Getting back into it

I want to apologize for taking such a hiatus from blogging. A lot has changed since I last blogged back in May. I sold all my stuff, spent a month driving across the country with my brother, and started a social venture of my own.

I have so many things to write about, but right now I feel that my time is best spent focusing my skills on creating positive change through development.

So a few months ago I thanked everyone for voting during the Change the Web Challenge.  After I won, I wanted to take that Social Interactive Map and make it real.  And MyActionMap was born.

So what is MyActionMap?

Organizations are doing amazing work on the ground. Unfortunately many of these projects go relatively unnoticed because of a lack of resources. To make matters worse, donors on the other end feel out of touch because of a lack of engagement. This ends now.

MyActionMap is an open platform for organizations to create that emotional connection that their donors have been waiting for. Through progress updates, photos and video organizations can engage with the people in more meaningful ways. People will feel empowered by this transparency and direct contact, and will therefore want to self-organize in their community around certain issues and causes.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, we are leveraging technologies that already exist (facebook, youtube, etc.) and only building the ones that don’t.

The goals of this project include:

  • No proprietary formats.  Do what’s best for philanthropy.  Push adoption of all open standards
  • Strengthen relationships between an organization and its donors
  • Let donors visualize projects through media and people
  • Let donors connect with each other to take action with your cause
  • Show power of open standards through one click view to Google Earth and analytical tools

As I grow the team I hope to have more time for blogging.  There are so many things to discuss…

For now here’s a sneak peek at the product:

http://myactionmap.org (use code:  ”socialgood”)