Exhibitors
The planned exhibitors in the MLS Expo are:
BookBrewer (Dan Pacheco)
NOTE: Due to the storm’s impact on flights, Dan Pacheco will not be able to attend the Seminar.
BookBrewer is a web-based publishing tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and publish a book, both as an eBook and Print on Demand. Setup fees per title range from $20-$60, depending on various features and distribution options chosen by the author, and the author keeps 95% of post-retail sales for books distributed through BookBrewer. Authors can also download full ePub files to distribute themselves for under $30 per title. BookBrewer offers special Red Carpet Plans with no upfront fees to larger publishers or authors who have prior demonstrated history of high sales. Learn more at BookBrewer.com
Click and Pledge (Jim Barney)
Get an inside look at the innovative, free nonprofit software platforms from Click & Pledge. You’ll discover how to increase your fundraising while reducing your costs with world-class nonprofit software platforms and payment systems, including: 30+ online fundraising tools; donor management; mobile platform for online giving; event management platform to manage any size or type event; exclusive new Swipeone credit card reader to accept payments on mobile device. For more: ClickandPledge.com.
Civic Commons (Mike Shafarenko)
The Civic Commons is a social network that provides organizations, communities, media entities, and individuals with deliberative online engagement tools to inform or determine civic decisions. Its mission is to build conversations and connections that have the power to become informed, productive, collective civic action.
Community Information Toolkit (Mayur Patel)
Are you a community foundation that is looking for ways to strengthen your community’s civic infrastructure so that residents are informed and actively engaged in issues that affect their lives? Are you a community development organization that wants to help residents have a greater voice in government affairs and public planning processes? Are you a neighborhood watch group that sees how improved access to crime data could strengthen public safety campaigns? Are you a local public media organization that wants to build stronger relationships with residents and produce more locally relevant content? The Community Information Toolkit will help community leaders like you to harness the power of information to advance your goals for a better community. It will help you define and address your key community information challenges, while also positioning your organization as a central convener in your community. And by “your community” we mean the community as you define and experience it — by geography, population, issue or a blend of these.
Community PlanIT (Steve Walter)
NOTE: Due to the storm Steve Walter is expected to arrive late Sunday so please look for him on Monday morning at the Expo.
Community PlanIT is an online engagement platform for local planning efforts. Bringing together the interactivity of social networks and the incentives of online games, Community PlanIt transforms participatory planning into a fun, engaging activity for all ages. Players participate online in six weeks of planning-themed missions to earn PlanIt Coins, which they spend on the values most important to them. The community joins together at the end of the process to discuss the results and plan for the future. For more information check out our blog. More at http://communityplanit.org/
Community Supported Art (Laura Zabel)
Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy seasonal food directly from local farms. With the same buy-direct, buy-local spirit in mind, mnartists.org and Springboard for the Arts created a similar endeavor to support local art, artists, and collectors. Community Supported Art is an exciting new model of art support and distribution that supports artists in the creation of new work and establishes relationships with local collectors and patrons. In partnership with Knight Foundation, Springboard has published a toolkit that has helped CSArt programs sprout in over 30 communities nationwide.
E-Democracy (Steve Clift)
E-Democracy’s non-profit BeNeighbors.org initiative is at the forefront of building inclusive and integrated community engagement online. It reaches out to build community voices and bridge building connections among all people including lower income, diverse, and immigrant neighbors. Based on a public, open, strong civility, and open source technology approach, it provides a distinct alternative to resident-exclusive closed or gated models. By 2014, with Knight Foundation support, over 10,000 St. Paul residents will connect daily across 16 Neighbors Forums online. National lesson sharing, adaptable how-to webinars, and expansion pilots are available. Follow highlights @edemo on Twitter and at blog.e-democracy.org.
Front Porch Forum (Michael Wood-Lewis)
How can community-building programs succeed when only a quarter of Americans know most of their neighbors? Knight News Challenge winner Front Porch Forum solves this problem by hosting regional networks of online neighborhood forums. In FPF’s Vermont pilot, 30,000 households subscribe, including half of Burlington. Clearly identified nearby neighbors find lost cats, recommend plumbers, report car break-ins, demand better municipal services, debate school budgets, organize block parties and more. Then, when trouble visits, people are no longer vaguely familiar strangers, but full-fledged neighbors who have formed book clubs, babysitter coops, and neighborhood watches. Vermont was hit with record flooding this past spring, then devastating Hurricane Irene in the fall. In both cases, the hardest hit towns rallied through FPF and continue to do so during the extended rebuilding. FrontPorchForum.com is expanding outside of Vermont now and we have a few more openings for new locations and sponsors.
GuideStar (Lisa Marston)
GuideStar’s mission is to revolutionize philanthropy and nonprofit practice by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions, and encourages charitable giving. We are the leading source of nonprofit information, gathering and distributing information on the programs, finances, and impact of more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized nonprofits. GuideStar serves a wide audience inside and outside the nonprofit sector, including individual donors, nonprofit leaders, grantmakers, and more. Of the 10 million annual visitors to www.guidestar.org, 98 percent access our information for free. We also have a suite of products and services for those professionals interested in sophisticated analysis. Twitter: @guidestarusa
Knight Digital Media Center (Vikki Porter)
The Knight Digital Media Center @ USC Annenberg is dedicated to increasing the flow of critical news and information by helping organizations and community leaders develop digital skills and strategies for the 21st Century. The Center provides training and resources in several formats including self-directed web-based learning modules, instructor-led virtual classes as well as conferences and workshops throughout the country. In addition, the Center offers customized training and consultation to organizations seeking to engage their communities on critical issues.
LocalWiki (Philip Neustrom)
The LocalWiki project is an ambitious effort to create community-owned, living information repositories that will provide much-needed context behind the people, places, and events that shape our communities. And we have already proven it can work and provide tremendous benefits to a community. In 2004 we started the Davis Wiki, an experimental project to collect and share interesting information about the town of Davis, California, that soon became the world’s largest and most vibrant community wiki. Today, the residents of Davis use it for everything from learning about local news and local history to helping return lost pets to their owners.
Power2Give.org (Laura Belcher)
power2give.org is an online cultural marketplace designed to connect donors with projects they are passionate about. Specifically, the site allows nonprofit cultural organizations to post and promote projects in need of funding and invites donors to contribute directly to the projects that are most intriguing to them. With tools and resources for both donors and cultural organizations, power2give.org makes posting, donating, and promoting projects convenient and engaging. Launched in August 2011, the site has raised in aggregate over $1.2 million across 7 communities with 10 more launches already scheduled. Over 5,000 donations have been made to more than 610 projects. Expanding the support of the nonprofits is critical and 46% of the donors to date had not previously supported the organization they gave to.
Prometheus Radio Project (Stephanie Thaw)
The Prometheus Radio Project is a non-profit organization founded by a small group of radio activists in 1998. Prometheus builds, supports, and advocates for community radio stations which empower participatory community voices and movements for social change. To that end, we demystify technologies, the political process that governs access to our media system, and the effects of media on our lives and our communities. Our primary focus is on building a large community of LPFM stations and listeners. We hope this community will grow into a powerful force working toward the democratic media future we envision. Toward that end, we support community groups at every stage of the process of building community radio stations, facilitate public participation in the FCC regulatory process, and sponsor events promoting awareness and support of media democracy and LPFM radio.
Public Lab (Shannon Dosemagen)
The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS) is a community which develops and applies open-source tools to environmental exploration and investigation. By democratizing inexpensive and accessible “Do-It-Yourself” techniques, Public Laboratory creates a collaborative network of practitioners who actively re-imagine the human relationship with the environment. The core PLOTS program is focused on “civic science” in which we research open source hardware and software tools and methods to generate knowledge and share data about community environmental health. Our goal is to increase the ability of underserved communities to identify, redress, remediate, and create awareness and accountability around environmental concerns. PLOTS achieves this by providing online and offline training, education and support, and by focusing on locally-relevant outcomes that emphasize human capacity and understanding. Twitter: @publiclab.
PublicStuff (Swati Balakrishnan)
PublicStuff is an innovative SaaS company that improves communication and builds trust between citizens and their local government. Using both mobile and web platforms, residents are able to submit public service requests from any device and any location and have those requests sent directly to their local government in real time. Cities are then able to access our backend software system to better manage their workflow process and respond to citizen request needs. We have helped municipalities save over $360,000 annually with improved communication channels and increased customer satisfaction. Twitter: @publicstuffcom.
Razoo (Claire Moore)
Razoo is the fastest growing crowdfunding platform for causes and the industry leader in Community Giving Days, having helped raise over $100 million for more than 14,000 non profits through its crowdfunding technology. Giving Days are powerful 24-hour online fundraising competitions that unite communities around causes and build long term capacity for nonprofits. Razoo has executed 15 giving days across the U.S., including the most successful Giving Day ever with its partner GiveMN in Minnesota, raising $14 million in 24 hours. Razoo offers a world class platform with social and mobile fundraising tools as well as an industry low 2.9% transaction fee. Twitter: @razoo.
Recovers.org (Caitria O’Neill)
Recovers.org provides easy-to-use tools to help communities efficiently structure volunteers, donations and information. TownName.Recovers.org, a mobile friendly website, can be set up before an emergency for any town, county or state preparing for a disaster. Large aid organizations can mobilize quickly, but cannot stay forever. It is important to empower the community. With our Disaster Dashboard, efforts and data produced by local organizers are linked to the area’s “official” response.
TurboVote (Katy Peters)
Our mission is to build a simple voting system for the Internet age and become the infrastructure for a 21st century democracy. TurboVote modernizes voting for the way we live by making voter registration and voting by mail as easy as renting a Netflix DVD. The service can mail completed registration or vote by mail applications along with addressed, stamped envelopes, send text and email reminders for all related deadlines, or simply remind someone of their election calendar. And this is just the beginning. Ultimately, TurboVote will become a platform for delivering information and helping citizens connect with elected officials.
Zeega (James Clement Burns)
Zeega, a 2011 Knight News Challenge Winner, is a web-based application for creating immersive online experiences. Zeega allows anyone to create, publish and share interactive multimedia projects without having to write a single line of code.