"When you're staring at the computer screen, you actually believe that you're in a dimly lit basement staring at a computer screen."

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Don't put it off another day -- register now!

The speakers list is coming together, and dang if it isn't a fine one. Rub elbows with the likes of:

• Marty Kearns (Green Media Toolshed, Net-centric Campaigns)
• Judith Freeman (New Organizing Institute)
• Marc Laitin (Consultant)
• Colin Delany (e.politics)
• Jenn Smith (Watershed)
• Allyson Kapin (Rad Campaign)
• David Taylor (Radical Designs)
• Rosalyn Lemieux  (Consultant)
• Alan Rosenblatt (Center for American Progress)
• Trina Zahller (Oil Change International)

And crib organizing notes from the best and brightest, like

• MomsRising
• Center for American Progress
• Oceana
• 1SkyBrave
• Step It Up
• Oil Change International
• CIVIC
• True Majority
• Genocide Intervention Network
• Code Pink

Did we mention that you're running out of time to register?

Newsflash - Montana is a politically dynamic state. Obama wins primary.

Oh Montucky... land of Red and Blue, and where every vote counts. Obama carried the state in Tuesday's primary election with 102,544 votes to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 75,053.

What's exciting is the 95% voter increase from Democrats compared to the 2004 Montana presidential primary.... basically twice as many D's voted! Check out NewWest's breakdown of the MT primary.

Let's review the primary results:

2008 Total Votes Cast = 277,138

Last-minute shoppers, the June 16 deadline for registration is fast approaching.

Maybe you've been busy. Haven't had time yet. Been waiting on a few things to fall into place. We've all been there.

But the calendar has rolled over to June and space is limited, so now's the time to make the time to register.

Smart New York City communications consultant Big Duck -- DIA hearts Big Duck -- has been paddling into the wonderful world of podcasting on nonprofit communications.

It's a nice addition to their "resources" section, well worth grazing for articles. There's a fresh one posted this week called "Taglines -- your org in seven words or less".

I didn't have the opportunity to post these photos of children watching Victory Day parades in Chelyabinsk, Russia, when they were current back on May 9.

Now that I've shaken the dust of the road off, a long weekend (stateside) with a martial theme seems like a good enough excuse to me. Someday, this generation will come to you and ask, "what was the 'summer driving season'?"

Salsa Commons, a new common site for all organizations using the Salsa toolset whether through DemocracyInAction or anywhere else, debuted today.

At the moment, what you'll see is a user manual, which is (in ascending order of importance):

• A massive update from the previous manual available, which had become dated in several key areas;
  
• An easily updatable wiki that will serve as a living document we can update and add to as we build;
  
• The kernel of a much larger project to build in other kinds of documentation, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, and a panoply of other resources.

We've been talking about launching this vessel so long, it's sweet to smash the champagne. It comes with a new feedback address -- documentation at salsacommons.org. Tell us there, here, or anywhere what you think!

Colin was on my panel at NTEN, but I don't think this is payback....

"This was also the first time I’ve worked with a DemocracyInAction account, which turned out to be a joy after years of fiddling with GetActive (sorry, friends at GA). The setup was extremely easy and the site was free of the kinds of stylesheet clashes that have been maddening on other systems. And, their API works (unlike GA’s, which is no longer supported), so it was also easy to port the petition over to the main Wetlands site and have it interact with the DIA database seamlessly. Expensive legacy providers had better watch out — DIA’s gonna be eating into your bidness right quick."

As you all should know Salsa's backend is optimized for Firefox. There are a number of reasons for this, but the short of it was we needed to pick one browser to focus on. We picked Firefox because it's free, it works on all operating systems, it does a good job of following web standards, and a bunch of other reasons. But Firefox is great browser to use even if you weren't using Salsa.

One of Firefox's best features is the large number of add-ons available. Firefox add-ons do many different things. Each adds a bit of functionality to the browser allowing you to customize Firefox to fit your needs. From web developing to casual browsing, there is a probably an extension that will improve your browsing experience.

We have a bunch of great webinars lined up this month.

RSVP here

Salsa 101 - List Management & Email Blasting: May 14, 4-5pm

Engaging Your Supporters - Donations & Events: May 15, 1-2pm

Making Change Happen - Online Advocacy: May 19, 3-4pm

Spicing up Salsa - Progamming in Sasla Script: May 21, 3-4pm

List Management Basics: May 23, 2-2:30pm

Email Basics: May 26, 2008, 2-2:30pm

Live Salsa Training & Webinar: May 29, 3-5:30pm

All times are Eastern.

Hope you can make the one of these.