Deane’s posterous

Which payment service is best for our Non-Profit Organization?

While recently working for a non-profit I had to set up their online
payment services for them. So I took the opportunity to informally
benchmark the three primary payment providers of Amazon, Google
payments and Pay Pal. I'm grateful for the opportunity to look at the
strengths and weaknesses of each three...

At first Amazon looked like the winner cause our target consituency
are Amazon users. Catch was our non-profit didn't have a debit card,
so we couldn't sign up until we got one. Pay Pal on the other hand
took 48 hours to respond to us to tell us that they wanted four
different forms of specific legal documentation in order to prove we
are a legitimate non-profit client.

Google Payments on the other hand... They were a throwback to how good
Paypal was 8 years ago before Ebay bought it. As soon as our bank's
routing number was verified (24hours)  I had payment buttons on all
the relevant pages of our website within minutes. Even better is that
soon as we fill more forms we'll likely get a google grant, which
means no service charge on our donations, as well as what some call
"$10,000 a month in 'gifted' google ad sense benefits. So looks like
Google wins if you want ease of use and no hassle,

Author's note: I used my personal paypal account to make a one time
payment to pay for the monthly fee of this website and you know what
happened? Pay pal turned it into a subscription by default? Opting out
of subscription by defautl was made quite hard to do too!

Just installed a search plugin that saves the rainforest every time I use it

I recently started using an internet search engine that saves 2m² (2.4yd²) of rainforest with each web search I do. Their search results are as good as Google or Yahoo, and it’s free.

The address is: http://www.Ecosia.org 

     

Click here to download:

Just_installed_a_search_plugin.zip (114 KB)

Add a "Gmail This" Bookmarklet to Your Browser - About Email

Add a "Gmail This" Bookmarklet to Your Browser
To add a Gmail this bookmarklet to your browser:

Click on the following link with the right mouse button and select Add
to Favorites... or Bookmark This Link... from the menu. In some
browsers, you can also drag and drop the link to your toolbar or
bookmarks:
Gmail this

http://email.about.com/library/misc/blgmail_this_bookmarklet.htm

Say website instead of Blog... What's wrong with our Blogosphere?

Finally someone summed up life in the land of Probloggerville. I mean Blogosphere... Below is some of what was said on Problogger today. What said below is true in many more ways than blogging!

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If I walked into a crowded mall, went into the food court, stood there in the middle of it and just started talking, what do you think would happen?

Most people wouldn’t see me. Then, a few would and they would probably think I was crazy. At the end of the day, I’ll just be that crazy guy they saw at the mall.

Now, imagine if 90% of the people in the food court did that. They just got up and started talking into space. It would be one big din of noise. Now, all of those people want to feel as if they are famous, so they start competing and trying to out-talk the other people. The volume increases, but few are being listened to. The ones who are listened to are the ones at least saying something useful.

And that is the blogosphere

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A digital prophecy as two brief videos...

video

A digital prophecy as two brief videos...

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=vowb3nos3o

What a Non-Profit Communication Control Panel Can Look Like

The primary motivation for creating this interface is to get members of Board of Directors to actively particpate in the creation of website content. The website: http://voicesofhumboldtcounty.com was created by me last April. The goal was to get a dozen watershed activists to actively post content. That hasn't worked out yet... Perhaps this new NetVibes interface will work better?

The interface consists of four tabs. The first tab is titled: Data & Communication

This tab consists of 1) A to-do list 2) A data library of relevent content that's been gathered up, but not yet published, 3) A view of our most recent emails / link to our email account. 4) Our Facebook feed, as well as a window to post directly to Facebook, 5) Our Twitter feed, as well as a window to post directly to Twitter.

The Second Tab is called: Humboldt Voices

This Tab consists of the 1) North Coast Journal's Blog monitoring blog known as Blogthing, 2) The Local Radio Station KMUD, 3) The local Newspaper, 4) Out of View of the image are other local enviro-oriented blogs, 5) As well as our flagship blog: http://voicesofhumboldtcounty.com

The Third tab is called: California Voices, which is a collection of enviro-oriented websites throughout the state. This is the tab that soon will have the most content, as well an HWC-oriented California-wide organizing campaign called "Voices of California."

Finally the Fourth tab is called: California Newspapers

       

Click here to download:

What_a_Non-Profit_Communicatio.zip (410 KB)

Testing out a new postign system!

Testing out a new system! 

Poem Called "Traditions" read and sung twice at: start & end (10min.)

Listen here:Play here:[Audio:DeaneTR-Traditions.mp3]

Download Here:

Heading out after a family together of traditions
A family hearing of the taproot of world suffering

the need for a cure at the center of the world
the psychic center of all life’s center, the holy land.
A desert soon to be gardens for all peoples and all life

Wanting to say hello
reaching
our hands out to each other
reaching our hands together
feeling warmth in each other
no eyes meet
yet that brief greeting amidst heading out
through a crowd of quiet listening
That brief greeting is an antidote
that defies all facts and figures
defies all suffering of even the bloodiest of oppressions
defies all loss and terror, all imprisonments, all starvations

A found solution
Think only of the warmth between those hands
Think of how this warmth, this living sharing… Essential
Think Hands sharing the silent singing of their voices
Hands sending warmth and circulation
Hands as the strongest note of the lowest and hieghest range
These songs are strong
vibrant thriving

Steady roots connected
branch tips swaying closer and further
hands touching, sending, recieving
hands as inner walls fading from need
past barriers of hurt, loss and rage.

Maybe we learn to let go enough someday?

Maybe see the whole forest…
then foreget what your looking at
then remember that you forget
then find yourself
in the bark pattern
of specific space
on a specific treee
amongst so many tree.

This is song for fallen one’s song
now recited by now new Elders…

Hands In time…
rain
centuries of rain
Quiet calm in trees
we are here to soothe
to end the harm and remedy the hurt at the center of the world…
remedy the hurt and center the world…

Poem and Photos by DeaneTR© 2003
As presented at: http://peacefromtrees.org//index.php?title=104-Untitled%205&back=74