The Next Web

Using the auctioning madness and Twitter to save lives

Written on February 11, 2008 – 1:40 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Pixels, tattoos on foreheads and Macbook covers all have one thing in common, you can sell them. Preferably by letting people bid. Alex Tew made his fortune by selling pixels, Karolyne Smith received $10k for walking around with an ink-ad ‘GoldenPalace.com’ above her eyes and Leah Culver (speaker at the Next Web conference btw) sold the space on her laptop cover for 150 dollars per square inch. Apparently, companies and consumers both love to support these stupid yet brilliant ideas. So why not turn them in to auctionings that support people and organizations that desperately need some money? Dutch marketeer Mark de Kock made this idea a reality by selling his 10,000th tweet on Twitter.

Mark de Kock (photo by Willem Poelstra)

After pitching the idea to Robert Scoble, who was in Europe for LIFT08, he started an auction item on Ebay. Half of the final bid would be donated to the Dutch cancer fund. The second part would be transferred to the bank account of a charity named by the sponsor. The auction ended yesterday and guess who got the tweet: Next Web blogger Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten. He bought it for EUR 152.50. Not an amazing result, yet not bad for a first time. Will this new way of gathering money for good causes become a new trend?

Let’s hear what Mark de Kock thinks about it. “For me it’s just an one time experiment although I believe in the power of an online platform and the possibilities it can bring to reach a big crowd in no time. For example, the Dutch Twitter scene once raised more than 20 laptops for Africa. There will be more of these types of new innovative ways to make money. The difference will be these will serve the masses and not just one persons wallet. If an idea is entertaining enough and serves people who need the money, it could turn into a success.”

Mark also says that when an online celebrity uses his of hers influence to promote an innovative idea, the outcome can exceed our wildest expectations. “Last night I saw a guy willing to pay 10 to 12 million dollars for a license plate. If that’s possible in the world we live in, we could also try and help organizations such as the Cancer Fund. Enjoy your richness on a personal level and and help others to do that as well.”

There are 30 tweets left till De Kock reaches the magic 10k tweet. His 301 followers will see Boris’ tweet, so my fellow blogger has paid 50 euro cents per view. As I’ve said, it’s a start and definitely worth a retry. Some tips for the person who wants to give it another shot:

• Pick someone who has 1000+ followers;
• Make sure his or hers tweets aren’t protected;
• Start weeks in advance, so that you have enough time to spark the hype fire;
• Get Arrington, Scoble or another influential to blog about it;
• Pick a ’sexy’ cause or something that just made the news bulletins.
• Create a dedicated blog or start a new category on your blog;
• Facebook is THE medium for spreading the word, kids love to do good.

I hope you like that post!

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alex tew, How to, hype, Inspiration, Leah Culver, mark de kock, million dollar homepage, non-profit, twitter

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Goodcircle: using the power of the web to do good

Written on February 1, 2008 – 8:55 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Internet is often called the most democratic medium. Al Gore stated in his book The Assault on Reason more or less that it is our only hope for democracy. I’m not sure whether he’s overreacting or not, but I do know that the Internet has the potential to mobilize like-minded people to support a certain cause. Just look at the attacks on the Church of Scientology last week. A small group of activists managed to get a large cult into trouble. But can we also use the Internet to get some people together and start helping those who are starving and fighting for their lives, as we speak? The people from Goodcircle.org certainly think so.

This service offers people the possible to connect in a ‘circle’ and fight for a common cause by using ‘the power of commerce’. This may sound rather abstract, yet it’s easy to explain. People in circles can sell goods on eBay or start their own store, the benefits go to the causes in which they believe. Goodcircle helps them to get attention, by showing random circles in the sidebar. It not only looks pretty, but it also makes the service interesting to visit.

The site is still in beta, but already some circles have earned money. ‘Ride for the Son‘ for example, a circle created by the Christian Motorcylists Association, has already collected 200 dollars for causes like ‘focus on the family’ and ‘promise keepers’. The ‘Support Hungry Families‘ circle managed to collect 10 dollars, but hey, it’s a start.

The team behind Goodcircle is based in New York City. It was pretty hard to find info about them on the site, so I’ve emailed them. Turns out that Goodcircle was created by Charlie Carlson and friends, who ‘wanted to take all they had learned about technology, commerce and philanthropy, and create a new kind of community, and a new kind of marketplace, that brings together and empowers individuals, groups and organizations, for the mutual benefit of all of us’.

Carlson: “To us, there’s this wonderful, new, revolutionary spirit out there. People aren’t just speaking out, they want to take control and support what they believe in their own way, everyday, in their own voice. That’s Goodcircle.” Let’s hope that the spirit Carlson describes will actually pay off and became a major force in the charity field.

community, goodcircle, Inspiration, non-profit, social networks

1 Comment »

End hunger, Web2.0 style!

Written on December 20, 2007 – 11:26 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

FreeRice is an interesting initiative by the founders of Poverty.com. Both websites aim to end world hunger. My guess is that the owners of the website read the excellent ‘Made to Stick‘ and decided to present their message in a new format. And this new format sticks!

It is very simple: you are presented with one word and a list of definitions. You have to pick the right definition for each word. If you get it right, you get a harder word. If you get it wrong, you get an easier word. For every good guess FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. They can do this because they display an ad under each list of definitions.

A brilliantly simple solution. I only hope the service will scale and advertisers will keep advertising here. I can imagine people doing this instead of Sudoku or Solitaire. This way you make the world a better place while you get smarter and enjoy yourself at the same time. In fact, they should bundle this with Windows instead of Solitaire!

The site launched in Oktober 2007 and has donated 10,238,535,870 grains of rice since then. How much will you contribute?

FreeRice, games, hunger, non-profit, web2.0

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