Take That Change Out of Your Pocket With These Sites
Image by Gilberto Viciedo
The new anthem of "Change" has been thrown around across all forms of media today. You hear it on TV, listen to it on the radio, find it on your neighbor's shirt, and yes, sometimes see it swimming in your morning Alpha-bits. What can you do to, well, turn that change in your pocket into effective "Change?"
Lucky, my Intro to Online Communities class asked us to browse through a few social-change focused sites on the 'Net. These sites prove that out of many media types, the Web is perhaps the most conducive to large-scale, rapid, and effective change. Join me as I break down the capabilities of each site to put some social oomph behind your paper presidents or recess break/nap time.
Be "Good"
The e-zine GOOD utlizes a multi-faceted approach to basically make everything (and that means everything) "be better." GOOD is self-described as a work-in-progress by individuals, organizations, non-profits, and the activist down the street. It's a content-driven site that aims to draw you in with a discourse about curse words on Battlestar Galatica, and then somehow commits you to a stint with Obama's newly formed USAservice.org.
Free Rice! Did you say free?!
Well not for you, but definately free for those who absolutely need it. FreeRice is the horribly addictive sister site of Poverty.com. Along with their partners at Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program, Free Rice entraps you with a simple idea -- get a SAT-level vocabulary question right, you accumuate 10 grains of rice to be donated to a starving people.
The sneaky folk at FreeRice have two goals: providing rice for free to help end world hunger, and covertly (or even overtly) provide free education (darn I was being learned good!) The integration of partners and sponsors for the program was masterfully executed -- there's no obnoxious ads, no pop up reminding you to give, and surpringly not one obvious way on the site to donate money. You're basically forced to flex your mental muscle (or open up your thesaurus widget) in order to be part of this innovative method of social change. And really, their warning isn't kidding:
"WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance"
"What's Your Cause?"
Causecast is the proverbial mother of all cause-based communties. It incorporates the A-list of causes (a well-deserved A-list indeed), and packs in constantly updated content, a robust community component, and a (still-developing) reward system to not only get people informed about causes, but also in direct contact with organizations and fellow members who believe in similar goals.
One feature I particularly like is the ability to "support" organizations and leaders. This allows almost a pseudo-ownership between the individual and the causes he or she would like to be involved in. This also gives the organizations an instant mailing list of hopeful people. Which is something we're trying to do for Bakitwhy.com with Filipino American organizations. /digression
Find a place online to put that change other than the bowl by your sock drawer? Got suggestions on where on the Web to stuff that extra quarter (or free hour)? Leave a comment!
