I'm here to help folks get familiar with Google Apps.
Google Apps is suite of online applications available free of charge to individuals, small groups, small businesses and non-profit organizations. You can use them to communicate and collaborate with others--both inside and outside your organization.
The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States ushers in many exciting new opportunities to make a better America. One of the most interesting is Obama's brilliant use of his community organizing skills to encourage ordinary citizens to participate in meaningful change.
Non-profit organizations can benefit from Obama's example of reaching out and effectively engaging with ordinary people. The Obama folks made excellent use of sophisticated technology during their successful campaign. After crossing the finish line November 4th they didn't stop there, but put their organizing machine into overdrive even after the election.
Of course, not all of us have the incoming Obama Administration's technical and/or organizational prowess. The good news is that you have a wide variety of free technologies to assist you with your community organizing efforts. Google offers free collaborative and communications tools to individuals, non-profits, schools and small businesses.
Google Apps (Free Version)
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/org/index.html
Tiny non-profit? Large NGO? Somewhere in between? Use Google Apps to communicate, collaborate and work together with people inside and outside your organization.
You can use Google Apps on your organization's domain name, or by just setting up a Gmail account. Best of all, you can do this all for free.
Google Apps is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software to download, install or maintain. You can get up and running quickly, even if you don't have any technical experience.
Google Apps Services Sampling:
- email, instant messaging, calendars and online notebooks
- online documents, spreadsheets and presentations
- online start pages, intranet-like "sites," simple web pages
Getting Started:
Creating a Google Account
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
Choosing Among Available Google Services
http://www.google.com/options/
Some Google Services You Might Find Useful:
Custom Search Engine
http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
Google's Blogger
https://www.blogger.com/start
Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/
