Update: An interesting discussion about Give Meaning has begun due to some recent articles in the Vancouver Sun. Check the comments on this posts to follow links to find out more.
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The day before Halloween, I wrote a post about GiveMeaning, a Vancouver non-profit with some great ideas of taking the old Unicef coin-collecting boxes to the next level.

Last week I received a letter from GiveMeaning, containing two $5 “GiveMeaning Cards,”that I may use to make donations to the charity or cause of my choice. The letter, addressed to “Dear Blogger/Reporter” and signed by GiveMeaning’s CEO, explained that they intend to “empower the $5 donor,” and help people understand that even the smallest donations make a difference.

(Click to see the image full size on Flickr)

This morning, after a quick search for “children,” I used one of those cards to help build an HIV/AIDS center in Malawi, Africa and as the letter suggested, I’ll give the other as a gift (to my wife, in this case) for someone else to donate.

The site, at www.givemeaning.com, contains progress reports on projects, a tag cloud indicating the most popular causes, and a sign in area where donors can track their funds, and kids can track their fund raising with their own secure blogs. You may also purchase GiveMeaning Cards in several different amounts to be given as gifts.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the ideas and execution of this campaign, but I thought I’d give a quick of what I liked and what I thought could improve.

For starters, it’s clear that I loved the idea from the beginning. When I received the letter in the mail I was even more impressed. They had obviously done their homework and tracked the “word of mouse” they received online as well as in the traditional media. Not only that, but the $5 card gave me something else to talk about; and although it’s their money, it did make me feel good to do it. By donating, I have been given an account, and now I can easily login and make donations to other charities and watch their progress. Also, members can create new causes and monitor the funds raised online.

As far as where they could make improvements, here’s my two cents: They understand blogging, that’s clear. But as yet, no one from GiveMeaning has left a comment on my blog, or (that I know of yet) reciprocated with a link to me. They are obviously not obligated to do so, but that’s just good ‘blogger relations,’ and would inevitably cause more posts like this one (among other bloggers, I mean). Also, they took the time to research my name and company name for the sake of the envelope, but the letter itself was a little less personal. I know that addressing it to me specifically, with perhaps a word or two about my post would take more effort and therefore more cost, but it’s safe to say that it would also bear even better results. After all, the letter was dispatched only to those people who had already gave mention of the program; so we are already “fans.” An ounce more of the empowerment that they mentioned in the letter would go a long way, me thinks.

Overall, I think this a great program. A fine example of using social media for a great cause. If you are a representative of GiveMeaning or from the agency that created the program and you’re reading this, then kudos to you. Leave a message in the comments, we’d love to hear from you.

Update: Tom Williams, CEO of Give Meaning, has replied in the comments below, directly from Africa. Despite limited connectivity, he gives updates of his work (daily, it seems) on his blog.

Via Rob Cottingham of the Social Signal blog and Darren Barefoot, a Vancouver-based company called GiveMeaning is taking the old Unicef coin-collecting box concept to the next level.

This is cool for so many reasons; you can trace the donated money from the source right to how the charity spends it, and the “moderator” of the process is a small child; old enough to know how to operate an online blog, and to learn the importance of donating to charity:

Each BankBox has a unique serial number. At a secure  web site, children enter their box’s serial number and a password they’ve been assigned. Each child chooses a cartoon avatar and gets her or his own web page (GiveMeaning wants to protect children’s privacy, so photos aren’t used and pages are reviewed by the organization before they go live). The child chooses any charity to receive the money they’ve raised, and reports on how much they raise.

Cooler yet, each box comes with tear-off cards that kids can give to every neighbour who makes a donation. The cards also have the serial number printed on them, so donors can see the child’s web page and where their money went – and have a chance to donate again.

Once GiveMeaning collects the money and disburses it to charities, the recipients are encouraged to post a letter on the child’s web page explaining how they used the money.

Add this to the number of reasons why I miss trick-or-treating. There might even still be time to sign up, kids. More info on the project (still in its ‘pilot’ stage) here.

If you have to read the Wikipedia entry for RSS to understand what it is, then this post could change your life. And I’m not joking.

Even RSS pros out there (especially Blackberry carrying types, like my wife) will appreciate the fancy new Web2.0 tool that I am about to introduce you to.

It’s called The Simply Headlines Experiment, and I found it via Steve Rubel.

Here’s the best way to describe it (in my words)…

It takes the latest entries from your chosen feeds, ie. http://feeds.feedburner.com/TellTenFriends (hint hint) and it turns them into news items in a cleverly designed newspaper format that you can receive in your email. You have the choice of text only, or html, as you see above. Also, it has a bunch of feeds already set up to choose from (CNN, Reuters, etc.).

So all you have to do is take the feed address from wherever you see this symbol: and paste it into the program. And voila! You’ll get your chosen items delivered daily in your email. Sound easy? Go here to sign up, and if you have any trouble, just ask me for help and I’d be happy to talk you through it. Before you know it, you’ll have a customized Google homepage riddled with dozens of feeds, or like me your Bloglines account will see action from upwards of 100 different sources (I know, I’m a bit of a junkie).

The time to make a significant jump in your understanding of technology is now. This tool has been created for you, to help you bridge the gap into one of the most exciting things to happen to media since the first television flickered to life. Perhaps that sounds a bit hyperbolic, but bear with me. The true extent of RSS’ influence on the way we receive news and connect with both each other and of course our customers won’t be seen for years to come. In time though, the bulk of internet users will get wise to the use of feeds, and they will be incredibly prevalent as part of our culture. What I mean by this is, not just my brother or my sister but indeed my Mother will, in her lifetime use RSS feeds as her main source of news. This may sound like a bold prediction, but you don’t know my Mom.

Cheers all, I hope you like it. And I said a few paragraphs ago, I’d be happy to help you get this set up, if you have troubles with it.

Here’s an interesting story I spotted today at “My Boring Ass Life,” a blog by filmmaker Kevin Smith.

(Smith as Silent Bob)

Twice this week Kevin has hit back at critics, once after Joel Siegel walked out of a screening of Clerks 2, and once today when he was criticized for putting the names of 10, 000 MySpace fans at the end of the credits. As a marketing idea, this one was brilliant, and Smith credits that one to the Weinstein Company. It got people talking and it got press. And it happened on his MySpace, which we should all know by now is free.

The real interesting part of the story is that we’re seeing a real trend here: The critics of the mainstream media are no longer safe. You’re entitled to your opinion, Ms. Critic, but so is everybody else. And in the case of Nikki Finke, she’s being blasted by fans of Smith en masse for her close-minded evaluation of the tactic. Check out the comments on his duplicate post from Myspace.

As Smith notes, not a single industry honcho or guild member has complained, even for one second. (Finke claims that putting fans in the credits is an insult to the folks who work so hard to earn those credits day in and day out) Well guess what Finke? It’s a new world, where the audience is the marketer, and is just as deserving of being honored for posterity for their word of mouth efforts in the credits, which they can then freeze frame for their friends when they buy the DVD. (Because they will. All 10, 000 of them)

Just another example of how the gap between blogging and traditional media is closing. Soon, not only will journalists have to write for their audience and Google (a skill they’re slowly mastering) but now they’re inevitably going to have to accept the fact that they’ll have to open up comments, and leave their writings at the mercy of immediate response from their readers.

I hope Clay won’t mind that I pulled this from an email he sent me much earlier today:

Traditional media is so far behind the news cycle; they report business news two/three DAYS late. By that time, it’s been digested, blogged and commented about by bloggers everywhere. Faddishness? I think not. Of course, we’re not journalists. We’re not the first draft of history. Journalistic media will always hold this place in our society.

What we do is provide the commentary in the margins of the first draft. Once journalistic media can get out of its “Traditional” (mired in print) phase and begin reporting in truly real time… well, that’ll be a different day.

I agree almost entirely, except I want to add that when the mainstream media opens themselves up to instant feedback, the way the blogospere operates, then that “commentary in the margins” will be of as much or more value than what he refers to as the first draft, and writers will be cautious of that fact, to say the least.

How in the hell Craigslist makes any money?

It’s the single-most effective online advertising tool on the web today, as far as I’m concerned. And it’s totally free. It’s conspicuously free of any ad support whatsoever, and I use it as the shining example whenever I try to explain to someone why user-driven content is king right now. (MySpace isn’t for everybody, after all)

The other night I put on ad in the Vancouver vehicle classifieds on the site, and within minutes my phone was ringing, and I was getting emails like crazy. First thing the next morning, I guy came by and gave me my full asking price for my car; while my phone kept ringing. I had to rush upstairs after he left to delete the ad, but still the calls came trickling in.

I subscribe to the RSS feeds for work leads as well, and if things ever slow down for me, you can bet I’ll be posting ads for Tell Ten Friends‘ services as well.

I just can’t believe that after getting so much value from a site, I have yet to pay a nickel, or be subjected to even one banner ad with talking emoticons, etc.

I guess what I’m saying is, I love Craigslist. I even like how when you bookmark it, it leaves a little “peace sign” icon. Maybe it will be free forever.

Peace and love, Craig.