Do you have an idea for using government information that you’d love to have but you can’t get now? Would you like to win $5,000 for your favorite nonprofit? Well, all you have to do is come up with a great idea for the nonprofit sector to use government information to make the world a better place. Who’s behind this? The Gov 2.0 Task Force, appointed by Government.

What’s Gov 2.0? It’s about governments being more open with information and using social media to communicate with the public, so they are more accountable.

Contest? The Taskforce will select the best idea(s) for using public sector information in a nonprofit/charity setting and award a cash donation of $5,000 to the charity/notnprofit of the winner’s choice.  Click here for more info. 

You’ve got until Friday 30 October, so hurry. But don’t panic, you just need to generate the idea at this stage, with some broad details to allow the Task Force to make a decision.

How do we enter? Go to the Idea Scale site, sign up, and then submit your idea.  http://www.gov2taskforce.ideascale.com/akira/ideafactory.do?discussionID=9853

While you’re there, you can vote on other people’s ideas as well.

Then click below to participate in the first National survey to build support, resources and understanding of this sector. Survey closes very soon!

The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies is currently  working with Social Traders to conduct Australia’s first national survey of social enterprises. The online survey for Finding Australia’s Social Enterprise Sector is now open until November 2. For more information click here or complete the survey : http://survey.qut.edu.au/survey/168348/2346/

If you have ever wanted to learn more about digital storytelling and how it can work for a community the Big Stories Project is a great example to check out.

Two film makers : Jeni Lee and Sieh Mchawala  with Martin Potter all from the Media Resource Centre ran a project and workshops in a town called Port Augusta in South Australia to produce " Big Stories". 

I heard about Big Stories when I met with Gayle Mather from Umeewarra Aboriginal Media Association in Port Augusta recently. Gayle sent me the link to Big Stories after I thanked her for her time and commented on how I was inspired by her passion and commitment to the community there. She sent me the link to her story to help explain why she is so passionate. Wow! What a powerful way to explain something!

Check out Gayle's story Pt Augusta, South Australia. Gayle also told me about how the process of digital storytelling can be a healing one too. It’s an exciting new medium for nonprofits.

See some more examples here :

Check out this link from the full day workshop at this year's Connecting Up conference on how to make a web video - takes you step by step through the process : Web Video workshop

You may also find this a useful resource : Free Vlog
Share your story with your nonprofit peers and others on the Nonprofit showcase

We can learn from and inspire each other!