Watching several conversations unfold related to open data, and open data standards, for the philanthropic sector. I caught up with most of them just last night, and had a hard time falling asleep. It's fantastic to feel the momentum shift from either-or questions about whether an organization should be transparent or not, to the kind of nuanced Q&A engaged in here. Of course, I'm excited, especially, for the potential to more broadly encourage data standards for the nonprofit sector (see Marnie Webb's post especially). Looking forward to linking that topic more explicitly into Social Actions' Open Actions XML initiative in future posts.

For now, some quick links:

Lucy Bernholz responds to Lawrence Lessig's recent article "Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government." with a post that asks "What are the downsides of transparency? Which of these are due to technology or existing legal frameworks, and which of them come from elsewhere, from our norms and assumptions about how giving works or what philanthropy is for? And what scenarios can we imagine from greater data sharing that we'd prefer to avoid?"

Alison Fine on nonprofits and transparency ("Nonprofits need to begin to ask themselves questions about transparency to guide their work.")

Rachel Weidinger proposes an NTEN panel that would provide nonprofits a ""basic framework of things to consider including identity and anonymity, digital inclusion and access, community management, taxonomy, content ownership, and your data ecosystem" among other things (it's a very robust proposal, I hope you'll check it out).

Marnie Webb pulls inspiration all of the above to tentatively suggest "aggressively sharing our data, collecting and share the representative stories and, agreeing on some data standards across the sector so that we can achieve the dream of having simplified, relevant data that informs decision-makers and provides support to the social changes we seek."

Peter Campbell ties the issue of transparency to that of security, reminding us that the appropriateness of data-sharing is linked to the organization's mission.

And Beth Kanter asks about the pros and cons of nonprofit dashboards (data presentation), interesting in its own right but especially because Holly Ross reveals in the comments that one for NTEN might be on its way (woot!).
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On her Philanthropy 2173 blog, Lucy Bernholz recently posted a request for "examples of networks that have made some kind of positive social change happen. Ideally these are networks that:

* Consist of unaffiliated individuals, not coalitions or alliances of existing nonprofits
* Made something concrete, and socially positive, happen
* Continue to exist after making a change - so they are more than 'just' a protest group (this is the hardest one to find)"

I have to think that My Social Actions members are especially familiar with these kinds of networks. Manny Hernandez' Tu Diabetes and Juan Carlos Zaldivar's Art Tribes Network come quickly to mind. Tori Tuncan has already added Lend4Health to Lucy's list, and I proposed Social Actions, which grew out of a loosely-affiliated network that came together in a Google group.

What other networks should be added to Lucy's list? Hop over to the blog post and leave a comment with your suggestions.

The Social Actions suggestion prompted Lucy to ask a follow-up question that's also of interest to My Social Actions members and got me thinking:

"Seems that many of the examples we can find are about human networks + tech tools so that organizing happens more easily, faster, and on a grander scale. It is also much more distributed organizing. So if that is what we can learn from what has already happened, can we "apply" them prospectively to hypothesize about how change might happen on tangible, nearby challenges (homelessness, prenatal care, job training....)."

How do you see your local initiatives affected by the availability of tech tools, if at all (yet)? Are you seeing groups make use of mobile phone technology, social media, and tools like the Social Actions API to gather and mobilize resources for on-the-ground efforts? If that's a ways off -- and I suspect that for most communities it is -- what do expect that "change-making" will look like?

One of the things I'm struck by, when I talk with local nonprofit-development-charitable organizations, is how dismissive they are about social media and online tools as a resource for what they're doing locally. If they've always been able to get by with phone calls, check-writing, and an occasional emailed newsletter and article in the local paper, why should they deal with the challenge of figuring out Facebook or Firstgiving pages? If their cause and work are geographically centralized, why should they leverage technologies that are clearly about connecting with people far away?

So I'm contacted daily by nonprofits from far away, using these tools to connect with me where I am. And I hear very little from the organizations in my town because if I'm not already on their email list, and miss the blurb in the local paper about their next event, I'm out of the loop.

(Technologically) distributed organizing and communication doesn't have to mean (geographically) distributed impact. The more quickly that's understood, the more quickly we'll see a groundswell of networks + tools + transformation.
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Today, we added five new action sources to the Social Actions API, an open database of opportunities to make a difference. For a full list and profiles of the latest innovators contributing to Social Actions, please see Our Guide to 60+ Action Sources.

As part of this update, we're excited to announce that Social Actions has connected to the WiserEarth API. Applications powered by the Social Actions API can now feature rich information about job opportunities and events from across the global WiserEarth community. We built a similar plugin for the DonorsChoose.org API in the fall of last year.

Welcome to all of the new partners!

New Action Sources

ChristianVolunteering.org -> Volunteer
GetInvolved -> Support a campaign
Givology -> Donate
PopTech -> Join a group
WiserEarth -> Apply for a job & Attend an event

The Full List of Action Sources Contributing to Social Actions

Amazee
Apathy is Boring
betterplace
BringLight
CanadaHelps
Care2 Petition Site
Celsias
Change.org
Changents
ChangingthePresent
CharityFocus
ChristianVolunteering.org
ChristmasFuture
ClimatePath
Delicious
DemocracyInAction
DonorsChoose.org
Do Something
DreamBank
Earth Justice
Firstgiving
FREEDOM SPEAKS
Fundable
GetInvolved
GiveIndia
GiveMeaning
Givology
GlobalGiving
GlobalGiving UK
Greater Good SA
Helpalot
ideablob.com
Idealist
Kiva
KnightPulse
Lend4Health
Live Earth
MicroGiving
Modest Needs
NABUUR
NGO Post
OptINnow
PincGiving
PledgeBank
Policy Pitch
PopTech
Prax.ca
Razoo
SASIX
SixDegrees
Stop Climate Chaos
TakingITGlobal
ThePoint
Twitter
VolunteerMatch
WildlifeDirect
WiserEarth
Wokai
YouthNoise
Zazengo
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