Resources On Grassroots Internet & Web

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Grassroots means involving the common people to form a group for fundamental political, economical or any other group. Here are some examples of Grassroots deployment or use of Internet and Web technologies.

Wikileaks : The whistle-blowing Web site allows sources all over the world to securely and anonymously leak a variety of material from military training manuals to evidence of corporate malfeasance.[via DailyTitan]

Defective By DesignIt is an anti-digital rights management (DRM) initiative by the Free Software Foundation. DRM technology, dubbed "digital restrictions management" by opponents, restricts users’ ability to freely use their purchased movies, music, literature and software in ways they are accustomed to, with ordinary non-restricted media. [Via Wikipedia]

Web Standards Project: The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.

Free Cycle: It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.

Global Giving: ‘intelligent’ philanthropy. You choose the project you care about. You give online. Your money goes directly to the project.Smart and simple.

Freerice.com - Improve vocabulory and donate rice each time you crack a word [Via @ragahavs]

Our Media: Grassroots media initiative, allows free hosting for video and podcast producers.

Grassroots.org : Mission from site: To serve as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and business best practices.Our ultimate goal is to adopt 10,000 nonprofit members, and to provide them each with an average of $10,000 of services per year at no charge (for a total savings of $100 million per year!).

IT & Grassroots Democracy: A Case Study of Environmental Activism in China by Guobin Yang

Grassroots.com: Grassroots for enterprise. From communications strategy, blog strategy to products and cause marketing.

WorldChanging.com: From the site: WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it’s here. We only need to put the pieces together.

Grassroots Campaign : Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. (GCI) is an independent, for-profit organization that does strategic consulting, fundraising, and field organizing for causes and candidates. They run face-to-face fundraising operations in neighborhoods and in high-traffic public venues to fundraise and build support for political groups, issues, and campaigns.[Via Wikipedia]

SRISTI: A non-governmental organisation setup to strengthen the creativity of grassroots inventors, innovators and ecopreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity and developing eco-friendly solutions to local problems. [Via ThinkChange India]

IndyMedia: Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth.

Tools for powering up and create your own grassroots initiative on the web:

Google Non-profits: Learn how to use free Google tools to promote your work, raise money, and operate more efficiently.

CivicSpace: Powering social change: A port of popular content management system Drupal but geared more towards promoting cause, communities, volunteering, events, discussions. This content management system is a great tool of non-profits and grassroots as a out-of-the-box solution. Try a demo here

Grassroots Real Time Collaboration Tools: Robin Good’s presentation of grassroots collaboration tools Traits and tools for virtual team workers. Jonathon has picked up the products listed in Robin Goods presentation and consolidated here

(Book) We The Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People By Dan Gillmor

Some more examples of Grassroots web initiatives:

Open source and grassroots media projects: A huge list of Open source projects and grassroots media initiatives

Social Change Websites:Social Change Websites is a directory of the best nonprofit, grassroots, and advocacy campaign websites dedicated to making a difference in the world. A nice site with categories so that you can find the grassroots in the area of your interest.

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