Past Events

2006

San Francisco, California USA April 2006

March 2006

Expand

Penguin Day Seattle took place on March 25th in downtown Seattle. Almost 90 participants joined in the festivities, which included a rich agenda. News Forge provided some excellent coverage. Penguin Day Seattle pictures are posted on Flickr. The mischief makers over at PICnet also perpetrated a little pre-PD mischief. We’re in the planning stages for inaugural Penguin Days in Boston and Washington DC, and well as the second PD San Francisco.

January 2006

Expand

The Innovation Funders Network 2006 Summit took place in San Francisco on January 30th & 31st. Aspiration was honored and delighted to direct the agenda and oversee event facilitation.

The event convened funders, invited affiliate organizations and thought leaders from around the world at Wharton West in San Francisco to explore the role of innovation and networks in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Over 100 participants, coming from a range of perspectives and experiences, discussed challenges and opportunities across the fast-changing landscape of innovation funding.

Over the past decade, the emergence of the internet, cellular phones and other innovations in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) has brought about profound social and economic change. We are now living in a networked society. These networks provide new ways to collaborate, express ourselves politically and culturally, address social and economic issues, and build local and global communities. The event addressed a range of topics, including:

the use of ICTs in recent humanitarian relief efforts, online advocacy, community Internet, telecentres and community technology centers.
innovative uses of networks to deliver social and humanitarian services, advocate policy positions, communicate with constituents and the media, build collaborations and raise funds.
How do we ensure access? How do we equitably distribute benefits enabled by these networks? How do we foster innovation communities within the social sectors? How do we scale these innovations across issue areas and geographic regions?
different funding models including traditional and corporate philanthropy, social venture, peer to peer investing, online fundraising, microfinance. We will explore the use of these networks to foster collaboration amongst funders.

Kalangala, Uganda January 2006

Expand

Aspiration managed the facilitation of Africa Source II, an eight-day hands-on workshop aimed at building the technical skills of those working with and within NGOs on the African continent. The event took place on Kalangala Island on Victoria Lake, working with our favorite collaborators and event organizers, Tactical Technology Collective, and in partnership with local organizations including Wougnet and Linux Solutions.

Aspiration Executive Director Allen Gunn was interviewed about Africa Source II by Tectonic and News Forge. Photos from the event can be viewed with the Flickr tag africasource2.

Africa Source II focused on how technology, in particular Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) can be integrated into the project work of NGO’s. Over a hundred thirty NGO Support Professionals and NGO Staff working at the local level across the region were present at this meeting. Together with a handful of field leaders from Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, they explored how technology can best serve the non-profit sector in Africa both in terms of access and content.

2005

November 2005

Expand

The Telecentre Leaders Forum brought together those working in telecentres, running telecentre networks, and doing telecentre research, and provided a venue for people from across the globe with a passion for grassroots technology to connect, share stories and swap practical ideas. Aspiration led facilitation across four days of collaborative workshops, following an agenda co-designed with Telecentre.org and their partner network.

November 2005

October 2005

Expand

Aspiration designed the agenda and facilitated this event, where participants explored strategies for community participation in municipal projects and creating community demand for wireless services through education and outreach. The Summit brought together representatives from community based organizations, activists, community technology and wireless experts, community Internet policy advocates, and local policymakers.Our objective is to build a statewide network of advocates working to bring Internet access and resources to all Californians.

September 2005

Expand

Aspiration and Green Media Toolshed convened a working session of global activists, communications staff, technology experts, and foundation staff to mine a wide variety of experience, expertise and vision. The goal of the MobileActive was to explore the power of the cell phone as an organizing and campaign communication tool with leading activists from all over the world; to share knowledge, stories, and strategies; and accelerate the use of cell phones as a successful tool in campaigns, human rights efforts and field organizing. Activists from across the world including Africa, South Korea, the Philippines, India, the Ukraine, and the Americas participated in the first-of-its-kind event.

September 2005

Expand

At the invitation of Bellanet’s Harambee project, Aspiration offered a second training in our event facilitation methodology for nonprofit technology gatherings. Participants explored how the Aspiration approach can be used to build or strengthen collaborative networks, and to lay the foundation for concrete online and offline post-event collaboration, including the effective use of wikis and other online tools used to produce documentation in real time during face to face events. The workshops also provided a springboard for planning subsequent Harambee events via the Aspiration process.

August 2005

Oakland, California USA July 2005

June 2005

Expand

At the invitation of IDRC and Telecentre.org, Aspiration trained other facilitators in key elements of the event facilitation methodology that Aspiration has developed for nonprofit technology gatherings such as Developer Convergences, sprints, Source Camps, and Penguin Days. Particular emphasis was placed on exploring how the Aspiration approach can be used to build or strengthen collaborative networks, and to lay the foundation for concrete online and offline post-event collaboration, through the effective use of wikis and other online tools used to produce documentation in real time during face to face events. The workshops also provided a springboard for telecentre.org and IDRC planning processes and the development of a ‘facilitation for networks’ methodology which has since been used to organize other events.

May 2005

Expand

PD in the Big Apple was big fun, with a diverse group of participants and facilitators. Co-organized by Aspiration in partnership with the LINC Project of the Welfare Law Center and United Way of New York City, the event included sessions on Introduction to Free and Open Source Software for Nonprofits, Local resources and who’s-who in the New York Free/Open Source community, e-Advocacy platforms and best practices, Selecting an operating system, and Free and Open Source migration strategies, and a spirited “Speed Geeking” extravaganza.

April 2005

Expand

The first west coast Penguin Day, co-organized by Aspiration and CompuMentor, was held in Oakland and brought nonprofit staff, eRiders, and open source practitioners and developers together for fun, dialog and skill-sharing. A particular focus of this Penguin Day was the role free and open source software plays in hardware recycling, with sessions offered by FreeGeek, Technology Rescue, and Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation (HOSEF). Other sessions addressed CRM solutions for nonprofits, eAdvocacy tools, open content, and yet another round of madcap “Speed Geeking”

March 2005

Expand

Aspiration is organizing a track of 14 sessions and clinics on technology innovation in the nonprofit sector at the NTEN National Technology Conference in Chicago.

The NTC is the largest nonprofit tech conference and aimed at IT staff in nonprofits and the people supporting nonprofits and their IT needs. The Aspiration Innovation Track at the NTC will focus on these themes:

Project/Risk Management: How to you choose software? How do you manage IT projects in your organization? How do you decide whether to build/buy/or bend? How to you manage risk?
Innovation Slams: Learn about tools while having some fun! Partake in Aspiration's famous SpeedGeeks and clinics;
Free and Open Source Software--cheaper, better, faster software tools and development for nonprofits? Why is open source innovative? How do you leverage f/oss for nonprofit organizations?
What’s next for nonprofit technology and software innovation? What's up and coming that NPO techies should be aware of? What do we need to realize the potential of IT for our organizations?

Sessions include: Blogs and RSS, Content Management with Open Source Software, and Successful Project Management of Web Development Projects, to name just a few.

Clinics and speed geeks feature security tools, blogging, taming your website with a CMS, and using Linux in your organization.

Please contact us at info at aspirationtech dot org if you are interested in participating in this track or like to see specific topics covered in the sessions.

We and the designated session designer welcome your input, ideas, and suggestions for this series!

February 2005

January 2005

Expand

Asia Source I was convened by the Tactical Technology Collective in partnership with Mahiti.org and Aspiration. Aspiration managed design of the agenda, and led facilitation of the event, which was aimed at building the technical skills of those working with NGOs in South and South East Asia. The event brought together nearly 100 NGOs and NGO technology support professionals working at the local level across the region, to act as a focal point in increasing the practical uptake of FOSS desktop and tools amongst the voluntary sector in South and South East Asia.

2004

December 2004

Expand

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) offers a promising alternative for meeting the software needs of civil society across the African continent. But much work remains to be done in building understanding, capacity and community among developers interested in creating tools to support the sector.

The first FLOSS Developer Roadshow convened African software developers to meet one another, share skills and build knowledge, while designing and implementing appropriate tools for civil society. The event was aimed at meeting sustainable development needs while enhancing the pool of appropriate software skills in the regions. Participants left with with a better understanding of the potential and reality of FLOSS for civil society, new expertise and an enhanced network of contacts and potential collaborators.

Allen Gunn of Aspiration facilitated the event. The Developer Roadshow was hosted by our colleagues at CSIR and supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute.

Warsaw, Poland November 2004

November 2004

Cape Town, South Africa October 2004

Expand

Aspiration designed the agenda and facilitated this convergence of developer and users of the ActionApps web publishing platform, who traveled from all over the world to discuss the vision and direction for the platform, and plan for capacity building and sustainability of their open source community. Focus areas including training materials development, support for online advocacy features, multi-lingual web sites, and hands-on skillshares. The content management system (CMS) landscape was mapped and discussed, and user survey results were presented.

September 2004

August 2004

San Francisco, California USA June 2004

Expand

The first Advocacy Developers Convergence brought together developers and allies focused on internet advocacy software. The convergence yielded a valuable and popular web resource (wiki.advocacydev.org) that continues to grow in popularity, has led several projects to merge efforts and share code, and has generated several new projects, including an open database initiative for shared data standards, an Open Source Almanac for nonprofits, a localization working group, and applications from the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and SMS (Short Message Services) sprint events.

June 2004

March 2004

Expand

Penguin Days were established with the intent to bring together open source developers and technology support staff for nonprofits. The first in March 2004 began an important conversation about the challenges and opportunities extant in realizing the promise of free and open source software in the nonprofit sector. The event spawned a host of similar gatherings in Portland (Oregon), London, Toronto, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Seattle. Aspiration created replicable, self-documenting materials for local organizations to run the events, with the intention of adapting the process and content model to other types of events.

2006

2005

2004

Pages