Love Will Save the Day

David Usher’s “Love Will Save The Day” remains one my fave songs. I believe that “Love WILL Save the Day” but of course it isn’t enough totally on its own. Love can motivate people to act and THAT is what will save the day.

The question is not whether to do something … but what to do. So many choices.

You may not know this but it often takes nearly one dollar to raise one dollar for charity. The overhead is staggering.

I think in these times, we need to think about contributing to initiatives that multiply everything we do by 10? Huh? What does that mean? It means that every dollar that gets donated turns effectively turns into 10. Not literally but in terms of a final impact. Education, water, connectivity, motivating groups of volunteers, raising money for pennies for each dollar raised …

Since time and funds are limited though, I want to maximize the effort by focusing time and money where my effort will get multiplied many times over. I also don’t want to wait until I’m rich … that’s kinda like waiting till you’re ready to have kids. You’ll never feel ready … a strong desire and a bit of common sense is enough (the kids part takes a bit more of course .

So I need your help. I would really like to know what organizations you have chosen to work with to lend some help where you think your efforts are multiplied.

Here are some of the organizations I’ve been experimenting with or that I’m about to explore that I believe may have real value:

Kiva.com
Akoha.com
Givemeaning.com
TakingITglobal (www.tigweb.org)
www.freethechildren.com
Social Media for Social Change (http://www.sm4sc.com/ next event April 3 in NYC)
www.socialvibe.com
Plan Canada (plancanada.ca … trying to make up my mind about this one)

I also like guys like Adam Sherlip (http://hockeyvolunteer.blogspot.com/) that are going to remote areas around the world to teach kids the values of hockey (teamwork …), teaching them English and helping with major chores in the village (ex: checking power system such as solar panels).

Again, I’m not just looking for organizations that are doing good things … I’m looking for a multiplying effect. I would really like to know what you think about some of the organizations on my list. Are some of these not worthy? Note that I’ve left a few out intentionally for you to fill in …. so please share your thoughts.

Cheers,

Allan

zoogeez will helps kids raise $1B dollars

This post is a follow up to my initial submission to slideshare embedded below . This presentation has garnered nearly 7000 views and has been downloaded over 500 times. Not insane by web standards but at least it seems that enough people get it which tells me I’m not totally nuts. If you haven’t seen it, please check it out otherwise what I’m about to describe below won’t make sense.

The premise is simple: “people are more likely to care about people they know.”

Welcome to ZOOGEEZ. My kids came up with the name and the logo.This sets an important precedent: this place is for kids and what we as adults think doesn’t matter (within reason).

So what is Zoogeez? Just a concept for now. But in 2009, it will be:

-an online playground for kids to safely play, create, watch with the mission being kids from around the world working together and getting to know each other

-focus is on fun first and foremost (kids won’t bother otherwise)

What can you do in Zoogeez?

-Play Games: all games are based on team work. imagine playing Tetris where one person is moving the piece side by side and the other is flipping it. Catch is that you can only play with people in other countries

-Create ART: art is created in teams: some post ideas, others draw and yet others colour. every piece is posted only once each step is completed. it should be pretty interesting to see what comes up

-Write Story Books: each chapter is written by a different child, and pictures are created by yet other children. this will be awesome

-Post and watch Movies/Videos

-Post and look at pictures

-Raise money

Let’s stay on the “raise money” piece for a second. I haven’t totally figured this part out yet, but I have an aggressive goal: raise $1B by 2012. Key is to make it very easy for kids to launch their own fund raising campaigns and I’m convinced they’ll do it. I know my kids will. Crazy? That’s 20M kids raising $50 each. That is doable. Bring in corporations to match funds and this is more than achievable.

I know there are lots of things to consider … security, language, scale, kids without computers … but for the time being, suspend your disbelief and decide if this is worth it. I have some innovative ideas to get around most of these problems anyway but can’t do it alone. The key is to pull together and start as this is not actually about the money, it is about fostering a new order that is unifying and supportive.

What do you think? What am I missing or including that is not necessary?

social vibe … very cool

Hey Everyone,

I just discovered socialvibe through a tweet from @robingood. It looks like a simple and smart way to support causes. It is a full social network but also provides you with widgets you can drop in various social networks you belong to. You pick your cause and a sponsor. I’m going to try it out and see how it goes. Give it a try and let me know what you think about this.

Some links with more info:

http://mashable.com/2008/09/26/socialvibe/

http://thevibe.socialvibe.com/

Cheers,

Allan

media that can change the world

One of the key tenets behind my quest to change the world is this: help people connect to each other and in so doing create a web of instant awareness … almost like a nerve that runs across the entire world. When even a tiny pin touches the nerve anywhere in the world, the collective human concience can feel it immediately. My quest is focused on ingraining that mentality as kids grow up and hopefully make this second nature to a new generation. Is it conceivable that such an indirect quest could change the world? I don’t know … at least it can change the world for some people and each of those individuals can virally impact others which could lead to a tipping point.

There are many other indirect methods that are focused simply on awareness using media. One was Pangea Day last may (http://www.pangeaday.org/ ). It focused on film as a method to help people realize we are all the same and hopefully drive us towards empathy. That event changed me and caused me to rethink my entrepreneurial mission. Another was a initiative that involved Peter Gabriel and was focused on getting cameras into the hands of people in areas where major atrocities were taking place so that the reality of the situation could be shared with the world (see video below).

This leads me to the last major initiative focused on photography. James Nachtwey, a photographer, made a TED wish during his presentation in 2007. He wanted assistance to help him use photography in order to create awareness on a global scale . This culminated in a worldwide event taking place across the world that includes showing a series of photographs on large screens in major cities across the world (including Toronto). The website will be launched on October 3rd and we’ll know more. In the meantime, check out the videos below on James Nachtwey. Please let me know what you think can change the world and point me and readers of this blog to major initiatives under way.

children can teach each other and themselves

In case you are wondering what is going on with this initiative, I’m happy to say that it is alive and well. I’ve been receiving ideas and advice from many of you and have been doing much thinking. I’m working on a manifesto that I’ll be sharing with you very soon.

One area of particular interest and fascination for me is education but more specifically how kids learn. My young kids have shown me things on the computer or my mobile phone that I didn’t know existed. How can this possibly be? This summer they learned Flash and created a short cartoon in less 16 hours including instruction and creation. They also learned claymation and created a short movie … again in less than 16 hours. We (at least I) clearly underestimate what children can do and how much top down guidance they need.

Even more interesting and extremely relevant to what I aim to build is the way in which kids can work together to learn and teach each other. Check out this fascinating video and think about the implications. I would love to hear what you think. (note that the video takes a bit of time to get going but the lessons are worthwhile).

Changing the world presentation

Hello Everyone,

This is my first official post on the “Connect The World” blog. I’ve been blogging for a while on personal and startup topics at http://isfanstartup.blogspot.com and am trying out WordPress for the first time.

I’ll be using this blog to meet you and share ideas about a mission that I have: build on online community for youngs kids all over the world so they can learn, play and get to know each other so they can make the world a better place.

The presentation below tells you a bit about myself and my goals. I have entered it in SlideShare’s “worlds best presentation” competition. Please register at slideshare to vote and help get the word out. The contest ends July 31, 2008 (really really soon) so please don’t wait.

Don’t forget to vote!!!!

Change the world

view presentation (tags: change the world poverty)

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