I have not yet downloaded this to check it out - but thought it might be of interest to some of you. -cynthia
** PRESS RELEASE ** For Immediate Release, Thursday, March 7, 2002 http://www.organizenow.net/odb/march-release.html ORGANIZERS' DATABASE (ODB) SOFTWARE FOR WINDOWS IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD BY NONPROFITS contact: Rich Cowan or MarJean Tardif Tel. 617-426-1228 x108; or x110 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston, MA-Organizers' Collaborative (OC), a national membership organization comprised of social activists and technology professionals, today released a public website so that nonprofit groups could FREELY download a new software program designed to enhance the capacity of grassroots groups to engage in organizing campaigns for social change. This release of this new software program for Windows, at http://organizenow.net/odb.html, was designed to coincide with the conference of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, which is taking place today and tomorrow in Washington, DC. ODB, short for Organizers' DataBase, is a full-featured membership management system and grassroots contact manager. Under development since 1999, ODB has been designed from the ground up to excel in ease of use and ease of installation. "Our objective is to lower the barrier to participation," said Rich Cowan, Founder of Organizers' Collaborative and the coordinator of the ODB project. OC is itself a tax-exempt nonprofit, and the development costs of this software (about $25,000 so far) have been funded entirely by individuals and private foundations. "Not receiving venture capital means that we did not have to aim this product at the needs of higher-end users. In fact, we did exactly the opposite," said Cowan. Diskettes with copies of early versions of the software were distributed last summer at conferences of anti-poverty organizers in Houston and Northern California. Feedback from these users helped developers enhance the usability of the product. Then in November and December, the improved version of ODB was installed (without "expert" help) by a Vietnamese immigrant group in Boston, an arts group that operates on a shoestring budget in New Mexico, and an anti-eviction project serving low-income tenants in Cambridge, MA. The results have been encouraging. "ODB actually makes it easy for us to track membership dues and contributions. It's such an improvement over our old system," said Mary Regan, an organizer with the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone. The ODB database software has very low support requirements. Its features include an automatic backup of the database once a month, and the ability to upgrade the software engine in under 10 seconds without affecting a group's data files. These features are not provided in other free database products such as eBase, the Filemaker-based system developed by Techrocks. The software upgrade feature is important because OC plans to continually enhance ODB in the coming year. Another thoroughly tested version will be released at the annual meeting of "technology riders" on April 12 in Orlando sponsored by NTEN.org. Finally, an "open source" version will be released at the end of May to coincide with the Organizers' Collaboratives' own annual conference. The OC group still recognizes that many groups will need some hand-holding to get started. They are conducting demonstrations in six cities this spring and are planning to raise funds to support local people who have technical skills and roots in the communities needing this support. "We have seen some interest from networks representing community organizations, the peace movement, the clean elections movement, and the grassroots environmental movement," said OC's Cowan. "Particularly for organizations receiving startup grants, a group must quickly diversify its support in order to remain viable. The ODB software allows a group to easily manage the process of converting initial donor prospects into participants in an annual giving program." OC board member Steve Fernandez, also a member of the board of Latino Parent Association (LPA), noted, "When we hired a new executive director two years ago, he did not have the time to learn a complex database package. I know that if ODB was available then that our parent network could be much stronger today." The ODB software program was designed using Visual Basic and runs on any PC that can run Windows, including Win XP. The database files created are compatible with Access97; however no Microsoft products are required to use ODB. The database can be used simultaneously by multiple users on a local area network. Remote data sources (as supported in eBase) are not currently supported in ODB. They will be supported in a future version, to be released this summer. In May of 2002 OC will make the source code to ODB available in a format that will allow free software activists to participate in the development of a cross-platform version of ODB, so as to provide support for the GNU/Linux operating system and/or Mac OS X. Screenshots of the ODB software may be viewed at: http://organizenow.net/pdf/odb.pdf Additional information about the ODB software is available in the user guide, which is downloadable at: http://organizenow.net/odbguide.pdf Note: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations has not evaluated or endorsed ODB; details on their event are at www.geofunders.org. ------------------------ Organizers' Collaborative is providing ODB as a free service to the nonprofit community. They request donations to support this project, which may be made using the secure Egrants.org service. Details are at http://organizenow.net. U.S. mail donations may be sent to: Organizers' Collaborative, Box 400897, Cambridge, MA 02140. * 30- To media outlets in Washington DC, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Ohio: we can provide you with local contacts who are using the ODB software. **Folkschool-list archives are at: <http://www.mint.net/folkschool/helpnet/archives.htm> Sponsored by Pine Tree Folk School ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84vzQ.a9gqS3 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
