Well I’ve finally got round to tidying up the open source Webtivist online action script.
I’ve called this version Webtivist Basic (because I lost count of what version number this would be).
The script is very basic (hence the name) but allows you to setup simple email actions to a suitable target from any site, and to store your activists details in a database. This can be exported as a .csv file which can be dropped into any supporter database / email newsletter program.
It checks for common swear words (in case your activists get over enthusiastic!) HTML and script language I’ve noticed that form bots use, so you probably won’t need a captcha.
Visit my Webtivist page for instructions and the link to download from sourceforge.
This was originally written as a project at the World Development Movement since as a smaller organisation they couldn’t afford the more expensive online action systems on offer. It’s free and released under the Non-Profit Open Software License 3.0 (Non-Profit OSL 3.0).
I’m hoping to include a bit more functionality in the next release, to include things like pre-filled in form values from personalised emails, email to MP using a postcode lookup, tweet actions (all things various versions of the script has done in the past). I’ve also had a few ideas about integrating SMS as well.
Eventually I’d like to build a super-dooper version that has a nice administrator back-end, so that setting up online actions to elected representatives and capturing the data will be as easy as setting up a blog.
Comments / ideas / criticism welcome. If you want to help me work on the database of MPs emails & contact details please get in touch (am working my way very slowly from A..).
