SOMEWHAT FRANK

Google Aims To Save The Planet: Surprised?

Google announced today that they will be looking to get into trying to save the planet by announcing a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. I happy to see Google is taking such a stance and it makes me wonder what will Google do next. In the last week alone Google has announced they are making broadband switches, going to be offering a TV-related product soon, releasing a mobile phone platform soon and a  Google Magazine was even spotted in print in China among other products and endeavors. It is a pretty amazing to think that a single text box search engine could come to create such a diverse list of products.

InviteForGood Links Events To Charity

InviteForGood is a social event planner that links social events to charitable organizations so that guests can donate while responding to an invitation.  InviteForGood is familiar to those of us who have ever worked with online gift-registries for weddings, except that, here, the registry allows guests to donate to selected charities instead of purchasing gifts.  This provides users with the ability to share the charities they are enthusiastic about with their friends.  The hope is that, after having exposed others to charities users care about, people will be more likely to donate in the future and begin a life of charitable giving. 

The website keeps users informed of when and who has pledged donations to the selected charities and provides users with the ability to quickly send out "thank you" letters.

Although the website includes certain preloaded charities, such as Doctors without Borders, the Red Cross, and the Books for Kids Foundation, users can also add their own charities that are not preloaded.  There is no fee for using the website and the website does not take any part of the donation for its own operating costs; it appears that InviteForGood is a purely charitable.

Bottom-line: InviteForGood could be a great way to share your enthusiasm for particular issues while encouraging friends to participate.

Go Green Web 2.0 Style

As scientists recently drafted a report that describes a dire outlook for planet Earth, the effects of global warming on the planet have literally been a hot topic (no pun intended) and even made a recent stop at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. However, there are a number of environmental or "green" web sites focused on improving the situation. This article will showcase some of these movements that I have encountered recently.

18Seconds.org - Devoted to informing the world about the energy savings associated with switching from a normal light bulb to a compact fluorescent lamp. The campaign is based on the idea that is only takes 18 seconds to change a regular light bulb to an energy saving compact fluorescent light bulb.

EcoGeek - A site devoted to monitoring and exploring the current explosion in technology designed to mitigate our impact on the environment.

Greener - A search engine that could come in handy if you are looking for green products, services, organizations and information. Currently the green search engine boasts that it is search over 9 million sites and 50 million links.

greeninternet.org - As you surf the web, energy providers supplying power to your computer are burning fossil fuels and emitting harmful carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. By pairing web surfers with sponsors, greeninternet.org looks to offset the environmental effects of surfing the web.

Gigoit - With the tagline of "Choose to Reuse" Gigoit offers anyone a place to get rid of unwanted items without having to resort to filling up a landfill. If craigslist doesn't work I would give Gigoit a try.

Hugg - Taking some inspiration for the popular web 2.0 social news site, Digg , Hugg offers users the ability to recommend green news to be rated by the rest of the Hugg community.

TerraPass - Helps counter the carbon dioxide emissions created by your lifestyle… and you don’t even have to leave your computer!  Just plug in your car’s information, your flight plans, your energy bill, etc. and TerraPass crunches your carbon dioxide output.  No it’s not just to make you feel guilty; this site also enables you to donate an amount to alternative energy sources to offset your damage.

TreeHugger - There are number of green blogs but if I had to pick on to stay tuned to for the latest in environmental or "green" news, tips and updates it would be TreeHuggers. TreeHugger recently partnered with Daylife to create The TreeHugger GRNDX which is the first "green index". It works like the stock market index, except that instead of tracking stocks, it tracks mentions of certain key green phrases in the media as a way to gauge how much mind-share certain concepts have week over week. TreeHugger offers number of other resources some of which include a set of how to go green guides which range from how to green your car to how to green you sex life.

Are you doing anything online to help the environmental movement and "Go Green?" I'm sure I left a few organizations or green products, out so please add others you know of in the comments section.

Good: For People That Give A Damn

Good is a media company aimed at creating a platform for the ideas, people, and businesses that are driving change in the world. Good, an L.A.-based company founded by Ben Goldhirsh, offers up a print magazine, feature and documentary films, original multimedia content and local events.

The print publication is a work of art as the photos and compelling articles are extremely well done making is difficult to think there is only a month worth of prep time between issues. Good Magazine makes if feel good to become a subscriber as 100% of your subscription cost goes to help the participating charity of your choice. With a goal set of 50,000 subscribers and $1 million dollars given away by mid 2007, Good is about a quarter of the way to its goal.

On the web, Good covers a number of my favorite topics and makes it easy to filter to specific categories like Technology,  Art & Design, Business & Money and Media. Good employs an "It's Good" Digg-like rating system on each article in addition to offering RSS feeds by topic. In addition, Good has created close to a dozen video shorts on a number of different topics. The first video in the SplashCast below is titled, Paying for Your Attention points out how much advertisers are paying for your attention.

Good will be teaming up with Creative Commons, a Good supported organization, to host a party at South By Southwest Interactive on March 12, 2007. If you are headed to Austin for the event I recommend you check it out - judging by its NYC launch party I am sure it will be a GOOD time.

18Seconds.org Spotlights Energy Savings

18Seconds.org is campaign Yahoo recently launched in conjunction with Lawrence Bender, Oscar-winning producer of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth,"  devoted to informing the world about the energy savings associated with switching from a normal light bulb to a compact fluorescent lamp. The campaign is based on the idea that is only takes 18 seconds to change a regular light bulb to an energy saving compact fluorescent light bulb. Lawrence Bender authored a guest post on the Yahoo! corporate blog which stated:

"If every American swapped just one bulb, it would save more than $8 billion in energy costs, prevent the burning of 30 billion pounds of coal, and keep the equivalent of two million cars worth of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere."

Those are some pretty eye opening numbers. At the same time it is inspiring to hear that everyone can pitch in to help save energy and ultimately the planet. The 18Seconds.org web site offers a mashup which places the current compact florescent lamp purchase numbers by geographic location on a Yahoo map. Currently, Arkansas is the leading energy saving state and Bellingham, Washington is the leading energy saving city in the United States. For additional information about 18Seconds.org, check out the video below.

GoodSearch The Web And Help Find A Cure For Cystic Fibrosis

What if the charity of your choice could earned a penny every time you searched the Internet?

Well, that is exactly what is happening today (November 28, 2006) as Somewhat Frank has selected to support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as the charity of the day on GoodSearch. The GoodSearch charity of the day is displayed on the left side of the site and all of search revenue for the day is donated to the displayed charity. GoodSearch was highlighted recently on Somewhat Frank in an article titled Philanthropy Through Technology. 

Thanks to J.J. Ramberg of GoodSearch we were given the opportunity to select the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as the charity of the day.  Please help to support the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis, the inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive systems of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States, by searching the web with GoodSearch today.

GlobalRichList.com: How Rich Are You?

You want a raise, right? You think:

“Just [fill in the blank] dollars more and I could finally get that [fill in the blank]."

Yeah, me too…  But sometimes we all just need a little perspective – a reality check to reminds us of how fortunate we are in comparison to others.

GlobalRichList.com ranks your wealth on the global scale. By simply entering your annual income you can learn where you stand in comparison to the rest of humanity.  It’s pretty humbling.  For example, if you make $75,000 a year, GlobalRichList.com categorizes you as the 49,322,169th richest person in the world, representing the top .82 percent in income.

Skeptical? Check out the How do we calculate it? section of the site, where these guys cover their bases.  But although accuracy in this endeavor is important, the goal of the site (as stated in the “Why we do it” section) amounts to more than just FYI: you’re rich. They also want people to:

“give some of their extra money to a worthwhile charity.”

And they show you ways to do just that.  The remainder of the site is dedicated to statistics and ideas showing just how far some extra cash can go.  Just to clarify, this is not a web 2.0 application. 

Many thanks to Poke, the London-based company behind the site, for reminding us all to be grateful for and generous with what we have. Hey Mike Arrington, run your numbers in GlobalRichList.com and let us know where you rank!

Philanthropy Through Technology

Let me guess: you’re sitting at your computer, skimming through this article looking to see if anything applies to you, so you can get back to that list of ALL those things that you simply MUST accomplish.  I’ll save you some time: it DOES apply to you, so slow down and ingest…

As many of us experience every day, a reoccurring theme in blogs – in any social commentary, really – is the increasing pace of our world.  Thanks to pay-by-touch features, e-ticketing and Crackberries (to name only a few), our insatiable quench for time is placated by technology.  Gadgets, gizmos and thingamabobs (my non-techie lingo for widgets, applications and start-ups) create time for your “to dos”, but what about the things that aren’t on that list that we still want to accomplish?

As a non-profit enthusiast, I am thrilled that this “technology creates time” phenomenon now extends extensively into philanthropy.  No matter whether you’re a proponent of a particular cause or you just want to help out, technology has, yet again, stepped up and delivered TIME for you to fit it in.

For enviro-minded people, TerraPass helps counter the carbon dioxide emissions created by your lifestyle… and you don’t even have to leave your computer!  Just plug in your car’s information, your flight plans, your energy bill, etc. and TerraPass crunches your carbon dioxide output.  No it’s not just to make you feel guilty; this site also enables you to donate an amount to alternative energy sources to offset your damage.

Scared that putting your foot in the door of a charity will result in a non-stop barrage of calls, letters and requests?  Fear not: One Brick is a commitment-free nonprofit volunteer organization pointing you quickly to what needs to get done and who needs your help.  Sign up on your terms to bypass the tedium of long-term planning, meetings or orientations.

Sometimes you don’t have to do anything but be consumer to help. Apple just announced the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition.  More than just a sassy color – Apple donates $10 of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.  Inspired by U2’s Bono and other AIDS advocates, Apple’s offer exemplifies many retail campaigns to bring simple charity support to the masses. For more on the (RED) campaign check out this recent article by Read/Write Web.

GoodSearch, a product that has been highlighted previously on Somewhat Frank, allows you to designate a donation to the organization of your choice each time you perform an online web search.

Kiva is a really interesting non-profit that allows you to loan money to entrepreneurs in under privileged parts of the world. This process is called micro-finance. Eric Olson highlights his first micro-finance payment to Kiva in detail here.

Thanks to philanthropic techies, we can all now find the time to help out.  I'm sure I left a few organizations out so please add others you know of in the comments section!

This article was a special guest contribution to Somewhat Frank by the extremely talented writer, Kyle Bradbury. Thank you Kyle.