Interview with NewOrleans Tech.net

Can you give us a little background has to why you wanted to put on this event and it's purpose?

I have been building technology infrastructures for non-profit organizations for 12 years now. Typically, especially in the last 5 years, the solutions I've been building have focussed on internet technology: basically database driven websites.

What I am noticing is that, although there is a need for some customization in every site, the needs that most organizations have are standard: the need to maintain a database of constituents, donors and members, the need to accept payments and donations, the need for collaborative and responsive workspaces, the need to manage event or classroom registrations, the need for social networking.

Every time I build one of these systems, there is initial setup that I repeat for every site. My thinking is that if we can come together (organizations and technologists) we can develop a framework that is easy enough that organizations can manage a lot of it themselves. It would drive the cost of building that kind of infrastructure down, and it would also create a platform that would empower the organizations themselves to better manage their own needs. This is not about getting people to work for free. that has never been sustainable. The idea is to have us all working smarter together so that we can collectively build the kind of communities we want to have.

This is one of those circumstances where the power of a collaborative effort can make an enormous impact - especially for the city of New Orleans, and the non-profit organizations and small businesses that keep the heart of New Orleans beating in times of struggle. The purpose of this meeting is to build synergy around this idea, and make it happen.

What do you hope to accomplish at this meeting?

I want us to all meet one another in the context of this kind of a collaboration, and understand what our specific needs would be in this kind of a collaboration. I want us to brainstorm ways that we can fundraise and get things off the ground. Mostly, I want to create an environment where people who see themselves in this idea, can find a place to plugin and get to work. This is a good idea: I do not want it to be MY idea. I want to share something with people that I ultimately think will be a great thing, and I want to see how the idea matures and grows when it enters the imaginations of the techies and non-profit organizers.

Can you give us some examples of how technology could be used in New Orleans to make information more accessible to its citizens or help struggling organizations?

Here is an example. There is a spunky activist in New Orleans that I have been speaking with and organizing with. She is awesome, and has decided that she feels like it would make a big difference for New Orleans to have a Citizen Journalist / Social Networking site that pulls in the important news from other news and media makers, and that enables people to blog, create news articles, and publish them both to the site and through different Social Networking channels. She wrote a grant to get it done, and when she gets the funding, the work of building what she needs will be the first part of the framework. We need people and organizations who have ideas and needs, people and organizations (especially in city government) who want to fund this idea, and technologists who want to build it.

What is your plan after this meeting to mobilize ideas or thoughts that are presented?

I have been building a lot of networking hubs (facebook, twitter, existing local organizational networks) and have just upgraded my own site so that it can handle the additional needs of creating an effective collaborative workspace. I want to keep this open because, again, I do not want to own this idea, but once we have a critical mass of organizations, funders and geeks, we will have an infrastructure that I will build that will get us all started.