Worldreader, the non-profit that uses e-readers to teach literacy in the developing world, is sponsoring a video contest to bring a volunteer along to Ghana.
To enter, make a digital video that answers the question, "Why do you want to help Worldreader bring 'Books to All' to the developing world?" Viewers will vote to determine who wins the opportunity to work with the group in Africa.
Last Tuesday New Zealand time, the city of Christchurch suffered a destructive and deadly earthquake. Measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, the quake wreaked havoc because it was shallow and close to the city center. It was the second major earthquake to have hit Christchurch in 5 months, after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on September 4, 2010. While the loss of life wasn't nearly as bad as the Haiti earthquake of January 2010, Christchurch has been devastated and its people are emotionally scarred. They've endured months of aftershocks since September, then the cruel shock of another Big One.
It's easy to feel helpless after such a devastating natural disaster, but social media tools have been usefully deployed over the past week. Last Tuesday we looked at how the Web mobilized straight after the quake. In this post we look at 3 specific ways that social media has stepped up to the plate, since then.
Facebook launched Facebook Deals in Europe today, the location-based checkin service that offers specials and discounts to users who login and register their location using Facebook on their mobile phones. The service, already live in the U.S. since last fall, is now offering deals with several European-based companies as well as with some global brands, like Starbucks and Mazda.
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, from April 20 to July 15, was probably the disaster most extensively covered online. BP itself launched a social media channel for it. Oilholic let you track the spill as it spread, as did NOAA. The White House answered spill questions via YouTube.
But what about the aftermath? "Out of sight, out of mind" doesn't work for the inhabitants of the Gulf. Or anyone else who likes, say, water. So we hunted down some resources for those who wisely do not think, or unfortunately personally know, that it's not over.
Anyone who writes on a specific topic will have a set of resources he or she refers to in order to keep on top of what's happening. Those of us who keep an eye out on how free speech issues affect the online world tend to use resources that are, of course, online. Practicing the transparency we preach, I thought it might be useful to share my top sources.
The criteria I used to come up with this list of 10 online free speech sources are that they need to be accessible to anyone, provide original news or original analysis of that news and be frequently updated. In this list I have focused on institutional resources.
Popular group-buying daily deal site Groupon has gone back to its roots with the launch of an initiative called "G-Team," which harnesses the collective consumer power that has made Groupon such a success, in order to connect users to local fundraisers, campaigns and other charitable causes. The causes will be tied to the deals posted to Groupon so as to attract like-minded shoppers with community organizations whose campaigns they may be interested in.
For example, a deal on canoe rentals might be tied to a campaign to clean up a river, a deal on bike tuneups might be linked to a campaign to donate bicycles to disadvantaged youth and so on.
The iPhone 4 is Apple's most successful product launch in the company's history, selling 1.7 million units in the opening weekend. However, once consumers got their new phones in hand (literally), a number of issues cropped up, the most notable of which is the widespread problem dubbed the "iPhone 4 death grip" among Internet bloggers. The term refers to a particular way of holding the device that leads to signal loss and dropped calls. It's not difficult to duplicate the problem either - just hold the device in your hand, with skin pressed against the metal bezel.
Now, the California law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff (KCR) is exploring the possibility of a class-action lawsuit over these reception issues. The firm has posted a message on its website reading, "If you recently purchased the new iPhone and have experienced poor reception quality, dropped calls and weak signals, we would like to hear from you."
"It's almost impossible to describe how important the Web was for getting the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund off the ground," said co-founder Karen Dalton-Beninato. Karen and her husband Jeff, who grew up playing music in the Ninth Ward, used Web technologies and social media to reach out to music fans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Now, almost exactly five years later, another crisis is hitting the shore, the Gulf oil spill.
"With the current state of the economy, we get more used instrument donations than anything else these days, but it's been an amazing ride. New Orleans is going to have a rough summer with Gulf Coast tourism dropping already after the oil spill. Hopefully people will keep the city and its music in their hearts."
Who knew the Peace Corps were Web developers? Certain African farmers did anyway. Now, with its AfricaRuralConnect project the recipient of an Interactive Media Council Outstanding Achievement Award, a lot more people know it too.
ARC is a product of the National Peace Corps Association and provides a platform for Africans in the business of agriculture, and those interested in African agricultural issues to present, hear and remix each others' ideas.
Fair, thorough, enterprising and in context - that's what we're looking for in the journalism we read, isn't it? At a time when shallow ranting takes up so much space in public discourse, a new media evaluation technology offers hope, inspiration and is a lot of fun to use.
NewsTrust is a media technology organization funded by the Omidyar Network and MacAurthur Foundation. Yesterday it launched a personalized news filtering tool called MyNews. The tool helps users review the quality of journalism from all over the web and discover high-quality content they and their friends might enjoy. A light-weight, crowd-sourced, personalized recommendation engine that adds value on top of existing content? Sounds like our kind of app!
