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Entries Tagged as 'Tools For Action'

Ready To Do Your Part?

April 30th, 2009 4 Comments

With so many problems in the world today, and so much crisis in the news, doing our parts to make things better can seem overwhelming. It’s hard to know what to do, where to begin, and what matters most. Sometimes, adding one more task, like recycling or packing our own lunch, to our overfilled lives seems like one task too many. And when it comes to making our communities better, with our busy schedules and the multitude of causes requesting our time and resources, it’s hard to imagine how and where we should contribute. The choices are confusing and change is hard. Often we begin with good intentions, but find ourselves giving up.

If this is how you feel, then a neat little website I just discovered might be just right for you. It’s called I’m Doing My Part and it’s simple, helpful, encouraging and full of doable ideas and a strategy for incorporating them into your life that just might work.

I’m Doing My Part allows you to take action in four different areas: water, energy, waste, and, interestingly, happiness. Each action area is introduced with some simple and inspirational “facts”, then opens into a list of actions you can take in that area. Actions are divided into “first steps” and “moderate” actions. Click on an action and you’ll see a brief explanation of that action’s impact, details about how to do it, further reading, videos and other resources to help you succeed.

The strategy of I’m Doing My Part is to add one or two simple tasks at a time and do them until they becomes part of your routine. Once you’re doing those tasks, add them to your profile and I’m Doing My Part gives you positive feedback and an opportunity to share your actions on Facebook or Twitter. So not only does it help and encourage you to do good but it helps you spread the goodness!

I’m Doing My Part also includes a cool real-time Social Actions map that tracks volunteer social action activities and opportunities around the world and a blog aggregator that will connect you with news from sources like Change.org, InvisiblePeople.tv, and Refugees International.

Ready to do your part? Click here, and I’m Doing My Part will help you get started.

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Hey, You! You’re A Lobbyist!

April 17th, 2009 2 Comments

My new favorite people at takepart˚ think it’s about time that the people who are supposed to have a voice in Washington start to have a voice in Washington. They mean you. And they need your help. Specifically, they’re trying to build an online toolkit that puts power in your hands to “navigate the legislative process, investigate money in politics, advocate for issues [you] care about, and hold [your] representatives accountable.” In other words, they want you to be a citizen lobbyist. They seem to think that you’re the expert and they want you to tell them what tools and information you want to include in the tookit. Go ahead. Tell them what you think. You’re the expert.


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Twitter Action Pack | Social Actions

March 2nd, 2009 No Comments

Twitter Action Pack | Social Actions.

Here’s another great tool from Social Actions. It’s a long list of subscribable Twitter feeds, organized by issue areas like “Disability Actions”, “Climate Actions”, “Democracy Actions” and “Darfur Actions”. Each feed includes actionable items, including opportunties to donate, volunteer, sign a petition, send an email to your representative, or attend an event. So if you have a favorite cause (or ten), you can subcribe and receive regular “tweets”, regularly connecting you with direct ways to make a difference. You’ll need a Twitter account, which you can get here.

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How to Take Action on Any Web Site – Social Actions

February 27th, 2009 No Comments

How to Take Action on Any Web Site – Social Actions.

Imagine you’re reading an article from your favorate internet news source and it gets you all excited (or upset). Now imagine that instead of ranting at your unsuspecting friends or family members until you calm down and forget about it, that right at your fingertips while you’re reading there’s a way to take action, to satisfy your righteous indignation, and to do good things for the world all at once. If you use Firefox (and if you don’t, why don’t you????) you can do just that. The set up takes a couple of steps, but using Ubiquity and the Social Actions Ubiquity Command you can highlight any phrase on any web pages and immediately find actions you can take to make a difference. Follow the directions here to put the power of the web for activism at your fingertips.

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