Online advocacy at its best is about giving more citizens more power to act together in creating social change. At its worst, online advocacy is a fundraising technique and promotional strategy that can work, while generating some very negative inadvertent outcomes. Organizers working for the common good need to do a better job of articulating good online advocacy strategies and resisting demands that our work be measured in dollars raised or a higher public profile.

What we have at stake is not (just) the integrity of our cause or organization, but the effectiveness of our mission.

The conflict between the different ends of the online advocacy spectrum can be captured in a phrase: Mission over Membership. When we focus on mission, we can sleep well at night, knowing that the actions we request from our supporters will in fact lead to the change we want effected. If, on the other hand, we use the language of change primarily in support of fundraising and organization building, we run a serious risk: that online advocacy messaging becomes devalued, along with the emails from our organizations.

LOLnptechAmy Sample Ward gives a summary of takeaways from the 501 Tech Club Portland Brown Bag Lunch event this week, at which Jeanette Russell, from DemocracyInAction, discussed online advocacy. I also caught some live tweets from Amy while she was at the event.

Kintera announced the "Connect Developer's Challenge" with cash prizes (of up to $15k) for "entering a software application or applications that integrate directly with Kintera's platform or customize an existing Kintera application."

Britt Bravo blogs about a request for virtual meet-ups for rural NetTuesdays. What are some technology tools/options out there for this? SecondLife, elluminate, wiziq, and Skypecasts were all suggested. Other ideas?

Marnie Webb is back this week urging all those nonprofits who took her advice about searching last week to take the next step -- and "follow". She's working on her series of tips for nonprofits getting started with social networking and web2.0, but her advice really applies to anyone starting out with online research. I'm looking forward to next week's installment!

Michelle Murrain was at the Politics Online Conference this week, speaking about -- what else? -- open source tools. She shared a panel with other NTEN members, including Ryan Ozimek, Jo Lee, and Alan Rosenblatt.

TechSoup announced new Flickr accounts for nonprofits through the "Flickr for Good" program. The NTEN organizational member and general nonprofit technology contributor is partnering with the photo sharing site to donate 10,000 1-year Flickr pro accounts. OK, NTEN community: how will you use yours?

Ruby Sinreich is Twittering as I post this about her day in DC with the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership, practicing "nonviolent civil disobedience" (hint: find the #OBIPP tags). Will she have been arrested by the time you read this?