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This New York Times editorial is a must-read for all online activists. Thomas Friedman writes about Environmental Defense and NRDC’s success in using online tools & techniques to fight TXU (big Texas power company) from building 11 “coal-fired, CO2-belching power plants”. Through the use of a campaign Web site with email newsletters, the partners were able to turn a local energy issue into a global environmental issue and gain a seat at the table to help TXU restructure its plans. Not only is it a facinating case study, but we all owe Environmental Defense and NRDC our gratitude. TXU “agreed to cut the number of new TXU coal plants from 11 to 3, to support a U.S. cap on greenhouse gas emissions and to commit TXU to plowing $400 million into energy-efficiency programs and doubling its purchase of wind power.” That’s a win for all of us. To read the editorial, you must have a “Times Select” subscription. Or here’s a link to a reprint on the free Pasadena Star News.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both helped legitimize online social networking for serious purposes by baking collaborative opportunities into the core of their campaign — inviting supporters to friend-raise, fundraise, and even express themselves in their own words under the candidate’s banner.

There’s a sharp partisan divide over the wisdom of all this, it seems. Pete Cashmore is reporting over on Mashable that Illinois State Senator Matt Murphy (R-27, Palatine) is seeking to flat out ban social networking sites in libraries, schools, etc… This move comes on the heels of Ted “Tubes” Stevens related efforts in DC. I doubt either of these gentlemen will be mimicking Obama and Clinton’s campaign strategies for the 08 elections.

So Republicans, I’m not sure what you have against online social networking, but here’s a proposition for you. You keep Fox News and Druge Report, and leave YouTube and all those other undisciplined social networking sites to the Democrats. Each party competes for the hearts and minds of the voters in their respective channels — and the winner get Congress and the White House.

Sound good? Now check out the traffic trends (Hat tip: Alexa) below. Still sound good?

You may have heard about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) recent approval of the AT&T-BellSouth merger. One of the conditions that the FCC placed on the meger was guaranteed net neutrality on its broadband service for the next two years. Net Neutrality refers to the battle against charging Web site owners extra for high-speed delivery and preserving the ability (the right) for equal access to even the smallest Web site. It’s the big telecom companies (AT&T, TimeWarner, Comcast, etc.) who are pushing for a tiered pricing system that will enable those who can pay to make their sites as fast as possible. You can learn more about Net Neutrality at www.savetheinternet.com and about the AT&T-BellSouth story at
www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1028_3-6146678.html.

The blogosphere is abuzz this week with rumors that Microsoft will debut the its Internet Explorer 7 in the coming days or weeks. What’s significant is that some insiders now believe that Microsoft will "push" IE7 as an update to the current browser, effectively foisting it on current IE users rather than waiting for consumers to replace their computers or upgrade to the long awaited Vista operating system.

So what would it mean for nonprofit organizations if large numbers of their supporters suddently migrate to IE7? Quite a bit. The new Internet Explorer includes a native feed reader, and its debut will expose to this communications channel for the first time.

The move comes at a time it is becoming an increasingly uphill battle to successfully deliver emails to supporters and get them to open them. Once the general Internet using public becomes accustomed to subscribing to feeds, it is likely that they will demand that nonprofit organizations offer enewsletters and other communication activities on this more secure channel.

This will be a mixed blessing for nonprofit organizations that have worked hard to build large email lists of donors and activists. Nonprofits will enjoy the ease of delivering audio and video to their supporters via feeds, and feeds enhance other online collaboration tools like wikis, blogs, and social networking sites. On the other hand, consumers will be attracted to the higher degree of privacy and security that feeds offer and it may become even harder for nonprofits to determine who is supporting them and track their activities.

We’ll be watching these developments very closely!

Washington DC�??s NetTuesday meetup was yesterday. (Aside: Wondering why NetTuesday is always on a Wednesday in DC? Michael Silberman, our hardworking organizer, says that it is so that we don�??t conflict with another Tuesday event in the region.) We had two speakers for this session - Jeff Regen from Defenders of Wildlife and Rosalyn Lemieux from MoveOn.org.

Jeff Regen talked about the Earth Day Virtual March that Defenders and Care2 had done. Jeff�??s advice? A virtual march can be successful if you had a good single/focused topic and good technology behind it. Defenders had a lot of bells and whistles for their virtual march - ipod every week for the activists who got more visitors to sign up, ability to choose and personalize your banner, etc. This reminded me of the AFSCME’s Stop Health Care Cuts Virtual March that we helped implement a while ago.

Rosalyn Lemieux talked about MoveOn.org�??s Save Darfur Virtual March that was to coincide with the actual event. She advised the organizers to think long and hard about why you want to do something like this. A petition campaign can be viral only if feel fulfilled doing something and proud about what they did that they would want to show it to their friends and family. What stood out for me in this was that she said that MoveOn.org does not pass through petition campaign emails directly to anyone. Instead, they plan for a �??delivery event�?� that involves the member community, is harder to ignore, and gets local press. Very useful tip if you are thinking of any petition campaigns.

Washington DC�??s NetTuesday (which happens on a Wednesday ;)) gatherings are becoming larger and Michael is doing a great job of getting interesting speakers. So, if you are in the area, join up. There are a few other sessions around the country. See if there is one in your area on http://netsquared.meetup.com/.

Today�??s Washington Post has an interesting article titled New Trends In Online Traffic: Visits to Sites for Blogging, Local Information and Social Networks Drive Web Growth. I read the article for free on washingtonpost.com which by itself requires another blog item on the current (sorry?) state of print media. But, I digress.

The article has really fascinating numbers based on the user traffic data from ComScore Media Metrix, so it is highly recommend reading for everyone. The top three sites with the most growth between Feb 2005 and Feb 2006:

1. Blogger.com: The blogging tool, now owned by Google. From 2.5 mil visitors in Feb 2005 to 15.6 mil in Feb 2006 which is a whopping 528% growth
2. MySpace.com: The site, now owned by Rupert Murdoch�??s News Corp, where the youngsters hang out. From 9 mil visitors in Feb 2005 to 37 mil in Feb 2006 which is a 318% growth
3. Wikipedia - the ‘free encyclopedia that anyone can edit’ which is controlled by the non profit Wikimedia Foundation had 275% growth in the same period (no numbers break down)

When I saw this article, another Washington Post article from a couple of days ago came to mind. This one was about Northern Virgina area students marching to protest the immigration bill titled Students Walk Out in 2nd Day Of Immigration Rights Protest. I quote a paragraph buried somewhere in that story:

School officials did not try to stop them."Part of the Washington-Lee mission is to encourage students to take an active role in their community," Robertson said. As with earlier demonstrations, word of the protests was spread by cellphone and the Web site MySpace.com. Some students said they learned about the immigration debate from newspapers or in class. Others said friends convinced them that many of the proposals were unfair." (emphasis is mine)

So, here is a mobilization tool of choice for the youth - MySpace.com. Non profit organizations that are attempting to reach young activists, better watch that space - bad attempt at pun :).

Additional Reading:

1. The MySpace Generation: They live online. They buy online. They play online. Their power is growing (Business Week)
2. Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace (Research Paper)

Total giving in 2004: $248.52 billion (increase of 5% over 2003’s amount of $236.73 bil)
Individuals: $187.92 bil (75.6%)
Foundations: $28.8 bil (11.6%)
Bequests: $19.8 bil (8%)
Corporations: $12 bil (4.8%)

Source: Giving USA and ePhilanthropy Foundation

On Tuesday, the National Federation of the Blind filed suit against Target, claiming that its site is not accessible to blind users.  This certainly would be a case to watch since, to date, we’ve thought accessibility requirements as having legal weight only with government sites.  Whether or not the NFB wins the suit, it will likely bring increased focus to the subject.  And the fact that they also mention that the Target site is "powered by Amazon.com" would seem to suggest that this isn’t the last we’ll hear about this.

"Target�??s website �?? which according to its home page is ‘powered by
Amazon.com’ �?? contains significant access barriers that prevent blind
customers from browsing and purchasing products online, as well as from
finding important corporate information such as employment
opportunities, investor news, and company policies.

The plaintiffs charge that Target.com fails to meet the minimum
standard of web accessibility. It lacks compliant alt-text, an
invisible code embedded beneath graphic images that allows screen
readers to detect and vocalize a description of the image to a blind
computer user. It also contains inaccessible image maps, preventing
blind users from jumping to different destinations within the website.
And because the website requires the use of a mouse to complete a
transaction, blind Target customers are unable to make purchases on
Target.com independently.

‘We tried to convince Target that it should make its website accessible
through negotiations,’ says Dr. Maurer [NFB Pres.]. ‘It�??s unfortunate that Target
was unwilling to commit to equal access for all its online customers.
That gave us no choice but to seek the protection of the court. The
website is no more accessible today than it was in May of last year,
when we first complained to Target."

More information available from the Disability Rights Advocates Web site including a Fact Sheet and the complete complaint.

I don’t know about you, but I’m appalled at the military’s increasingly agressive campaigning to recruit school-age children.  I’m encouraged to learn that parents have a mechanism to shield their children from these campaigns — an opt-out similar to the "Do not call" register created by the FTC.  Working Assets, in partnership with The Mainstreet Moms and ACORN, has set up a Web site to guide parents through the process of opting their children out of the Pentagon’s recruitment efforts.  Learn more at www.leavemychildalone.org.