This simple video explains the path for the money for the Stand Up To Cancer initiative.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHqAU-j7NaI[/youtube]
This simple video explains the path for the money for the Stand Up To Cancer initiative.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHqAU-j7NaI[/youtube]
You may have already seen Go Big Always – 10 Fantastic ways to f*ck it up as an example of communications practices to avoid. Or maybe you missed it. Read this.
Were you paying attention when Chris Brogan gave 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media?
Do you promote your blog to offline audiences? Maybe you should?
More as I dig out from a week away.
This year’s theme for One Web Day, September 22nd, is Online Participation in Democracy. The Web is an incredibly valuable resource. Like water, many of us think of Internet as a tap that we turn on (or that is always on) and that we can draw from and contribute to whenever we want. But in many places in the world, this tap has a lock and key on it. This gives us even more reasons to appreciate the Web on One Web Day, and to think about the things that are made possible because the web is here, enabling us to have discussions.
Citizens can’t participate online unless they have access to a net that is free of censorship and open for sharing and debating ideas. Also, they must have the skills and literacy to understand and get involved.
In Burma, there’s military rule, and fighting -and escapes to freedom- have displaced many citizens. Some of them still hope for a return to democracy, but being spread across the boarders of neighboring countries, as well as scattered in Europe and the US, it’s tough for them to have the discussion about what they wish their society could be. As Mark Belinsky, Co-Founder of Democracy without Boarders told me:
“This is the first time we have an ability to have Democracy in the way we define it. In Burma there’s no opportunity for democratic interactions outside of the web – particularly because there are so many people outside of the boarders. This effort allows people who are outside the country to build what their future country will look like.”
Here in the US citizens have the right to vote, but many are not even registered. Groups like the Nonprofit Voter Education Network use the web to encourage members of non-profits to vote, and to vote based on the causes their groups advocate. WEtv (disclosure, a client of mine) is educating and empowering women to register to vote via their WeVote08.com site. And this year we’ve all seen the incredible rise of citizens as campaign contributors, both for the Democrats and Republicans, online. People can amplify their political views via their social networks. Blogs enable debate of ideas.
Sometimes, the sources of these ideas may be suspect. People say “We can’t believe everything we learn online.” They have to be able to apply critical thinking and teach the people who may be less tech savvy about how to evaluate sources of information. I passionately believe that there’s a need to teach this new literacy to students and others that are new to the net, or who want to learn (and have proposed this topic as a panel at the SXSW conference next March). As content moves online, there is a need to teach the skills that enable citizens to make decisions about what sources of information they can trust.
Who the heck are you to be an ambassador?
I’m honored to be the One Web Day Ambassador for today. It is funny, though, that I’m branded as an ambassador for a day – when I’ve been a Web ambassador since early 1994. I first saw the Mosaic browser in 1993, at JPMorgan, on a Sun Workstation. There wasn’t much to see, except for that “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle” (Yahoo) site that told you the places you could go. But, oh the places you could go! (And you could create your own places too!) I immediately became a Web advocate and in 1994 I started the first Web User Group in America, wwwac.org. As a member of the Internet Explorer 4 evangelism team in 1997, I helped other companies get their web presences on line.
I remember the early discussions, back in 2006, when Susan Crawford introduced me to the concept of One Web Day, and I knew this was going to be important. I’m happy and proud to be included in this effort to promote One Web Day on September 22nd. I hope you’ll join me in New York at Washington Square or at an event near you, to celebrate the Internet as an important resource that helps keep us free.
Read the story, and check Matt’s blog Matt’s Journey, to follow the story further.
Parkinson’s case offers glimmer of hope for future research
08:46 PM CDT on Friday, August 15, 2008
By JEFFREY WEISS / Staff Writer jweiss@dallasnews.com
DALLAS – Matthew Greenstein is living a story about illness, failure and a chance at redemption. He’s also an example of how, in an era when medical research is mostly about crowds of scientists and millions of dollars, a little luck might still make a difference.
Some of the details of his life are like an anti-lottery ticket: Matt has Parkinson’s disease at an age — 32 —when almost nobody has it. He has psychological issues that require medication — but most of the medicines are either bad for people with Parkinson’s or not strong enough to treat Matt’s problem.
But here’s the kicker: A couple of months ago, right after his Dallas psychiatrist prescribed his one remaining choice of medication, Matt’s Parkinson’s got a lot better.
And, finally, I’m proud of Matt for having the guts it takes to tell this story.
If you know someone with Parkinson’s, please pass this story on. Maybe they can learn something, or be helped.
Ads on this blog? What’s that about? You’ll notice an add on the left column, from Apple. No, Apple hasn’t started sponsoring small blogs like me. This is a campaign from Social Vibe, supporting the Stand Up 2 Cancer initiative.
As I posted on the Social Media Club site, SU2C is an effort to get some much-needed attention on the problem of Cancer, and get some money in the hands of researchers trying new things to solve difficult problems.
SocialVibe is donating $1 for each blogger that signs up to their service via the special url http://www.socialvibe.com/SU2C, as well as turning points for showing these ads on Facebook and other social networking sites into real dollars for the SU2C cause. They’re hoping to raise $50,000 by doing this. So, you’ll see this ad on my site, and on my Facebook page. And, hey, SocialVibe even referred to my Social Media Club post on their page. So, I’m returning the link and asking you to get involved too. If you have a blog – run an ad for a few weeks, and get that $50k to the Cancer Research labs via Stand Up To Cancer. Oh, and you can donate directly as well.