Partially via the excellent blog of Dan McQuillan, Internet.Artizans, partially just hopping from other sources I had, I keep on unearthing what appears to be a never-ending thread of discussion, blogs, networks, events and activities that are sizzling beneath the surface of the UK/European NGO sector.

There are hundreds of Web 2.0 and FOSS applications out there, which NGOs are making use of, and given the enormous amount of information one can unearth, it is not surprising for many poorly-staffed and under-resourced organisations continue to be overwhelmed by the speed of technological change. Yet one thing is certain: those who are passionate about Web 2.0, and have the time, resources, and dare-I-say age to undersand its potential, see it as the key to the future success of the NGO sector.

Below, I am trying to put together a list which - like the others I have started in the last few days - will try to offer an overview of the most common Open Source and Web 2.0 tools applications which are being used (or could be used) by NGOs to pursue their missions and promote social change (with the exclusion of blogs, which I am covering separately). Open Source software in particular appears to have experienced a boom in recent months, and NGOs are set to be among the first ones to benefit from this creative wave.

The post will be updated as I come across more initaitives. I’ll eventually create a separate list in the blogroll.

• CitizenSpeak is a free email advocacy service for grassroots organizations. Inspired by MoveOn email campaigns, CitizenSpeak provides the same e-advocacy capability at the community level in English and Spanish.
• Drupal is an open source content management platform. Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites. Amongst others, it has been adopted by Greenpeace.
• CiviCRM is the first open source and freely downloadable constituent relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based, open source, internationalized, and designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups (both of these two applications have been adopted by Amnesty UK).
• Psiphon is a human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies that allows citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor.