del.icio.us tags: global poverty

"Access doesn't last long if you have nothing to say,"
Jamie Drummond on the role of 'celebrity' in the success of the global poverty movement.

There are a great deal of rock stars working to alleviate global poverty. The most prominent is, of course, Bono. But while Bono can fill stadiums, one of the greatest of the global poverty rock stars is Jamie Drummond, who was profiled today in the UK's Guardian Observer.

Drummond is the Executive Director of DATA (aka One.org in the United States) and is the man behind the scenes who can claim responsibility for mobilizing G8 leaders to make historic commitments to provide aid to Africa at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 (getting them to live up to those commitments is the current task on his plate).

The article is definitely worth a read if you're interested in hearing how the debt relief movement "started" more than a decade ago, about Drummond's role in the Bush Administration's historic commitment to fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic or how Drummond has embraced mobile technology and the Internet from the very beginning as a integral tool for mobilizing for global policy change.

del.icio.us tags 01.28.08

I remember trying fruitlessly to find data on Internet use among Asian Americans a year or so ago, so I was pretty thrilled to see this recent research from eMarketer. You only get a taste, unless you want to cough up $695.

The Center for Digital Future has put out their 2008 report. One of the highlights is that, while just 15 percent of people use social networks (that number seems low to me, what do you think?), 94 percent of those folks believe the Internet has helped them to understand more about social issues and 75 percent are members of communities that have come together around social causes.

del.icio.us tags 01.27.08

Some people do things just to be nice (not me). techPresident wraps up the year in political video. Consumers won't dismiss your company as using "green" as a marketing ploy if you're honest with them about what you're doing right -- and wrong. And a couple of things just for fun: Sesame Street and whiny white people.

Word of Mouth

It clearly says something about me that I presumed most people wrote online reviews to stick it to a company that's done them wrong. According to Keller Fay, it's just the opposite. The majority of folks who write online reviews have something nice to say and and want to share their good news to benefit other customers. They're also motivated by the desire to reward a company who makes them happy or to help that company get better at what they do.

Politics

techPresident has posted the best political videos of 2007 -- both "voter-generated" and videos from the candidates.

I love the SwiftKids

"My mother baked me this cookie."

Citizen Journalism
Download An Introduction to Citizen Media from Rising Voices for a non-techie guide to the "fundamentals of citizen media." Comes via PBS's MediaShift Idea Lab.

CSR

Consumers are growing skeptical of companies who claim to be "green," dismissing such rumblings as being mere "marketing gimmicks." According to Linda Passante at The Halo Effect, some of the companies that are doing the best work are making the least noise. Her words of wisdom? (And they are, indeed, very wise.)

"If you firmly believe that your company is committed to the environment, to workers’ rights, to fighting heart disease, or to even just excellent customer service, then you can’t just talk about it in some altruistic tone using vague corporate language. You need to show how you will do it, do it, and then provide details as to what you learned and how you’ll work to improve. Because, in the end, we all know that no one or no corporation is perfect, but consumers will respond to an authentic and transparent commitment."

Cool Stuff

Get ready to regress into your childhood: Sesame Workshop has launched the Sesame Street video player with hundreds of videos, searchable by keyword or character. The site is in beta. Will the "real" launch include the capacity to embed content? Please?


White Whine has a new "white person complaint" every week (“I really wish the Wings DVD’s would get here . . . I’m almost done with Mad About You.”) I'm sure they could come up with more . . .

clearly you're not up on the news

There are endless year end lists floating around out there now, but my favorite (so far) has been the list pulled together by WireTap of "The Top 10 Youth Activism Victories in 2007."

As we get ready for the outcome of next week's caucus in Iowa, there are already doubters as to whether or not the youth vote will deliver. While I am confident they will, their political action throughout the year should be given the credit -- and the media attention -- it deserves.

The "youth" covered in the article range from 13 to 30 and are tackling issues ranging from climate change to education to post-Katrina health care to the war in Iraq. And like the title of the article says, they have been victorious on a number of fronts.

Here's to even greater victories in 2008.

more about the pink project

MTV's John Norris interviewed Brad Pitt about The Pink Project and posted the video today.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

del.icio.us tags 12.16.07

An old friend returns. Change.org tells you how to do it right. Greenpeace doesn't play games. Community is not one size fits all. Links abound for web designers. Japanese bloggers get covered in the Post. International Facebook users get covered by PBS, which also gives the 101 on hyper local blogs. And Steve Case gives away his money to determine how to get other people to do the same.

Digital Advocacy

Houtlust is back -- in the form of Osocio. All the best in advocacy campaigns from around the world. Inevitable jealousy for not having been the team that created the campaign is a side effect. Check out this great anti-drunk driving campaign. No subtle messages here, folks.

As the online community manager, Heather Mansfield at Change.org updates her Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations on a monthly basis to ensure that users are getting the most out of the site.

Greenpeace, fresh off their triumph against Apple, turns its attention toward gaming consoles with Clash of the Consoles. Not as rad as Green My Apple (swoon), but they're using a similar strategy: ask fans to take pride in the objects of their affection and get them on your side. In other words, don't alienate those that you need most.

The Case Foundation is supporting efforts to determine how technology can best be used for philanthropy.

Word of Mouth

Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer breaks down what "community" means, suggesting that size and the level of devotion of the community members are the defining factors. As a Maker's Mark Ambassador, I am happy to inform you that I agree with his assessment that it is indeed a cult.

Around the World (and in the Neighborhood) in Social Media

Bloggers in Japan do it more often, quicker, on the run, under the covers and they do it politely. Blaine Harden at The Washington Post lets us know that not everyone has Technorati ranking envy and is trying to strengthen their personal brand.

Mark Glaser at PBS' Media Shift looks at how Facebook users from around the world are using the social network -- and why -- and talks about, while the site may have universal appeal, there is no question that it is American through and through. (Poke.)

Mark also provides an extensive overview of hyper-local news sites: defining what they are, demonstrating different ways they gather their news and talking about the different business models that these sites are following. Plus, best of all, he provides lots and lots of examples. Thanks, Mark.

Web Design

I tagged this -- 455 Helpful Links for Web Designers -- as a "tool," which it is, for someone. I sent it to Samantha, but I just realized her blog -- Bad Ass Ideas -- is listed as a resource, so I'm guessing she knows about it already. Who's stalking who now?

del.icio.us tags 11.5.07

Mashable does another one of its spectacular toolbox posts: 20+ Charity & Fundraising Tools. I'm not familiar with most on the list, although I have been a fan of Donors Choose -- which enables you to support classroom projects -- for a couple of years now. Back in my nonprofit days, those open source fundraising tools would have been handy.

According to the Mobile Data Association, the British send 1 billion text message per week, a 25 percent increase from last year. 4,000 messages every second. W/E

del.icio.us tags 07.15.07

Politics 2.0

Earlier this month I posted about how Mike Connery over at MyDD was a little concerned about the fact that young progressives aren't engaging with political blogs. Apparently, folks weren't pleased and, alas, Connery came back last weekend to respond to the critics, attempting to answer the question, "WHY do youth groups need to engage the blogosphere?" as well as giving advice on how these same groups can make better use of blogs they already have.

Mother Jones has dedicated their latest issue to how technology is changing politics and Joe Trippi, Howard Dean, Jimmy Wales, and (sexy) Larry Lessig -- among others -- pipe in with their own perspective. Remember the Iowa "Dean Scream" video that helped to bring the campaign down? Well, if YouTube was around in 2004, says Dean, "We would have had something out the next day, saying, 'This is what really happened'."

The Kaiser Family Foundation has launched Health08.org, dedicated to the issue of health care in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Search

The Economist reports on the increasing popularity of vertical search engines -- among users as well as marketers. While two-thirds of Americans who use search engines to research health issues use general engines like Google and Yahoo!, vertical engines that are dedicated to health (like Healthline and Healia) are growing in popularity and drawing in the healthcare industry, which spent approximately $14 billion in online marketing in 2005 in the United States alone.

South Koreans count on Naver for their search results, with real humans -- and not algorithms -- churning out answers.

Transparency

Take it off. Take it all off. From back in March, Clive Thompson at Wired thinks it's worth opening up the curtains and letting the customer in.

del.icio.us tags 07.02.07

Kids These Days - Mike Connery at MyDD thinks it's a problem that young progressives -- who are using social networks to organize -- are cut off from the progressive blogosphere (damn, I hate that word). It's an interesting dilemma, particularly because Mike himself is a young progressive. If he wasn't, I'd be likely to dismiss him as being yet another older progressive waxing poetic about how they did things in the good ol' days.

Vote or Buy - Mike (above) pointed out that 50 million Millennials will be eligible to vote in the next major election. Along with growing political power, young people have major economic power as well. According to the Media Daily News, the teen market is going to grow to $208 billion by the year 2011.

Democrat by Default - And, because, well, they really don't get enough attention already, here's another bit of news about the kiddies. Andrew Sullivan wrote up his thoughts on the latest poll from MTV, The New York Times and CBS about the under 30 set yesterday in the The Sunday Times. Relative to the general population, they're more supportive of the war and less supportive of abortion rights and gun control. But here's the catch, despite all that, they're more likely to vote Democratic. While there may be other justifications for their party identification, Sullivan thinks it may have something to do with this: "The Republicans have never been as incoherent, corrupt or ridiculous in my lifetime. The preference for Democrats can be explained in part by default. Ditto the candidates."

MySpace Has Yet to Achieve World Dominance - Sure, you've heard of MySpace, but do you have a profile on studiverzeichnis? Nick Denton at ValleyWag shares the "world map of social networks."

Counting Made Easy - I like things that make my life easier. VideoCounter tracks video views on multiple sites all in one place. (Thanks to TechCrunch for the link.)

del.icio.us tags 06.04.07

Don't Mess with Tweedy. stereogum says that Sky Blue Sky isn't Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Fans (as Wilco fans are wont to do) act incredulous. And there's lots of video (four songs worth).

Mini-Tweedy. First it was Sponge Bob and now this. In other stereogum reported, Wilco-related news, Jeff Tweedy will be providing the voice of Lil' God on the new Comedy Central series Lil' Bush while Iggy Pop does Lil' Rummy (aka mini Donald Rumsfeld).

Summer in the City. If you're in DC this summer, the Fort Reno schedule has been posted, with shows beginning on June 18. All shows start at 7:15 and end by 9:30, which is great for old people like me who want to go to bed. Get there on time because, like a friend said the other night, when you go to a show, the opening act could always be the next Nation of Ulysses. All shows are free.

Geek Porn. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at D5. And, yes, Jobs is wearing a mock turtleneck but, no, they do not beat each other up and, no, they do not make out.




So Much More to Facebook. Malene Charlotte Larsen, a PhD student in Denmark, lists the 25 ways to look at social networks.

Questioning Your Loyalty. Greg Verdino questions using RSS feed subscriptions as a measurement of loyalty because of how he uses subscriptions -- which is (generally) how I use them.

Short Attention Span. threebillon agrees to describe 1.83 billion people (young people in Asia) in a (nearly) two minute video for MTV. (Did you know that people in China spend 10 times more online than people in the west?)

One Handed Activism. Residents of Xiamen China prevent the construction of a chemical plant in their community via mobile protest -- one million text messages. Carpal tunnel syndrome is better than cancer.

del.icio.us tags 05.22.07

Everyone Loves MySpace. Facebook is growing faster these days, but MySpace still rules the roost, with nearly 80 percent of visits to social networks being to MySpace. It's also responsible for 25 percent of the traffic heading to other social networks (via Mashable).

Not YourSpace. Now MySpace has landed in China, bringing with it concern that it will provide an opportunity for censorship and human rights abuses. The admin functions on the site prevent the discussion of controversial topics and discussion forums on religion and politics -- popular in the U.S. -- do not exist (via Taipei Times).

I'm Engaged. David Armano at Logic + Emotion has yet another fabulous infographic, this one illustrating three types of Internet users: the Navigator, the Explorer and the Engaged Participant. Folks, I'm an Engaged Participant. And you?

When Your Care Enough. Someecards are for people with an inappropriate sense of humor. Like me. And Steve.

He's Not Nutty. FixingthePlanet is Ed Begley Jr.'s new sustainable living web site launched recently. Begley has a great deal of credibility in this space, as he's been walking the talk for a long time now. This isn't just someone trying to make a buck off of a new trend. In fact, last Sunday's New York Times Magazine had a great profile of Begley in which he acknowledges that 15 years ago, people thought he was "nutty."

Be Green/Earn Green. Green Mountain Energy, "the nation's leading provider of cleaner energy and carbon offset solutions," has launched Be Green Now to provide consumers with the opportunity to offset their "carbon footprint." Sure, the company's making a profit off of people's growing interest in sustainable living, but they've create an engaging site and they offer up solutions that don't necessarily include signing up as one of their customers.

Guy in a Cage. The Harvard Business Review thinks companies that are using "adversarial value-extracting strategies" to keep their customers need to rethink that plan. What's an adversarial value-extracting strategy? It's the equivalent of thinking that the guy you have in a cage next to your bed is sticking around because he loves you. Okay, that was a weird metaphor, but hopefully you get what I mean. Plus, you can check out what The Consumerist had to say about it, because that's where I found it.

del.icio.us tags 04.30.07

Leave Ben Alone - Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer Blog does not want you to "pitch" him. At least not like you have been. My favorite? "Feel free to add the following hilarious videos to your blog. I can imagine that your readers might get a kick out of them. And, of course, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to be in touch."

It Won't Be Televised - The Revolution has started and, according to Mashable, it may just overthrow the establishment (aka WebMD). Okay, maybe I exaggerated that bit about overthrowing WebMD, but work with me. I'm a little unsure about uploading my medical records to the site, however. Ever since getting turned down by Kaiser Permanente for self-employed insurance because of lower back pain (which, I believe, 75 percent of the population has), I'm not too keen on letting the world know about what ails me.

Wacky Librarians - The Library of Congress has launched a blog and poses a question that I have yet to hear anywhere else (which is due, in part, to the fact that no one but the Library of Congress would mull this one over), should blogs be assigned an ISSN number?

Speak Out HERE, Not THERE - Progressive U is encouraging young people to speak their mind. But I am not so sure why they chose to use disdain toward MySpace and Facebook as a marketing tool.

the promised land

"If something isn't done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed."

- I See the Promised Land, MLK Jr., April 3, 1968 Memphis TN