#1 Thing You Need to Know about this Post:
The only sustainable way for you to create wealth for yourself is by improving the lives of others. Starbucks understands this and so can you. 

A More Detailed Exploration
In case you just missed it in the opening sentence, I have an earth-shattering announcement to make:

The only sustainable way for you to create wealth for yourself is by improving the lives of others.

Despite what you might have heard from others, the only true path to long-term wealth creation comes from the careful balance of private gain and social good. Think about it. You create wealth when a lot of people think what you offer to the world is important enough to them that they pay you money and then keep paying you money over long periods of time. more

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The Two Things You Need to Know from This Post:
1. The Armano family showed great compassion for Daniela and her children by rallying the support of their neighbors.
2. We need to continue this conversation in earnest to help reframe our understanding of charity and realign it with the realities of the new era.

The More Detailed Explanation:
With over 1 billion people on the Internet and over 3.3 billion owning mobile phones, we have entered the Interconnected Age. You have a more global view of the world, ideas spread instantaneously, self-organized swarms mobilize out of nowhere, and transformational events happen faster than before. These components of the Interconnected Age are redefining all aspects of your life, including your charitable acts. 

A Well Considered Risk
When I decided to write I Gave $10 to David Armano to Help Daniela and Now I Regret It, I realized I was doing something akin to approaching a gasoline-soaked bee hive holding a lit match in one hand and a can of hairspray in the other. Those of us steeped in social media can attest to the hive’s propensity to defend itself against perceived challenges. Add to that the fact that raising money as fast as the Armano family did requires a highly emotional situation (e.g. 9/11, Katrina, and the Tsunami). more

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The #1 Thing You Need to Know From This Post:
Raising money for someone’s private benefit does not improve the social good; it just proves we are all selfishly altruistic.

The More Detailed Explanation:
Although I have never met David Armano or his friend, Daniela, I gave $10 this week to help him help her. It turns out I wasn’t alone. Over 500 people pooled about $16,000 in a matter of days, with most of it in the first 24 hours. Without a doubt, that’s a very effective fund drive.

Didn’t hear about this yet? Here’s the short and sweet.
Daniela is from Romania and has three kids, the youngest with Down’s Syndrome. According to Armano, “Daniela is divorcing her spouse after years of abuse. In recent years her mortgage went unpaid and she’s lost her house.” Since I have no firsthand knowledge, you’ll need to take it for what it’s worth.

Armano and his family have taken Daniela and her family into their home. This week, he decided to leverage his social media network to raise money to get them into their own apartment and on their feet again. For more details of the drive, Scott Drummond gave an excellent recap in the second half of his post, while David Griner analyzed why it worked so well from a fundraising perspective. more

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The 2008 Presidential Election is the most digitally advanced election cycle in our history. Where else can you find such a rich example of how to use digital media in leadership, change management, recruiting, and fundraising? This is a watershed moment worthy of your attention. Whether you are running an aspiring non-profit, starting an organization-wide initiative, looking for talented students, or reaching out to potential donors, these campaign websites have tangible examples of how to use digital media properly.Here are a few highlights:

• Use What’s There - Barack Obama’s use of YouTube, blogs, Flickr, and other existing web platforms is ensuring that his message is getting out without dilution.
• Make It Easy to Join the Movement - Ron Paul continues his insurgency campaign because of a strong grassroots movement he’s built through his website.
• Be Clear and Direct on What You Want - Hillary Clinton’s main page has a great call to action that gives you “Five Things You Can Do”. 
• Involve Others in Your Story -  John Edwards’ campaign team ran a contest that gave their supporters the opportunity to produce an ad that would run in a major campaign market.
• Talking With, Not To - Mitt Romney’s five sons’ blog and other related blogs are entertaining and engaging, because they allow you to talk directly with those in the inner circle.
• Appeal to the Heart – Check out the emotional video that runs while you fill out Barack Obama’s donation form.

With the presidential primaries racing into Super Tuesday, I encourage everyone to take the time to visit the candidates’ websites while they are still fresh.  Not only those who remain, but those who have folded their tents.(Here are links for many, but not all: Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, John Edwards, and Rudy Giuliani)Once you look them over, come back and post your thoughts. Which candidate do you think is doing the best job to rally their cause?

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In high school, it was pretty challenging to be an emerging futurist and proponent of digital convergence. I was fortunate enough to have at least one teacher who let me ramble on about it (thanks, Mr Goodwin), but for the most part, telling people in the mid-nineties that their computer and tv would soon be the same thing wasn’t really of interest or relevance to many folks. There weren’t a whole lot of people around to talk about things like that with–or even many books to read. The first I recall devouring was Being Digital, penned by Nicholas Negroponte, at the time, director of the MIT Media Lab.

A few years ago, I was excited to learn that he had walked away from his post to pursue his passion–putting a computer in the hands of every child in the world. The organization is called One Laptop Per Child and the goal was to work with corporations to get the costs down to $100 per machine. The stories of even the early successes are amazing. Check out the video of Negroponte explaining the story.

As you might imagine, this is quite an undertaking, and the fact that it hit the news again today is probably a sign that progress isn’t going as well as they might have hoped. Nevertheless, for the first time, the program has gone public–asking individuals to help the cause. BBC reports that starting November 12, anyone will be able to purchase two laptops at a time–one that they may keep, and another that will be donated. The price is $399 for the two machines through the G1G1 (Give One, Get One) Program.

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