After spending a week discussing with the global south about the digital divide, I find my self back in NYC, amazed at New York City Council Member Gail Brewer's staff bridging our own digital divide.

Opencongress.org just installed a new sunroof on the big dome.

This weekend, Civicspace on Demand (CSoD) launched. For $50 bucks a month you get a "complete, integrated solution for your community website, online donations, blast email, and supporter database needs." If you thought Drupal and CiviCRM were too complicated, think again. CSoD has spent the past two years, rethinking the layout and workflow. Instead of harvesting the open-source community, they have spent a considerable about of time providing feedback and improvements to the community.

Save the Children goes into SecondLife Fundraising and Political Activity

Save the Children has decided to create a Yak Shack for online fundraising. Their SL Yak cost 1000 Linden dollars (US$3.50). Mind you - this is not just a donation; for every Yak you purchase, you will be able to virtually milk, ride and knit yak wool, thereby giving you similar income revenue from a virtual yak as a child would get with a real yak. On top of that, purchasers of the yaks can return them by 16 December for a chance to win an interview in Second Life Magazine. Link via Games for Change

Last week, the Spain-based NGO Mensajeros de la Pax will host a homeless avatar named MensajerosDeLaPaz Jubilee. Their catch phrase "Help a child have a second opertunity in his First Life" really got me thinking how you don't homeless children on the streets of New York City. This is a great way of reminding those who are fortunate of the plight of so many. You should check out the YouTube Video.

First there was foo camp, a no-structure, no plan, yet invite only, tent on the lawns, hacker event hosted by publisher uber geek Tim O'Reilly.

Then there was barcamp, an international network of unconferences -- open, participatory workshop-events, whose content was provided by participants.

On 21 September, we will get an at-hoc, un-conference dedicated to the government services for people to share and learn in an open environment. Hopefully, GovCamp Brussels will feature the same intensity in discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

Believe it or not, this is an initiative by the Belgian Federal Government, Federal Public Service Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Directorate General External Communications. That's right a un-hinged, un-agendafied, un-copyrighted, and un-patented conference sponsored by a democratic government.

While no one in the US has taken the lead and started planning a US GovCamp, the League of Technical Voters has started planning a lockin Code-A-Thon to improve governmental policies and use of technical resources. According to the League, "we believe that many of the current problems have more to do with the lack of education than partisan issues."

On a side-note, if anyone wants to formulate a US GovCamp - count me in!

It has been almost two months since myGOP, the GOP MySpace, was to host a national "opportunity" to win five "special Republican edition iPods." Who were the top five? How much did the GOP rase? Why is the ask still on myGOP?

The top ten ONLY fundraised $1594. Brian Brideforth, the #1 contributer and a member of MySpace GOP Bloggers, set a goal of $2500 yet only raised $446. The #2 contributer, GOP Bloggers, raised $374 out of $2000. The top 10 "Team Members" networked 847 people. With all the Democratic fearfare, surely the GOP political MySpace should have attracted more donations.

What went wrong? Was the original inclination to not have a GOP MySpace correct or are partisan political social networks dead? Is Yochai Benkler wrong or is this Web 1.0 of political fundraising?

Chairman Dean do you care to fire the next salvo?

Last week, Advokit version 1.0 was released. It’s been a long two years since I first laid my hands on this open-source, web based voter contact management tool. It was late in the summer of 2004 and the New York State Democratc Senate Campaign Committee had deployed four instances of Advokit. Little did we know that this open-source tool would propel the New York State Senate Democrats three seats closer to majority rule and upset the third most powerful Republican in Albany. (NY Times Coverage) For ANY campaign – large or small – with access to a knowledgeable technologist, Advokit is one solution you should review.

As demonstrated by the Republican National Committee’s launch of myGOP and the 2004 Howard Dean for President campaign, political campaigns are no longer top-down operations. While Advokit can be used successfully for top-down voter identification, the real strength lies in utilizing social networks for distributive campaigns – "with Advokit, the people are not just donors they are full participants in the campaign."

For more information on the Advokit software community, visit http://advokit.net