The creation of a more robust electronic environment that is economically sustainable and contains independent sources for civic, cultural and socially conscious content will pave the way for a more democratic society both on and offline. Organizations and models that are making it a priority to shape our digital future are already emerging.

 

Community Building/Social Networks Mobile Widgets Internet TV & Online Video Social Bookmarking Wiki Gaming

Wireless Search Internet Research & Archiving Nonprofit Information Sharing & Collaboration Capacity Building, Philanthropy, & Volunteerism Academic Resources Other Lists of Projects

 

 

Community Building/Social Networks

Ning

A build it yourself social network.

Outside.in

A web service for sharing and exploring information about neighborhoods, serves 63 cities, and 3217 neighborhoods in the U.S.

Change.org

A social network for hundreds of social causes and over 1 million nonprofit organizations.

Picnicmob.org

A social experiment of sorts, where the idea is to get a large group of people together in one city and have an online picnic.

BlogHer

The blogging community for women! We invite you to join us to gain additional exposure for your blogs and your ideas, (that's our mission). 

Avaaz
Using the latest technology, Avaaz.org empowers ordinary people from every corner of the globe to directly contact key global decision-makers, corporations and the media.

Kiva

Lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence.

NABUUR (Netherlands)

Links you directly with people around the world who need your assistance now. All you need is a computer, a little free time, and the desire to make a difference.

Freecycle

Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community.

Good Tree

An online community that’s all about idealism and effecting positive change.

Go Loco

GoLoco is a service that helps people quickly arrange to share rides between friends, neighbors, and colleagues. GoLoco also helps you share trip costs online.

Razoo

A social networking site that encourages user-generated content around causes, groups, personal profiles, and action steps.

Set It Up
This is our organizing hub for a National Day of Climate Action. Every group will be saying the same thing: "Step it up, Congress! Cut Carbon 80% by 2050."

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Mobile

MobileActive

A global network of activists and campaigners using mobile phones for civic action and engagement.

Speakeasy

An integrated internet and telephone service that connects new immigrants with a network of multilingual volunteers who answer questions, give advice, and provide language interpretation over the phone. Speakeasy's novel approach to community networking leverages the ubiquity of cell phones to create a model of "just in time" civic engagement, enabling volunteers to remain "on-call" to their community wherever they might be.

Inveneo

Our main goal is to make ICT more available and sustainable so that it can be used to by organizations to build capacity to deliver vital services and for people as tools to improve their lives.

TXTmob

Lets you quickly and easily share txt messages with friends, comrades, and total strangers. The format is similar to an email b-board system. You can sign up to send and receive messages from various groups, which are organized around a range of different topics.

textually

The entry point of three weblogs devoted to cell phones and mobile content, focusing on text messaging and cell phone usage around the world, tracking the latest news and social impact of these new technologies.

CityFlocks (PDF report only)
A mobile system which manages user ratings and recommendations of public inner-city places and facilities. CityFlocks turns mobile phone equipped urban residents into in-situ commentators who can report, document and rate public places they reside at.

Mobile Monday
Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.

 

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Widgets

Care Badges

To build a fundraising platform that would be the "Yellow Bracelets" or "Ribbon" of the internet. Our mission is to raise awareness and funds for any cause that you care about (for-profit or non-profit).

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Internet TV & Online Video

FORA

Delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation.

DoGooderTV

DoGooderTV enables nonprofit organizations to present new videos and existing media assets to new audiences. Once site visitors see the compelling stories of nonprofits, DoGooderTV gives them a direct way to donate to the organization, join, volunteer or simply find out more information.

Participatory Culture Foundation

We are the organization that makes the Democracy Internet TV platform. Democracy is a free and open way to watch, share, and broadcast video on the internet.

Friction TV (UK)

An online platform for user generated news and opinion. We exist to give you the opportunity to air your views and respond to the opinions of others. You can debate issues of local interest to you or discuss points of global importance. Either way, Friction.tv will provide an interesting and stimulating alternative to the sanitised, agenda driven mediocrity of the conventional mass media.

Miro

Free and open-source online video player, because open media matters.

Green TV

An all-green TV station online.

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Social Bookmarking

AlternativeE

Sharing news related to renewable and alternative energy that allows users to vote for stories (like Digg for alternative energy).

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Wiki

Debatepedia

The new free wiki encyclopedia of arguments and debates. As a "wiki", it enables anyone (you included) to easily present and organize the unique arguments made by third-party sources (ie. by scholars, experts, leaders,...) on both sides of a debate.

Congresspedia

The "citizen's encyclopedia on Congress" that anyone— including you—can edit.

SourceWatch

A directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda.

Appropedia

The site for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development.

Shareideas

An online community and a wiki for sharing ideas on how to use mobile communications for social and environmental benefits.

 

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Gaming

Games for Change (G4C)

Provides support, visibility and shared resources to organizations and individuals using digital games for social change.

NMC Campus

The NMC Campus is an experimental effort developed to inform the New Media Consortium’s work in educational gaming.

ElectroCity

An online game that teaches about energy, sustainability and environmental management through the building virtual towns and cities.

Web Earth Online

Multi player online ecology game.

My Abodo

An interactive toy that lets you build a house online and see the impact that your choices make on the world around you.

Vote Quest

An interactive, online game about a road trip that helped women gain national voting rights in the U.S. Along the way, students also will explore social causes they care about.

Avatar Action Center
A virtual educational center dedicated to real world social change from a foundation of sustainability.

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Wireless

Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWin)

A world-renowned coalition of wireless developers and community volunteers committed to providing low-cost, do-it-yourself, community-controlled alternatives to contemporary broadband models.

MuniWireless

Devoted to municipal broadband projects worldwide that are funded or supported by cities and towns, especially those projects that incorporate wireless technologies.

Airshare

Wi-Fi and WLAN Wireless Community Resource - Learn, Share, Help, Get, Teach.

Green Wifi

Committed to providing solar powered access to global information and educational resources for developing regions and K-12 school children striving for knowledge in a digitally divided world.

The Ethos Group

A telecommunications consulting firm focusing on the community benefits of wireless technology.

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Search

EcoSeek

A search engine for "green" stuff.

Greener

An environmental search engine.

Good Search

A search engine that donates 50% of it’s proceeds to the charity of your choice (over 40,000 are currently participating).

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Internet Research & Archiving

Pew Internet & American Life Project
Produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life.

Internet Archive
An Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.

MAPLight
A groundbreaking public database, illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways. MAPLight.org makes money/vote connections transparent, to help citizens hold their legislators accountable.

Scorecard
Find out about the pollution problems in your community and learn who is responsible. See which geographic areas and companies have the worst pollution records. Identify which racial/ethnic and income groups bear more than their share of environmental burdens. Then take action as an informed citizen - you can fax a polluting company, contact your elected representatives, or get involved in your community.

ibiblio
Home to one of the largest "collections of collections" on the Internet, ibiblio.org is a conservancy of freely available information, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies.

Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet
Its mission is to promote the use of the Internet and new communication technologies in politics to enhance democratic values, encourage citizen participation and improve governance, at home and abroad; in short, to “democratize democracy.”

Personal Democracy Forum
One hub for the conversation already underway between political practitioners and technologists, as well as anyone invigorated by the potential of all this to open up the process and engage more people in all the things that we can and must do together as citizens.

Hooze

A community-built site for publishing useful information about the sustainability of products & companies.

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Nonprofit Information Sharing & Collaboration

Organizations that educate nonprofits about using new media tools to advance missions and initiatives

 

NTEN
NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.

Social Source Commons (SSC)

The ultimate goal of the Social Source Commons (SSC) is to create a "knowledge commons" that maps the NPO/NGO software space and makes sense of the collective expertise related to that software.

Green Media Toolshed

Committed to providing tools and managing the communities' media assets (assets can be a variety of intellectual property, artwork, or hardware) to improve the effectiveness of communications between environmental groups and the public.

Metamorphosis

Macedonian nonprofit whose main goals are development of democracy and prosperity by promoting knowledge-based economy and information society.

Tech Soup

Offers nonprofits a one-stop resource for technology needs by providing free information, resources, and support.

NetSquared

Our mission is to spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations.

APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor

Enable African civil society organisations to engage in information and communication technologies (ICT) policy development to promote an Information Society based on social justice and human rights. The ultimate aim being that governments and policy makers recognise that access to and the use of ICTs is a basic human right.

Internet Advocacy Center

A strategic resource for citizens, organizations, and coalitions seeking to integrate the Internet and other technologies into their advocacy and political campaigns.

Personal Democracy Forum
One hub for the conversation already underway between political practitioners and technologists, as well as anyone invigorated by the potential of all this to open up the process and engage more people in all the things that we can and must do together as citizens.

Community Technology Center’s Network (CTCNet)

A national membership network of community technology centers (CTCs) and other non-profits, united in their commitment to provide technology access and education to underserved communities.

ifocos

A think tank and community of innovators committed to harnessing the power of media, communication and human ingenuity for the common good. iFOCOS helps individuals and organizations worldwide understand and use expanding media and communications technologies both to innovate in business and to create better-informed global citizens.

OntheCommons

A web portal and blog that explores activism on behalf of the commons in all its variety. The commons is a powerful organizing principle for understanding countless aspects of nature, creativity and knowledge, local community and everyday experience.

iConnect Online

Promotes the effective exchange of experiences and knowledge on the use of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).

TechFoundation

Delivers technology, expertise and capital to help nonprofit organizations serve humanity.

Innovation Network

Working to share planning and evaluation tools and know-how. We provide consulting, training, and online tools for nonprofits and funders.

Democracy in Action

We exist to empower those who share our values of ecological and social justice to advance the progressive agenda.

DotOrganize

We believe that smart use of technology, when combined with traditional organizing strategies, can create exciting new models for social change.

Aspiration

Connects nonprofits to software solutions that help them more effectively meet their missions of positive global change.

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Capacity Building, Philanthropy, & Volunteerism

Organizations that build infrastructure or facilitate the giving of financial or human resources

 

Social Edge

Social Edge is the global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources.

TakingITGlobal
An international organization - led by youth and empowered by technology. TakingITGlobal connects youth around the world to find inspiration, information and get involved in improving their local and global communities.

HumaniNet

Supports humanitarian relief and development field teams with practical assistance in global information and communication technologies, or ICT. Through its growing network of advisors and field users, HumaniNet is helping humanitarian and mission organizations to make the right choices in communications, particularly in remote areas.

Telecentre

Committed to increasing the social and economic impact of telecentres around the world. We work together to create the resources telecentres need to succeed: Locally relevant content and services, support and learning opportunities, and networks that help telecentre activists connect to each other.

mySociety

mySociety has two missions. The first is to be a charitable project which builds websites that give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. The second is to teach the public and voluntary sectors, through demonstration, how to most efficiently use the internet to improve lives.

Connect Kentucy

Connects people to technology in world-altering ways: improving the lives of the formerly disconnected; renewing hope for previously withering rural communities; driving increases in the number of tech-intensive companies and jobs; and nurturing an environment for lifetime learning, improved healthcare, and superior quality of life.

Public Internet Project

To Promote open access to the Internet for the benefit of all people.

Network for Good

The Internet's leading charitable resource, bringing together donors, volunteers and charities online to accomplish good. Users can donate to more than one million charities and search from among more than 36,000 volunteer opportunities.

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
A public corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970 to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems they face.

Free Network
A volunteer cooperative association dedicated to education, collaboration, and advocacy for the creation of FreeNetworks. You can show solidarity and support the cause by building a network that follows our peering guidelines, and identify it to your users as a FreeNetwork.

Kabissa
Kabissa makes technology a force for change in Africa. We provide hundreds of grassroots organizations with Internet services and training, helping them to do what they do better.

Working Broadband
A unique and innovative European wide programme that assists people from diverse communities to enter and progress in the Creative and Technology sectors.

Youth for Technology
Integrating technology into disadvantaged communities in an effective, sustainable way to achieve real access and outcomes for people to put technology to work to improve lives.

Working Assets
Every time a customer uses one of Working Assets' donation-linked services (Long Distance, Wireless and Credit Card), the company donates a portion of the charges to nonprofit groups working to build a world that is more just, humane, and environmentally sustainable.

SANGONeT
One of very few NGOs in Africa involved in the field of information communication technologies (ICTs) and continues to serve civil society with a wide range of ICT products and services.

Project Harmony – Internet Technology

Aims to create healthier communities through international training and exchange programs in the former Soviet Union.

Headshift

Headshift take the best ideas and innovative tools and apply them to solving the real world needs of organisations.

Justgive.org

Our mission is to connect people with the charities and causes they care about and to increase overall giving.

grassroots.org

A catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and business best practices. Grassroots.org spreads important social information via our network of socially-focused web sites, while also providing non-profit organizations with free valuable resources to increase their efficiency and productivity.

loanables

Brings together people who need to borrow things with people who have stuff to loan, and if your neighborhood is on their “Green Neighborhoods” page, the service is free.

Volunteer Match

A leader in the nonprofit world dedicated to helping everyone find a great place to volunteer.

Craig’s List Foundation

Just as craigslist.org is about 'people helping people' by facilitating online connections, Craigslist Foundation creates community in the nonprofit arena by 'helping people help', regardless of cause or sector.

Care2

With more than 7 million members, Care2.com is the largest online community for people who want to make a difference. We connect people who care (that's you!) with the organizations, responsible businesses and individuals getting results.

Idealist

A "global clearinghouse of nonprofit and volunteering resources", offering a directory of volunteer opportunities and other resources.

Creative Commons

Provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry.

MOUSE

Creates technology-based opportunities that motivate underserved students to succeed in today’s information society.

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Academic Resources

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School

The Berkman Center is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. We represent a network of faculty, students, fellows, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and virtual architects working to identify and engage with the challenges and opportunities of cyberspace.

Global Voices, Harvard Law School

A research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society. Seeking to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore.

Stanford Center for Internet & Society

The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest technology law and policy program at Stanford Law School and a part of Law, Science and Technology Program at Stanford Law School. The CIS brings together scholars, academics, legislators, students, programmers, security researchers, and scientists to study the interaction of new technologies and the law and to examine how the synergy between the two can either promote or harm public goods like free speech, privacy, public commons, diversity, and scientific inquiry.

Oxford Internet Institute
The Oxford Internet Institute is a department of the University of Oxford, and a leading world centre for the multidisciplinary study of the Internet and society.

Center for Social Media, American University
The Center for Social Media showcases and analyzes strategies to use media as creative tools for public knowledge and action. It focuses on social documentaries for civil society and democracy, and on the public media environment that supports them.

Center for the Public Domain, Duke University
Founded in September of 2002, as part of the school's wider intellectual property program, its mission is to promote research and scholarship on the contributions of the public domain to speech, culture, science and innovation, to promote debate about the balance needed in our intellectual property system and to translate academic research into public policy solutions.

Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
Since 1994, the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University has used digital media and computer technology to democratize history—to incorporate multiple voices, reach diverse audiences, and encourage popular participation in presenting and preserving the past.

Global Information Internship Program, UC Santa Cruz
An innovative "digital service learning" program focused on creating a new generation of "info activists," committed to advancing social justice, democratizing globalization, and building social entrepreneurship.

Institute for New Media Studies, University of Minnesota
The Institute for New Media Studies is a center for creation, innovation, and examination of content and messages and the affects of new media technologies and techniques on their forms and functions. The goal is the imagining and testing of innovative forms, development of new knowledge about functions, and generation of greater understanding of the impacts of these changes in the media landscape.

Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School
Using a combination of well-accepted scientific survey methods and techniques for social science data analysis, the research team at the Center for the Digital Future is conducting a long-term longitudinal study on the impact over time of computers, the Internet and related technologies on families and society.

Berkeley Center for New Media, UC Berkeley
To understand the full philosophical, aesthetic, practical and historical significance of the information-age transformations in which we are now immersed, and to place our institution of liberal education at the center of this cultural and technological revolution so we can inform and help direct the design of future media.

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies (RCCS), Collective
The Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies is an online, not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to research, teach, support, and create diverse and dynamic elements of cyberculture.

MIT Comparitive Media Studies
The MIT Comparative Media Studies (CMS) program is committed to the art of thinking across media forms, theoretical domains, cultural contexts, and historical periods.

Digital Cultures Project, University of California
The Digital Cultures Project (DCP) brings together faculty and graduate students from across the UC system who are actively engaged with the history and theory of new digital technologies and the ways in which they are changing humanistic studies and the arts.

Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, University of London
It is vital that educators are able to use the media in constructive and creative ways. We need to move beyond a merely defensive approach, and to find new ways of empowering young people, both as critical consumers of media and as producers in their own right.

Digital Youth, UC Berkeley
This project works to address this gap with a targeted set of ethnographic investigations into three emergent modes of informal learning that young people are practicing using new media technologies: communication, learning, and play.

Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet, George Washington University
Its mission is to promote the use of the Internet and new communication technologies in politics to enhance democratic values, encourage citizen participation and improve governance, at home and abroad; in short, to “democratize democracy.”

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Other Lists of Projects

Net Squared Projects by Cause

http://www.socialchangewebsites.com

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