And CGI served as a non-threatening, open-handed collaborative that stood squarely in the mainstream center of the political spectrum – but clearly to the left of the White House.

This year, when the current occupant of the White House praised Bill Clinton as the nation’s “Do-Gooder in Chief,” there was more than a little irony in the worlds of President Barack Obama. Because in its seventh annual confab this past week in midtown Manhattan, Obama’s Democratic predecessor once more had assembled the kind of open, ordered collaborative the President might well wish Washington more resembled.

And both CGI and its energetic founder still stood squarely in the mainstream center of the political spectrum – but clearly to the left of the White House.

This was my sixth CGI annual meeting (I also spoke at CGI University in Miami last spring) and it has been fascinating to watch the organization’s evolution. Then too, this is Bill Clinton’s 10th year working on his post-Presidential philanthropy and development projects. The numbers continue to be big: CGI has garnered more than 2,100 commitments worth nearly $70 billion. But it’s clear to me that Clinton’s own thinking has evolved, and that he still gestates new ideas on the “art of the possible” during these annual meetings and his year-round work with CGI and his foundation.

And it’s not so much driven by philosophy or ideology (indeed, Clinton’s ideas of government’s role in the world seem remarkably intact) as much as by necessity – and the challenge of these deeply threatening economic times.

“There are challenges that we all face and we have to face them together,” said President Clinton at one of the plenary sessions. “You should feel good about being part of the non-governmental movement, but I do not think you should be anti-government.”

There was a subtle shift in CGI this year that fit in under the focus headline of “jobs” that displayed a keen sense of the present. President Clinton was talking quite a bit about his upcoming book on creating jobs. The main stage “commitments” (those promises of projects, collaboration, and funding that define CGI’s operations) feature the former President and the usual range of celebrities, heads of state, big corporations, nonprofit leaders and assorted do-gooders. I’m not sure if this was commented on elsewhere, but I found the scarcity of big financial institutions both onstage and in general evidence at CGI this year to be somewhat telling. There was stronger emphasis on companies that make things, and on projects involving retrofitting vast portions of the economy (energy efficient real estate deals were the big-ticket headline of the meeting, in my view), and interesting, on labor.

One of the signature commitments came from the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers to fund energy-effecient infrastructure in cities. The initiative led Reuters’ coverage and signaled Clinton’s widening of CGI in the last two years to focus more on serious domestic issues:

With the United States possibly on the brink of another recession and the unemployment rate at more than 9 percent, Clinton trumpeted a pledge by the AFL-CIO labor federation and the American Federation of Teachers to reinvest $10 billion over the next five years in energy-efficient infrastructure.

“This is a huge deal. This could be done not just in the United States but in every European country, in every wealthy Asian country. This system will work and you get guaranteed savings,” Clinton told attendees during the opening session.

The unions have worked with state treasurers and pension funds associated with labor to make the green investments. For example, two of the largest U.S. public pension funds, California’s CalPERS and CalSTERS, have allocated over $1.1 billion to the effort.

In a small backstage gathering of bloggers on CGI’s final day, President Clinton popped open a Diet Coke and held forth of a wide range of current events that – in total – put him (gently) to the left of Obama Administration – or perhaps more accurately, a bit more plainspoken than a sitting President can be on pressing issues. The former President poured blame on the government Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for holding up the Palestinian peace process (earning the enmity of neo-conservatives like Elliot Abrams in the process), chastised the international community for not making good on its pledges to rebuild Haiti, urged a liberalization of U.S. policy on refugee settlement (“keeping people in long-term limbo is a waste of human potential”), talked about food security in the developing world, and blasted climate change denial.

He also spoke in strong, tough terms about U.S. immigration policy: “America needs to become more open to immigration again,” he told the group. “We simply need to be more pro-immigrant. I don’t think it’s particularly threatening to jobs.”

Peeking briefly into national U.S. politics, President Clinton criticized what he called “the non-fact-based political debate,” arguing that the he said, she said “horse-race” style of national political reporting means “nobody rings the bell if the facts are wrong. There’s no bell ringing, and that means there’s a huge disconnect not just in the message, but in the method.”

It’s a point that wasn’t lost when President Obama pushed his jobs bill in his CGI speech in the main hall – nor when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Chelsea Clinton, who clearly has a public life on the agenda. “I would make a plea for more people with knowledge,” said Secretary Clinton, “to not stand on the sidelines and shrug or throw a shoe at the TV when political discussions take place, but to try to participate, play a productive role.”

The sidelines will clearly not include her husband during the nascent political season. It was no accident in my mind that President Obama hit the golf course with President Clinton in Washington after CGI closed. Facing a re-election fight during difficult economic times of high unemployment coupled with general dissatisfaction over the direction of the country.

Obama was clearly in recruiting mode. With his popular Secretary of State out of action for active campaigning, there is no more valuable surrogate for next year’s election than her husband – who so clearly brought domestic issues to the fore at his annual CGI confab, and placed himself – with a grin, and a pat on the back on the stage at the Sheraton last week – just to the left of the White House.

Social media and the resulting mass philanthropy movement are bringing rapid and often destabilizing change to the nonprofit world. This panel discussed how some nonprofits are beginning to harness this new force for change, re-configure their missions and manage change in new ways as a result of the Web-powered social networks. The panel also discussed the adoption of new social media tools is a strategic imperative for traditional organizations of all stripes. (Thanks go to Marcia Stepanek for organizing panel and indeed, the discussion series, at NYU).
Panelists included:

For those who work in social services, the arts, education, healthcare, environmental action, and elsewhere in the social sector, the phrase “across the board cuts” has to cause an almost involuntary shudder. As executive directors and board members across the country know, Federal cutbacks have a long tale indeed: not only do they mean less funding for U.S.- sponsored programs, but they effect the budgets of states and municipalities (often in the following year or two) leading to more slicing of public funds to vital programs.

Consider nonprofit healthcare and the discussion around Medicare, Medicaid, “cost savings,” and reimbursement and fee rates. The right-wing push to cut the size of government has placed a crosshairs over a major revenue source for the nonprofit institutions that serve communities around the country. Cuts to Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals are among the so-called “automatic” cuts insisted upon by the GOP as a virtual threat to their Democratic counterparts to trim an actual $1.5 trillion from the Federal budget. They’re an axe hanging over the head of the vast nonprofit healthcare system.

Wrote Sarah Kliff in the Washington Post: “Medicare providers are among the clear losers in the debt ceiling deal. Come November, they face two really unpleasant options: absorbing whatever cuts the congressional super committee settles on, or, if the group doesn’t reach an agreement, absorbing an across-the-board budget reduction.”

And that’s direct Federal money. As was clear in the real crisis of 2008, the fall-out is often felt a year or more later when, despite initial Federal stimulus funds, public money declined and states and cities pulled in their budgets. For now, it looks like the charitable tax deduction will survive, but it also seems certain the “Super Congress” will consider it among a package of cuts.

“We assume that the new committee will certainly consider the cap on deductions,” said Jason Lee, a lawyer for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, a trade group that is opposed to reducing the value of the charitable deduction, told the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “So we’re working under the premise that we still have our work cut out for us.”

And as United Way Worldwide CEO Brian Gallagher writes in the Huffington Post: “At a time when unemployment remains high, our nation’s most vulnerable families need more help, not less. States can’t fill the gap and most are cutting their human services budgets. As a result, more and more people are turning to charities for assistance. Thus, any change to the federal tax code that undermines charitable giving is a bad idea.”

After all, if he truly believed in the original mission of the controversial site, he’d remove himself from the glare of international attention and let the clear light of day shine brilliantly on the government secrets WikiLeaks has exposed.

But Assange won’t go. As he told a recent interviewer, “I’m a combative person. It’s personally deeply satisfying to me.” And it’s now clear that his main goal is to discredit – and indeed, bring down – the administration of President Obama. As the sole face – the judge and jury of WikiLeaks – he’s clearly operating on the premise of releasing what he considers the most damaging documents to the Administration.

WikiLeaks has certainly done good things during its short existence, and I am not in favor of punishing speech in any way (or, in the parlance of our insane right wing, assassinating Assange). I do not support informal Washington pressure on commercial interests to create a back-door to banning WikiLeaks; shame on Amazon and PayPal. Nor do I think an international manhunt is in order. I’m in favor of fewer government secrets and far more transparency in how government is run.

But I don’t believe Assange is the harbinger of a new and better age. And I no longer believe that Wikileaks acts in the interests of societies of goodwill.

Note: There’s a lot more. Read the rest over at my personal blog – My Dirty Life & Times

And last week, they launched a somewhat old school new media tool to help inform that conversation and carry it forward: the new Fiscal Future Daily is a straightforward and well-informed blog posting that appears Monday-Thursday, brimming with interesting links, commentary and analysis about the Federal budget. “Relentlessly nonpartisan,” the Daily covers political ground left, right and center with links to bloggers, op-ed pieces, charts and graphics, and special reports on the deficit. You can read the press release here. The project also include a popular Facebook page and Twitter stream.

[Note: working with my colleagues at Marketechnique, a boutique online marketing firm in New York, CauseWired was part of the development of the Fiscal Future Daily.]

The idea is to encourage a discussion that occasionally crosses partisan lines and gets people – from public officials to the media and general public – thinking critically about the budget. The blog allows for constant sharing and linking, providing that “permalinked” home base for great data and resources.

In many ways, it’s a microcosm of the overall goal of the Choosing the Nation’s Fiscal Future project. The initial website was developed by the National Academy of Public Administration with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  The site and the fiscal future social media communities launched by Public Agenda are online supplements to a special report developed earlier in the year by a joint committee of the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, which was also supported by the MacArthur Foundation. That report – Choosing the Nation’s Fiscal Future – is the culmination of two years of effort by the NAPA/NRC Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States.

1. Last year, Pick. Click. Give. raised more than half a million dollars for Alaskan nonprofits – how did it work and how was it unique to Alaska?

ALIZA: The entire Pick. Click. Give. awareness campaign is based on something inherently unique to Alaska: our Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) or the annual payment each Alaskan receives as part of a pay out to share in the state’s oil and gas profits. No other state provides a similar fund or payment to citizens of their state.

The overarching goal of the Pick. Click. Give. campaign is to draw attention to and explain the Permanent Fund Charitable Contributions Program. The program began officially in 2009 to allow Alaskans to donate a portion of their PFD to qualifying Alaska nonprofits of their choice while they filed online for their PFD. An underlying goal is to encourage individual philanthropy in Alaska.

Additionally, through social media, the Pick. Click. Give. campaign is working to give exposure to the program and motivate Alaskans to participate and to encourage their friends, family and followers to participate as well.

The previous year (2008) was spent assessing Alaska nonprofits based on a number of criteria to ensure that they qualify for the program as well as to set up the technical aspects of adding a list and way for Alaskans to check the organizations on that list they wished to support with an amount of their choice.

2. You’re using social media to spread the word – which platform works the best for you? What have you learned about how causes and social media work?

ALIZA: We’re on our third year of learning about not only social media for cause-related missions and messaging but also of using social media for not only hyper-local outreach but hyper-rural outreach as well. In partnership with first Rasmuson Foundation and then the Pick. Click. Give. program, we’ve explored Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and Causecast as well as blogs as social media tools for education, outreach and activism.

While it is hard to say exactly which social media platform is working the best for actually driving Alaskans to pick the organizations to support when filing for their PFD, we can say the following:

The Blog – Each post averages over 100 views. The post about Facebook for nonprofits exceeded 200 views. Currently, there is little comment participation but we can assume people are reading the information and interested in reading the blog.

Facebook – We’re at 352 fans. In the scheme of Alaska nonprofits, this is a solid number. Compared to other Alaska-related for-profits, this is small although even Alaska companies struggle to break 1000 fans.

Twitter – We’re at 213 followers. Twitter is still relatively nascent in Alaska but we are also finding we are struggling to get Alaskans on Twitter to follow and retweet. This may be a learning curve on the part of Alaskans who tend to be very conservative about following others on Twitter. They tend to use Twitter more like Facebook – conversations with actual friends.

YouTube and Causecast – Because of the video PSAs created for the campaign last year and this year, we wanted to leverage those on the most popular video sharing site (YouTube) as well as the one dedicated to causes (Causecast). This year, we added some simple clips of representatives from several of the nonprofit organizations that received donations from the program last year to explain specifically how they’d be using the money. We wanted to emphasize that the money from Pick. Click. Give. was making very specific impacts and define what those were.

MySpace is a mixed bag right now, often feeling – and behaving – like a red-headed stepchild, but I’m a firm believer of leveraging that network for it’s multimedia capabilities and to reach another strata of Alaskans who may not be on Facebook or Twitter.

3. Were smaller organizations able to keep up with the larger ones? How did they do it?

Some of the charities that did the best succeeded for several reasons unrelated to the size of their organization. In the case of a certain animal rescue group, for example, this was the first time they had put themselves out there for support from individual Alaskans and people jumped at the chance. Still others had tremendous success by sending out reminders in newsletters, via email, and dipping their toe into social media for the first time.

4. The Permanent Fund Dividend is unique to Alaska, but what can nonprofits take from the campaign?

ALIZA: There are several takeaways for nonprofits from a social media standpoint:

- Be Targeted. Social media can be effective as not only a global or national communications tool but can also be calibrated to be hyper-local and even hyper-rural. For smaller nonprofits whose scope doesn’t reach beyond a state or a region or a town, social media can still prove useful and can be that finely targeted.

- Pick the Right Tools. While I firmly believe we have the right mix of tools for a strategic social media-powered campaign, we did set out with additional tools that we’ve pared down because they were too time consuming with little return. Holding onto MySpace is only possible because it takes less resources to maintain than Facebook or Twitter. Holding onto Twitter while the numbers are smaller is a strategic move to be ready for the 3rd year of the program when I believe more Alaskans will be used to Twitter communications.

- Coordinate Efforts. Social media tools can be linked together and coordinated in such a fashion that they can be utilized with a very small staff. Last year, I ran the bulk of social media efforts alone as just one campaign of many that I ran simultaneously for other clients I consulted. This year, we are lucky to have one additional person devoted to social media a few hours a week and have better internal coordination with our project partners such as Rasmuson Foundation and the Nerland Agency (the ad agency that developed the programs brand and the PSAs).

JORDAN: No matter which state you live in, the success of the fundraising depends on making a personal connection with your existing and prospective donors. It’s one thing to create a broadcast message about a new tool for giving, but it’s entirely another when the homeless shelter makes a personal pitch to you asking for help. The beauty of Pick Click Give may be that it reminds people that they can make a big difference in peoples’ lives, so when they get “the ask” from the nonprofits they’re more inclined to act.

5. What could a grant-making foundation learn about the campaign – for instance, could some of the best practices be replicated?

JORDAN : Grant-making foundations are in the unique position of being able to facilitate long-term change. A foundation can help pull together the key players and invest in the big ideas. This allows the individual nonprofits to focus on delivery of their services and programs, rather than shouldering the responsibility of managing a campaign.

6. What was the most surprising result of the campaign?

ALIZA: From a social media standpoint, I was surprised at how many Alaskans we could reach on Facebook, especially in VERY rural areas. I was also surprised by how few we are reaching – and galvanizing – through Twitter. Again, I don’t believe Twitter is a lost cause here in Alaska because Alaskans are on an upward curve of learning and adoption. But I was hoping this would be the year that we’d do gangbusters on Twitter and it has yet to happen. Still, we have an excellent foundation to continue using Twitter for communications about this program over the next year so I see this as an important step to the overall social media picture.

Our children will inherit a world profoundly changed by the combination of technology and humanity that is social media. They’ll take for granted that their voices can be heard and that a social movement can be launched from their laptop. They’ll take for granted that they are connected and interconnected with hundreds of millions of people at any given moment. And they’ll take for granted that a black man is or was President of the United States.

What’s most profound is that these represent parts of a greater whole. They represent a shift in power from centralized institutions and organizations to the People they represent. It is the evolution of democracy by way of technology, and we are all better for it.

For most of us, social media has changed our lives in some meaningful way. Collectively it is changing the world for good. Given the pace of innovation and adoption, change has become a constant. Every so often we find the need to stop and reflect on its most recent and noteworthy developments, hence the following list.

Please note this is not a top-10 list, nor are these listed in any particular order. It’s also incomplete. So we ask that you add to this conversation in the comments. If you’d like to Retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Take Social Actions: The nonprofit organization Social Actions aggregates “opportunities to make a difference from over 50 online platforms” through its unique API. It recently held the Change the Web Challenge contest in order to inspire the most innovative applications for that API. The Social Actions Interactive Map won the $5,000 first prize. The result is a virtual tour of the world through the lens of social action. “People are volunteering, donating, signing petitions, making loans and doing other social actions as we speak — all over the world. To capture the context of the where, this project uses sophisticated techniques to extract location information from full text paragraphs.” You can also join the Social Actions Community, which is powered by Ning…which now boasts more than one million individual social networks.

2. Twitter with a Purpose: This list could be exclusive to Twitter. The micro-blogging sensation was featured on our first two lists (a three-tweet), and it’s certain to be a fixture. From Tweetsgiving, the virtual Thanksgiving feast, to the Twestival, which organized 202 off-line events around the world to benefit charity: water, it’s become the de facto tool for organizing and taking action. Tweet Congress won the SXSW activism award, and celebrity Tweeps Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Rose Tweeted their two million followers about ending malaria. Max Gladwell recently initiated the #EcoMonday follow meme as a way to connect and organize the Green Twittersphere.

3. Visit White House 2.0: Inside of its first 100 days, the Obama administration has managed to set the historic benchmark for government transparency and accountability. The President’s virtual town hall meeting used WhiteHouse.gov to crowdsource questions from his 300 million constituents, complete with voting to determine the ones he’d have to answer. All told, 97,937 people submitted 103,978 questions and cast 1,782,650 votes. The White House continues to raise the bar with its official Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter channels. In so doing President Obama is not just setting the standard for state and local government in the U.S. He’s establishing the world standard. The Obama administration is spreading democracy not by force but through example. Because you don’t have to be an American citizen to be a friend or follower of White House 2.0.

4. Claim your Zumbox: What happens when all mail can be sent and delivered online to any street address in a paperless form? That’s the big question for Zumbox, which has created an online mail system with a digital mailbox for every U.S. street address. And while the answer to that question remains to be seen, it promises to be as liberating as it is disruptive. A key quality for Zumbox is that it’s closed system much like that of Facebook, only instead of true identity it’s true address. This will enable people to better connect with their communities including their neighbors, local businesses, and the mayor’s office. The primary agent of change, though, might not be that this uses street addresses but that it enables direct and potentially viral feedback, which is a virtue that e-mail and the USPS do not offer. The first methods are to request exclusive paperless delivery and to block a sender, but others are certain to evolve such as real-time commenting and ways to share mail with friends, family, and colleagues. Welcome to Mail 2.0. (Disclosure: Zumbox is a client of Rob Reed, the founder of Max Gladwell.)

5. Host a Social Media Event: This is the year of the social media event. No meaningful gathering of people is complete without an interactive online audience, especially when it’s so easy and cost effective to pull off. Essential tools include a broadband connection, laptop, video camera, projector, and screen. Add people and a purpose, such as entrepreneurship. Promote it through social media channels, and you have a social media event. A recent example in the green world is the Evolution of Green, which was hosted by Creative Citizen, a green wiki community. It celebrated the launch of a new Web property, EcoMatters, while also establishing a new Twitter tag. By posing the question, “How can we go from green hype to green habit?” and including the #GreenQ hashtag, it sparked a conversation between attendees and the Twittersphere in real time. Thus was born a new mechanism for getting answers to green questions via Twitter.

6. Travel the World: More than anyone else, Tim O’Reilly knows the potential for social media to change the world. In his opening keynote at this year’s Web 2.0 Expo, he called for a new ethic in which we do more with less and create more value than we capture. This provided the context for SalaamGarage founder Amanda Koster, whose presentation followed O’Reilly’s. The idea is that social media has enabled each of us to have an audience. Whether through Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, or a personal blog, each of us can have influence and reach. What’s more, it can be used for good. SalaamGarage coordinates trips for citizen journalists (that means you) to places like India and Vietnam in conjunction with non-government organizations like Seattle-based Peace Trees. The destination is the story, as these humanitarian journalists report on the people they meet and discoveries they make. Their words, images, and video are posted to the social web to gain exposure and because these stories just need to be told.

7. Build It on Drupal: You may not have noticed, but the open-source Drupal content management system (CMS) has quickly become the dominant player on the social web. While we still prefer WordPress as a strict blogging application, Drupal has emerged as the go-to platform for building scalable, community-driven Web sites. It powers Recovery.gov, a key part of President Obama’s commitment to transparency and accountability. PopRule uses it as a social news platform for politics. And Drupal will soon become the platform for Causecast, a site where “media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose.” This is especially significant because Causecast CEO Ryan Scott is transitioning the site off of Ruby on Rails because Drupal has proved more efficient, user friendly, and cost effective. (Disclosure: Max Gladwell founder Rob Reed is co-founder of PopRule.)

8. Green Your iPhone: Looking for an organic diner within biking distance that has a three-star green rating? There’s a app for that. It’s called 3rd Whale, and you can download it for free. (Except that the star rating is actually a whale rating.) Complete with Facebook Connect, this iPhone app locates green products and businesses in 30 major North American cities. It uses the iPhone’s dial function to select a category (food), sub-category (restaurants), and distance (walking, biking, or driving). In Santa Monica, this might give you Swingers diner for its selection of veggie and vegan fare. You could then get directions from your current location using the iPhone’s built-in Google map, rate your experience on the three-whale scale, and write up a quick review. 3rd Whale recently released a new feature that integrates green-living tips, which can show how much energy or waste you’ll save by taking a given action.

9. Unite the World Through Video: Matt’s dancing around the world video inspired many to tears. Today, more than 20 million people have viewed his YouTube masterpiece, where he performs a kooky dance with the citizens of planet earth. The most recent example of this approach is Playing for Change, which connects the world through song. The project started in Santa Monica with a street performance of the classic Stand By Me and expanded to New Orleans, New Mexico, France, Brazil, Italy, Venezuela, South Africa, Spain, and The Netherlands. The project was superbly executed via social media, complete with a YouTube channel, MySpace, Facebook, and Blog. It’s received tremendous mainstream media exposure and also benefits a foundation of the same name.

10. Rate a Company: The conversation about corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes place across the social web on blogs, Twitter, and YouTube, but a central hub for this information and opinion is still to be determined. SocialYell seeks to address this by building an online community around the CSR conversation, where users can submit reviews of companies together with nonprofit organizations and even public figures like Michelle Obama. The major topics are the Environment, Health, Social Equity, Consumer Advocacy, and Charity. The reviews are voted and commented on by the community in a Reddit-like fashion with both up (Yell) and down (shhh) voting. The site is relatively new and still gaining traction, but there’s no question that a resource like this is needed to shine a bright light on CSR and and other related issues.

11. Publish a collective, simultaneous blog post on a universal topic: As Nigel Tufnel might say, this list goes to eleven. Let the #10Ways conversation begin…

Final note: This is Max Gladwell’s third list of “10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media.” The first was posted a year ago today on Sustainablog.org, and the sequel followed five months later. If a single headline can capture the Max Gladwell raison d’etre, this is it.

Started under former Secretary Rice – and emphatically seamless, professional and non-partisan in its transition to Secretary Clinton – the expansion of State’s online operation seems primed for President Obama’s primary international goal: rebuilding the U.S. brand overseas.

At the center of that operation is Dipnote, the official State Department blog and Twitter feed that is updated several times each day, and packed with video, links to news stories from mainstream media, and items by State officials. Oh, and comments. Yep, State allows (moderated) conversation on its blog, in contrast (thus far, we hope) to the broadcast-only nature of the White House’s spiffy-and-sparse new blog.

The Dipnote blog’s been heavy on the Clinton videos for the last two weeks, and you could see the @dipnote followers grow with Hillary fans and media types. But it’s not an overtly political operation, under the guidance of hold-over blogmaster and managing editor Daniel Schaub, but it doesn’t lack personality, either: “Mauritanian Snowshoe Team Leaves Sandy Dunes for Snowy Peaks,” read one post/Tweet this week – and the Twitter bio lists the Twitterer “on duty.”

But the leadership-focused main State portal, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account are just part of a rapidly-expanding Department of State presence online – an expansion that began late in President Bush’s second term, led by former Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy James Glassman, who once debated Egyptian bloggers in Second Life. The new media operation also includes America.gov, the official U.S. diplomacy site, which is administered by the Bureau of International Information Programs and published in seven languages. According to Amy Harder in the National Journal, the site – launched little more than a year ago – “receives about 28 million page views per month.”

Beyond the obvious upside of a strong online presence for the U.S. diplomatic effort, State’s online expansion holds a couple of key benefits for the Department and its new Secretary:

Resources – Clinton’s confirmation hearings made clear she intends to fight for an increase in State’s budget and resources, which were allowed to shrink in comparison to the massive defense and security outlays. The big online program, with a huge audience, clearly leverages existing resources – and can help make a clear case for more spending on diplomacy and rebuilding America’s reputation.

Transparency – The State Department can be a lead player in President Obama’s explicit promise to make the U.S. government more open in its dealings with the public, and in doing so, send a real message internationally about the connection of everyday citizens to American foreign policy.

Turf – The inevitable discussion of foreign policy territory in the new administration shouldn’t discount the Secretary of State’s new media operation, and her direct channel to both an American and international audience online: Hillary Clinton has an online platform at least as large (and more international) than the one she left behind in her campaign for President – and one that gives her a real lever in the omnipresent tensions between the defense and security apparatus (however friendly at the outset of an Administration) and the diplomatic corps.

It will be interesting to see what she does with the online operation in the coming months, but there are signs that Clinton (who watched her former rival dominate the online wars during the 2008 primary campaign) understands that the online lever may be important.

Secretary Clinton opened her Feb. 4th “town hall” meeting with State Department staffers by announcing she was putting out a virtual suggestion box on the department’s intranet to collect ideas on “reforms and improvements” for the Obama Administration’s diplomatic efforts. She took questions relayed through State’s Office of eDiplomacy blog and through America.gov. And she spoke passionately about the use of social media and Internet technology in response to a question from Ed Gagliardi, the Information Management Officer at U.S. Embassy Mexico City, about the Department’s use of Web 2.0 tools for diplomacy:

“…the United States Government is behind nearly everybody, except in certain discrete areas, in terms of technology. And we are, in my view, wasting time, wasting money, wasting opportunities, because we are not prepared to communicate effectively with what is out there in the business world and the private world. So I care passionately about this, especially since I’ve been deprived of my Blackberry, so – at least during the day, anyway – so, I am, again, soliciting your advice.”

As Secretary Clinton jets off to Asia tomorrow – in a choice of first-trip international territory that seems quite canny and calculated – the diplomatic pouch won’t be her only channel for the daily communique: some of the action will be on Twitter.

[Cross-posted from the excellent techPresident blog]

While it will undoubtedly help him keep his connection with non-governmental friends and ideas, the Obama Blackberry also has another important function that I’m pretty sure our new President is well aware of: it’s an important symbol of access and permission.

Yes, I know the new PDA will be limited to email addresses of those pre-cleared by the Secret Service – and that President Obama’s emails will legally fall under Federal record-keeping regulations. Those email conversations aren’t likely to have any references to predator drone attacks inside Pakistan or Congressional strategies around the stimulus bill. They will be limited.

But that misses the point. The President will still be carrying a portable web browser where ever he goes. And while he might only use it to check Chisox boxscores, the potential exists for a more direct link to the daily swirl of information outside of his daily briefing books.

In other words, the President just might be reading your blog. That possibility, remote as it is, opens a door that hasn’t – frankly – been open since the dawn of the commercial Internet. President Clinton did much to encourage the development of the vast public network, but he wasn’t an Internet guy – he used the telephone and endless face-to-face contact to advance his agenda. President Bush often seemed to relish his out-of-touch reputation – clearly, not an Internet President either.

Obama’s publicly-celebrated Internet use, given his popularity at present, is a powerful cultural symbol – one backed up by his campaign’s historic success online. In my mind, there are two important by-products: an unstated permission for the Federal branch agencies to step up their use of the Internet to open government more fully to the people; and a tacit acceptance of the kind of public dissent and discussion that the Internet nourishes.

That President Obama favors a sharp change in public disclosure was signaled the day after his Inauguration in two memos loosening up Federal responses under the Freedom of Information Act and encouraging agencies to speed the flow of public information. As Micah Sifry wrote, “This is a 180-degree turn from the policies of the Bush Administration.” This section, in particular, seems like one likely to come only from a Blackberry-wielding President:

Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector.

While you expect any administration to try and control its message and promote an all-hands-on-deck cooperation throughout the agencies, you don’t necessarily expect a President to encourage too much discussion his program (campaign promises aside). Yet, Obama’s Blackberry may also signal an acceptance of the dissent – even in his own party – that challenges any complex political agenda. During the campaign, the MyBo site allowed groups to organize opposition to Obama policy positions on the candidate’s own servers. The transition encouraged some light, participatory issues activism online. The new White House site seems pretty buttoned up and Presidential, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the administration won’t encourage dissent and discussion. Much of the action there may take place at the agency sites, where web developers are newly-empowered to experiment and solicit public participation.

But any President with a Blackberry will encounter policy disagreements directly, outside of the news clippings and the congressional liaison staff. This is a good thing. So when you spot that new, secure Blackberry on President Obama’s hip, don’t look at it as just a personal tool for the President to stay in touch – look at it as a symbol that this President just might be in touch.

And then say what you’ve gotta say.

Below is a special MLK day / Obama inauguration version of the Social Actions round-up. We have added a section with links to MLK and Obama-related initiatives. Feel free to add resources by posting a comment.

MLK / Day of Service / Obama Inauguration

CauseGlobal posts a guide to participating in the Obama inaurguration using social media.

Seth Godin reflects on the National Day of Service.

Winners of Houston’s MLK Oratory Competition (hugely inspiring).

Britt Bravo shares Five ways to participate on the MLK Day of Service.

Social Actions branded its search engine with the MLK silhouette.

Social Actions launched the MLKActions on Twitter.

Zazengo launched its MLK Impact Challenge on Facebook.

Idealist.org covers Change.org’s Ideas for Change in America Competition and Obama’s Citizen Briefing Book.

I voted for the black half t-shirts and blog

News Roundup

NTEN and TechSoup Global to hold free webinar series on Storytelling & Social Media.

Firstgiving surpasses $80 million raised for nonprofits since its inception in 2003.

Change.org announced the winners of its Ideas for Change in America Competition.

Spot.us posts an interview with Beth Kanter about offline and online organizing.

Amazee launches a Facebook application.

CauseGlobal reports on the roll of Twitter in covering the US Airways crash landing.

Alan Wolk asks Will Facebook Be The Death of Twitter?

PolicyPitch is asking visitors for feedback on a website redesign.

MicroPlace asks where’s the innovation in micro-finance.

Tom Watson talks about CauseWired and online social activism on the 501c3cast.

Gabriel Kasper of the Monitor Institute shares his thoughts on What online giving marketplaces might mean for philanthropy.

Jean Butzen posts on the SSIR an example of Making nonprofit collaboration a foundation strategy.

Carl Bialik of The Wall Street Journal critiques charity evaluators (hat-tip Tactical Philanthropy).

Wikipedia raises $6.2 million from 125,000 donors over the holidays.

Beth Kanter explains what the State of the Twitterspace report means for nonprofits.

The Extraordinaries covers Met Council program of volunteer phone calls to senior citizens.

FastCompany shares a list of the Most Influential Women in Technology (including Beth Kanter, Gina Bianchini and Kaliya Hamlin)

GeniusRocket previews its new website.

Care2′s Frogloop blog shares 10 fast tips to boost your e-newsletter performance.

Ashoka and We Media launch The Power of Us – Re-Imagine Media competition (hat-tip Ideablob).

Nathaniel Whittemore reflects on charity’s existential dillema.

Sasha Dichter explains why overhead ratios are meaningless for Kiva and Acumen Fund.

Kiva shares a moving video called, The story of a Kiva loan.

Recent Discoveries

Fiscal Sponsorship Directory (hit-tip 501c3cast)

Building a Regional Entrepreneurship Network: A Guide to Action

Resist Network – Your ideas for social change

The Peace, Justice, and Environment Project (PJEP)

Small Hands Fund

About.com’s guide to Strategic Planning

Twestival – Tweet. Meet. Give.

Challenge Your World

People Helping People Network

Social Actions News

Social Actions hosted a Q&A conference call about our upcoming Change the Web Challenge.

Social Actions is asking for nominations of judges for upcoming Change the Web Challenge.

Social Actions launched its revamped social network called My Social Actions.

What is the Social Actions Round Up?

Each week, Social Actions community members post links and news about online social activism – This round-up is a summary of the links that surfaced since the last round up. Check out past roundups here.

You can tag your delicious bookmarks with “p2pchange” or include “#p2pchange” in your tweets – we’ll scoop them up and review them for future Social Actions roundups.

Social Actions roundups are syndicated on CauseWired, CauseGlobal, TakePart, and NetSquared.