She’s lined up some generous sponsors to match up to $10,000 of whatever she raises. I know everyone’s funds are tight at this time of the year, but your $2.00 is genuinely money well spent.

Can you help? If you can’t spare the funds, Laura has a list of 10 free ways to help here.

Every Tuesday I can be found at the NTEN Watercooler dispensing helpful advice on printing, WordPress, blogging, twitter and general communications issues , but this week , I’ll be there from 2:30 – 4:00 pm providing free assistance to anyone who wants to upgrade to the latest release.

Not an NTEN member ? That’s ok – office hours are now open to the general public. I have to say, though, that you’re missing out on working with some awesome people who are all working to make the world a better place .

Some of the fun stuff to look forward to in 2.7 includes:

• Automatic one click upgrades (admin privileges required)
• One click plugin installation from WordPress.org (suspect this also requires admin privileges)
• Customized drag & drop dashboards
• Quick posts from the dashboard
• Word count on new posts

For more information on the new WordPress goodies, I highly recommend checking out the following posts:

Aaron Brazell lays out the 10 Things You Need To Know About WordPress 2.7 and an additional post roundup.

Taylor Pratt at MarketingPilgrim.com has video and a quick overview of new features.

Sean P. Aune has a timely wrapup of 20+ plugins already compatible with 2.7 – since this has slowed upgrade times in the past, this was a welcome post.

Rick Turoczy at ReadWriteWeb takes a look at how WordPress listened to their raving fans to build a better release candidate that should be required reading for all software developers.

Last but not least, don’t Robert Scoble’s interviews with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg on the future of blogs.

This is a great, low cost way to learn everything you need to know to set up and run your own WordPress blog.

Please join us!

They’re looking for big, audacious ideas to back in the following categories:

• Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
• Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
• Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
• Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
• Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
• Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
• Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
• Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don’t fit into any category at all.

The deadline for initial entries is October 20th, 2008, so get moving!

via the always awesome Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped

I had such a great time this summer that I’m volunteering for NTEN’s office hours program again this fall. Of course, it’s only fun if you show up, so bring your printing, WordPress, blogging, twitter and general communications issues on over every Tuesday from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm. You can also find other experts by browsing the new sidebar widget.

Not an NTEN member? That’s ok – office hours are now open to the general public! This is a great way to get expert advice and help for your organization.