Nonprofit Techies in New Orleans: Giving Back to the Community

Arial Goldberg, Common Knowledge, winner of video camera

I am in New Orleans this week because the Nonprofit Technology Conference hosted by NTEN is taking place.  For the past seven years, I've helped organize a pre-conference event called the Day of Service.   The Day of Service is an opportunity for nonprofit techies to share their expertise or volunteer for a local organization on a specific project.

This year, more than 80 nonprofit techies worked with 30 nonprofits in New Orleans.  The morning started with strategy consults at the conference hotel where representatives from local organizations met individually with nonprofit technology experts and got advice on a wide range of topics, from online fundraising to databases.

Another team of nonprofit techies helped install a wireless network at the Community Center St. Bernard, thanks to a generous donation from Cisco Systems.  Once the network was up and running, a second group of 20 nonprofit techies road took the bus down to the Community Center and worked with local residents in the community computer center on internet skills and other computer skills.

The final event of the day was a video blogging workshop for local nonprofits given by Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson.   As part of the workshop, there was a contest to giveaway a video camera.  Organizations were asked to submit a brief proposal on how they would use the camera to enhance their work in New Orleans.  The lucky winner was Common Knowledge with this proposal:

Common Knowledge proposes to develop the Neighborhood Digital Archive, which will create and catalog video documentation of neighborhood planning meetings, allowing residents and displaced New Orleanians to access information about their neighborhoods via video recordings and agendas of meetings provided on a single web site.

All in all, a great day for local nonprofits and nonprofit techies alike.

Now, off to find the photos and video streams and utterz. 

Comments

[Neha]

Hey Beth! You can definitely give local organizations some great insights around online fundraising. I love the idea that people who have been displaced can engage with their community as it rebuilds!

What a wonderful project - as usual great work!