The Social Web was born from the ability to transform Internet users from passive "browsers" of content to an audience that is engaged and interacts with content by liking it, sharing it, and commenting on it. But Comments are not always appropriate, and some strategists may argue that Comments are fundamentally inappropriate. Yet, this cynical view of user generated content needs to be challenged because an open and social web remains the fundamental future of online interactivity. more

As the newest Ditto to the team, I've spent the last two weeks learning a great deal about how things work here at EchoDitto. Tyler recently posted a pretty exhaustive report of the EchoDitto culture, if you want to catch up on that. Besides just learning about this specific company's processes, I've been getting a great look at how web tool and strategy development works from the vendor side, since for the last several years I've been on the other end of things. more

Earlier this month, the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) was held by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). It was in San Francisco (my hometown!) and over 1700 people from all over the country attended the three day event including myself and fellow ditto Apollo. more

International donation processing can be a tricky business. There are hundreds of combinations of payment scenarios depending on the country or region the donor lives in. Take, for instance, these scenarios.

I am a donor living in the United States, and I want to submit a recurring donation on a monthly basis, in the amount of 20 USD using my VISA credit card.

I am a donor living in the UK, and I want to submit a one time donation, in the amount of 100 GBP using my MasterCard credit card. more

We all have websites that we visit every day. The drill is always the same: once you've settled into work and have a spare minute, you probably check your mail, catch up on the news, or check in with your latest social media updates. You probably also have a handful of sites that you use for your job, like a form processing or request system, online time tracking software, or an intranet or departmental forum. When all is said and done, you've probably got 5 to 10 tabs that are open in your browser all day, or which you open for a few minutes, close, and then open again a few hours later. more

Managing a bucket list is no easy task. As we mull through our lives, looking to fill our pallets to capacity, we often hit obstacles and hurdles along the way. Those obstacles frequently slow our bucket list progression and can eliminate some of our options all-together. It sometimes becomes necessary to find creative ways to take these "slowed" items and move them into the "done" column rather than the "eliminated" column. more

I distinctly remember my interview at EchoDitto. After the tech team asked me various Drupal questions to test my might -- standard procedure -- Joshua Wachs told me I have five minutes to prepare for an EchoDitto specialty called the “Five Minute Teach.”

“About anything?”, I asked.
“Anything.”  more

In part 1 of this series, I broke out the fortune-telling orb and saw a future full of web applications on all sorts of devices, across a variety of websites and requiring a drastically reduced amount developer resources compared to just a year or two ago. I also claimed that this is going to be an important change for online organizers. Let's explore how. more

I have a prediction: recent innovations in the technologies that underlie how information is displayed and interacted with on the web are about to usher in a new era of that will make the Web 2.0 "revolution" look merely cosmetic, like it was just the internet putting on a new pair of socks.

If your organization seeks to engage users online in campaigns involving resource publication, online activism, or social networking, this new age of web applications is going to matter to you. more