At the recent Gnomedex conference, Beth Kanter raised well over $2500 to send a Cambodian child to school. As she reports, a lot of this happened without her being aware of it, while she was giving a presentation.
How did this actually happen?
It started with less than 140 characters posted to Twitter and a good cause. A cause people could believe in and, probably most importantly, were willing to support unconditionally. And then the groundswell formed. The Twitter backchannel took off, and before you know it, people were spreading the link, some were matching donations, and the dollar figure took off. When you have the right cause and a listening audience willing to tell othes, you can achieve amazing things in under 140 characters.
What’s really important here is the inner willingness that people have to do good things and how technology can really facilitate making that happen. Beth states it perfectly…
Use technology for good and it will make you feel good.
