2006

Sustainable Business Day Makes Political Impact in GA — by Admin — last modified 2006-01-17 11:42

The idea that businesses that do well by the environment and society can also be an engine for economic development is catching on in Georgia. The second annual Sustainable Business Day, held at the state capitol in Atlanta in February, reached legislatures and the public.

ifPeople empowers BALLE network with Plone web sites and custom business directory — by Admin — last modified 2006-06-06 12:39

BALLE is an innovative network of business organizations that is bringing new solutions to the need for economic development, responsible business, and sustainable communities. With affiliate organizations in 28 cities in the US and Canada (and growing) serving over 4,500 independent businesses, the Internet is key for communication and collaboration. To strengthen its network and offer better services to its stakeholders, BALLE is creating more accessible information through an elegant, sophisticated online publishing system and a new online image. The site, created by ifPeople using the Open Source Plone and Zope technologies enables BALLE to publish online documents, while providing tools for content management, newsletter sign-ups and more.

Carbon neutrality: fresh initiatives at the Olypmics, a first for publishers, and a new campaign — by Admin — last modified 2006-02-28 09:55

At ifPeople, we are delighted to see the growth of initiatives towards carbon neutrality around the world. Being a carbon neutral company, we celebrate innovative approaches to climate change. This time, we are featuring three recent events that provide us with great optimism for the years to come, including the first carbon neutral publishing company, the “greening” of the recent winter Olympics, and a campaign launched on the anniversary of Kyoto.

Open and Free: companies and academia provide meaning to simple words — by Admin — last modified 2006-04-27 08:24

Four leading IT companies -Cisco, HP, IBM and Intel- have agreed, along with 7 Universities and the Kauffman Foundation, to adopt a set of guiding principles to accelerate collaborative research for Open Source software. The initiative is a "first-of-a-kind" agreement, based on the belief that collaboration can "improve the process by which discoveries and innovations move into the marketplace", as explained by Lesa Mitchell, vice president for advancing innovation at the Kauffman Foundation.

Values And Profits: (Entertaining) Insights on how they go together — by Admin — last modified 2006-05-31 07:51

Starting entrepreneurs, mid-size business owners and all those interested in establishing a socially responsible - values-driven- business now count on a new source of expertise. Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick –pioneers in the field- present Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun; the first of the Social Venture Network (SVN) book series.

ifPeople Announces Plans for End-user Documentation — by Admin — last modified 2006-06-29 14:39

ifPeople helps clients to take control of their technology by empowering them with training, open source tools, and support. We would also like to let you know that we are expanding our work on documentation for the technologies we support for web sites/CMS, CRM, and business directories.

Annual Plone Conference 2006 to be held in Seattle — by Admin — last modified 2006-07-25 08:18

The fourth annual Plone Conference will be held October 25-27, 2006 at the Seattle Center Northwest Rooms in Seattle, Washington USA. The host organization this year is ONE/Northwest, in collaboration with the Seattle and Portland Plone communities. This year, as in the past three editions: New Orleans in 2003 and Vienna in 2004 and 2005, the conference is aimed at promoting open source technologies and spreading the use of Plone.

Sustainable Business Day in Georgia: renewed commitment and 2006 perspectives — by Admin — last modified 2006-01-26 12:36

For the third consecutive year, Sustainable Business Day will bring together government officials, congressmen and Georgian businesses committed to sustainable practices. ifPeople will once again attend the event to be held at the Georgia Capitol on Wednesday, January 25 from 8:30 am to 1 pm and join the over 15 innovative businesses that contribute to both the state’s economic growth and its environmental protection.

ifPeople sponsors the BALLE annual conference — by Admin — last modified 2006-03-17 09:42

ifPeople is sponsoring the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) annual conference this year, in its continued support to this network of business organizations. BALLE is a growing alliance of 25 local business networks and over 4,500 members, responding to local needs. Every year, the conference is a unique opportunity to share strategies and business practices for those who work to promote local buying and food growing, responsible businesses and innovative public policy solutions.

GRI Guidelines applicability and G3 launching — by Admin — last modified 2006-01-31 05:23

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), recognized as a collaborating center for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), has recently released an updated draft of their guidelines and indicator protocols. This third reviewed version, known as G3 and elaborated on the basis of the previous 2000 and 2003 versions, can be downloaded from the Web site of the organization and is available for comments up to March 31, 2006. The final improved version of the G3 guidelines will be launched on October 5, 2006 at an international event in the city of Amsterdam.

ifPeople to present FairSource at UNC Conference on "Reinventing Business" — by Admin — last modified 2006-02-27 07:17

Over 200 business leaders and academics that will be gathering March 30-31 to explore competitive ways to do business in today`s challenging world at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School conference "Reinventing Today's Business." ifPeople has been invited by the Center for Sustainable Enterprise to present its model of fair trade technology, called FairSource, which it has pioneered with partners in South America.

ifPeople awarded full scholarship for social enterprise incubator — by Admin — last modified 2006-05-01 08:37

ifPeople has been awarded full scholarship to attend this year’s Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) session, to be held at Santa Clara University this summer. The selection was carried out through an application process that attracted over 70 social benefit entrepreneurs who were required to prove their commitment to address urgent human needs worldwide. The two-week program is aimed at enabling technology innovators to achieve sustainability and will combine classroom instruction, case studies and best practices with mentoring on the specific challenges of each organization.

ifPeople publishes Plone API guide in English and Spanish — by Admin — last modified 2006-04-27 08:11

Following the success of ifPeople's publication based on research on Plone, the leading Open Source Content Management System, we have released another great resource for Plone developers - a tutorial on Plone API. Originally created in Spanish for the Plone/Zope training ifPeople sponsored in Argentina, ifPeople has recently translated the document into English for greater access.

BiD Challenge 2006: Working at the intersection of poverty and entrepreneurship? — by Admin — last modified 2006-02-27 06:26

After a successful first 2005 edition, the international competition BiD Challenge is once again offering organizations and individuals the opportunity to finance their business plans aiming at poverty reduction in developing countries. The competition is sponsored by Business in Development, an organization from the Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO), the main civil in Holland that seeks to reduce poverty through market-oriented initiatives. In line with the committee’s goals, participating projects should contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Goals at comply with some requirements such as consisting in the creation or enlargement of an existing business, call for a start-up investment of €500-500,000 and Generate profits in a three-year period.

Internet freedom at stake — by Admin — last modified 2006-05-31 07:52

You may never be able to surf the web freely again! Your right to equally visit all content is under threat by a bill in Congress that needs your attention. What is known as the Internet's First Amendment, a guiding principle called Network Neutrality that ensures a free an open Internet, might be canceled if a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by telephone and cable companies get Congress to pass a law that would permit companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to decide which Web sites work best for the user according to the amount of money they receive from them.

Collaborative Technology Conference (Boston, from 2006-06-19 08:40 to 2006-06-22 08:40) — by Admin

Collaborative technology and strategy

7th Free Software International Forum: news and voices from the event — by Admin — last modified 2006-05-26 04:28

With an attendance of over 5,330 people from Brazil, Uruguay, the United States, Canada and Argentina, among others, the 7th edition of one of the major free software events in Latin America took place last April in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Once again, the city in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, which also hosted several editions of the World Social Forum, pulled together over 440 speakers including widely recognized representatives from the international free software community such as Richard Stallman, Jim Gettys, Miguel de Icaza and Keith Packard. ifPeople brings you news and notes from members of our team who were at the event.

Climate Change Responsibility: Hollywood Gets On Board — by Admin — last modified 2006-01-31 05:15

Climate change is a critical challenge facing our time and requiring innovative approaches to the way we do things. Every year ifPeople offsets its is greenhouse gas impact by planting trees and investing in energy efficiency. We are pleased to see that this activity is gaining support and the trend is reaching more high visibility places, from Fortune 500 companies and even Hollywood. The new Hollywood film Syriana is "carbon neutral," thanks to the help of NativeEnergy, drawing significant attention to the issues of climate change and the impact of human activities.

BALLE Atlanta launches membership program — by Admin — last modified 2006-05-16 12:40

BALLE Atlanta has recently opened its membership program and is inviting you to become a member and gain access to benefits and programs for socially and environmentally responsible locally-owned businesses. ifPeople, a charter member of the network, shares more about the network and its goals and invites you to share in the principles of a living economy while announcing its participation in the upcoming BALLE Annual conference to take place in Vermont.

ifPeople at Social Enterprise Alliance in Atlanta: "Advancing the Field" — by Admin — last modified 2006-02-27 08:48

ifPeople will be once again participating in the Social Enterprise Alliance Gathering to take place 7-10 March in Atlanta, Georgia. Under the theme “Advancing the Field”, this 7th edition will bring together over 700 of attendees and leaders from the nonprofit philanthropic sectors who will devote 3 days to the presentation and discussion of fair trade, sustainable social enterprises, marketing strategies issues, among others.

OpenCourseWare and eduCommons - Lowering barriers to and fostering growth of open educational resources — by Admin — last modified 2006-09-13 05:27

Thousands of courses are currently available through the OpenCourseWare (OCW) model of open and free access (no passwords needed) to a large repertoire of high-quality courses ranging from institutions all over the world. Over 100 educational institutions from 14 different countries together with a growing number of affiliate organizations have come together to create the OpenCourseWare Consortium currently offering an extraordinary body of open educational content using a shared model. The two main open initiatives that help to make this possible are the Creative Commons sharing licenses and EduCommons, an OpenCourseWare management system designed specifically to support this kind of projects and based on the Open Source Plone system.

Green Goals at the World Cup - From Carbon Neutrality to Water Conservation — by Admin — last modified 2006-06-29 14:45

The current World Soccer Cup is proving to be the largest application of the principles of carbon neutrality. Green Goal is an innovative program set up by the German Organizing Committee and an alliance of advocates including the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and a number of governmental organizations and private sector companies such as Deutsche Telekom AG and transport company Deutsche Bahn AG. The aims of Green Goal are reducing the environmental impact of this major sporting event, including the offset of the 100,000 tones of carbon dioxide stemming from the transportation, construction and maintenance of the stadiums to make this a climate neutral event! Read about this and other environmental sustainability efforts at the World Cup...

ifPeople Founders to Present FairSource at FutureCommons on Sept 25 — by Admin — last modified 2006-09-12 07:10

Institute for the Future's FutureCommons is a forum for thought leaders held each month. This month, ifPeople's founders will present FairSource as a model for sustainable sourcing of services in today's global economy. The FairSource model is based on fair trade standards and is used by ifPeople to foster responsible microenterprises in South America who engage in software development for ifPeople. The program will present an overview of the social mission, progress to date, and a discussion of challenges and the future.

Nobel Peace Prize Award For Social Entrepreneur Yunus and Microfinance Leader Grameen Bank — by Admin — last modified 2006-12-11 06:28

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded, in two equal parts, to Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and its founder, Muhammad Yunus. The Norwegian Nobel Committee will award Yunus and Grameen Bank for their tremendous efforts to eliminate the cycle of poverty in rural Bangladesh, promoting basic human rights. The success of Grameen Bank has become a great model for progressing economic and social equality, primary principles of the Nobel Peace Prize. Grameen and Yunus are exemplary cases of entrepreneurship that is making the world a better place.

ifPeople announces hosted, open source CRM service — by Admin — last modified 2006-05-31 07:21

ifPeople is happy to announce a new service CRMSpace.net. Our objective for CRMSpace.net is to provide affordable, hosted Customer Relationship Management with leading open source technologies. For commercial use, we are providing vTiger CRM and for non-profit use, the CiviCRM system. Find out more about how you can use a CRM and the service we provide.

Strategic Planning for Cooperative Coffees: Case Study — by Admin — last modified 2006-07-25 09:22

Cooperative Coffees is a leader in advancing fair trade practices through its partnerships with small-scale coffee farmers. The supportive relationship of the roasters/members of the cooperative had enabled growth over the years, and the organization recognized the importance of investing in its strategic growth. Cooperative Coffees chose ifPeople to facilitate a process of strategic planning, which has just concluded. ifPeople is proud to present this new case study and the result of six months of working with this amazing organization and its members.

Beyond Fair Trade Chocolate: Sustainable trade in services and FairSource at Green Festivals DC — by Admin — last modified 2006-07-24 15:16

Fair trade chocolate is something we can all identify as part of the green business movement - great product, good working conditions for farmers, and a just trade system delivering it to us. But what about the services in the economy, which make up over half of all economic activity in the world? Service companies are often left out of sustainability initiatives, and so the leadership of companies like ifPeople becomes crucial. ifPeople has been chosen to select at this year's Green Festival in Washington, DC on fair trade services and sustainable services businesses.

Toxic 100 vs Global 100: Diverging Views of Corporate Sustainability — by Admin — last modified 2006-06-29 14:42

The “Toxic 100” is a report on the top corporate air polluters in the United States, created by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (PERI). The recently released report features DuPont, US Steel, ConocoPhillips, GE, and Eastman Kodak as the US companies topping the list. Surprisingly, some of the companies with higher releases of toxic chemicals were also included in the “Global 100” list that supposedly features the most sustainable world corporations. We felt this deserved more attention and that the public needs to put attention on the “list makers”.

Conference and Award Finalist - Plone Community Strength Shows In Recent Activity — by Admin — last modified 2006-09-28 01:30

Plone, a leading Open Source content management system, has a vibrant and growing community. Current products of that energy and momentum are seen in Plone's selection as a finalist for an Open Source CMS award, which you can cast your vote for now! Additionally, Plone's 2006 international conference is shaping up to be the best ever, with a big emphasis on non-profit and non-developer users for content and participation at the event. ifPeople is proud to be a part of the Plone community and hopes to see you at the upcoming conference! Read more about these and Plone...

AWStats Offers Free and Powerful Web Site Statistics — by Admin — last modified 2007-01-16 07:25

AWStats, a built-in feature of your Plone web site, is a log analyzer which gives statistics and graphical information about visits to your web site. The information provided, which can be viewed at http://files.<domain name>/awstats/awstats.pl, is a great resource for tracking the traffic to your website and for quantifying the search engine optimization inherent in your Plone site.

MOTTO Magazine: Uniting Values-Driven Companies and Individuals — by Admin — last modified 2006-12-13 14:59

This year's Bioneers Conference in Atlanta included a session on socially responsible business leadership hosted by the locally-based MOTTO Magazine (formerly Worthwhile Magazine). This career-oriented magazine was the brainchild of two prior employees of The Wall Street Journal, Anita Sharpe and Kevin Salwen. Dissatisfied with modern business media and concerned with its lack of focus on social responsibility, they created MOTTO Magazine to link companies and individuals with similar values, passions and goals.

Plone: YouTube, FairSource Training (Sold Out), and Conference Success — by Admin — last modified 2006-12-14 08:03

The Plone open source software is a fast-growing and exciting community that spans the globe. The recent Plone conference in Seattle had over 350 attending from around the world for dozens of sessions of learning, connecting, and collaborating. Those sessions are now being edited and posted on YouTube, including an amazing presentation (for people of all backgrounds!) by Eben Moglen. As Plone continues to spread, more people are getting interested. This week, ifPeople is holding its third developer training in Argentina - and it is sold out! Read on for more on the exciting state of Plone and these events.

October features Fair Trade and green initiatives — by Admin — last modified 2006-10-08 07:32

Once again, the month of October is packed with interesting events. Besides the month-long celebrations of the 3rd annual Fair Trade Month, the city of Washington will be hosting the Green Fest. ifPeople joins the thousands of companies and consumers that advocate for a responsible equitable approach to trade relationships and will be once again speaking at this 2006 edition of the Green Festival to take place October 14-15.

Search Engines: Top 5 Ways to Optimize Your (Plone) Web Site — by Admin — last modified 2006-12-04 14:14

As the internet continues to be a greater resource for you and your clients, it's more important than ever to have a successful internet marketing strategy. A major component of this strategy, made easy by Plone's content management system, is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO refers to improving your website's rank and prevalence in searches conducted using internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo.

ifPeople featured for Sustainable Practices at Natural Leaders Conference — by Admin — last modified 2006-09-28 01:11

ifPeople has been asked to present its sustainable business practices at the upcoming Natural Leaders Award and Conference, sponsored by the GA Department of Natural Resource's Pollution Prevention Division. Tirza Hollenhorst, ifPeople cofounder, will discuss our approach as a small business, including our FairSource model.

Green Business Services Pavilion at GreenFest DC — by Admin — last modified 2006-10-11 08:06

For the first time, "green" businesses are joining forces at the Green Festival (DC) to provide a single stop service area for your green business. Find services you need for socially responsible investing, internet marketing, web software, and telecommunications - all from businesses that are practicing the values you hold in your enterprise. The pavilion will be featured at GreenFest DC, from October 14-15, 2006.

Updated Version of the GRI Guidelines Formally Launched in Amsterdam — by Admin — last modified 2006-10-09 23:50

The Amsterdam-based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the global voluntary framework for sustainability reporting, held a conference October 4-6 in Amsterdam. This major international event on sustainability and transparency featured the release of the GRI guidelines and included plenary sessions, leadership tracks and forums covering a variety of topics ranging from management and reporting software to performance and risk assessment, compliance, and sustainability reporting.

ifPeople Announces Job Openings — by Admin — last modified 2006-11-29 05:01

Looking for a cool place to work? ifPeople is a fast-growing enterprise that cares about people, our communities, and the planet. We provide web communications solutions and custom software to for-profit and non-profit clients around the US and Canada. Based in the historic King Distric of Atlanta, GA, we are seeking passionate people to join our team as Web Project Manager and Client Support Specialists. Read more...

Bioneers SE News: TerraCycle's Eco-capitalism Model — by Admin — last modified 2006-12-13 14:59

In a new generation of “eco-entrepreneurs,” Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer consider themselves pioneers of “eco-capitalism.” These concepts emerge as it becomes more obvious that we, as stewards of our environment, must be mindful of our consumption of natural capital. In 2001, while students at Princeton University, Szaky and Beyer experimented with an innovative idea to use organic waste as a raw material to create plant food. The raw material they used was leftover food from their dining hall! Though not a clean project, Szaky and Beyer fed dining hall waste to worms and then liquefied the worm poop to transform it into organic plant food. When the concept was proven to be effective, Szaky and Beyer formed TerraCycle, Inc. to market their product.

Happy Holidays from ifPeople! — by Admin — last modified 2006-12-19 10:00

We at ifPeople are grateful for such a wonderful and supporting community. Thank you for your support, teachings, and connection with our enterprise as we continue to learn and grow and live out our mission.