INTRODUCTION

The main task of the Communication Platform for Non-Governmental Organizations
non-gov.org is to create the possibility of communicating for NGOs from the West and the East of Europe. The idea of the Communication Platform appeared during the Warsaw Regional NGOs Congress which took place in March 2006 on the request of the Conference of International Non-Governmental Organizations of the Council of Europe. The Platform is an expression of the will of the Congress participants. This initiative is a solution to the problem of communication among NGOs from the member states of the Council of Europe and other countries.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE COMMUNICATION PLATFORM

The Communication Platform will be working simultaneously in two language versions: Russian and English. After entering the www.non-gov.org website, the system specifies which localization a visitor comes from and it displays a proper language version. If a language version is impossible to be found, the English version will be displayed automatically. The user can change the language version every moment while using the Platform – pushing the language change’s button redirects user to a parallel website in another language version.

FUNCTIONALITIES OF THE COMMUNICATION PLATFORM

I. The database

The Communication Platform has two databases available:

· a database of the non-governmental organizations from all over the world

· a database of individual users, activists of NGOs

The database of the organizations as well as the database of users on the Platform is a living organism – every user can extend it by creating his/her profile or a profile of his/her organization.

Data stored in the database is available for all registered users in two language versions: English and Russian. The organizations’ and individual users’ profiles can be easily found by a search engine in simple and advanced versions – by country, by activity’s profile, by activity’s domain or by language of communication.

II. The organizations’ profiles

Every non-governmental organization can create its profile on the non-gov.org Platform resources. In order to create it, a representative of an organization – an administrator – should fill in an appropriate questionnaire which can be found on the non-gov.org website. While filling in the questionnaire, the administrator has to enter a login and a password, which is at the same time a link to the organization’s profile. Within a maximum of three days after filling in and sending the questionnaire, the administrator receives information by e-mail on activating the account on the non-gov.org website.

Every non-governmental organization has only one login and password. The number of people administrating the organization’s profile depends on how many people will be given the password to the profile by the main administrator.

III. The individual users’ profiles

Non-gov.org Platform is addressed mostly to non-governmental organizations. However, we do not intend to exclude individual activists from our community. This is why everyone who is working in the frame of the civil society can present himself/herself on non-gov.org: their achievements, interests, activity, conducted projects, researches etc.

IV. Recommendations and comments

The registered organizations and individual Platform users, who are a part of the Platform community can give each other recommendations and comments. The recommendation can be given in the organization’s profile while a comment in event’s description. When an organization adds an announcement about an event, it has a possibility of turning on/turning off commenting the announcements by users. If an administrator turns on this option it cannot be turned off again.

The recommendations and comments will not be anonymous. Two categories are commented: cooperation with the organization and events organized by an organization. There is also a five-sun’s scale to judge each category (1 sun is the lowest grade and 5 suns the highest).

V. Articles

The system will include an advanced base of articles divided into the following categories:

· Culture and heritage

· Sport, tourism, recreation, interests

· Education

· Science researches

· Health protection

· Social services and social assistance

· Environmental protection

· Social and material local development

· Political affairs

· Law

· Media

· Human rights and freedoms

· Support for Institutions, NGO’s and civil initiatives

· Pro-european and pro-democratic activities

· Work and economy

The articles can be read by every user of the Platform. Every logged-in user can extend the articles’ base by adding new texts.

VI. News

News can be added by any registered organization to any of the following sections:

· Events

· Grants

· Job offers

· Volunteering

· Internship

· Project partners

Each section has its simple and advanced search engine.

The news section is not being verified, it only includes a mechanism ‘inform us about a problem’ – it is a push-button next to every news section. After pushing it the administrator receives information with a link to the news section in his/her e-mail.

The system’s administrator can manage the news section, which is editing, adding, moving (within given possibilities) and deleting it.

Every user of the Platform can read the news.

VII. The Forum

The Forum is visible for every user of the Platform. Only logged-in users have the possibility to give comments. The system’s administrator fully manages the forum – he/she can create, edit and delete sections as well as manage posts on forum.

The forum has two language versions. Both are displayed at one time – English-version sections on the top and Russian-version sections below.

VIII. The RSS

The RSS mechanism contains the last 20 records from every news section. Two language versions of the RSS are active – the English and the Russian one. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading.

IX. The Calendar

There is a detailed calendar of the international events from all over the world on the Platform. Records are added automatically by adding the record in the appropriate news section (for example Conferences, Internships, Job offers).

X. Links to the profiles

Each user of the Platform (organization or individual user) has a possibility to generate links which can be i.e. displayed in the e-mail’s signature. After entering the link, the profile of the organization or of the user is displayed.

XI. Newsletter

A newsletter in two language versions is divided similarly to the news section (Events, Grants, Job offers, Volunteering/Internship, Project Partners). The mechanism is simple to use, it is based on a template. There is a different template attributed to every news’ section – a possibility to define an e-mail’s title, to mark selected news from the selected section or to write down contents and send it.

The user decides from which section or sections he/she wants to receive the newsletter. Additionally, the administrator has a possibility to send a characterizing e-mail.

Subscription: if a person does not have an account on the non-gov.org Platform, he/she can subscribe to the newsletter by giving his/her e-mail address in the field on the main page of the Platform. The process of deleting the subscription is simple and analogical to the registration process.

XII. Other functions

The Casimir Pulaski Foundation expects further extension of the Platform. The logged-in users will be offered forward possibilities:

· creating their own blogs

· communicating through chat rooms

· creating e-mail accounts