The World Through the Eyes of John Brennan
This project was born out of an incredible, passionate desire to do my part and add some positive energy to the world. Living in America, we have a President that many believe will bring the positive change we all want to see. While I hope this is true, it is not solely up to the government. The greatest outcome happens in any system when all the parts are working towards the same goal. We can’t continue our behavior by ignoring the problems in this world, many of which we have created ourselves, and assume someone else will fix them.
As I exposed myself to more information, shock than discomfort settled in. I couldn’t understand how our values are so deeply rooted in consumerism and our desire to have the best this or the newest that. Sure that is what drives our economy, but what happened to being rooted in connection-ism? I decided to try to affect change the best way I knew how. Being a software developer I have some skill in developing web applications. I decided to spend an intense 48 hours cranking out code. When the dust settled I got imdoingmypart.org. I can’t say I hit the mark, but its a start.
As I dug deeper into this space I came across several other people doing wonderful things. There is a major effort under way to create positive change in this world. It may be somewhat disconnected, but that may be okay as everyone goes about it in the way they know how. I hope in the coming months we can help each other to further grow. Anyone that believes there efforts are inline with the efforts here, please don’t hesitate to contact me! I would love to integrate what I’m doing here with yours!
I really would love to hear what you think of my latest project… please comment below!
48 hours of development
12 hours of design
20 hours gathering content
Hoping to create positive change… priceless.
check it out:
im doing my part .org
Code. Design. Explore. is the blog of John Brennan, a web developer/designer, entrepreneur, and avid world traveler. I currently live in Brooklyn, NY.
I am the Co-Founder of OpenAction and lead Product Development. We are a open platform social enterprise that helps organizations engage with donors, share knowledge with other non profits and empower the community to get involved to create positive impact on our planet.
This blog will mostly be around building cool things, although I will surely include my travel experiences when I am abroad. Feel free to subscribe to a specific category if that is only what interests you. And please connect with me. I always enjoy meeting new, interesting people!
Ryan
March 10th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Very nice job on imdoingmypart (man, you can accomplish a TON in a weekend!)
I like the flow: a couple of problems, then a quick set of facts, then See the solutions. Lets me dig as deep as I want to go without being confronted with too much info too soon.
I like the way you list actions by level of difficulty, giving people the opportunity to start small in order to take that first step.
I like your use of others’ Flickr photos with attribution. Nice selection of pics, and makes it feel like a community project.
Please provide a reference every time you use statistics (because anytime I see stats, I think: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics…”). I need to know where the stats come from to determine whether I think the source is trustworthy. A stat without a citation is worse than worthless to me, it comes off like an appeal to emotion rather than reason, which will quickly cause me to leave a site.
Maybe you should distance yourself a little more from those Related Blog entries somehow, since you don’t necessarily endorse them? For instance, I saw an entry titled “US ethanol producers urge Obama to up ethanol content of blended motor fuels”. I personally get a little bent when I hear about industries that survive only by government subsidies asking for more government help, and I might get bent at your site if I thought you were endorsing it. But I don’t think you are. So maybe you could call it something other than Related Blogs? Or maybe I’m just unusually touchy.
My favorite subject is Happiness. That made me want to sign up, and to contribute what little I think I’ve learned about the subject over the years. I think once people really get the happiness thing, the consumerism problem (which is at the root of many of the other problems) starts to go away.
As soon as I signed up for your site, and I added the action to Educate myself, I wanted to customize it. I wanted to list the books that I’ve read or am reading, that I think have some insight into the issue, and that I’ve been discussing with people. How long until you let people start the conversation under What others are saying?…
Kat
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:27 am
Interesting site - especially impressive as a 48-hour web development project! I love the topic and the design, and I’m looking forward to digging deeper into the content.
John Brennan
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
@ryan: thanks for the feedback. it was great to chat over beers about these ideas. thanks!
@kat: thanks! =) have you checked out my latest project?
http://imdoingmypart.org/community/map