Free Pint No.82 - Energy, Charities and Business Resources 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 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 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 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> 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 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [id821] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> 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 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. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 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 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 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 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = NEED MARKET INTELLIGENCE? DON'T STRUGGLE WITH LONG SEARCHES ANYMORE. MarketResearch.com gives you instant access to expert insights on global markets, industries, companies, products and trends. With 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 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [mr822] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> WANT TO RESEARCH A UK SUPPLIER, CUSTOMER OR COMPETITOR? <<< It is free to search across all registered UK companies using Free Pint's UK company research gateway. View basic details for free and purchase more detailed information for immediate viewing in your browser. Try out a search today at: http://www.freepint.co.uk/icc/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 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. * 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. * 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. * Research Buzz - Internet research news and information. * Driveway - A very handy site for storing and sharing files. Particularly good if you need to store extra back-up copies of important files. Rachel Newcombe is a writer and researcher for online and print media. She can be found on the Web at . Tell us about your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at or email > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 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. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [fa823] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> EMAIL NEWSLETTER HOSTING FROM FREE PINT <<< Do you publish a regular newsletter by email? Is it awkward to manage the subscriptions and distribution? Free Pint have extensive experience of e-publishing so why not find out about their newsletter hosting service. Read full details, pricing examples and testimonials at: http://www.freepint.co.uk/bulk/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT BAR In Association with Factiva a Dow Jones & Reuters Company Reviewed by Simon Collery Free Pint Bar - [Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in the address 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 - [Note: To read a posting enter the message number in place of XXXX in the address ] 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 or the Student Bar . 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 . To have the latest Free Pint Bar postings sent to you every other day, send a blank email to . For the Student Bar Digest send an email to . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ***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 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [km824] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> ANNUAL ADVERTISING = 1 MILLION EXPOSURES + LOW MONTHLY FEE <<< Advertising with Free Pint is proven to be the best way to reach business information users globally. We already have a number of annual advertising account holders who enjoy substantial exposure in the newsletter and on the Web site, generous discounts and all for a low monthly charge. Want to join them? http://www.freepint.co.uk/advert.htm > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = TIPS AND TECHNIQUES "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, delivers free industry news, events, and information. One of the most heavily visited energy portals is that of America's Power Marketing Association at 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 and . Another popular site, 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 , but available only to subscribers. US-based Public Utilities Fortnightly and the weekly Utility Regulatory News at contain a table of contents, book list, and a password-protected searchable archive. US-based monthly magazines include The Electricity Journal at with daily news for subscribers only and Hart Energy Markets at 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 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 , Energy IT at , Power Magazine at , and Electrical World T&D at . UK-based International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) publishes a quarterly magazine Pipelines, which is available at . Another quarterly, Commodities Now at 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 organises its links by country and is updated on a regular basis. The Utility Connection at is a directory with links to some 4,032 sites. The US government site at 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 . 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 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. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 . > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * "Energy" links, articles and today's news in the Free Pint Portal * Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks * Post a message to the author now at the Free Pint Bar * Access the entire archive of Free Pint content > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 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. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [bl825] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> 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 . Simon Collery, Content Developer > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT 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 , 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. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 . She writes here in a personal capacity. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * "Internet Searching" links and articles in the Free Pint Portal * Find out more about this book online at the Free Pint Bookshelf * Read about other Internet searching books on the Free Pint Bookshelf * Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk * Details: ISBN 1856043517 published by The Library Association and edited by Phil Bradley * Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the Bookshelf To propose an information-related book for review, send details to . > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = ADVERTISEMENT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Get up-to-date news, reviews, career moves and profiles, PLUS free access to the online archive, by subscribing to Information World Review - the information industry's leading monthly news magazine. http://www.iwr.co.uk >> Information World Review - addressing the agenda of information professionals and those working in an information-based career. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [li826] > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> RUN AN INFORMATION-RELATED EXHIBITION OR CONFERENCE? <<< The Free Pint Events page lists over 40 major events taking place shortly in the information world. If you would like your event included then check out http://www.freepint.co.uk/events/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FEATURE ARTICLE "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: Guidestar: Oneworld.net: NetAid: Imperial Cancer: Blue Cross: 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: JustGiving: National Trust: Comic Relief: The Hunger Site: Waitrose.com: Care4Free: 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: Whales and Dolphins Conservation Society: Oxfam shop: RNID: Heifer Project: Auctions: , Free2Give: UshopUgive: 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: Amnesty Stop Torture: Friends of the Earth: UK Parliament contacts: FaxYourMP: 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: Citizens' Connection: Free Pint on voluntary resources: 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 . 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 and subscribe to news by email . > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Free Pint links: * "Nonprofits" articles, links and resources in the Free Pint Portal * Respond to this article and chat to the author now at the Bar * Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks * Access the entire archive of Free Pint content > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >>> STUDYING FOR AN INFORMATION RELATED DEGREE? <<< The Free Pint Student Bar is THE place online for you to contact practicing professionals in the Free Pint community. Get help with market research for dissertations, funding issues or recruitment. It's YOUR resource, and it's free, so make the most of it: http://www.freepint.co.uk/student/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FORTHCOMING EVENTS Among upcoming US events, the Public Library Association will be holding its Spring Symposium in Chicago, Illinois, the Meta Data Conference and DAMA International Symposium will be held in Anaheim, California and the Presentations.com Conference and Expo will be taking place in Atlanta, Georgia. Following those, there'll be the Association of College and Research Libraries 10th National Conference in Denver, Colorado and the Computers in Libraries event in Washington, DC. And in Seattle, Washington, the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals will be holding its Annual International Conference and Exhibition. Here in Europe there's an event entitled "Towards an Information Society for All", to be held in Bologna, Italy. There will also be the Internet Content Europe conference in Monaco if you want something exotic. Finally, both the New Media Marketing exhibition and the E- CRM summit will be held in London, UK. Full details of these and many other forthcoming conferences and exhibitions in the online-information and Internet industries can be found on the Free Pint Events page . Also submit details of your event via this page. Simon Collery, Content Developer > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT GOLD A year ago we ran an article reviewing the top travel related sites on the Web and another giving a run down of the many chemistry ezines available online now. * Free Pint No.57, 2nd March 2000 "Travel related websites" and "Chemistry Webzines - How to find the right news for you" . Two years ago we were given a list of ways to promote your site once you have done all the submitting to search engines and newsgroups, etc. And we had an article that noted that issues of privacy are being viewed differently in Europe than in the US. * Free Pint No.33, 4th March 1999. "12 Offline Ways of Promoting Your URL" and "Data Privacy Web Sites" . Not so long ago many people were asking what the WWW is good for and some probably still ask. And how things have changed since then. Our second article lists online market research tools and how they compare. * Free Pint No.9, 5th March 1998 "But what is it good for?" and "Market Research Information On The Internet" . Simon Collery, Content Developer > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FREE PINT FORTHCOMING ARTICLES [Provisional] * XML * Tracing Missing Persons * B2B * Free Software * * Innovation * Legal Sources * Dyslexia * Problem Solving * * Freedom of Information * Further Voluntary Sector Resources * * Investment Funds * Photo Sources * American History * * Foreign Language Search Engines * Broadband Content * * Political Websites * Women in Business * Privacy in Medicine * * Middle Eastern Sources * Female Detective Fiction * If you have a suggestion for an article topic or would like to write for Free Pint then please contact me or sign up for the monthly Author Update on the Web site at . Rex Cooke, Editor > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = GOODBYE Thanks for reading today's edition of Free Pint. I hope we've highlighted some new resources for you to check out and don't forget to pop along to the Free Pint Web site regularly to catch up with the latest postings at the Bar, events and other exciting features. See you in two weeks! William Hann, Founder and Managing Editor (c) Free Pint Limited 1997-2000 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = CONTACT INFORMATION William Hann BSc MIInfSc, Founder and Managing Editor e: william@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1784 455435 f: +44 (0)1784 455436 Rex Cooke FIInfSc FRSA, Editor e: rex@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1342 316027 f: +44 (0)1342 316027 Simon Collery BA, Content Developer e: simon@freepint.co.uk t: +44 (0)1865 434143 f: +44 (0)1784 455436 Find out about the background to Free Pint and the team at . Address Free Pint Limited, FREEPOST (SEA3901), Staines Middlesex, TW18 3BR, United Kingdom (Please add a stamp if you would like to pay for postage) Web Subscriptions Letters & Comments Authors Latest Issue Autoresponder Advertising > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free newsletter written by information professionals who share how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet. Useful to anyone who uses the Web for their work, it is published every two weeks by email. To subscribe, unsubscribe, find details about contributing, advertising or to see past issues, please visit the Web site at or email . Your registered email address is listed at the bottom of this message. Please note: Free Pint is a trademark of, and published by, Free Pint Limited . The publishers will NEVER make the subscriber list available to any other company or organisation. 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