hear about community organizing groups that are doing any work with video along these lines - we generally see groups invest in putting their video content on their website.  What I’m curious about is the thought process behind releasing video on something like YouTube, where the audience is potentially larger, but the message, and importantly, the context, more dilute.  Maybe.  As I’ve said before, I don’t entirely grok this “new media” thing and how it intersects with the work that we do at PTP.

As noted in an earlier posting, I no longer have a mac, and so I’m wondering if the mac folks reading this blog can tell me if I’m right about something.

Earlier I’d posted about a networking/file sharing question.  Amanda was kind enough to respond with a link describing how to enable file sharing.  In that link (to Apple’s site), I got the impression that only the “Public Folder” was shared when you enable sharing.

Since then, I’ve done some more research, and here’s what I’m wondering:

1. If I turn on sharing and
2. Create user accounts for every user who will access shared files
3. Does that mean that folders outside of “Public folder” can be accessed if users login using the account that was created for them?

Do I have that right?  Thanks!

TechCamp seems like a lifetime away, and before my memory completely fails me, I wanted to jot down the larger lessons I carried away from TechCamp:

Really big “A HA” moments for me:

• Context is everything. Let me repeat that: “CONTEXT is EVERYTHING.”
• Facilities have to be viewed from the perspective of the participant least equipped to easily navigate the space - and they must be viewed not with the question “is it possible” but rather with the question “how will this facility: layout, travel between sessions, etc. impact our ability to have a good session.”
• Skip the workshop buffet.
• Taking apart computers (and putting them back together) is very empowering.
• Talking about software as a metaphor is a powerful concept for pulling back the curtain.

More details after the jump:

Warning: this is kind of long and rambly, and really directed to other folks doing training on technology as it relates to community organizing. continue reading…

I know that this question comes up a fair bit for many of you - even if you’ve already got a letterhead template set up in MS Word, check out the comments in this tutorial for some details, tricks, and tips that could make your life with letterhead much much easier. 

The tricks here make me want to go and have another look at PTP’s letterhead since multi-page docs get tricky with ours.

Create Letterhead Templates in MS Word from creativetechs