Kia ora all,
Some time ago I created a project called Enzyme. (www.enzyme.org.nz) I was originally using Php-Nuke and I had an idea. I had recently gotten more involved in activism and saw a need for a community website. I hadn't come across Indymedia yet, but when I did I recognise the limitations of the Indymedia concept (it's a grassroots open-publishing news website) for what I wanted to do. I wanted to create an online community portal. I had many discussions with myself and others over the limitations of the internet for activist groups and the New Zealand activist context and eventually the project ended up becoming a free webhosting project. It's gone through many variations and half-pie designs etc, but fundamentally it's main purpose has been fullfilled.
At some point I came across Drupal and realised how useful it is. I've encouraged people to use it instead of wordpress, phpnuke and static html and now host over 20 websites using it. There are many things that I see that would be useful (such as a community portal, an alternative to yahoo groups, a free activist blog site, a base activist portal that other sites can be built on etc) but I don't always have the time to do these things in a one-man project and with a full-time job. Usually I throw things together (not always with the best result) and it also means I haven't had enough time to properly look into things like CivicCRM which I think are really good.
What would be useful is:
- A central wiki site about Drupals uses for non-profit sites (i.e. unions, activist groups, campaign specific, a list of basic tools like petition that are useful)
- theory/debate about use of internet and democracy and ideas/suggestions on how to use them in campaigns etc
- A place to discuss how to use what exists for our needs and a way to communicate what we need developed (i.e. the petition module is good for example, but how does one list the names of those who have signed it like most websites do)
- A way to collaborate on developing things that we need and a way for non-programmers to participate - i.e. a collective voice representing the needs of non-profit groups etc
Anyway, there's a starting point.
Simon