How to Be Good (Without Really Trying)
Just borrowed "About a Boy" from the uni library. Went to check out the author, Nick Hornby (who wrote the brilliant novels "How to Be Good" and "High Fidelity"), at his official website, and came across a novel internet concept: the donate-for-free charity website.
Basically it's a way of harnessing the power of net advertising for good rather than evil. You click on a link that says, say, "Tsunami Appeal", and it takes you to a site with a bunch of ads and a thank you message. Each time this page gets a hit, the advertisers contribute to the appropriate charity.
The above link is to the best of these sites that I could find. As with anything on the internet, the problem is you can't really be that sure it's doing what it says it's doing, but it seems legit. There doesn't seem to be a really good Australian version of the concept - I guess it shouldn't really matter where the charities are based, but it does grate a bit to see a link that says "Fight AIDS!" which turns out to be solely focused on a couple of American states. Sure, they're acting local, but where AIDS is concerned I don't think Virginia is really the main game.
It would be really cool to do a slick portal for the really mainstream charities that are well known in Oz, so families could set it as their home page and click on the links each time they go on the net. If I had the time. And the skills. And Young Liberalish entrepreneurial drive. In short, if I was someone other than me.
"The most powerful political force in a democracy is apathy. Tap into it and nothing can stop you." Tim Ferguson, Left, Right and Centre
Basically it's a way of harnessing the power of net advertising for good rather than evil. You click on a link that says, say, "Tsunami Appeal", and it takes you to a site with a bunch of ads and a thank you message. Each time this page gets a hit, the advertisers contribute to the appropriate charity.
The above link is to the best of these sites that I could find. As with anything on the internet, the problem is you can't really be that sure it's doing what it says it's doing, but it seems legit. There doesn't seem to be a really good Australian version of the concept - I guess it shouldn't really matter where the charities are based, but it does grate a bit to see a link that says "Fight AIDS!" which turns out to be solely focused on a couple of American states. Sure, they're acting local, but where AIDS is concerned I don't think Virginia is really the main game.
It would be really cool to do a slick portal for the really mainstream charities that are well known in Oz, so families could set it as their home page and click on the links each time they go on the net. If I had the time. And the skills. And Young Liberalish entrepreneurial drive. In short, if I was someone other than me.
"The most powerful political force in a democracy is apathy. Tap into it and nothing can stop you." Tim Ferguson, Left, Right and Centre
posted by tim at 22:22
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