Everywhere I turn I see people working on socially minded technology projects. 

I first saw the energy lifting in New Haven last year when Matt Kelley(Change.org blogger), Ben Berkowitz (SeeClickFix.com Founder), Jarad Duval (Author of Next Generation Democracy: What the Open Source Revolution Means for Power, Politics, and Change), and myself got together for beers to talk about how we could get more people to embrace the public benefits of changing technology. We hoped that by pooling the brains of the nerds of New Haven we would discover oportunties to work together for positive social change. We decieded that the place to start would be just providing a place for those with the technical skills and interest to explore ideas and innovation without focusing directly tasking out action. We called our group "Social Change and Technology". Our gatherings where and still are informal conversations over pizza and beer. 

While working with others to organize this group, I have been introduced to a surprising number of people working on ideas that will create a positive change in our community. 

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Sometimes you learn the most when you are taught something you already know. As a 30 year old working for a United Way in new media, I often find myself projecting lessons I have learned in the online world back into my local United Way. I think that technology has accelerated a shift in public expectations of what individual interactions with institutions should look like. More than ever, I see the need for organizations to recognize and retool in order to become more user-friendly, open and adaptive institutions.

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We all know that there is nothing like a good contest to energize people. Thats why I think that from a publicity perspective the Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook is a smart move. Basically any Facebook user can lookup and vote for their 20 favorite nonprofits. The top100 votes will be awarded $25,000 each. The winners will also be moved to a second round of voting with a $1 million prize for the overall winner. As a United Way of Greater New Haven employee, that is enough money to make me pay attention and ponder how Greater New Haven can take advantage of this opportunity.

The opportunities for nonprofit and community organizations are changing rapidly. The growth of web 2.0 and its adoption by the main stream have opened doors for better communication with supporters, more coordinated action among staff and access to data management tools. These tools hold the promise of increasing efficiently of nonprofits and greater capacity for community groups. These opportunities also present a challenge.

As the New Media Associate for the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County I have been put in charge of training the staff on how to take advantage of the dynamic tools our website provides. The information age is in full throttle, and it is crucial that organizations keep pace with new technology. How to shift the communication paradigm so my co-workers see online communication as a tool rather then a burden will be the focus of my work, and consequently this blog.