DigiActive.com

I came across a very interesting site today, http://www.digiactive.org. Thanks @melaniemcbride on twitter for the link. In short, the site promotes activism using technology. Regardless of where you might stand on the issues reviewed on the site, it is an excellent example of the potential of digital media to impact change. Students of digital media will find the campaigns reviewed and techniques recommended of particular interest. The site includes reviews of activism campaigns, analysis of their successes and pitfalls, as well as guides like “The DigiActive Guide to twitter for Activism”. Structurally the site contains pages on action alerts, campaigns, DigiActive new, events, guides and resources, opportunities, organizations, R&D, skepticism, tactics, theory and tools. It also reports on initiatives across much of the globe: the Americas, Asia, Europe, Mid-East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Below, please find their mission, information on how they got started and a statement of purpose. An excellent site for those who are interested in promoting global activism on a variety of topics as well as students of digital media capacity.

DigiActive.org

Mission Statement

DigiActive is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to helping grassroots activists around the world use the Internet and mobile phones to increase their impact. Our goal is a world of activists made more powerful and more effective through the use of digital technology.

How We Got Started

We created DigiActive because we believe that every person in the world has political power and that digital tools are a great way to express this un-tapped power. Tools like the Internet and mobile phones let us communicate with other people who share our concerns, to disseminate a message of change, to organize and inform ourselves, to lobby the government, to take part in activism.

Together, we call these activities digital activism: the methods by which citizens use digital tools to effect social and political change. We founded DigiActive because we want to spread digital activism around the world.

Our Purpose

Despite the power of these tools, few activists know how to use them. The purpose of DigiActive is to promote and explain the digital tools of social change so activists can use them effectively. The activities of DigActive include, but are not limited to:

Explaining how to use various digital tools for activism
Reviewing digital activism guides and resources created by other organizations
Sharing stories of successful digital activism campaigns around the world
Hosting virtual events where activists can learn from expert digital activism practitioners
Alerting activists to digital actions taking place around the world.
Fostering community among digital activists from around the world

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Support expanded Peace Corps

Today I became aware of an initiative that I strongly support, the expansion of the Peace Corps. In February, 2009 Congressman Sam Farr (D) California introduced house bill HR 1066 to progressively increase funding for the Peace Corps over the next three years.

Officially established on March 1, 1961, the Peace Corp has placed over 195,000 Americans in over 139 countries. Peace Corps Volunteers work in: education, youth outreach, and community development; business development; agriculture and environment; health and HIV/AIDS; and information technology. Volunteers might find themselves counseling teenagers in Belize, helping Armenians launch computer center, promoting HIV/AIDS awareness in Malawi, or teaching high school chemistry in Ghana.

According to their website, http://www.peacecorps.gov the Peace Corps has three goals:

Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

In 2009, the Peace Corps is expected to place only 3500 volunteers in the field, this in spite of the fact that more nations and more Americans want to be involved in their programs. Check out http://www.morepeacecorps.org/ for more information on writing to your Congressional Representative to request support for HR 1066. Below is the letter I sent to mine.

It seems to me that at this moment in history it is critical that U.S. citizens have the opportunity to establish connections with other citizens of the world. The value of international contact and understanding cannot be underestimated. I have been fortunate. I was a Fulbright Scholar in Russia in 1996-1997 and I have had the opportunity to travel around the globe teaching judges. The impact these experiences have had on me and my children and the friendships we have made throughout the world can only enhance the standing of the U.S. abroad. When real people interact with real people the possibilities for international understanding and collaboration are enhanced and at this moment in time, I can think of few things more valuable.

April 16, 2009

Dear Representative Tiahrt,

I am writing to you from Andover, KS to request that you co-sponsor HR 1066, the Peace Corps Expansion Act 2009. This bill, which authorizes $450 million, $600 million, and $750 million to Peace Corps in 2010, 2011, and 2012, would allow the Peace Corps to grow and innovate at a time when the US needs soft power initiatives like Peace Corps to enhance US interests abroad.

Current funding does not approach either international need or participant interest levels. In 2009, we will send fewer than 3,500 volunteers to the Peace Corps – less than half the number in 1966. Over twenty nations without Peace Corps missions including Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sierra Leone have requested new programs.

Over 13,000 people applied to become volunteers in 2008, a 16% increase over 2007. The number of minority applicants and applicants over the age of 50 also rose by double digits in the last year. The desire for Americans to serve internationally is matched by a long list of countries that want volunteers. This is an appropriate time to grow and revitalize the Peace Corps.

I hope you share my view that the Peace Corps can be a vital component of our public diplomacy toolbox. Citizen diplomacy through programs like the Peace Corp and Fulbright initiatives have put human faces on the values and beliefs that are at the core of US culture.

Since 1961, nearly 200,000 Peace Corps volunteers have provided meaningful, small-scale development assistance, reversing stereotypes about Americans and returning stateside to enrich communities domestically with new language and other skills. Peace Corps continues to be one of America’s finest expressions of friendship and solidarity across the globe.

I appreciate and welcome your support of this important and timely bill. Please contact Marc Hanson in Congressman Sam Farr’s office at 5-2861 or marc.hanson@mail.house.gov to sign on.

Sincerely,

___________________________________

Addendum: I recently received a letter from Representative Tiahrt in response to my letter explaining the status of the bill in question and thanking me for my letter. I appreciate the acknowledgement and the information.

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Wichita teen needs your help!

I became aware of Kyle Hicks several months ago. I have still not had the pleasure to meet him. This Wichita teen has a rare inherited disease of the fibrils that hold the layers of skin together called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). Kyle’s condition results in blisters over much of his body. Each day, Kyle must clean, cover with fresh Vaseline, gauze and bandage the blistered areas of his body, usually from his shoulders to his toes. It takes over two hours to soak off old bandages and put on new ones to prevent infections.

For much of his life, there has been no treatment EB. However recently, Dr. John Wagner and his team at the University of Minnesota Fairview Clinic have pioneered treatment to develop the anchoring fibrils missing in Kyle’s skin. The treatment requires a bone marrow transplant. Kyle was accepted into Dr. Wagner’s program in April 2008 and a perfect bone marrow donor match was found early in the summer of 2008. To get this surgery, Kyle needs to raise $500,000 dollars, of which over $230,000 have already been raised.

To learn more about Kyle who writes poetry and keeps a weekly blog on his website, his condition, and to donate to his transplant fund, please visit his website at http://www.cotaforkyleh.com/

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Making a difference one mouse click at a time!

Greater Good Network – You click; site sponsors contribute to worthwhile causes

I appreciate the opportunity to make a difference by doing something simple and easy. The GreaterGood Network, www.GreaterGood.com, couldn’t be simpler or easier. According to their website, “100% of the funds generated through the GreaterGood Network pass through GreaterGood.org to partner charities”. The network offers a number of free opportunities to make a difference as well as the chance to purchase a variety of reasonably priced free-trade and women-made items from a number of countries. Items include bath and body products, jewelry, organic clothing and accessories. I found some awesome shoes, watches, head scarves, wind chimes.

To make a free contribution, all I have to do is click a button (or multiple buttons) on their website. You click; sponsors donate. I signed up for daily email reminders. I click every morning to: stop hunger, fight breast cancer by providing mammograms for women, provide basic health care to children, encourage literacy by providing books to children, protect the rainforest and provide food and care for rescue animals. Pick what interests you.

If you’d like to learn about specific projects, visit:

The hunger site: http://www.thehungersite.com

The breast cancer prevention: http://thebreastcancersite.com

The child health site: http://thechildhealthsite.com

The literacy promotion site: http://theliteracysite.com

The rainforest site: http://therainforestsite.com

The animal rescue support site: http://theanimalrescuesite.com

Click for free or buy interesting items. The GreaterGood Network is a win-win.

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Pay it Backward Day is April 4

April 4 is Pay it Backward Day. In Toronto, the plan is to start a coffee line at Second Cup where you buy a “cup a Joe” for the person behind you. It’s a fundraiser for the SickKids Foundation. Established in 1972, the SickKids Foundation is a non-governmental granting agency that promotes child health in Canada. Since its inception, SickKids have awarded over $500 million to The Hospital for Sick Children and over $60 million (an average of $4 million annually) to researchers across Canada.

Second Cup will donate 50% of every “pay back” cup of coffee to the foundation. Yea, yea, yea, you might argue, to paraphrase one blogger, that this is just another opportunity for a bunch of yuppie, expensive coffee lovers to spend a lot of money on a cup of coffee and feel good about themselves without making much positive impact.

Ok, I understand your point, but I have two responses: 1) every little bit helps – if 500 people show up (and that would beat last year’s world record, a secondary goal) and buy a cup of coffee for an average of $5, that’s $2500 with $1250 going to SickKids, not counting on the spot donors and remote donors via upstream video. It’s not a fortune, but it is valuable support for a worthwhile foundation. 2) Maybe a fortune isn’t raised, but for the people who take part, it’s also a community building moment. People support strangers who together support a good cause, thereby making everyone involved feel part of something good, encouraging them to feel good about themselves and helping someone else feel good, because you bought them coffee. And there’s live music to entertain those standing in line and onlookers. It’s kind of a party really. The world gets a little smaller. The community gets a little stronger. Everyone has a positive experience.

With all the day-to-day sniping and snarking we encounter, it just makes sense to do something positive, consciously, and it’s OK to feel good about that. Sure, Pay it Backward Day won’t solve all the problems the SickKid Foundation addresses, but, it will help a lot of people connect with one another for a good cause, create positive energy, and allow people to be more mindful, if just for the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, that they are part of something bigger, a community, where they might not know everyone, but where they can engage in common action to make their lives and those of others better. And they get to drink coffee while listening to music in the bargain. Not a bad deal from where I’m sitting.

Pay it Backward Day in Toronto is a great model. I hope it picks up in other communities as well! Some folks are talking about green events while others recount over 140 Starbuck’s customers who “paid it backward” in 2006. The possibilities are endless.

By the way, if you want to know more about the SickKids Foundation, here’s their web address: http://www.sickkidsfoundation.com or on twitter @sickkids. You can also find Pay it Backward Day on twitter using the hashtag #pibTO or at: http://www.dailychallenge.org/events/payitbackward.

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I challenge you to take The Daily Challenge

I’ve been on a mission lately to bring more conscious positivity into my day-to-day life. Several weeks ago I learned through a tweet from @MelanieMcBride about The Daily Challenge. Their mission as a self defined “tool for social change” is “to build the largest network of `Do Gooders’ in the World” and challenge them to do one good deed daily. Through uniting individuals, organizations and companies interested in taking social responsibility, we believe we have the power to create immediate, massive and sustainable global transformation. Together we can be the change we seek”.

Lofty goal! I liked it. Yes, I think it’s time to claim my status as an aspiring “do-gooder”! I’ve embraced the challenge!

Each morning between 5:00 and 5:15 a.m. a challenge message is sent to my email address (NO, I NEVER read it at 5:00, doing good can wait until at least 7:00 a.m.). It begins with a friendly reminder:

Hi Deborah, this is a friendly reminder of your Daily Challenge for March 31, 2009:

Then the link to the challenge of the day:

View this challenge:

http://www.dailychallenge.org/challenges/view.php?id=918

The challenge link takes me to the Daily Challenge website that looks very similar to other social media tools. You can even have friend lists that allow you to connect with other “do-gooders” (I haven’t chosen to do this). The challenge of the day is highlighted with a take action button. There is an indication of how many people have taken action on this challenge, their avatars shown in the right hand column (I don’t have an avatar either). There are options to share with friends, submit a new challenge as well as a list of the latest challenges submitted, if you prefer not to take the challenge of the day.

My favorite part is a tab in the legend at the top that allows me to review the actions I’ve taken, kind of a periodic review of the positive. Ok, I cheat. I wonder if cheating is antithetical to being a “do-gooder”. I digress. What I mean is I don’t always do the challenge that day. I allow myself to reflect on what I’ve done over the last 3 days (3 is arbitrary – it’s just the upper limit of my short term memory) and if I can think of a specific action that directly relates to a challenge, I click the take action button. If I can’t find anything in the recent past, and I plan to undertake the challenge, I return later and click the take action button.

So far the challenges seem to center around 3 themes:

Do good to/for yourself, for example:

Don’t judge yourself for a whole day !

Take 30 minutes, go outside, get some sun, say hi to the coming spring and feel the energy within you!

Do something nice for someone else:

Find 3 people that are deserving of appreciation and thank them.

Reach out and touch someone! Contact an old, or not-so-old friend, that you haven’t connected with in a while. You MAY just learn something!

Do something good for the world:

Pls pledge to turn off your lights for 60 minutes on Earth Hour Day Mar 28 from 8:30-9:30PM ET and then do it! http://www.earthhour.org/home

Especially when the garbage can looks tempting, walk the extra few steps to the recycling bin. It’s worth it.

So, if it sounds appealing to you to reflect on the positive you do, and we all do positive daily, join me at the Daily Challenge: http://www.dailychallenge.org. We can be the change we seek!