N2Y2 Web for Social Impact: MAPLight.org and The Freecycle Network at Net Tuesday July 10, 2007

**Please note that there is an MLB All-Star game that night. We highly recommend that you take public transportation. You can use Transit.511.org to plan your trip, http://transit.511.org.

The second Tuesday of each month, social changemakers and web innovators get together to network, socialize and share ideas at Net Tuesday, an event produced by NetSquared, http://www.netsquared.org, a project of TechSoup, http://www.techsoup.org.

At the July Net Tuesday, our presenters will be from the first and third place prize winning projects at the NetSquared Conference: Dan Newman, Co-Founder and Executive Director of MAPLight.org and Ann Blocker, Moderator of the San Francisco Freecycle Network.

MAPLight.org is a nonpartisan nonprofit that illuminates the connection between money and politics. MAPLight.org's groundbreaking website reveals relationships between campaign donations and legislative votes, helping citizens and communities hold their elected officials accountable. Freecycle is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer, like Ann.

During the 2nd NetSquared Conference (N2Y2), (http://www.netsquared.org/2007/conference), 21 projects that use the web for social impact presented their work and received feedback and support from the NetSquared Community. At the end of the Conference, each attendee voted for the project(s) they thought would have the most impact. When the votes were cast, the projects with the most votes were:
First Prize: MAPLight.org: A Light On Money and Politics, (http://www.maplight.org)
Second Prize: Miro, Open Source, Open Standards Video (http://www.getdemocracy.com)
Third Prize: The Freecycle Network (http://www.freecycle.org)

Presenter Bios:

Dan Newman, is an entrepreneur and political organizer, the author of three books on speech recognition software and the founder of Say I Can (http://www.sayican.com), a speech recognition firm. Dan co-founded the Berkeley Fair Elections Coalition and has served as a consultant to various political and nonprofit groups, including the Center for Voting and Democracy, Israel Venture Network, and the Mental Health Association of San Francisco. He received an MA in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, where he attended on a National Science Foundation Fellowship, and a BA in Biomedical Ethics from Brown University. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Ann Blocker has been moderating on the Freecycle Network since 2005, when she discovered how much easier it was to gift her extraneous stuff rather than move it. In the two years since, she has gifted moving boxes, cell phones, ancient computer books (and computers), outdoor furniture and clothing (from sneakers to suits) to local schools and nonprofits, countless teachers, several small businesses, and a host of folks from around the Bay Area. In return she has received chocolate chip cookies, hugs, a jade plant, a GreenZebra coupon book and a deeper appreciation for how wonderful (and wonderfully varied) our community is. When she is not on the Freecycle Network, Ann is the COO of a healthcare start-up that offers a non-insurance health benefit for companies and individuals.

Official Website: http://netsquared.meetup.com/1/