blogging social change

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the brilliantly entertaining “The Tipping Point,” is following up with a new book: “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.” According to Gladwell:

“It’s a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusion. Well, ‘Blink’ is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good.”

Consider this book, and James Surowiecki’s “The Wisdom of Crowds,” and I’m wondering: Is this another fad brain diet to help the not-so-great feel better about themselves? Is not thinking the new thinking?

Last week, IBM launched the World Community Grid which allows anyone with a Windows-based computer to “donate” their unused computer power to help researchers unlock genetic codes, helping in the fight against diseases like AIDS, Alzheimer’s and cancer. IBM donated the hardware, software, and time needed for the program.

To participate, users install a program which can be downloaded from the grid’s website, and it applies unused processor power, sending data back via the Internet. A screensaver displays the project’s progress.

The article is mostly a fluffy promotion for an Ottawa company’s fundraising software, but it also contains some interesting information about electronic fundraising. In the age where open-source browser Mozilla Firefox raised tens of thousands in a few days, where Howard Dean revolutionized political fundraising, and where The Constituency Project might just have the first PayPal PhD, it’s probably time we paid attention.

In a speech to the (US) National Press Club today, Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities announced the US government’s intention to digitize newspapers published from 1836 to 1922. That amounts to over 30 million pages of historical information digitized, catalogued and freely available to the public. Unfortunately, everything after 1922 is protected by copyright.

Not exactly social change, but for anyone who’s read Nicholson Baker’s Double Fold, it’s a step in the right direction for the Library of Congress to participate in such a project. Free flowing information can’t be a bad thing.

Today is National Philanthropy Day. According to the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, more than half of the $112 billion that went to charities last year was from government. So here’s your chance to help move the needle back towards regular folks like you and me, and open your wallet for a charity or non-profit that’s close to your heart.

One fact that stands out: the one percent of organizations with budgets over $10 million get nearly 60 percent of the funding. So if you give, think about giving to a small startup, or struggling community group. You know what they say: “early money is like yeast: it raises the dough.” If you’d like a list of worthy organizations, drop me a line, I’m full of suggestions.

The CCP has lots of research on the sector here and here.

PBS’s Frontline has produced “The Persuaders,” a 90-minute exploration of the way marketing and communications can not only influence what we buy, but also how we see ourselves in the world. The doc has a dedicated website, complete with teacher’s notes, a discussion forum, and the entire documentary viewable online. This is why I love public television.

Residents of South Belmar, NJ chose change. If you don’t like where you live, don’t move, just change it. What’s really in a name?

When you get rejected from medical school AND you can’t make pottery, what do you do? Well, you make ice-cream. And you do it with a social conscience!

Who would have thought? Reading is good for you, and it can create social change, according to an OECD study.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. World Vision Canada is sponsoring a fundraiser to buy a goat — presumably for a community in the developing world, although the release doesn’t say so — and they’re doing it with what I can only describe as audio blackmail.

Kids at Sir. John A. MacDonald will play Hanson’s song, “Uhm-Bop” non-stop for hours, stopping only when teachers and students make a donation to the goat fund. The song, which will surely be on the soundtrack to Hell, will hopefully help the group raise $1,200.