31/12/2009
CauseWorld Launches: Do Good Deeds Simply By Walking Into A Store
CauseWorld app users earn “karma points” when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes.
Here’s how it works: Like foursquare and gowalla, you open the application on your phone and see local businesses (instead of showing everything around you, CauseWorld only shows businesses that you can check into for karmas). Enter the store, check in, and get the karma points offered to you. Once you’ve collected enough karmas you can donate them to a variety of causes. And, of course, you get badges for various activities.
14/10/2009
New iPhone App Makes Jobs For Refugees In Dedaab Kenya
It might sound like a pretty outlandish idea that an iPhone application can provide jobs for refugees in Kenya, but the folks behind the Give Work App are dreaming big!
Give Work is a joint effort between Samasource, a non-profit organization working to provide Internet-based jobs for poor people around the world, and CrowdFlower, a San Francisco based company that provides accessible outsourced labor as an online service. Dadaab, Kenya is home to extreme poverty and the largest refugee camp in the world. Through the Give Work system, refugees in Dadaab receive Internet training and well-paying, dignified jobs.
05/10/2009
Time to plan: Era of cheap food over
A DIVERSE coalition of community organisations says the era of cheap, accessible fresh food may be almost over, and that integrated planning is needed to ensure future supply.
