Knowledge As Power — Everyday Democracy
Knowledge As Power offers accessible information on legislative action and education for citizen participation in the legislative process. A preview of their services is already available for Washington State, although as an organization they are just a few months old.
These are my notes from one of five sessions at a Seattle Net Tuesday event. Sessions were limited to five minutes, so I followed up with presenters as needed. The Knowledge As Power presentation was delivered by Executive Director Sarah Schacht.
Sarah Schacht has published the current version of the Knowledge As Power web site herself, for a low cost, with little technical experience, and using her personal computer. She updates the site herself, and has even depended on it for live video presentations, critical and successful first impressions, and fund raising.
Much of Seattle Net Tuesday is an ongoing discussion of better ways to connect nonprofits and technology. So how did Sarah pull it off? She used iWeb from Apple Computer. With iWeb and about $75 spent on the iWork Suite, plus Emma for email marketing at about $24 per month, Sarah’s young organization has a simple, sustainable, and professional online presence.
In this context, other Seattle Net Tuesday attendees mentioned that Windows Live Spaces from Microsoft was catching up, including that they offer a free domain as Apple does with iWeb. However, it was also mentioned that Live Spaces also still has issues with the increasingly popular Firefox and other Mozilla browsers.
For online donations, Knowledge As Power has made good use of a PayPal button, the code for which is provided by PayPal.
Sarah recommends the iWeb and Apple technologies to anyone wanting to get something started online, without too much technical fuss — provided you own or can easily access a Mac computer.
Of Knowledge As Power, I say: may it live long, and prosper.
Give Knowledge As Power’s legislation-tracking web site a try!