September 23rd, AIGA Colorado presents Jim Ales, discussing the designer's role in making a positive impact through the power of design. Jim is the recipient of the AIGA Environmental Leadership Award, and a judge for the 2009 (Re)design Awards. Jim has lectured extensively on nonprofit branding and the positive economic and social impact it brings to the organization. More information and tickets are available on the AIGA Colorado website.

Join us this Tuesday for the Colorado Nonprofit Technology and Communications (CNTC) meetup. This month's discussion topic is "Open Government Data".  

Much recent work been done in our nation's capital, around open data and transparency.  The city of Washington DC made lots of municipal data available in real time, and the Apps for Democracy program saw some real successes building on that.  Similar efforts are underway in other cities across the nation, and at the federal level as well.  What are some of the promises and pitfalls of this movement?  Join us for a discussion of open government data:

• What is it?
• What are people doing with it?  (and, so what?)
• What are the pitfalls and problem areas?
• What does it mean for Colorado?

When: Tuesday, August 4th, 6-8pm
Where: The Alliance Center  (1536 Wynkoop Street, Denver, 80202)

We'll provide light snacks (soda, chips, and the like).  Limited free parking is available in the Alliance Center lot.  Otherwise, there should be some metered parking within a block or two.  

If you're planning to attend, please let us know:

See you Tuesday!

Thanks to everyone who attended our July 7th meetup, "Social Media Planning and Monitoring".  We had a full house.  Overfull, really.  Most everyone was using social media with their organizations and clients, and a few veterans have been using it for a year or more.  Some were already doing a bit of monitoring and shared their tools and thoughts, and we had a helpful presentation on social media planning by the Denver DataMan, Steve Kessler.

Thanks for the helpful comments and feedback we've received recently, and BIG thanks to all of you who've been talking and tweeting about our group and events the last couple of days.

"Remember when you were in college and you just could not understand covalent bonding in that Chem 1A class? All you had to do was stop by your TA's office hours for a little extra help and you were on your way to a sterling GPA... Now that you're a grown up, you're often on your own. If you need help configuring the security settings on your new server, or deciding which email vendor to use, you don't always know where to turn for advice..."  (from the NTEN website)

NTEN provides an online chat room, for informal Q&A related to nonprofit technology.  People with expertise in a particular area sign up to answer questions, and it's easy to pop in and get some help.  The calendar gives a good idea of who will be online and when.  If you have some questions about websites, offsite backups, or just about anything you can find someone willing to give you a bit of free advice.  Check it out on the NTEN website.