charities

Come to think about it, it's surprising that the current wave of Web trends hasn't moved more into the realm of the nonprofit. You'd think that the focus on "people power," citizen media, and user-generated content would have sparked the imagination of some Bono acolytes with Web development skills. And indeed, there are a few sites out there--Care2 comes to mind--but most of them actually existed well before anyone was talking about "Web 2.0."

But that all could change with Changing the Present, which was one of the presentations at last … Read more

Is one of your New Year's resolutions to give more to charity? If you want to have a little fun and get more involved with a project beyond writing a check, there's The One Million Masterpiece. The project combines squares of user-created art in a giant mosaic. Squares can be purchased via donation, and users can make their own masterpieces using a browser-based drawing interface similar to Microsoft Paint.

Navigating the masterpiece is fairly simple and reminiscent of Google Maps. You can zoom in and out, and drag your mouse to move around the canvas. You're also … Read more

Despite the year of video coming to a close, the surge of video hosting sites hasn't really stopped. Jumping into the fray is Liberated Films, a niche site aimed at bringing film enthusiasts and filmmakers together. Liberated Films takes it one step further with a charity service they intend to implement once they have a large enough user base. After-tax profits would go to user-selected charities or help organizations.

As on other video sites, films are served up in Flash with a short advertisement at the start. Videos range from short cartoons about alcoholic reindeer to full-on mob dramas. … Read more

A Canadian company is incorporating the community aspects of Web 2.0 applications to foster new start-ups.

Cambrian House, which calls itself a commercial "crowdsourcing" software company, lets people offer up ideas for new products and companies. If its members like the ideas, the Web site will help market them--sort of like an online, participatory greenhouse.

Since launching in February, Cambrian House has grown to more than 7,000 members, and more than 3,200 ideas have been submitted to the community. Cambrian House announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week the launch … Read more

Gaming-geek, Web-comic superstars Mike "Gabriel" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho Brahe" Holkins have kicked off the third annual Child's Play charity drive. Child's Play sets up wish lists full of video games, toys, and other fun things to purchase and automatically donate to children's hospitals. Last year's Child's Play drive raised more than $600,000 for children's hospitals. With 28 hospitals participating worldwide so far, this year has potential to be even bigger.

Child's Play was originally created as a response to the public misconception that video games helped to … Read more

You can use your cell phone to send funny pictures to your friends, watch preview clips of your favorite TV shows, and vote for "American Idol" contestants. And now, you can buy turkeys with your phone too.

It's actually much deeper than that; I just thought that saying "buy a turkey with your cell phone" sounded funny. In actuality, this is part of Text-a-Turkey, a collaboration between mobile food ordering company Mobo and New York anti-hunger activist organization City Harvest to provide Thanksgiving dinners to New York City's neediest families. If you're a … Read more