Leslie Poston is a writer, social media guide and tech junkie, as well as the founder of Uptown Uncorked. This is part of her Real World Change 2.0 series.
If you’ve been watching the web the last few weeks, especially Twitter, you’ve seen a rapid rise in a new trend: microfunding for charities and causes. The last few weeks have seen charities leveraging microdrives on a global scale via social networks like Twitter using third party donation tools.
This is nothing new, Beth Kanter has been tapping the social media universe for charity for some time on behalf of organizations like the Sharing Foundation, and Mashable’s own Pete Cashmore led the “well that Twitter built” campaign not too long ago.
As the idea of simple, fast microgiving takes off, more and more charities and causes are seeing the benefits of this new way to help. From The Salvation Army to The Staley Foundation and local food banks, people are using tools like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and more to help others.
The most recent campaign, and one that is doing wonders to drive awareness, is the WellWishes Twitter campaign using TipJoy and Twitter. Between microdonations and corporate matches of certain goals, the campaign expects to raise as much as $5000 or more to put toward building wells in impoverished areas so that more children can have clean drinking water.
How can you help give money to an existing cause, or drive money to a cause? That’s easy, either hook up with an existing charity’s microdrive or start your own. Just choose your favorite microfunding method from the list below, and for less than the cost of a trip to your local coffee house you can give a little to help someone else out in the new year.
1. TipJoy
TipJoy - The current darling of the microfunding set on Twitter, all you need to give using TipJoy is a Twitter handle or email address and a PayPal account. The company expects to add other payment methods in the future.
TipJoy has a friend and follower network to add a bit of a social aspect to your giving, and to see who your friends are giving to as well. You can also add a TipJoy button to any website to encourage those not on social networks to give as well. This is the method currently being used for the WellWishes and Salvation Army Red Kettle online campaigns.
2. ChipIn
ChipIn - Another popular method of microgiving, ChipIn offers a way to put a giving widget on a web page or blog entry. This widget tracks the goal amount, the donations received and how close you are to your goal.
ChipIn works with Sprout, so you can use one of their widgets or use Sprout to make a fully customized widget of your own. Currently, payments made to ChipIn come from PayPal only. This is the preferred method of giving for foundations like The Staley Foundation.
3. Pledgie
Pledgie - This service has been around since 2007, flying under the radar for most. It also uses PayPal as the source for monetary transfers, and does not require an account with Pledgie to use. Pledgie offers badges for your blog or social network to notify people of your campaign, or a mass email system. They do not yet offer a Twitter notification.
4. FirstGiving
FirstGiving - This tool allows you to set up a FirstGiving pledge page, which accepts donations from anyone, regardless of email or Twitter account. FirstGiving is an option for people who don’t want to have their campaign tied to PayPal, as they accept credit and debit card donations. However, being able to accept regular credit cards without PayPal means that there are fees associated with FirstGiving. With other options, charities and causes receive the entire donation amount.
5. Fundable
Fundable - This donation engine also sets up a website you can drive people to with links, emails and badges. What makes this one unique is that it refunds people their money if your goal is not met. This in turn inspires charities and causes to work harder to get the money donated within a certain time frame (theoretically). It also means that you don’t get their check or PayPal with your donations at all if your goal is only partially reached.
6. Donors Choose
Donors Choose - The Donors Choose organization is directed entirely to teachers and education. It’s a unique way to microdonate school supplies and other learning materials and money for school needs, based on what teachers ask for. As an added bonus, you receive thank you letters from the kids you helped once the donations are completed.
7. SocialVibe
SocialVibe - I’m including SocialVibe here because it is the most micro of all micro funding sites. Users of SocialVibe don’t have to donate money at all - they donate ad space on their social networks and participate in the SocialVibe network and corporate sponsors do all of the donating.
It only takes a moment to put a Social Vibe widget on your MySpace, Facebook or other network page or blog, and click throughs are rewarded with donations to the causes you pick.
8. TwitPay
TwitPay - This microfunding application uses a Twitter-only payment system to generate funds. This application is in its infancy, and currently offers only an IOU system for payment. Once they get fully rolling, however, they will require both the giver and the receiver to have TwitPay accounts, something that TipJoy and ChipIn don’t do.
With so many options that make it easy to give, how will you give back?
Leslie Poston is a writer, social media guide and tech junkie. She conducts social media training sessions to help you bring your company into World 2.0 using social media and technology and is the founder of Uptown Uncorked.
Interested in more resources? Check these out:
- “DIGITAL CHARITY TOOLBOX: 50+ Ways to Get Your Give On”
- “HOW TO: Start a Local Support System Using Social Media”
- “20+ Charity and Fundraising Tools”
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, shapecharge
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read full story of "HOW TO: Give Back With Social MicroFunding in 2009"
Touchnote launched in the United Kingdom today with the goal of making the Internet just a little more personal. It allows you to send real mail to the people in your life in the form of custom cards that you create from your digital art.
For those of us who live and breathe an online life, we can sometimes forget to keep in touch with our offline friends and family. Social media makes everything about connecting so easy that actually writing a letter or choosing a card and mailing it gets tossed by the wayside.
Everyone enjoys getting snail mail, though, and Touchnote lets you use your digital content to make personal greetings for the people in your life. You can share what you make online with those who wouldn’t see it otherwise, which is a great way to include them in your digital world.
Touchnote gives users a simple interface to upload digital art from their computer, in the form of JPGs not larger than 5MB. You can then personalize the front and interior of the card using an easy, no-learning curve online editor.
Once you have made your card, you are given the option to mail it directly to a friend (currently £1.99) or mail it to yourself for a real signature. Once you have added the friends or family address and put the card you created into your shopping cart, you can create another card that is completely new, or select the option to create another one similar to the one you just made.
This is a very basic Web site, but it offers a service that will bring your on and offline worlds a bit closer together. It’s easy to use as well, meaning that even the less tech savvy can figure it out without trouble and start sending custom cards to friends and family right away. Yes, there have been a few others like it, but this one has a bit of an edge on simplicity alone, I think.
read full story of "Touchnote Wants to Bring Back the Postcard"
Flixwagon, a service that allows users to stream video right from their phone, has announced integration with Nokia’s video sharing service, Share on Ovi. Flixwagon has recently been making some changes and adding features to increase its brand presence online, including a partnership with CurrentTV for the upcoming election, also announced today.
To utilize the Share on Ovi service, Flixwagon users must first sign up for the Share on Ovi site, then go back to their Flixwagon account and associate it with the service. Flixwagon already offers users the ability to stream, store and share videos on their own site. This integration just gives users one more place for their videos to be found online.
By downloading the Flixwagon application and utilizing it with Nokia’s Share on Ovi, users can store their videos directly to Share on Ovi for free, right from their phone. By adding the Share on Ovi option to the arsenal of services offered, including streaming to both the Internet and TV, Flixwagon is creating a stronger more versatile service to stay fresh in competition with similar providers, like Qik.
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read full story of "Flixwagon Lets You Share Streamed Videos on Nokia’s Ovi"
Nabbit is an application that answers your questions about the songs playing on the radio, in real time. Just grab the application for your phone, add your local stations to your Nabbit Web page, and start getting the information you want from artist and title to lyrics in just a few clicks.
To Nabb a song from the radio using your phone, just text Nabb and include the call letters of the station you are listening to. Nabb will fetch the song information for you and deliver it to your account. You can also use Jott to Nabb music, or the mobile site at m.nabbit.com.
As you Nabb tunes from the radio, the information is sent to your MyNabbs page on the Nabbit site. Once it is in your account, you can grab the song itself from a variety of music stores like iTunes, Amazon or Napster, or get the lyrics and album art from a variety of online sources.
Nabbit’s new Facebook application makes your Nabbs more social. The application lets you see what other people in your circle have Nabbed lately, and interact with their music as you would your own, including being able to buy songs from their Nabbs as well as your own.
Nabbit is a free service. You are only charged if you choose to buy a song, or if you choose to get text notifications, in which case you would be charged by your mobile provider according to your texting plan.
My favorite aspect of this is being able to finally do on my Windows Mobile smart phone what iPhone users have been doing for months - grab song info from thin air, right as it is playing. It is a lot of fun, and has worked flawlessly for me since I started using it. Signing up was a breeze, taking only a few minutes, and the service was working on my phone right away. I highly recommend this as a way to handle those “Who sings this?!” moments we all have.
read full story of "Nab the Name of That Song on the Radio With Nabbit"
The Rails Rumble 2008 took place over the weekend of October 18th. The 48 hour Rails competition resulted in 137 Ruby-on-Rails-based applications, all taken from concept to execution in 48 hours. That’s an impressive feat, and now you can go to the website, sign up, and vote for your favorites.
It’s hard to pick from such an impressive list, but here are my thoughts on ten applications to watch out of all 137. Take a look at these, then go see the rest of the 137 and place your own vote while the voting is still open. You could influence the “next big thing” in Web 2.0.
Forever Home - This is not the first application to try and find lost animals homes, but it is the first to successfully find a few that are actually in my area and meet my qualifications. All you have to do is enter your location and the type of animal you’d like to adopt, and Forever Home does the rest. This one could find success by tugging at the heart strings while keeping it simple.
QFlip - Bringing crowdsourcing to your NetFlix rentals. I’d probably classify this as more of a feature than an application, as it allows you to put your NetFlix queue into the hands of the crowd. I’d actually love to see this integrated with NetFlix as a feature, but for now you can give QFlip a try for free.
MyConf - This one has possibilities that intrigued me, especially if it could work in tandem with other tools like Upcoming or Eventbrite. MyConf bills itself as social conference management, and wants you to let the site plan your conference. It gives you a place to let conference-goers register, pay, and vote on speakers and topics. It even helps you get the word out.
uBetcha! - This fun application gives you a way to wager on real world events. It lets users win prizes for winning bets on everything from presidential debates to natural disasters. It makes watching the news fun again.
What Does This Error Mean? - Exactly what it says. This application takes the mystery out of those pesky computer errors. You post the bizarre error your computer is giving you and your connections tell you what it means.
Back In Black - Back In Black is designed to help you keep out of debt through budgeting and accountability. You not only set budgets and payments for yourself, you also add friends and family to the equation to nag and cajole you into keeping your commitments instead of hitting the mall for those Prada shoes or the latest gadget.
Bid, Build, Bill - Bid, Build, Bill is billing itself as a one stop project management solution for the solopreneur. Designed for managing projects from proposal, through build stage to getting paid, it also includes a broadcast bar. This lets you microblog your status on the project while updating your time on each aspect of the job. Includes iPhone compatibility and invoicing.
Poolr - Making saving the planet a bit more social, Poolr lets you find people to carpool with. I’d love to see this application take it a bit further by also including a way to budget for and plan the carpool expenses and timing.
SoundFolder - This application is geared towards musicians trying to get their music out to their fans quickly and seamlessly. It is a simple music delivery system, which is one reason why I like it. Sites like this and Muxtape find success because of how easy they are to use. All a musician has to do is load their music and stream it out - no ads, no social networks to track.
MeetInBetween.Us - Solving a simple, but persistent problem, Meet In Between Us helps you find the halfway point between any two destinations. This is something I’ve always wanted sites like MapQuest to do, as I have a lot of friends and business associates who live in other states I’d like to meet half way.
With 137 applications to look at, I’m quite sure I may have missed one of your favorites. There were several application geared to developers that I think deserve notice, but not being a coder couldn’t decide which ones would be most beneficial for people that do code. There were also a lot of food oriented applications. Apparently Rails developers are a hungry bunch. Of all of the food applications, I thought WantNom had the most accessible interface and concept.
Also, there were a fair share of odd applications. One of these is Ostraka, an application that lets you ostracize people you think are evil around the world. I am not sure if I like this one or not as it seems like it could breed negativity, and I think there is already plenty of that to go around these days. There were also applications for students, readers, note takers and more. Regardless of which you pick, all 137 are worthy of taking a look and placing your vote. If you have a favorite application you think I missed, let us know in the comments so we can check it out.
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123people is a people search engine that has been in private beta since February of this year. Originally covering only Europe, the company is throwing open its doors to international people searches with a US launch and going into open beta today.
If you have ever heard that nothing is private on the Internet, you can believe it. Following in the footsteps of sites like Spokeo and Wink, 123people culls information about you from a variety of sites on the Web. Some of these you expect to be public, like Flickr, but other information comes from sites people might assume are more private, like Facebook.
In addition to increasing its range, 123people is inviting everyone in. I did a quick search for my name and found a surprising level of accuracy. The correct information about me made up a good portion of the results, with a few other Leslie Postons appearing in the address and email section. That’s pretty good for a people search that has only been out a few months and that hasn’t been concentrating on culling US data.
123people also added a few new features today, including real time results, a growing trend on many social media and Web 2.0 sites. A crowdsourcing data feature now allows users to rate the quality of information on people and add new information. This feature could be a bit scary if your friends or associates decide to add your address or phone number without asking you first.
123people also gathers information from even more sources. In addition to Google, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, email addresses, phone numbers, and LinkedIn profiles, 123people now gathers information from MySpace, Bloglines, Friendster, Last.fm, ZoomInfo, Blogger and more. It returns a surprisingly comprehensive set of results.
Other new features include biographies, news from sources like CNN, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. It pulls your instant messenger profile from AIM, your bio from Twitter and culls every major search engine, not just Google. The amount of information 123people gathers rivals that of any paid private investigator. Whether you want to find out more about that blind date or locate and old friend or colleague, 123people is fast becoming a resource than can help you do that reliably.
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Animoto is a mashup tool that allows users to make movies from the images and music they already have on their hard drive. Over the last year they have introduced a variety of features and functions. The latest of these is Animoto for Photography.
Animoto takes the pictures as slide show concept a bit further than most by incorporating a kind of artificial intelligence into the process. This twist means that the movies you get often seem more like trailers than home videos. Over the last few months they’ve applied this approach to a variety of things, from creative music mixing to business videos and everything in between.
This new feature, Animoto for Photography, enables photographers to use Animoto’s interesting technique to make their photography into a video. Animoto makes it easy to create these photography-based videos, freeing up a photographer’s time by reducing the amount of time spent futzing with the computer.
How is this different from the existing Animoto mashups for music, business and more? The company has added adjustable speed to the image display. Formerly the “intelligent” Animoto program would match the images to the tempo of the song they were being displayed with, now photographers can make the images appear at the intervals they design. they can also let Animoto match images to the song tempo still, if that’s what they want. Animoto for Photography gives them the choice.
The other feature Animoto has added is a button at the end that can call viewers to action. This makes Animoto a new way for photographers to market their work and services. Photographers who have tested the software seem to love it as a sharing and marketing tool:
“Animoto is a perfect fit for professional photographers,” said award-winning wedding photographer, Linda Jennings. “I can quickly upload my photos, pick just the right song, and Animoto automatically creates a show-stopping video. And when the video is complete, I can easily share it in more ways than ever before: email, blogs, my own website, Facebook, iPhone. The possibilities are endless with Animoto.”
Animoto for Photography is not free. It will run you $99 for three months or $249 a year. The subscription does allow photographers access to a library of music that is licensed for public use, which is a great benefit in addition to the other features subscribers get access to. Animoto’s claim to fame is that its artificial intelligence (aka Cinematic Artificial Intelligence) ensures that no two videos are ever the same, even if you use the exact same images and music.
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LimeLife is finding success backwards. It started as a mobile site about three years ago, then found its footing and began to expand from the phone to the Web, raising a $6.4M Series D in August of this year. The women’s lifestyle channel will launch today.
LimeLife used the money they raised in August toward the new expanded online site which includes 8 lifestyle blogs, a mobile site, social network and social utility and Facebook app called “My Snaps“, which is kind of a cross between social photo sharing site Flickr and social link building and bookmarking site Delicious. LimeLife has advertisers that include companies like NBC and Sephora.
“LimeLife is the first company to establish a female lifestyle brand on the mobile Web. Today’s beta launch of our online destination marks the next step in the company’s strategy to introduce LimeLife’s original content to an audience that navigates seamlessly across media platforms,” said Kristin McDonnell, LimeLife’s CEO. “Our goal is to enable consumers to access everything they like, wherever they are – whether it’s lifestyle content or their My Snaps collections, on the Web and via their mobile phones.”
Their focus on content aimed at women is not unique, though they have been considered a leader in mobile content for women over the last year. There are other sites who have ventured into the women’s content market in recent months. LimeLife’s new online channel is an extension of the focus on women they built using mobile games, blogs, editorial content and advertisers with products designed for women. The new channel will be made for women aged 18 - 34 and will include music, entertainment, fashion, news, shopping, beauty and dating. Not being the Barbie™ type, I’d like to see more technology, politics, education and business content aimed at that age group to truly fit all women.
The new LimeLife women’s content channel will be accessible by Web or by phone and PDA. It will enable women to not only see the content delivered by the site wherever they are, but to share it with friends as well. LimeLife seems to be positioning itself as an Evernote plus content product that is geared to women. I can’t decide whether this site is providing a real service to women, or a vague insult to women. Perhaps it is a bit of both, suffering a bit from a focus on the frivolous but offering a service women can use nonetheless.
Known for bringing us the “Addicted to the [TV Show Name]” applications on sites like Facebook, Watercooler is branching out in its partnership with Hulu to bring us our favorite television shows via TVLoop.
This partnership will enable you to view 40 top shows with Hulu’s standard full-screen, high quality viewing experience. It also uses the social aspects of TVLoop to connect users who watch the same shows. Social television – what could be better?
Many episodes of shows like ER and One Tree Hill will have full length versions available. Some will only be available in clip format, like Friends and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
“We have spent the last 18 months building a company that unites millions of passionate TV fans online,” said Kevin Chou, CEO of Watercooler. “Our collaboration with Hulu enables us to bring together broadcast and online mediums so consumers have access to their favorite TV shows wherever they are, combined with a conduit to discuss those shows with other likeminded fans.”
Watercooler’s TVLoop has over 25 million users and is already featured on social network sites like hi5, Facebook and more. This should give television shows added exposure in this new age of digital content delivery.
Watercooler’s goal is to create an environment where content is more than static. The hope is that the social aspects of TVLoop and Hulu allow the user experience to be one of more interactive content. We are seeing more and more user/content crossover with applications like this one, or the YouTube partnership that allows users to purchase items they see in YouTube videos right from the video, similar to OverlayTV. This means that companies that gain an edge now in digital distribution and content participation will last longer as media changes.
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read full story of "Watercooler Teams Up With Hulu to Broadcast Top TV Shows on TVLoop"
iLike and TuneCore may be a bit late to the monetizing music party, following sites like Grooveshark, but they have now arrived in full force. Today TuneCore and iLike announce that indie artists will be able to earn money from people listening to and sharing their music via iLike.
iLike is poised for great leaps in success right now. They are rumored to be the favorite music application for FaceBook to endorse as its preferred app for a FaceBook music integration. Not only that, just this past summer iLike made several improvements by offering free streaming of full tracks and integrating an ad platform into their service, showing a keen eye for monetization and long term growth.
Why partner with TuneCore? iLike is more of a social discovery service for music, and TuneCore is a music distribution service. Together they have the ability to help artists make money off of the songs that they write and sing when people listen to them.
More and more services are going to this new digital revenue model in the music industry. Instead of waiting to be picked up by a label, going to the studio, going to press, advertising and going on tour, this new model allows artists to make money in real time, simultaneously with a tour, merchandise sales, CD pressing and more. No more waiting for big business to catch up. It also offers a bit of real time feedback - if you aren’t going to be popular, your level of digital revenue will reflect that immediately instead of waiting to release a CD that might fail.
What does the this proliferation of turnkey music monetization services mean for musicians? It allows them to basically be their own label. Artists submit their music via TuneCore and then it is played via iLike, and everywhere iLike is found. This includes FaceBook, embedded playlists on blogs, and more. TuneCore also gives artists access to iLike’s entire network, including hi5, Bebo, Orkut and more. TuneCore also serves music to sites like Rhapsody, Yahoo, MTV and Amazon. Artists then keep 100% of the money they make via the service.
Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike, said “As the music industry continues to reinvent itself, we believe it’s critical to offer independent musicians equal opportunity alongside major-label artists.” And he’s right - this online network created for artists by combining the reach of iLike and TuneCore enables a band or artist’s music to be heard in as many places as it would be it released by a major label. That’s a huge advantage for an artist to make money doing something they love, and isn’t that every musician’s dream? To get paid to do what they love?
—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:iLike Launches New Tools for ArtistsiLike, Billboard Team Up for New Music ChartsHear The New R.E.M. Album on iLike Before it Hits the StoresiLike Sees Exponential Growth with Facebook AppiLike Worth $50M, TicketMaster Buys 25%Ringtones on iLike, Powered by ThumbplayBono Unveils Unreleased Track via iLike
read full story of "iLike and TuneCore Monetization Music to Artists’ Ears"