Aspiration is the global leader in the design and delivery of innovative technology gatherings for nonprofit and nongovernmental audiences. Our event philosophy and facilitation focus on maximizing collaboration and peer sharing, while making sparing use of one-to-many and several-to-many session formats such as presentations and panels. We believe the ultimate potential and power of any convening lie in the collective untapped knowledge and experience of the participants, and we strive to tap that vast store by maximizing dialog, creativity and idea exchange.

Over the past four years, we have convened and co-organized over 60 highly interactive events across the globe, which are described below. We build agendas around user-oriented dialog that connects all the stakeholders in software design and development, and model our events to reflect the diverse and network-oriented nature of the communities we convene.

For more information on the Aspiration approach to events, see our paper on Creating Participatory Events [1] as well as our Facilitation Wiki [2].

Events 2004-2008

Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects II - West Coast [3], Oakland, California, May 2008: The second MNTP event continued the exploration of tools and best practices that help nonprofits deliver successful technology solutions, building on the momentum of January’s New York MNTP event [4]. Agenda and session notes [5] were captured on the MNTP wiki. Interactive sessions and demos allowed a diverse group of participants to compare processes, tools, successes, and lessons learned. Topics discussed included team collaboration, project planning, software selection, migration, and project rollout, and map out the software tools – from project management packages to collaborative communication to issue tracking and more – that support successful technology projects.

Penguin Day New Orleans [6], New Orleans, Louisiana, March 2008: Penguin Day New Orleans was a grand success! Participants explored the potential and the role of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in nonprofit organizations, in sessions designed to answer questions and curiosities! PD New Orleans took place Saturday, March 22nd, at Basin Street Station [7], right next to the Easy Rider Cemetery [8]. The event was co-organized by Aspiration [9], NOSI [10], PICnet [11], Joomla! [12] and Chicago Technology Cooperative [13].

Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects [14], New York, New York, January 2008: The first-ever MNTP examined the tools and best practices that help nonprofits deliver successful technology solutions - whether websites, packaged software implementations, or custom applications. Interactive sessions and demos allowed a diverse group of participants to compare processes, tools, successes, and lessons learned. Topics discussed included team collaboration, project planning, software selection, migration, and project rollout, and map out the software tools – from project management packages to collaborative communication to issue tracking and more – that support successful technology projects.

Telecentre Leaders’ Forum at GK3 [15], Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 2007: Aspiration was delighted to lead event design and facilitation of the TLF [16] that took place before Global Knowledge 3 [17] in Kuala Lumpur. The Forum provided a unique opportunity for people leading grassroots telecentre networks around the world to deepen relationships, share skills and shape the future of the telecentre.org community. The agenda was designed to help network leaders share their knowledge while seeking insights and finding answers to challenges they are facing in their work. Sessions featured projects and innovative practices, while also addressing issues of strategy and sustainability. Network leaders were able to get involved in shaping, leading and growing the telecentre.org community. All participants were encouraged to take an active role in shaping the dialog and creating concrete event outcomes. Aspiration was honored to once again be working with an amazing network of telecentre leaders and practitioners brought together by IDRC [18].

Open Translation Tools 2007 [19], Zagreb, Croatia, November 2007: Aspiration designed and hosted the first-ever “Open Translation Tools Convergence”. This 3-day event brought together two passionate communities: those creating open source software tools to support translating open content [20], and those with a need for better tools to support translation of the open content they create. The event took place in Zagreb, Croatia [21], from 29 November to 1 December 2007, and was co-organized by Aspiration and Multimedia Institute (MI2) [22]. The event was convened to document the open source translation tool landscape, inventory “open content translation use cases”, and strengthen the community of practice around open source translation tools for open content, with a particular focus on delivering value to nonprofit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs). The agenda was collaboratively developed by participants in the time leading up to and during the gathering; also see additional event background [22]. All event proceedings were captured on the event wiki [23]. An ongoing discussion is taking place on the event mailing list [24]. Open Translation Tools 2007 was supported by the generosity of the Open Society Institute [25], with additional support provided by TechSoup [26].

FLOSS Usability Sprint V [Array], Google Campus, Mountain View, California, November 2007: Aspiration and Blue Oxen Associates [27] co-hosted the fifth FLOSS Usability Sprint November 2-4, 2007. FLOSS Usability alums Daniel Schwartz and Jon Slenk stepped up to lead the event planning, outreach and logistics. Once again, Google [28] graciously hosted the event at their headquarters in Mountain View. Project participants included Firefox [29], Chandler [30], and WiserEarth [31]. “FLOSS” stands for Free/Libre/Open Source Software [32], and at FLOSS Usability Sprints, open source software projects partner with usability practitioners to address specific usability challenges in the software tools they are creating. Each team identifies usability outcomes they want to achieve during the course of the 3-day sprint, then collaboratively designs and implements processes for realizing the stated outcomes. Event proceedings were tracked on the FLOSS Usability Wiki [33].

Good to Great FOSS [34], Nairobi, Kenya, October 2007: At the invitation of IDRC [35] and in partnership with PRIDE Africa [36], Aspiration directed the first-ever “Good to Great FOSS: Open Source Software Development in Africa” convening in Nairobi from October 24-26. The workshop provided a collaborative venue for discussion on Open Source software development in a developing country context, and was attended by a diverse group of open source projects and practitioners. The workshop goal was to facilitate an open assessment on how ‘Open Source’ approaches do (and do not) improve the impact of software initiatives in a developing country context. Also discussed and documented were reflections on the most successful approaches and strategy to implementing Open Source. Participating projects included AVOIR [37], DrumNet [38], OpenMRS [39], Mifos [40] and TradeNet [41]. The main objectives of this workshop were to provide an opportunity for reflection and learning about how to develop successful Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) initiatives in Africa, to promote collaboration and understanding of what it takes to have a successful FOSS project, to document community processes and tool sets of featured projects, profiling best practices required to apply FOSS expertise to add value to various technology driven IDRC-funded projects, and to provide knowledge on business process in the context of FOSS projects. An event wiki [42] was maintained to store session notes and project profiles.

Sun Digital Divide Summit [43], Sun Headquarters, Menlo Park, California, October 2007: Sun [44] invited Aspiration to design and facilitate an event that brought together senior Sun executives and technologists with Sun Foundation staff to discuss how Sun could play a role in addressing the digital divide [45] on a global level. The day-long meeting was an extremely interactive opportunity for participants to cast long-term visions and to weigh in on what was viable and advisable in applying Sun technologies to assist those living and working in under-served and offline parts of the world.

Mott Grantee Focus Groups [46], Flint (MI), San Francisco, and Washington DC, September/October 2007: The Mott Foundation [47] invited Aspiration to design and facilitate a series of convenings to engage Mott grantees on how the foundation’s web site could better serve their needs. Grantees in Flint, Michigan, San Francisco, California, and Washington, DC were invited to review the current slate of online services, and offer feedback on both the value of those offerings and their ability to take advantage of the same.

YouthNoise Youth Summits [48], San Francisco, California / Minneapolis, Minnesota / Orlando, Florida, September-November 2007: YouthNoise [49] invited Aspiration to design and facilitate a series of Youth Summits in cities across the U.S. The goal of each Summit in the series was to engage youth in cause-based local activism by extending the YouthNoise’s “MyCauseIs” program to offline contexts. The ultimate purpose of the process was to grow the connection between youth-driven ground action and the benefits of online networking, resource building, community organizing and project management.

Making Waves [50], San Francisco, California, July 2007: Surdna Foundation [51] invited Aspiration to design and facilitate a 2-day event focused on the future of public radio. The goal of the gathering was to offer practical guidance and to suggest new ideas for leaders in the field of community radio. A central question of the event was “what new technological developments now permit us to do radio differently, and make radio viable in previously unviable places?” Participants considered the role of the internet in future community radio strategies, and also discussed policy and advocacy opportunities.

eAdvocacy Jamboree 2007 [52], Oakland, California, July 2007: Aspiration hosted our annual eAdvocacy shindig, which we lovingly named the “eAdvocacy Jamboree”, from July 17-20 at Preservation Park in Oakland [53]. The main event ran July 18-20, with a pre-day of eAdvocacy trainings on July 17 for those wanting to ramp up their eAdvocacy skills. Check out the agenda and notes from sessions [54]. Electric Embers [55] also hosted their third annual Most Excellent AdvocacyDev Veggie-Friendly BBQ Shindig, continuing to raise the bar for NPTech hospitality!

Penguin Day Lowell [56], Lowell, Massachusetts, June 2007: Penguin Day Lowell went down on June 22, 2007 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Check out the Penguin Day Lowell Agenda [57] and the Penguin Day web site [Array]. Penguin Day Lowell was co-organized by Organizers Collaborative [58], Aspiration [59], and NOSI [60].

iSummit Open Education Track [61], Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 2007: iCommons [62] and The Shuttleworth Foundation [63] invited Aspiration to co-design and lead facilitation of the Open Education Track [64] at the 2007 iSummit [65]. The track was designed as a loosely integrated collection of sessions with a common focus on how to bring the commons model and philosophy into education. Sessions used participatory, interactive methods to support a shared conversation and convergence amongst people with a passion for open education. The sessions provided a space to showcase emerging open education initiatives and to explore ways to better create, share and evolve open educational materials.

Salesforce.com Nonprofit Roadmap Summit [Array], San Mateo, California, June 2007: Salesforce.com Foundation [66] invited Aspiration to design and facilitate a summit meeting [67] of developers and users of the Salesforce.com Nonprofit Template. The goals of this convening were to 1) take measure of both the successes and outstanding issues with the Nonprofit Template; 2) share perspectives on needs and priorities of the nonprofit Salesforce.com community; 3) collectively cast a vision for the future of Salesforce.com’s nonprofit offerings, and 4) translate that vision into actionable initiatives, milestones, and roles rendered in the form of a product “roadmap”. New and experienced implementors, developers, users, administrators, and consultants were encouraged to attend and lend their perspective to the proceedings.

Wiki Data Sharing Summit [68], San Francisco, California, June 2007: Aspiration convened a number of open data platforms to discuss how such technologies could better interoperate. Purple Wiki [69], Wagn [70], Wiser Earth [71], Craigslist Foundation [72], Radical Designs AMP [73], and Social Source Commons [74] shared their respective data models and information architectures, and brainstormed use cases for the how the various platforms might share data.

Joomla! Core Team Summit [75], Mountain View, California, May 2007: Aspiration was delighted to collaborate with Google in co-organizing two events focused on the Joomla! [76] open source content management system [77]. Aspiration facilitated the Joomla! Core Team Summit, which brought together 20 Joomla! Core Team members [78]. The core team is distributed across the globe, and this was the first in-person meeting in over a year. The agenda combined visioning and team-building sessions with working group meetings to move the project forward on a range of fronts, all aimed at delivering Joomla! Version 1.5 [79]. The team enjoyed the righteous hospitality of Google, and lots of extracurricular fun was had by all. Following the Core Team Summit, Joomla! Day USA West [80] brought over 100 users, developers and service providers from across the western US together to share knowledge, meet other Joomla! community members, and collaborate in the Joomlasphere.

Penguin Day Austin [81], Austin, Texas, April 2007: Penguin Day Austin took place on April 28, 2007 in Austin, TX. Details of what went down are at austinpenguinday.org [82]. Also see the wiki and agenda [83] for the event. Penguin Day Austin was co-organized by Aspiration [84], EFF-Austin [85], Polycot [86], and Gmeta [87].

Penguin Day DC [88], Washington, DC, April 2007: Penguin Day took place in Washington, DC, right after the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC). As at every Penguin Day [89], we explored the potential and the role of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in nonprofit organizations, in sessions designed to answer questions and curiosities! You can see the Penguin Day DC Agenda [90]. Penguin Day DC was organized by Aspiration [91], PICnet [92] and NOSI [93].

FLOSS Usability Sprint IV [94], Mountain View, California, March 2007: Aspiration and Blue Oxen Associates [95] co-hosted the fourth FLOSS Usability Sprint March 9-11, 2007. Once again, Google graciously hosted the event at their headquarters in Mountain View. Project participants included Firefox [96], Drupal [97], WiserEarth [98], and Aspiration’s own Social Source Commons [99]. Event proceedings were tracked on the FLOSS Usability Wiki [100].

2007 Nonprofit Software Development Summit [101], Oakland, California, February 2007: The 2007 Nonprofit Software Development Summit was a first-of-its-kind convening to bring together the range of developers, technologists, managers, eRiders, integrators, users and other practitioners who self-identify under the umbrella of roles around “developing nonprofit software”. The event provided an opportunity both to gather as a community and to take stock of the field, while building connections and capacity. The Summit was hosted in Oakland, California [102], from February 21st to 23rd, 2007. Additional code sprints and collaborations were scheduled on the day following the event. The 2007 Nonprofit Software Development Summit was supported in part by the generosity of TechSoup [103] and Google [104], as well as anonymous donors. See the Event Schedule and Agenda [105], the Agenda Overview [105], event background [105], and press release [105].

Asia Source II [106], Sukabumi, Indonesia, January 2007: Aspiration traveled to Indonesia to oversee the agenda and facilitation at Asia Source II: Free and Open Source Technologies for NGOs [107] (Non Government Organisations) and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). The event took place in Sukabumi, near Jakarta. The Asia Source II blog [108] provided detailed accounts of camp life. Aspiration partnered with fellow event organizers International Open Source Network [109], Tactical Technology Collective [110], InWEnt [111], ICT Watch [112], and Yayasan AirPutih. The event was targeted at those practitioners actively working with the NGO or SME sectors in South Asia and South East Asia, with focus on service and advocacy NGOs, educational organisations, NGO resource centres, community centres, health information organisations, SMEs and SME support agencies.

Telecentre Leaders’ Forum in Benin, West Africa [113], Port Novo, Benin, West Africa, December 2006: Aspiration was delighted to lead the facilitation at the Africa Telecentre Leaders’ Forum 2006. The event convened telecentre practitioners, network leaders, researchers and development partners from across Africa and took place at Centre Songhai [114] in Port Novo in Benin from November 28 - December 2, 2006. The Africa TLF was jointly organized by Centre Songhai [115], IDRC [116], Microsoft [117], OKN [118], SDC [119] and UNESCO [120] under the banner of telecentre.org [121]. The primary goals of the event were to 1) Develop a spirit of networking, learning and collaboration within the African telecentre movement; 2) Provide leaders of telecentres and other Community ICT Centres a chance to gain practical skills and learn about new services that can be used in their own networks and telecentres; 3) Search for common solutions to challenges faced by African Community ICT Centres such as sustainability, content, services, connectivity and impact, and 4) Encourage the development of concrete collaborative activities that offer solutions to these challenges. Complete information about the event can be found on the telecentre.org web site [122].

Open(Data)/Open[Gov] [123], San Francisco, California, November 2006: The Sunlight Foundation [123] invited Aspiration to design and facilitate the agenda for their first-ever Open(Data)/Open[Gov] meeting. The event, co-hosted by the Mitchell Kapor Foundation [123], brought together a diverse group of 60 practitioners focused on various aspects of making government data more open to citizens. The group spent the day wrestling with the challenges and opportunities facing activists and technologists working to open up and demystify publicly available data for the average web users. Sessions addressed how to create successful developer networks, how to facilitate open exchange between Congress and citizens, and a look at various APIs, microformats and possible mashups. Also addressed were gaps in existing data sets, sustainable business models for this type of work, and the unintended consequences of transparency.

FLOSS Usability Sprint III [124], Mountain View, California, October 2006: Google hosted the third convening of programmers, usability experts, project managers, and users gathered to discuss methodologies for improving the usability of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) and to apply those processes towards specific projects. The goals were two-fold: To improve the usability of the participating projects, and to catalyze greater shared understanding and ongoing collaboration between the usability and open source communities. Aspiration’s own Social Source Commons [125] platform was one of the focal projects, along with Drupal, HyperScope, Socialtext Open and Sustainable Civil Society.

California eAdvocacy Training Road Show II, September 2006: Aspiration took its open eAdvocacy curriculum back on the road to nonprofits in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The two-day “Web Sites For Advocacy and Community Organizing: Basics, Essentials, and Best Practices” training covers web essentials, development process, design essentials, developing web strategy, as well as best practices for privacy, and security. The trainings were designed to enable grassroots nonprofits to learn effective process and tactics in using email in their campaigns and strategic work. The training materials have been prepared by Aspiration in partnership with Radical Designs, and funded by the Community Technology Foundation of California. All materials are being distributed under Creative Commons license.

AdvocacyDev III [126], August 2006, Oakland, CA: The third annual convening of developers, organizers, and activists working with open source tools for online activism brought together passionate practitioners for discussion, collaboration, and trainings. Sessions included show and tell on all the latest platforms and tools, ScoutSeven’s DotOrganize project, MobileVoter’s latest cell phone organizing techniques, email deliverability, and open standards and open API’s (Application Programmer Interfaces) for eAdvocacy. A core theme of the event was capacity building: what trainings, documentation and knowledge sharing are necessary to grow the pool of practitioners in the eAdvocacy space? Trainings included “Building and configuring CivicSpace/CiviCRM sites”, “In-depth Drupal Module Development and Theming”, “Prototyping Using Ruby on Rails”, “Business Development: How to pay the bills and work on advocacy development projects”, and “Usability: How Can Online Activist Tools Be Friendlier and More Accessible?” Electric Embers hosted their second annual Most Excellent AdvocacyDev Veggie-Friendly BBQ Shindig. Proceedings were logged on the AdvocacyDev wiki.

Open Curriculum Convergence [127], June 2006, Toronto, Canada: Aspiration provided facilitation at this convening of open curriculum practitioners. The goal of the gathering was to discuss better approaches to peer production and collaborative development in the open curriculum space. This initial meeting allowed participants to share perspectives why they care about open curriculum, to map out what’s working and what’s not, posit visions and plans for open curriculum efforts, and zoom in on common ideas.

California eAdvocacy Training Road Show, May 2006: Aspiration took its open eAdvocacy curriculum on the road to nonprofits all over California for a week of trainings in Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. The one-day “Email For Advocacy and Community Organizing: Basics, Essentials, and Best Practices” training covers email campaigns, how to write effective email campaign messages, tracking open rates and responses, how to manage and sustain email lists, as well as best practices for privacy, security, and avoiding spammer status. The trainings were designed to enable grassroots nonprofits to learn effective process and tactics in using email in their campaigns and strategic work. The training materials have been prepared by Aspiration in partnership with Radical Designs and ScoutSeven, and funded by the Community Technology Foundation of California. All materials are being distributed under Creative Commons license.

LiveWire Summit, San Francisco, California, April 2006: This two-day meeting, convened in partnership with SourceWatch , brought together a broad range of strategists, organizers and implementors working in online strategy and advocacy. Participants included staff and allies from SourceWatch, True Majority, Radical Designs, Democracy in Action, CitizenSpeak, Scout Seven, Greenpeace, Ruckus Society, SEIU, and others who met to discuss how to better get online activism tools into the hands of local activists. A range of capacity building concepts were brainstormed and discussed, from documentation to mentoring to turnkey services.

Shuttleworth Foundation Kusasa Project Sprint [128], London, England, April 2006: Aspiration designed the agenda and facilitated this convening of educators and technologists meeting to discuss new approaches to teaching analytical skills through computer programming in the South African educational context. The goal was to consider how to develop a self taught, peer mentored program, which can be effectively evaluated without expert supervision, and to provide tools for analysis that will be general useful across the range of disciplines being taught at any given age. A range of leading thinkers, including Alan Kay, Guido Van Rossum, and Mark Shuttleworth, and a range of practitioners in computer software instruction met for 2 days to collaboratively advise the Foundation on project scope and direction.

Penguin Day Seattle [129], March 2006: Organized in partnership with PICnet, PD Seattle was the biggest and best Penguin Day yet, with almost 90 participants joining in the fun to discuss Free and Open Source Software for nonprofits. Sessions covered a range of topics including Introduction to Free and Open Source Software, Content Management System (CMS) Crash Courses on Plone,Joomla, and Drupal, Hardware Recycling, Business Models for FOSS developers and providers, Creative Commons And Open Content, Online Advocacy, GIS, Helping Techies and Non-Techies Communicate and Sustainable Free and Open Source Communities.

Innovation Funders Network Summit [130], San Francisco, California, January 2006: The Innovation Funders Network 2006 Summit convened funders, invited affiliate organizations and thought leaders from around the world at Wharton West in San Francisco to explore the role of innovation and networks in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Over 100 participants, coming from a range of perspectives and experiences, discussed challenges and opportunities across the fast-changing landscape of innovation funding. Aspiration designed the agenda, facilitated and co-hosted the event.

Africa Source II [131], Uganda, January 2006: Africa Source II was convened by the Tactical Technology Collective in partnership with Aspiration and other technology-focused NGOs and organizations. Aspiration managed the agenda and facilitator team, and led facilitation of the event. The eight day hands-on workshop aimed at building the technical skills of those working with and within NGOs on the continent, focusing on how technology, in particular Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) can be integrated into the project work of NGO’s. Over 130 NGO Support Professionals and a handful of field leaders from Africa, Europe, North America and Asia explored how technology can best serve the non-profit sector in Africa both in terms of access and content.

Telecentre.org Leaders Forum at WSIS [132], Tunis, Tunisia, November 2005: The Telecentre Leaders Forum (see video [133]) brought together those working in telecentres, running telecentre networks, and doing telecentre research, and provided a venue for people from across the globe with a passion for grassroots technology to connect, share stories and swap practical ideas. Aspiration led facilitation across four days of collaborative workshops, following an agenda co-designed with Telecentre.org and their partner network.

Penguin Day San Antonio [134], November 2005: Aspiration went to Texas to partner with SalsaNet, Ployglot Consulting, and Urban 15 in facilitating discussion on the most inexpensive, flexible technologies to support Texas Nonprofits efforts, how Open Source solutions can be more secure, how to get support for Open Source solutions, and how to find the best Open Source applications.

California Community Wireless Summit [135], San Diego, California, October 2005: Aspiration designed the agenda and facilitated this event, where participants explored strategies for community participation in municipal projects and creating community demand for wireless services through education and outreach. The Summit brought together representatives from community based organizations, activists, community technology and wireless experts, community Internet policy advocates, and local policymakers.Our objective is to build a statewide network of advocates working to bring Internet access and resources to all Californians.

MobileActive Convergence [136], Toronto, Canada, September 2005: Aspiration and Green Media Toolshed convened a working session of global activists, communications staff, technology experts, and foundation staff to mine a wide variety of experience, expertise and vision. The goal of the MobileActive was to explore the power of the cell phone as an organizing and campaign communication tool with leading activists from all over the world; to share knowledge, stories, and strategies; and accelerate the use of cell phones as a successful tool in campaigns, human rights efforts and field organizing. Activists from across the world including Africa, South Korea, the Philippines, India, the Ukraine, and the Americas participated in the first-of-its-kind event.

Network Facilitation Training Convergence, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, September 2005: At the invitation of Bellanet’s Harambee project, Aspiration offered a second training in our event facilitation methodology for nonprofit technology gatherings. Participants explored how the Aspiration approach can be used to build or strengthen collaborative networks, and to lay the foundation for concrete online and offline post-event collaboration, including the effective use of wikis and other online tools used to produce documentation in real time during face to face events. The workshops also provided a springboard for planning subsequent Harambee events via the Aspiration process.

FLOSS Usability Sprint II: Extreme Usability [137], San Francisco, California, August 2005: brought together programmers, usability experts, project managers, and users to prototype new methodologies for improving the usability of Free/Libre Open Source Software (F/LOSS) and to apply those processes towards specific software projects. Aspiration’s own Social Source Commons platform was one of the focal projects, along with the Chandler project, CiviCRM, and others.

AdvocacyDev II, Oakland, California, July 2005: the second convening of practitioners of open source tools for online advocacy took on an international flavor, with participants traveling from Asia and Europe to join in the festivities. Sessions included Mapping the State of F/OSS eAdvocacy Software, discussing F/OSS Database Tools for NPOs and NGOs, Introducing Aspiration’s eAdvocacy Training Curriculum, Open Database Standards, Hacktivism, Inter-Cultural Issues, and a range of peer-to-peer skillshares.

Facilitation for Networks Training Convergence, Ottowa, Canada, June 2005: At the invitation of IDRC and Telecentre.org, Aspiration trained other facilitators in key elements of the event facilitation methodology that Aspiration has developed for nonprofit technology gatherings such as Developer Convergences, sprints, Source Camps, and Penguin Days. Particular emphasis was placed on exploring how the Aspiration approach can be used to build or strengthen collaborative networks, and to lay the foundation for concrete online and offline post-event collaboration, through the effective use of wikis and other online tools used to produce documentation in real time during face to face events. The workshops also provided a springboard for telecentre.org and IDRC planning processes and the development of a ‘facilitation for networks’ methodology which has since been used to organize other events.

Penguin Day New York [138], May 2005: PD in the Big Apple was big fun, with a diverse group of participants and facilitators. Co-organized by Aspiration in partnership with the LINC Project of the Welfare Law Center and United Way of New York City, the event included sessions on Introduction to Free and Open Source Software for Nonprofits, Local resources and who’s-who in the New York Free/Open Source community, e-Advocacy platforms and best practices, Selecting an operating system, and Free and Open Source migration strategies, and a spirited “Speed Geeking” extravaganza.

Penguin Day San Francisco Bay Area [139], April 2005: The first west coast Penguin Day, co-organized by Aspiration and CompuMentor, was held in Oakland and brought nonprofit staff, eRiders, and open source practitioners and developers together for fun, dialog and skill-sharing. A particular focus of this Penguin Day was the role free and open source software plays in hardware recycling, with sessions offered by FreeGeek, Technology Rescue, and Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation (HOSEF). Other sessions addressed CRM solutions for nonprofits, eAdvocacy tools, open content, and yet another round of madcap “Speed Geeking”

Penguin Day Chicago [140], March 2005: Following on the heels of the 2005 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), Penguin Day Chicago was was co-organized by Aspiration with NPOTechs and Teaming for Technology Chicago. Sessions included Introduction to Free and Open Source Software for Nonprofits, Local resources and who’s-who in the Chicago Free/Open Source community, e-Advocacy platforms and best practices, Selecting an operating system, and Free and Open Source migration strategies, as well as the ever-popular “Speed Geeking”

FLOSS Usability Sprint I [141], San Francisco, California, February 2005: The first-ever FLOSS Usability Sprint brought together programmers, usability experts, project managers, and users to discuss methodologies for improving the usability of Free/Libre Open Source Software (F/LOSS) and to apply those processes towards specific software projects. The goals of the sprint will focus on building community between these groups and focusing efforts on non-profit-focused F/LOSS projects. The event surveyed and designed methodologies for improving the usability of open source software and apply the learnings to real software projects.

Asia Source I [142], Bangalore, India, January 2005: Asia Source I was convened by the Tactical Technology Collective in partnership with Mahiti.org and Aspiration. Aspiration managed design of the agenda, and led facilitation of the event, which was aimed at building the technical skills of those working with NGOs in South and South East Asia. The event brought together nearly 100 NGOs and NGO technology support professionals working at the local level across the region, to act as a focal point in increasing the practical uptake of FOSS desktop and tools amongst the voluntary sector in South and South East Asia.

Africa Developer Road Show, Cape Town, South Africa, December 2004: The first FLOSS Developer Roadshow convened African software developers to meet one another, share skills and build knowledge, while designing and implementing appropriate tools for civil society. The event was aimed at meeting sustainable development needs while enhancing the pool of appropriate software skills in the regions. Participants left with with a better understanding of the potential and reality of FLOSS for civil society, new expertise and an enhanced network of contacts and potential collaborators. Aspiration co-designed the agenda and facilitated the event, which was hosted by CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research).

LocalisationDev I [143], Warsaw, Poland, November 2004: in partnership with Tactical Tech Collective, Aspiration convened an Internationalization and Localization Convergence with a geographically diverse cast of developers and intermediaries working on a range of internationalization and localization projects. The convergence served both to strengthen the social and technical links between various localization projects as well as to map out aggregated documentation and best practices for designing and documenting NGO software to be deployed in a range of locales.

ICT and Human Rights, Boston, Massachusetts, November 2004: Aspiration supported and facilitated this colloquium on (www.ict-humanrights.org) in in partnerships with Human Rights Education Associates and Benetech that brought human rights program and IT staff together for a three-day knowledge sharing and hands-on training event on using information technology in human rights work. Collective knowledge was documented at wiki.ict-humanrights.org, and the material was being used to author a human rights technology strategy paper.

APC ActionApps Developer Camp [144], Cape Town, South Africa, October 2004: Aspiration designed the agenda and facilitated this convergence of developer and users of the ActionApps web publishing platform, who traveled from all over the world to discuss the vision and direction for the platform, and plan for capacity building and sustainability of their open source community. Focus areas including training materials development, support for online advocacy features, multi-lingual web sites, and hands-on skillshares. The content management system (CMS) landscape was mapped and discussed, and user survey results were presented.

SMS Sprint, Oakland, California, October 2004: another outcome of the first Advocacy Developers Convergence, this event brought together activists and SMS experts to work on building applications to take advantage of cell phone text messaging in various advocacy contexts. The sprint produced a working “SMS Blaster” capable of sending very large numbers of messages to subscribed cell phones. The blaster was used in various Get Out The Vote (GOTV) and elections monitoring projects around the US elections. In addition, substantial new content was posted for NGO use at wiki.advocacydev.org.

Wireless 4 Development Conference [144], Djursland, Denmark, September 2004: Aspiration provided facilitation and agenda design at this event, hosted by wire.less.dk and held to discuss the potential for wireless community networking in developing countries, as well as to introduce practitioners from around the world to one another. Proceedings were logged on an Aspiration-designed wiki [144].

VoIP Developer Sprint, Oakland, California, August 2004: a direct outcome of the first Advocacy Developers Convergence, this event convened software developers passionate about investigating the potential nonprofit applications for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The VoIP sprint produced an “info-line” application built on top of the Asterisk server platform. The tool allows organizations to set up dial-in information lines for campaigning and event organizing, and has already seen substantial use.

Network Funding Models Conference, Seattle, Washington, June 2004: Aspiration facilitated and designed the agenda for Green Media Toolshed’s convening of network strategists, foundations and funders curious to discuss what it means to fund networks of organizations instead of individual entities. Underwritten by the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the event was a two-day strategy roundtable to identify essential elements of network development to support movement building.

AdvocacyDev I, San Francisco, California, June 2004: The first Advocacy Developers Convergence brought together developers and allies focused on internet advocacy software. The convergence yielded a valuable and popular web resource (wiki.advocacydev.org) that continues to grow in popularity, has led several projects to merge efforts and share code, and has generated several new projects, including an open database initiative for shared data standards, an Open Source Almanac for nonprofits, a localization working group, and applications from the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and SMS (Short Message Services) sprint events.

Penguin Day Philadelphia [145], March 2004: Penguin Days were established with the intent to bring together open source developers and technology support staff for nonprofits. The first in March 2004 began an important conversation about the challenges and opportunities extant in realizing the promise of free and open source software in the nonprofit sector. The event spawned a host of similar gatherings in Portland (Oregon), London, Toronto, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Seattle. Aspiration created replicable, self-documenting materials for local organizations to run the events, with the intention of adapting the process and content model to other types of events.

Aspiration has also presented and facilitated tracks or sessions at the following events:

• PolicyLink Regional Equity Summit, March 2008, New Orleans, Louisiana
• GK3, December 2007, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Oracle OpenWorld “No Slide Zone”, November 2007, San Francisco, California
• Bay Area Alliance, October 2007, San Francisco, California
• Craigslist Foundation Bootcamp, August 2007, Berkeley, California
• Copwatch National Conference, July 2007, Oakland, California
• NetSquared, May 2007, San Jose, California,
• Housing California, April 2007, Sacramento California
• e-STAS, March 2007, Seville, Spain
• CTCNet 2006, July 2006, Washington, DC
• iCommons Summit 2006, June 2006, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Net2 Conference, May 2006, San Jose, California
• GKP International Partners Forum and Members Meeting, May 2006, Colombo, Sri Lanka
• NTC 2006, March 2006, Seattle, Washington
• re:Activism, October 2005, Budapest, Hungary
• NTC 2005, March 2005, Chicago, Illinois
• TPOSSCON (Trans-Pacific Open Source Conference), January 2005, Waikiki, Hawaii
• ICOS (International Conference on Open Source), December 2004, Taipei, Taiwan
• LinuxWorld, August 2004, San Francisco, California
• OSCON, July 2004, Portland, Oregon