Newsletter No. 82
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Free Pint
"Helping 35,000 people use the Web for their work"
http://www.freepint.co.uk/
ISSN 1460-7239 1st March 2001 No.82
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
From Rachel Newcombe
FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
"Electric Power Information Sources on the Web"
By Anne Ku
BOOKSHELF
"The Business & Economy Internet Resource Handbook"
Reviewed by Helen Clegg
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Putting your money where your mouse is - online charities"
By John Wood
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
CONTACT INFORMATION
ONLINE VERSION WITH ACTIVATED HYPERLINKS
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/010301.htm
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>>> FREE EZINE - How to use the Internet efficiently - EZINE FREE <<<
http://www.indicator.co.uk/ezine/ezine
TIPS & @DVICE INTERNET FREEPASS
offers you every fortnight by email practical tips to enable you
to take full advantage of the Internet.
FILL IN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TODAY and receive it FREE
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>>> ABOUT FREE PINT <<<
Free Pint is a community of business professionals who use the Web for
their research. Members receive this free newsletter every two weeks
packed with tips on finding quality and reliable business information
on the Internet. Signing up at http://www.freepint.co.uk/ provides
free access to the substantial archive of articles, book reviews,
industry news and events, with answers to your research questions and
networking at the "Free Pint Bar" and "Student Bar". This newsletter
is best read when printed out and viewed in a Courier font.
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EDITORIAL
When you run a dot.com business (or a .co.uk in our case!) then you
feel a lot of empathy when other online businesses fail as so many
have done recently. The workload and hours invested are quite enough
to deal with, without the daily financial worries. Therefore it must
be terrible when the company folds and I do feel for all those caught
up in any kind of dot.com difficulties.
The full extent of the current downturn was brought home to me as I
prepared for a presentation I recently made as a guest at Factiva's
InfoPro Advisory Board meeting in New York. My talk was entitled
".Community to .Commerce - Experiences of transforming an online
community into a financially viable proposition" and I painted a
pretty sorry picture from the beginning when talking about the
household names online which are either folding or laying off staff.
It isn't all doom and gloom though as we map out a strategy of
growth for Free Pint. We do of course hope we can rely on you to
continue to help us enhance the Free Pint service and invest in
creating an even more valuable community for our members. One company
of course already doing this is Factiva and I would like to thank them
for a fabulous trip, for listening to their customers and for treats
like shows on Broadway and skyscraper dining. Thank you to them and
our other advertisers for supporting our information community.
In today's newsletter Simon has again put a lot of effort into giving
us an overview of the latest hot topics at the Free Pint Bar. Don't
forget that you can post your questions and answers by visiting the
Bar at http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar/ where there is a "Jump To" box
for you to enter a message number and quickly access a topic
mentioned in Simon's review.
Two topics which don't often appear together, energy and charity, are
covered in two resource-packed articles below. These appear alongside
the regular recommendations of useful sites and a review of an
interesting book about finding business resources on the Web with
contributions from a number of well-known information professionals.
Rex, our Editor, continues to commission only the best original
articles for Free Pint and you can read about the exciting content
he has lined up in the Forthcoming Articles section.
Thanks for your continued support of Free Pint and don't forget to
forward this issue to your friends and colleagues. Checking out our
feature-packed Web site also helps us in a number of ways so why not
take a look at http://www.freepint.co.uk/ if you haven't recently.
Cheers
William
William Hann BSc MIInfSc
Founder and Managing Editor, Free Pint
e: william@freepint.co.uk
t: +44 (0)1784 455435
f: +44 (0)1784 455436
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NEED MARKET INTELLIGENCE? DON'T STRUGGLE WITH LONG SEARCHES ANYMORE.
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35,000 publications covering 20 broad industries, MarketResearch.com
provides information professionals with the most credible and accurate
market intelligence products and services available. For more
information, click on the link below or call +1-212-807-2629 (USA).
http://www.marketresearch.com/redirect.asp?progid=1010
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
from Rachel Newcombe
* Inscriptions Magazine - A weekly e-zine for professional writers.
Contains a good mix of information, resources, articles and reviews
and always proves to be an enjoyable read.
http://www.inscriptionsmagazine.com
* Ananova - Great for keeping up with the news throughout the day.
Their 'Quirkies' section (containing strange, unusual and downright
bizarre stories) always provides a bit of entertainment.
http://www.ananova.co.uk
* Content Exchange - A site for online content creators and
publishers. Offering news, information and resources, the Content
Spotlight Newsletter, daily E-Media Tidbits and an Online-Writing
email list. http://www.content-exchange.com/
* Research Buzz - Internet research news and information.
http://www.researchbuzz.com/
* Driveway - A very handy site for storing and sharing files.
Particularly good if you need to store extra back-up copies of
important files. http://www.driveway.com/
Rachel Newcombe is a writer and researcher for online and print media.
She can be found on the Web at http://www.newcombe.co.uk/media.
Tell us about your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
http://www.freepint.co.uk/author.htm or email
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Reuters Business Briefing has more content from the Financial Times.
RBB has cover to cover full text of the Financial Times, it's supple-
ments and 100 articles a day written for the FT.com web site. It is
coded using Factiva's Intelligent Indexing, allowing you to access
this quality content in a focused way. RBB is the only online service
that has the full Dow Jones and Reuters newswires, The Wall Street
Journal and the Financial Times. See http://www.factiva.com for info.
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FREE PINT BAR
In Association with Factiva
a Dow Jones & Reuters Company
Reviewed by Simon Collery
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/010301.htm#bar
Free Pint Bar - http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar
[Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in
the address http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar/read.php?i=XXXX or enter
the number in the "Jump To" box on the Bar homepage]
It's good to see so many librarian and information professional
specific queries answered on the Bar. Advice was given about
being a solo librarian (7581), intellectual property librarianship
(7528) and getting the right experience after graduating in library
and information studies (7562). We also had an excellent account of
the advantages of professionally constructed indexes over text
searching (7650).
Which brings us neatly to the subject of search tools. A regular
contributor on search matters drew our attention to an article on the
invisible Web, something which will hopefully become more visible in
the future (7544). And another on P2P (peer to peer) searching (7594)
which is being discussed and examined by many parties, including
Google, it seems. I test drove two search tools lately, one which
purports to allow you to surf anonymously (7587) and the other which
allows you to query lots of search tools at once and organise your
results tidily (7779).
Business researchers have been shown where to find statistics for
online sales by product (7849), French company information (7492),
information on UK email marketing (7541), regional terminology for
company categories (7703), regulation of legal and accounting services
(7639), business information audits (7690) and ways of forecasting
consumer patterns (7692).
We are still hoping to hear from anyone who knows where to find a list
of UK business and financial researchers (7834), a list of estate
agents and insurance salespeople (7552), a list of companies that have
their own Research and Development centres (7534), data on dividends
paid out by companies (7842) and selling to SMEs (7820).
Resources galore have been recommended for things like radio and TV
transcripts (7585), international emergency service details (7643),
researching companies online (7539), insurance (7702), Information
Management job sites (7518), UK employment law (7602), safety symbols
(7674), donating used hardware to a good cause (7787) and special
needs education in the UK (7689).
And there were things mentioned that we don't hear about so much, such
as herbal remedies (7617), Asian performing arts (7645), compressed
air (7504), Jewish genealogy (7753), US-Spain foreign relations (7548)
and film screenplays (7734). So maybe someone will be able to answer
the one about Usiu Reiki practices (7865) before long.
Technical and Web mastering queries abound, as usual. There was a
question about preferred formats for email newsletters (7574),
statistics for outsourced Web design work (7624), payment methods
(7549), doorway pages (7754), bookmarks (7632), database driven sites
(7647), browsers (7657), retrieving email abroad (7684) and electronic
signatures (7564).
There was a Tipple about hardware resources (7824) and some advice on
finding out the date and time of updates for Web pages (7770). Still
unanswered are questions about Sybase databases (7618), Intranet user
statistics (7527) and browsers used by AOL (7774).
Some fairly weighty matters have been raised recently and you may like
to find out what people are saying about the Internet as an
information system (7780), networking and social capital in
information management and knowledge sharing (7616), what knowledge
centres are (7695) and the necessity of making non English language
data on the Internet available in English for monolinguists (7449).
More miscellaneous questions have been raised about costs arising from
illness in companies operating in developing countries (7699),
digitization of archives (7831), insurance cover for foundries (7795),
travel management agencies (7814), training courses on the Web (7586),
specialized music industry jobs (7629) and working for small bands
(7642).
All but the last two miscellaneous questions have remained unanswered.
Many thanks to those of you who have answered questions and to those
who raised questions and then returned to the Bar with the answers you
received to let us all know what you found out. It's all much
appreciated.
Free Pint Student Bar - http://www.freepint.co.uk/student
[Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in
the address http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/read.php?i=XXXX]
As well as receiving a fine review of The Student's Guide to the
Internet (1148), the author of a book on study and research tips is
generously giving his book away free of charge (1147, 1172). Perhaps
it will help Free Pinters with things like student debt (1153) and
university rankings and quality information (1151, 1157, 1171, 1173)
too. Does anyone have this sort of information for library and
information courses?
Recently, students have been researching information auditing (1152),
the influence of technological change in developing economies (1155),
the UDC classification system (1162), setting up an intranet gateway
(1166) and tools used in information audits (1168).
Simon Collery, Content Developer
If you have a tricky research question or can help other Free Pinters
then do post a message at the Bar http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar or
the Student Bar http://www.freepint.co.uk/student.
Visit daily for "Today's Tipple" - a different Web site reviewed every
working day at the Bar. Every Tuesday there is the "Pub Crawl", a look
at full text articles from a range of information and Internet
publications. Access the archive of Tipples and Pub Crawls at
http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/content/tipple.php3.
To have the latest Free Pint Bar postings sent to you every other day,
send a blank email to <digest@freepint.co.uk>. For the Student Bar
Digest send an email to <studentdigest@freepint.co.uk>.
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***FREE TICKETS FOR THE KM 2001 EXHIBITION IN LONDON*** Tickets now
available FREE OF CHARGE to visit the KM Exhibition, London, April 3 -
4 2001. The event will be Europe's major marketplace where suppliers
of KM tools and consultancy will show how knowledge-aware
organisations can improve their knowledge sharing and boost the bottom
line. Participants include BT, Lotus, Serviceware and Smartlogik and
many more. To get your free tickets, or to find out more about the
concurrent KM conference, visit www.knowledge-management.co.uk
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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/010301.htm#tips
"Electric Power Information Sources on the Web"
By Anne Ku
Deregulation and restructuring of electricity industries world-wide
has introduced concepts that are both unfamiliar and controversial.
To improve our understanding, we turn to experts, information sources,
and the Internet. The hunger for such information has led to an
explosion of energy web sites. This article introduces several useful
energy information sources, topics of interest, and evaluation
considerations. To start with, it's worth visiting energy portals,
energy publication sites, and guru links.
Energy portals
--------------
Portal sites are gateways to other web sites, organised in well-
defined categories. The purpose of a portal is to build a sticky
community of like-minded individuals which will use the site as the
default home page.
Not exactly a portal but worth mentioning due to its popularity in the
early days of US electric power deregulation,
http://www.EnergyOnline.com delivers free industry news, events, and
information.
One of the most heavily visited energy portals is that of America's
Power Marketing Association at http://www.powermarketers.com which
features energy news updated every seven minutes, articles, links
(which anyone can also contribute), online directories, events, and
glossaries.
VerticalNet has used the same model and template for a variety of
vertical industries. In the energy domain, there are four, including
http://www.ElectricNet.com and http://www.poweronline.com.
Another popular site, http://www.EnergyCentral.com provides daily
news from various sources, events, jobs, links, and glossary. It also
offers a free daily email service of news, events, and jobs. Daily
news headlines and short abstracts are free, but the full stories and
historical archives are not.
Energy publications
-------------------
Below is a list of current topics of interest to professionals in this
industry. While not exhaustive, it indicates the kind of information
that energy magazines and newsletters cover these days. It is
worthwhile, therefore, to check out the web sites of energy
publications, many of which have searchable archives of past issues
and articles.
* deregulation, restructuring issues, progress, legislation, policy
proposals
* power trading, including online (Internet, e-commerce),
cross-border trading, transmission pricing
* the value chain: energy source, production/generation, ancillary
services, transmission, distribution, supply
* risk management: consultants, software providers, trainers,
articles
* power plant: load management, load forecasting, new technologies,
project finance
* demand-side management, energy efficiency
* environment, emissions, renewable energy, regulation
* weather and other ancillary to power, e.g. insurance
* information technology: protocols, management systems,
application service providers, terminology
UK-based magazine Utility Week has a database and directory of
European utilities at http://www.utilityweek.com, but available only
to subscribers. US-based Public Utilities Fortnightly and the weekly
Utility Regulatory News at http://www.pur.com contain a table of
contents, book list, and a password-protected searchable archive.
US-based monthly magazines include The Electricity Journal at
http://www.electricity-online.com with daily news for subscribers
only and Hart Energy Markets at http://www.energy-markets.com with a
good collection of full-text articles and daily energy news from
different sources. Both sites contain industry events and links. The
UK-based monthly magazine Energy Power Risk Management at
http://www.riskwaters.com/eprm contains some articles in full-text
in the current issue and an article collection page.
McGraw-Hill publishes four different energy magazines six times a
year. These bi-monthly articles can be accessed free of charge on the
respective web sites, which also contain back-issues, searchable
archives, company profiles, and book reviews: Global Energy Business
at http://www.globalenergybusiness.com, Energy IT at
http://www.energyit.com, Power Magazine at
http://www.powermag.com, and Electrical World T&D at
http://www.electricalworld.com.
UK-based International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) publishes a quarterly
magazine Pipelines, which is available at
http://www.ipe.uk.com/about/pipeline. Another quarterly,
Commodities Now at http://www.commodities-now.com contains news
headlines with links to articles.
Guru links
----------
Some of the better web sites pride themselves in compiling
comprehensive, well-categorised pages of links that are updated
regularly. Others go for comprehensibility instead of
comprehensiveness. That is, they describe or critique each link
rather than giving a complete list. These guru link pages are useful
as directories of web sites.
First produced in 1995, the UDI Electricity Bookmark at
http://www.platts.com/links.shtml#UDI organises its links by country
and is updated on a regular basis. The Utility Connection at
http://www.utilityconnection.com is a directory with links to some
4,032 sites. The US government site at
http://www.eia.doe.gov/links.html organises its links into three
groups: government, energy companies, and associations/other. The
International Association for Energy Economics has links to
consultants, universities, government at
http://www.iaee.org/energylinks/energylinks.asp. Visitors are
welcome to "add your own link."
Guru links are susceptible to the broken-link phenomenon known as
"linkrot," as keeping these links up-to-date is an arduous task.
Nothing is more frustrating for the user than clicking to a dead or
slow site.
Energy information from reliable sources
----------------------------------------
Free information on the Web is not technically free but can be
extremely valuable, if provided by reliable and known sources.
Interested readers are invited to visit
http://www.globalenergybusiness.com for another version of this
article, entitled "Is free energy information valuable - and really
free?". Appearing in Jan/Feb 2001 issue of Global Energy Business, this
version contains a table of useful links.
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After conducting extensive research into electricity modelling in the
early 1990's, Anne Ku worked in the energy sector in the US and the
UK, most recently writing for two energy magazines. This article is
based on her 45-minute presentation given at a four-day executive
course at the London Business School in December 2000. Original drafts
of other energy articles by Anne are kept at
http://www.analyticalQ.com/energy.
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Related Free Pint links:
* "Energy" links, articles and today's news in the Free Pint Portal
http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/industry/industry.php3?category_id=44
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/010301.htm#tips
* Post a message to the author now at the Free Pint Bar
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bar
* Access the entire archive of Free Pint content
http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/content/
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HOW TO SET UP A WEBSITE FOR E-BUSINESS, 6 March, London.
This NEW British Library workshop will show delegates how to set
up their own e-commerce enabled web site from scratch and how to
avoid common pitfalls, and costly mistakes. Explore the facilities
and functions offered by various hosts and software packages and
learn all the vital steps towards achieving an effective web presence.
For further info www.bl.uk/services/stb/courses.html or t:020 7412 7978.
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>>> FREE PINT FACT <<<
It's been a year now since I started writing Today's Tipples, a review
of a different Web site each working day at the Free Pint Bar. I
wanted to do this in order to highlight resources which I knew would
be of interest and use to Free Pinters, going by the questions which
are raised in the Bar.
One year on and I've written nearly 220 which you can access by
subject in the Free Pint Portal or click on a new one every day on the
Free Pint homepage. I aim to cover as many areas as possible and I
have recently started to review industry news sources for Tuesday's
Tipple, called the "Pub Crawl", and go back through Unresolved
Questions for Thursday's Tipple. On Fridays I usually test drive a
search tool and write up a review of that.
If you have any suggestions of interesting sites for me to look at
then do let me know. You can access the tipple archive on the Web site
at http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/content/tipple.php3.
Simon Collery, Content Developer <simon@freepint.co.uk>
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FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf
"The Business & Economy Internet Resource Handbook"
Reviewed by Helen Clegg
In this handbook, Phil Bradley has gathered together contributions
from thirteen practicing information professionals, all of whom have
fine credentials and lots of experience in the field of business
information.
The handbook is a good starting point for those new to tracking down
sources of business information on the Internet and at the same time
provides sound overviews on the topics covered for those needing in-
depth reference guides. A note of caution - the handbook is really
aimed at the UK market, so there is little emphasis on international
resources, although a number of chapters do suggest some global,
European and US websites.
Chapters One to Three cover the basics of Internet searching, from the
different ways search engines function to issues concerning coverage,
source, quality and reliability of information. Chapter Three details
the different ways of keeping up-to-date with ever changing web
resources by using bots, mailing lists and newsgroups. Where
possible, tools with a strong business bias are recommended. Most of
the information in the first three chapters contains nothing new for
experienced researchers, but the tables at the end of Chapter Two
provide listings of UK search engines, meta search engines and non-
English language search engines, which are extremely useful for
professionals and novices alike.
The real meat in this handbook is in chapters four to fourteen. Each
of these chapters is really an individual subject guide and can be
used as such. If you are looking for in-depth subject guides for
Internet resources on accountancy, insurance, company information, the
UK government, small and medium sized enterprises, market research,
patents, information technology, engineering and the food industry,
then this book is for you. Each chapter is clearly laid out,
following the same format and concludes with a list of URLs previously
mentioned. This saves searching back through the text for that
elusive URL!
The inclusion of a chapter on patent resources is very welcome.
Patents are an extremely useful source of business information as well
as competitive intelligence and are too often ignored. Two appendices
describe the patent granting process and the pros/cons of using the
Internet for patent information, so for purchasers of this book,
there's no excuse for avoiding patents in future!
If you are looking for a chapter on economics resources, then you will
be disappointed. A quick check in the index reveals no entries for
GDP, inflation rates or interest rates, yet these are all basic
economic indicators. Some of this economic information can be found
on Her Majesty's Treasury website http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk,
which is mentioned in the chapter on UK government and the chapter on
market research also draws attention to the websites of the French,
German and Italian National Statistics Offices, all of which provide
economic overviews. However, a chapter on economics resources would
seem infinitely more relevant than one on the food industry,
especially in a handbook with the word "economy" in its title.
Overall, the Business and Economy Internet Resource Handbook would be
a useful addition to reference libraries and corporate information
centers, but at GBP 60, it's a tad too expensive for individuals with
an interest in this subject.
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Helen Clegg is Market Analyst with RR Donnelley & Sons Company Europe,
in Amsterdam. She holds an M.Sc. in Library and Information Studies
and has worked for a number of organizations in Europe including Bain
& Company, BNFL plc and AT Kearney Ltd. Helen is a member of the
Special Libraries Association and has recently compiled a list of
Internet marketing resources for its Business & Finance Division.
Helen can be contacted at <Helen.Clegg@rrd.com>. She writes here in
a personal capacity.
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Related Free Pint links:
* "Internet Searching" links and articles in the Free Pint Portal
http://www.freepint.co.uk/portal/industry/industry.php3?category_id=185
* Find out more about this book online at the Free Pint Bookshelf
http://www.freepint.co.uk/bookshelf/busecon.htm
* Read about other Internet searching books on the Free Pint Bookshelf
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FEATURE ARTICLE
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/010301.htm#feature
"Putting your money where your mouse is - online charities"
By John Wood
So you've made your first Internet fortune, done the whole
car/yacht/jet dotcom superstar thing, and do "a lot of good work for
charity"? Well, good for you, but if you're (more probably) like the
rest of us, you might like to know that you can make a difference to a
cause you support, without needing to be a dotcom millionaire.
Finding charities online
------------------------
Most large charities now have a strong online presence, and very many
smaller ones also have sites of their own. Unfortunately it's not
always obvious where you should start looking. There are over 180,000
charities in the UK alone, reflecting a huge range of emotive issues.
To save you a trawl through the search engines though, there are some
helpful tools to use. The Charity Commission lists all UK charities in
its searchable database, and is a great research tool to help you find
charities you won't have heard of yet. It's also helpful for people
concerned to verify that an organisation they have found mentioned is
legitimate. US based sites Idealist and Guidestar also have large
searchable databases of American and international charities.
There are also a number of networks and coalitions, raising the
profile of issues and of the work done by charities. Oneworld.net, for
example, provides a roundup of development, environment and human
rights stories, whilst NetAid builds on the work of its international
concert series last year, by developing the issues around aid.
Many charities have a mission to inform people about their issues, and
compile very useful guides for people affected by or working with
them. Imperial Cancer Research Fund maintain a comprehensive and well
used medical guide, whilst animals' charity Blue Cross publish useful
reference pages on all aspects of pet care.
Charity Commission: http://www.idealist.org
Guidestar: http://www.guidestar.org
Oneworld.net: http://www.oneworld.net
NetAid: http://www.netaid.org
Imperial Cancer: http://www.imperialcancer.org/search_home01.cfm
Blue Cross: http://www.thebluecross.org.uk
Online donations
----------------
Most major charities offer the facility to donate securely online to
their work, and third party sites help to collect funds for smaller
charities. The Charities' Aid Foundation lists over 2,000 UK
charities, and collects online donations for them via the
AllAboutGiving site. Portals like JustGiving or Care4Free highlight
stories from a selection of charities, and provide a way to donate
online. By donating online, or joining membership charities online,
like the National Trust, you can often help charities keep their admin
costs low.
When donating to charities online, check that you are able to 'Gift
Aid' your donation. This new government scheme lets the charity also
claim the tax that you would have paid on the donation (it's around
28% extra, so well worthwhile).
Major fundraising events like telethons transfer easily onto the Web.
Comic Relief 1999 had an excellent site, combining the fun of the
event with accountable and inspiring reports on how money was spent -
make sure to check the 2001 site out, it's coming soon.
As I mentioned, you don't need to be an Internet tycoon to donate to
charities. 'Click to Give' sites are becoming an established feature
of the Web, collecting banner advertising revenue to provide 'free'
donations to various charities. The donation made is only a couple of
pence per day, but when done consistently by thousands of users, as
with the original Hunger Site, they provide a good demonstration of
the power of Internet users acting together.
You could even be making a donation whilst you're reading this, if
you're using a charity ISP. 'Virtual ISPs', enable a charity to get a
cut of the revenue from your Internet access. For two examples, have a
look at Waitrose.com and Care4Free.
Charities Aid Foundation: http://www.allaboutgiving.org
JustGiving: http://www.justgiving.com
National Trust: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/join
Comic Relief: http://www.comicrelief.org.uk
The Hunger Site: http://www.thehungersite.org
Waitrose.com: http://www.waitrose.com
Care4Free: http://www.care4free.com
Charity shopping online
-----------------------
Charity shops are very common on the UK's high streets, so it's not
surprising to find them on the Internet too. Charities such as
Battersea Dogs' Home, or the Whales and Dolphins Conservation Society,
have online stores selling fundraising merchandise. Oxfam's online
shop is a virtual bricks-and-mortar Oxfam Shop, selling second hand
collectibles and Fair Trade goods, whilst the Royal National Institute
for the Deaf's shop makes a positive contribution to their work,
selling aids for people with hearing impairments. Heifer Project is an
innovative twist on shopping - you can buy livestock to help a family
become self-sufficient, on behalf of a friend.
Online auction houses like Yahoo!, QXL, and EBay run some fun
promotions with charities. In the last year, you would have been able
to bid on FA memorabilia for Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, Fat Boy
Slim's cast-off jeans for Multiple Sclerosis Society, or fuzzy felt
pictures by Michael Owen in aid of Barnardo's.
You can even help your chosen charity while you shop for everyday
items. Commercial portals such as Free2Give or UshopUGive make use of
affiliate schemes to raise money. Many retailers offer a commission on
purchase directed to them by an affiliate. These portals then pass a
share of this money onto a charity you chose, effectively a donation
to your charity for no extra cost to you.
Battersea Dogs Home: http://www.dogshome.org
Whales and Dolphins Conservation Society: http://www.phinz.com
Oxfam shop: http://oxfam.org.uk/shop
RNID: http://www.rnid.org/html/shop_home.htm
Heifer Project: http://www.heifer.org
Auctions: http://uk.auctions.yahoo.com, ,
http://www.ebay.co.uk
Free2Give: http://www.free2give.com
UshopUgive: http://www.ushopugive.com
Lobbying
--------
Publicly declaring your support for an issue is as valuable as making
a financial donation, helping raise awareness, and influence decision
makers.
Acting globally, Internet users can really make themselves noticed.
WWF's Panda Passport is an excellent site, with a wealth of
information on threats to wildlife and habitats around the world, and
immediate actions to take, like signing petitions, spreading the word,
or emailing governments and companies directly. You can search for
your areas of interest, and get email updates to alert you of news.
Many of the better known campaigning organisations, though not
strictly charities, are also using the Net to get people involved.
Amnesty International's urgent letter-writing campaigns are very
effective offline, but can be even more so online. Their Stop Torture
site harnesses the speed of the Net to act in very urgent cases. It
gives updates on the cases it mentions, letting you see very
powerfully where your contribution is helping.
Closer to home, Friends of the Earth's Factory Watch helps you find
out your nearest polluting industries, exposing factories with high
levels of pollution, and helping you take your case further if you're
concerned about the situation in your neighbourhood.
As an individual, access to the Internet gives you the power to be
heard. Tools like FaxYourMP, and the UK Parliament's contact lists can
help you raise issues directly with elected representatives.
Panda Passport: http://passport.panda.org/
Amnesty Stop Torture: http://www.stoptorture.org
Friends of the Earth: http://www.foe.org.uk/
UK Parliament contacts:
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/lists.htm
FaxYourMP: http://www.faxyourmp.com
Volunteering
------------
Have you ever considered volunteering your time to help with a cause?
It can be very rewarding, from working to improve your neighbourhood,
to spending a few hours a week running a charity shop. Smartchange is
a newly launched venture aimed at putting volunteers in touch with
local organisations needing help. It's not too large at the moment,
but type in your hometown and you might be surprised what's going on!
Also new is Citizens' Connection, which helps you find out the next
steps to take, by sharing stories of people doing it already. If you
missed Free Pint 79, check out Alan Pearson's column on how to use
your time and the Web to help your chosen organisation.
Smartchange: http://www.smartchange.com
Citizens' Connection: http://www.citizensconnection.net
Free Pint on voluntary resources:
http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/180101.htm#tips
I hope this has encouraged you to find out more about how the Internet
is being used to make a real difference to some important causes, and
to get involved. No-one's ever likely to become a 'dot-org
millionaire', but you may find a reward nearly as valuable!
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
John Wood is the Web Producer at Oxfam GB http://oxfam.org.uk. Since
it was started in 1996, Oxfam's web site has become one of the most
popular UK charity web sites, reporting on Oxfam GB's work, finding
lasting solutions to poverty and suffering in over 80 countries. Major
site features are world news, in-depth research and analysis, online
donations, shopping, campaigning actions, and materials for schools.
Visit Oxfam GB at http://oxfam.org.uk and subscribe to news by email
http://oxfam.org.uk/whatnew/whatnew.htm.
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* Free Pint No.9, 5th March 1998 "But what is it good for?" and
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