I won't claim to be an expert, but here's how I'd suggest you get involved. * The last thing most social-good organizations need out of their software is flake

I won't claim to be an expert, but here's how I'd suggest you get involved. * The last thing most social-good organizations need out of their software is flakey, drive-by charity hack jobs. They need the same things most organizations need: dedicated, ongoing, boring IT support. Some problems can be solved in weekend hackathons, if you can get the right people together. But if you can't contribute hacking time (some activist software is open-source), contribute your dollars. * What almost all organizations want is your voice and your support. Know those online petitions that seem so stupid? They help. If you as an organizer can walk into a lawmaker's office with a million signatures in your pocket, it amplifies your voice. And a talented campaigner can convert some of those signatures into more meaningful action elsewhere––in the form of donation dollars, real-life organizing, and local lobbying efforts. * Learn about traditional political organizing, which has a long and proud history and has very little to do with software. Protests and movements don't happen by accident; they're built, sometimes in small pieces over many years, by fairly traditional organizing techniques. The Ladder of Engagement[0] is one metaphor that organizers use to talk about how to get people engaged. * Learn about other organizations in the space. DemandProgress does a lot of work with legislators that goes largely unheralded (and they've just merged with Lessig's Rootstrikers, which argues that getting money out of politics goes to the root of the problem); Fight for the Future is good at getting out the word on upcoming legislation. The EFF and the ACLU specialize in legal assistance and litigation, which is spectacularly successful when it works, but aren't the only organizations working to support this space politically. [0] http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-...