FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Allen Gunn
Aspiration
press@aspirationtech.org
www.aspirationtech.org
Oakland, California, February 21, 2007 — Aspiration, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping create better software tools to empower those working towards a better world, is convening developers, technologists, managers, eRiders, integrators, users and other practitioners who self-identify under the umbrella of “nonprofit software development” for the 2007 Nonprofit Software Development Summit. The event will provide an opportunity both to gather as a community and to take stock of the field, while building connections and capacity.
Allen Gunn, Executive Director of Aspiration, says, “Software tools and technology that empower nonprofit and non-governmental organizations to carry out their mission have come a long way in the past 5 years. An event to convene, celebrate and connect the broad swath of players who have a stake in the development of software for nonprofits is long overdue.”
The Nonprofit Software Development Summit’s primary goals are:
- To convene and strengthen connections between the networks of stakeholders in the nonprofit software spectrum, providing a fun and creative environment for celebrating successes and leadership in the field.
- To share skills and knowledge in a highly collaborative, peer-to-peer fashion.
- To map and discuss what is available and what is missing across the nonprofit software landscape in specific software “verticals”, and to posit solutions for addressing the gaps.
- To offer a point of entry for software developers interested in offering their skills to the nonprofit sector.
Software Developers from the North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe are gathered for this event, taking place at Preservation Park in Oakland, California from February 21st through February 23rd.
Complete event details and background can be found at https://aspirationtech.org/events/devsummit07, and you are welcome to add your agenda thoughts to the event wiki at https://devsummit.aspirationtech.org.
Aspiration has partnered with many organizations to deliver sessions at the event, including: Blue Oxen Associates, Brattleboro Technology Collective, Caltha.pl (Warsaw, Poland), Chicago Technology Cooperative, CivicSpace, CiviCRM, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, DemocracyInAction, DotOrganize, Drupal, Floatleft, Fund for the City of New York, Grameen Foundation, Grassroots.org, Humaninet, Idealware, Leland Design, Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI), ONE/Northwest, Openflows Community Technology Lab, The Open Planning Project, OpenID, PICnet, Project Zero, protest.net, Radical Designs, Salesforce.com Foundation, Sulá Batsú (San Jose, Costa Rica), and Ujima Consultants.
About Aspiration: Aspiration is a global leader in the design and delivery of innovative technology gatherings for nonprofit and nongovernmental audiences. Our event philosophy and facilitation focus on maximizing collaboration and peer sharing, while making sparing use of one-to-many and several-to-many session formats such as presentations and panels. We believe the ultimate potential and power of any convening lie in the collective untapped knowledge and experience of the participants, and we strive to tap that vast store by maximizing dialog, creativity and idea exchange.
Over the past several years, we have convened and co-organized over 40 highly interactive events across the globe (www.aspirationtech.org/events/history). We focus agendas around user-oriented dialog that connects all the stakeholders in software design and development, and model our events to reflect the diverse and network-oriented nature of the communities we convene.
Aspiration is also developing the Social Source Commons (www.socialsourcecommons.org), a platform for collaboratively mapping and documenting the universe of software tools relevant to nonprofits and non-governmental organizations.
As part of our community building work, Aspiration operates the San Francisco Nonprofit Technology Center (www.sftechcenter.org). The Center is home to 6 organizations working in nonprofit and social change technology, and offers training and meeting space as well.
For more information about our work and programs, see www.aspirationtech.org.