A free resource by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

Organizations that are gone but I still use their old web sites


Defunct websites, or web sites of now defunct organizations, still available on the Internet Wayback Machine. Includes online communities that also have gone away.

Note that many of these URLs may still be functional, but have long been taken over by other companies, including porn sites. To see the original web sites. cut and paste a URL into archive.org and look for the earliest version of the web site. Most of these sites started being abandoned in 2002.
 

Community Technology Centers Network. www.CTCnet.org
This was an organization that supported nonprofits, NGOs, libraries, communities of faith (churches, mosques, temples), senior centers, youth centers and others in the 1990s and 2000s who were providing computers and classes on how to use them for their surrounding communities.
 

CyberVPM YahooGroup. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybervpm/
This was the first online community devoted to the discussion of engaging and managing volunteers. It began in the 1990s, then went away, then came back in 2001. It was begun by Nan Hawthorne, then taken over by AVA, then, when AVA went under (see below), it was taken over by AL!VE. It became more and more inactive as the new millennium progressed, then went under with the demise of YahooGroups. I've reserved CYBERVPM on GoogleGroups and am hoping AL!VE or another credible organization will agree to revive it there.
 

UKVPMs YahooGroup. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ukvpms/
Inspired by CyberVPM (see above), this was an online community devoted to the discussion of engaging and managing volunteers in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). It was founded and lead by Rob Jackson. Like CyberVPM, it became more and more inactive as the new millennium progressed, then went under with the demise of YahooGroups.
 

Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA). www.avaintl.org
Created in 1961, this nonprofit association was for those that work with volunteers, in any setting. For more than 44 years, it was the largest professional association in the world for managers of volunteers. AVA hosted an annual conference in cities around the USA, a certification program for managers of volunteers, an online community and The Journal of Volunteer Administration (JOVA), as well as recognizing outstanding managers of volunteers with a special award each year. AVA was dissolved in 2006 amid allegations of financial mismanagement by employees, the dismissal of three employees, including the executive director, the accumulation of more than $250,000 in debt, and lack of adequate financial and administrative oversight by the board of directors. AVA launched its web site in 1998. Here is the Wikipedia page for AVA.
 

International Year of Volunteers. iyv2001.org
This was the official web site by the United Nations Volunteers Program for the International Year of Volunteers. It later pointed to the World Volunteer Web address (see below). Here is the Wikipedia page for the International Year of Volunteers.
 

World Volunteer Web. worldvolunteerweb.org
This was a web site by the United Nations Volunteers, part of UNDP, to highlight the contributions of volunteers all over the world, not just UN Volunteers.
 

NetAid. netaid.org
NetAid began with a concert event on October 9, 1999 with simultaneous activities meant to harness the Internet to raise money and awareness for the Jubilee 2000 campaign, and to promote virtual volunteering. It started as a joint venture between the United Nations Development Programme and Cisco Systems. It became an independent nonprofit organization in 2001. Here is the Wikipedia page for NetAid.
 

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. cpsr.org
a global organization incorporarted in 1983 promoting the responsible use of computer technology. I attended CPSR's 1994 Annual Meeting, October 8-9, 1994, in San Diego, California. The theme was Organizing for Access: A National Forum on Computer Networking, Community Action, and Democracy. The panel that changed my life: "The Meanings of Access." Info about their annual meetings and themes is available at archive.org (year 2000 version of their web site has a list of the panelists and workshops for all of their annual meetings in the 90s).
 

Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network. main.org
MAIN was a nonprofit working to get nonprofits in Austin, Texas online with their own web sites. It also provided a directory of community, nonprofit and government agencies in Austin that had websites. It would host "web raisings", where volunteers would come together in a computer lab and build websites for nonprofits that didn't have such - MAIN hosted these websites for those that couldn't afford web hosting services. They also co-founded the Accessibility Internet Rally.
 

LibertyNet. libertynet.org
LibertyNet was formed as a non-profit in 1993 by a group of business and civic leaders with the support of the University City Science Center, the Ben Franklin Technology Center, Bell Atlantic-Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, and WHYY TV-12 and 91 FM. LibertyNet was Philadelphia's largest online provider of regional information, with over 600 non-profit and commercial web sites and almost 1,000 non-profit members with e-mail and web-browsing access.
 

CompuMentor, compumentor.org
CompuMentor evolved into TechSoup, but the original CompuMentor was a very different organization: it recruited tech experts as volunteers, called mentors, to help nonprofits regarding using computer technology, primarily databases and intranets. The CompuMentor web site was focused on recruiting and training the volunteers. Here is the 1996 version of the CompuMentor Volunteer Handbook for mentors. You can see how this earlier manual evolved into a handbook for any IT volunteer (via the TechSoup web site).
 

San Francisco Women of the Web, sfwow.org
Top25 Women of the Web, Top25.org
SF WoW was a nonprofit network of women with a mission to serve, educate and empower women on the Internet and in new media industries, through professional development and support, expansive and diverse networking opportunities, and intensive community involvement. The hosted an annual Top25 Event each year, through 2001, honoring women who have made significant contributions to the Internet and New Media industries through their dedicated efforts to advance technology, contribute to online communities, advance and advocate women's right and issues and set an example for successful business women in the high tech industries.
 

San Francisco Nonprofit Development Center, supportcenter.org
This organization became Compasspoint.
 

nonprofit.gov
USA government site that was a portal to nonprofit-related resources across US government agencies.
 

NonProfit Gateway Network, www.nal.usda.gov/ric/faqs/volfaq.htm
USA government gateway to all nonprofit-related info across USA government web sites - US Interior Department, IRS, military, etc. Links to charity-related Web pages maintained by various USA federal agencies and departments. Users could search more than 3,000 federal Web pages, as well as federal grant announcements and information about federal volunteer programs and how to comply with laws pertaining to nonprofit organizations. Included information on Federal Tax Information for Charities and Non-Profits, Volunteer Recruiting, Retention and Promotion, Nonprofit Standard Mail Eligibility, Cost Principles for Nonprofits Working with Government, tips for Writing a Grant Proposal, tips for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and so, so much more.
 

Yahoo Contributor Academy, https://contributor.yahoo.com/academy/
If Yahoo had been smart, they would have never gotten rid of YahooGroups, Yahoo Answers nor the Yahoo Contributor Academy. YahooGroups, in its heyday, remains the BEST online collaboration tool and online community platform of anything ever out on the Internet, YahooAnswers could have been much bigger than Quora or Reddit and should have featured experts and had paid subject matter experts as facilitators, and the Yahoo Contributor Academy is so needed now to train people on being humane online contributors committed to quality. If it ever goes away from archive.org let me know - I have screen captures.


Web sites I have preserved entirely or in part on my own web site:

Virtual Volunteering Project

United Nations Information Technology Network (UNITeS)

Smart Valley