Nonprofits' Policy & Technology

Nonprofits' Policy & Technology:

Subtopics

NPTalk

Digital Divide

Internet Governance

News

Activists Assess Needs, Trends for 'Progressive Politics and Technology' 11/30/2004
Collaboration, innovation and integration -- those were the keys to advancement for progressive advocacy groups during the recent electoral season, according to presenters at the November "Roundtable on Progressive Politics and Technology." These will no doubt remain key watchwords for progressives as they strive to keep up with evolving technologies, and use them to make their outreach strategies, programs and messaging more effective in the years ahead. Read More

NPAction Greeted By Positive Reception; State Advocacy Guides Added 12/09/2002
NPAction, OMB Watch's new online resource for nonprofit advocacy, launched on November 22, 2002 in its pilot form. In the roughly two weeks since, the site has averaged roughly 1,300 unique visitors who have taken the time to explore the content offerings and features, and more importantly, to provide feedback on what's available. Recent additions to the site include Poll results and topic discussion around nonprofit attitudes regarding IRS restrictions on candidate endorsements by charities; and a set of state advocacy guides for nonprofits to help identify key government agencies, rules, regulations, and guidelines regarding their advocacy work. Over the next few months, the site will be refined in order to provide a more robust version for early 2003. Visit NPAction today, share your thoughts on our work, and help us to provide the best resources possible to assist your organization and partner groups in their policy participation.

Welcome to NPAction.org! 11/25/2002

OMB Watch announces the pilot launch of NPAction, a new online resource for nonprofit advocacy. NPAction is being developed as a vibrant central advocacy hub that provides nonprofits access to information about rules governing policy participation, examples of successful and unsuccessful efforts, and identification of key resources.

Our goal is to increase the awareness of groups already engaged in public policy participation, and to, thereby, enhance opportunities for building communities of interest among new and emerging and existing public policy participators. We are working live behind the scenes to continuously improve our offerings. Nonprofits are therefore encouraged to actively explore what's available, suggest their own ideas for resources to add, and provide comments on our work to date. Visit NPAction today!

PowerUP Centers Program Comes to an End 10/30/2002
John Schwartz, writing in the 10/30/02 New York Times discusses the shutting down of the PowerUP initiative, launched in late 1999 to combat the digital divide in underserved communities. Launched in late 1999, PowerUP (http://powerup.org) was an effort to
provide capital and technological expertise to youth-serving entities
within underserved communities across America. Over 950 technology centers were developed or enhanced through the project, and each will now be supported through other organizations, local financing, or other means. Read More

2002 Stockholm Challenge Winners 10/10/2002
The winners of the 2002 Stockhom Challenge have been announced. The international awards, recognizing public, private, or academic attempts to utilize technology in ways that impact the lives of people while alleviating the effects of the digital divide.
Listing of winners

FCC Releases Media Ownership Studies Tied to Regulatory Overhaul 10/03/2002
On 10/1/02, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released 12 studies in regarding the state of the "media marketplace" in America, as part of a massive review of all federal rules regarding media ownership. the background behind the media ownership rules at issue and the review process was discussed in a September 2002 NPTalk.

The studies are summarized in this article, and are all available for download at: http://www.fcc.gov/ownership/studies.html. Comments are sought on the studies by December 2, 2002, with reply comments due January 2, 2003. Parties may submit their comments using the Commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System or by filing paper copies. To obtain filing instructions for e-mail comments, commenters should send an e-mail to: ecfs@fcc.gov and should include the following words in the body of the message: “get form [your e-mail address]”. A sample form and directions will be sent in reply. Non-electronic filing requirements are available in the 10/1/02 public notice Read More

Third Annual US State and E-Government Study Released 09/19/2002
Darrell West and his team of researchers at the Brown University Center recently published the third annual U.S. federal and state e-government survey for Public Policy. The survey looked at 1206 state government websites, in addition to 45 federal legislative executive branch websites, and 13 federal court websites. The full report is available online:

www.insidepolitics.org/Egovt02us.html (HTML)
www.insidepolitics.org/egovt02us.PDF (PDF)

Read More

IRS Regulations on Corporate Sponsor Links Include First Internet Rule 04/29/2002
While the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) still has not issued general guidance on how tax applies to exempt organizations' use of the Internet, a new rule on links for corporate sponsors may provide a clue on what direction the IRS will take. Read More

NPTalk 2002 Reader Survey 04/01/2002
On NPTalk's third anniversary, we invite you to participate in the following online survey. It'll help us to make NPTalk more useful to you over the course of the next 3 years and beyond. Read More

Extending the Information Revolution: IT Utilization by Non-profits and Community Groups 02/15/2002
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Plugged In, Tuning Up: An Assessment of State Legislative Websites (Introduction) 03/19/2001
This new report highlights the progress and ongoing work of state legislatures to deliver on the promises of "e-government" through "one-stop" online legislative resource portals, as opposed to websites of individual House or Senate chambers. These centralized online legislative "entry points" represent activity to make state legislatures more accessible and understandable to the public. Introduction

Nonprofits' Policy and Technology Project, 1999 Year in Review 12/15/1999
This report provides a summary of activities undertaken through OMB Watch's Nonprofits' Policy and Technology (NPT) project during 1999. It is broken into five categories: Demonstrations; Education and Planning Activities; Innovation Awards; Pilot Projects; and Other Activities. Read More

An Assessment of BackWeb Technology in a Nonprofit Public Policy Environment 10/20/1999
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