Gaming for Good:
“Online game seeks to empower Africa. Some people think of online gamers and see gaunt loners huddled in dark rooms, the sad blue glow of the computer screen on their faces as their lives pass them by. Game designer Jane McGonigal sees “superheroes” with untapped potential that can be used to fix vexing real-world problems…”
Extreme philanthropy
“Brian Jones has scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, walked across the Sahara Desert and skied to the North Pole, all to raise money for needy groups in Fredericton. But this winter, he simply …

This year, Pepsi decided to forgo its annual Super Bowl commercial in favour of supporting an social media charity initiative called Pepsi Refresh.  Obviously, Pepsi’s interest is the bottom line, so the idea that a social media charity project is on par with a super bowl commercial in terms of advertising value is AMAZING to me.
But, at first glance, I wasn’t super impressed with their approach.  Apart from the usual debate about whether corporations can truly participate in charity without changing some of their own business practices (namely, a focus …

February 7-13, 2010.
It’s International Development this week in Canada. Join in Toronto, for lots of Interesting and Challenging discussions, films and of course plenty of benefits for you to go and donate your money to a worthy cause while having a fun time!
FEATURED EVENT:

TED 2010 live at CSI
Join us at CSI for three promising days and listen to world visionaries’ dreams, fears and hopes for the year ahead. TED 2010 features an amazing line up of speakers including Jamie Oliver, Bill Gates, Andrew Bird, David Byrne, Eve Ensler, Ken …

Learning about all the stuff that’s happening around text message donations during the Haiti crisis.  It seems to be getting a lot of press!
This is the first humanitarian disaster where this type of micro-donating is taking a really big roll.  Plan Canada (who I work for blogging at Because I am a Girl) have raised over $3000 using Text to Donate technology so far.  This is nothing compared to the millions that the American Red Cross has managed to raise since Jan 12 using the same technology.
I’m not sure that …

Just before the New Year I signed up at GetInvolved.ca to help them reach their goal of 2,000,000 volunteer hours this year (through the Power of the Hour initiative).  Companies, individuals and organizations can join and set their goals, and then use the GetInvolved.ca platform to keep track of their time spent volunteering over the year.  I’m a huge fan of lists and metrics, so its awesome in that way, and of course the general social engagement of it!  So, I’ve pledged 250 hours for 2010, which might be a …

Around this time of year, everyone is making lists both recapping and looking forward.  Here are a couple of my favourite lists right now:
MSF’s Top Ten Humanitarian Crises of 2009
Doctors without Borders writes this annual ironic top ten list to bring attention to hot spots around the world.
Change.org Top Ten Victories of 2009
This one looks at what members of the social networking site Change.org were able to accomplish in 2009 by mobilizing online.  Its pretty impressive!

Tuesday December 15
The Future of the Internet: Networking in a Spontaneous Age. 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM 108N, North House. Munk Centre, University of Toronto. http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=8352

Wednesday, December 16
Green Drinks Toronto Holiday Party Celebrate the season with other green-minded folks. 5:45 pm. Free. Grace O’Malley’s, 14 Duncan. greendrinks@gmail.com.

Young Voices in Research for Health 2009, an annual joint publication by the Global Forum on Health Research and the Lancet is just out, and here’s an excerpt of my contribution (you can also read the full article on Scribd or download the pdf if you want.)
The godparents of global health meeting at Alma Ata may not have had BlackBerrys or MacBooks, but if they were to meet again now, they would almost certainly include technology in their toolkits for promoting health for all.  In the next few pages, we …

FEATURED EVENT OF THE WEEK: Choosing the Better Path toward Sustainability

Mike Nickerson on Life, Money and Illusion Launch Party and signing of the second edition published by New Society Publishers 7 p.m. Centre for Social Innovation 215 Spadina Ave. Suite 120. Free and Open to the public. Just north of Queen. Sponsored by the Sustainability Project and Green Enterprise Toronto

LECTURE: Climate Change Talk
Tuesday, October 20, by Bollywood star Rahul Bose and Solomon …

Last month I attended Case Camp, a social media “unconference” in Toronto. A meet up of social media professionals who heard talks from internet experts and enthusiasts speaking about the internet today and a bit about tomorrow. I’m bringing this up on Blog Action Day on Climate Change because I had a discussion with Trevor from EarthRangers about this blog and I mentioned that neither Kate or I feel that we are experts on environmental issues and so it hasn’t been a focus in a lot of our blog posts. …