Nuggets from the Information Hailstorm

One of the more common uses I see my friends making of Twitter is to post a link to an interesting web-based resource. Since the one-line nature of the Twitter post limits the amount of effort that can go into polishing these "miniblogs", I'm getting a virtual hailstorm of information this way. And then there are all the articles, blogs, and videos that my Facebook contacts post every day. There's no way I can begin to keep up with the flood of valuable information my friends are incessantly calling to my attention. Here are some highlights form the past few days... 1. Grantmaking 2.0 link [via Holly Ross at NTEN]. Here's an article posted by Amy Luckey at GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) that talks about the use of collaborative web tools to strengthen the relationships between funders and organizations. 2. Fixing Wikipedia Articles link [via Michael Gilbert's weekly Nonprofit Online News] More and more often we find that wikipedia is the first place we are pointed to when seeking information about a person or organization online. Suppose you look up your NPO and find incorrect information in the article? What's the most effective way to correct the article? That's what this piece is about. Just changing it yourself is not always the most effective solution, since Wikipedia staff monitor the IP addresses of people making changes and will often disallow an edit from the organization the article is about. 3. Legal Guidance for e-Commerce link [via SBTV.com, which I learned about through a post by Tinu Abayomi-Paul] I'm sure all developers have this happen to them - you are involved in what seems to be the straightforward technical process of setting up an e-commerce site for a client, when the legal questions start. Is a credit card sale binding if the buyer is under 18? What is the legal force of terms and conditions the buyer agrees to by clicking a checkbox? I don't know the answers to most of these. I'm not a lawyer. But the American Bar Association has built a resource to answer your e-commerce legal questions. Built around the kinds of questions that need to be answered when designing and launching a new e-commerce site, safeselling.org is full of answers to questions I'm often asked. [You'll learn for example that courts may consider the size of the font your terms and conditions were in when deciding if they are valid!] image originally uploaded as http://www.flickr.com/photos/sookie/94778946/