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Three websites to be thankful for
Nov 20, 2007
With the (American) celebration of Thanksgiving coming up this week, let's take a moment to acknowledge some genuinely good websites available to users everywhere.
1. Free Rice
This is a brilliant example of good experience. It's a simple and fun game: just click on the right definition of a given word. Every correct answer gets ten grains of rice donated via the United Nations. A-list advertisers like Apple, Macy's, and Reader's Digest are happy to pay for the exposure they get, pageview after pageview, on such a noble site.
This is a good experience because everyone wins: users get a fun game, companies get good exposure, Web expenses get paid, and most importantly, people in need get help.
The site is by the same guy who made The Hunger Site - which got a lot of Net buzz a few years back. Here's an article with more info on Free Rice.
Another outstanding site, their mission is "to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices." In other words, if you live in the US and (like me) get unwanted catalogs in the postal mail day after day, you can use this delightful site to opt out of them. Just fill out your name, address, and the customer number on the catalog label, and they'll contact the company to take you off the list.
I realize that some retailers may not like this idea, but I support it. There's no need for full-color, 300-page catalogs to go out to thousands of people who don't want them. The paper, the ink and chemicals, the energy to transport the catalogs - all a complete waste. Besides, with people opting out, the retailer is left with a much higher conversion rate, with lower costs, since the catalog (ideally) will only go out to people who actually do want it.
As online users we can access innumerable sources of tragic and depressing news every day, but this is one source of consistently good news. Every day the newsletter points out one case study, one story, one person who's working to make things better for someone else. I also appreciate that DailyGood pulls it off without being cheesy or maudlin. Just a straightforward piece of good news every day - helping us be thankful on days before and after Thanksgiving!
Thanks! for all three.
The rice one is fun- though tweaky via Firefox on a Mac, it's okay on Safari.
fbc
Free Rice - response:
"Sorry, we are unable to continue right now. Please try back again a little later."
Catalog Choice - response:
"We're experiencing technical dificulties, please check back later. Thank You, "
Thanks, Mark, for the focus on positivity. It's funny, I was playing on the FreeRice site over the weekend and remarking on what a great, usable experience it is on top of being a great cause. Another conversation over the weekend was about the holiday catalog deluge so thanks for the timely shoutouts!
In the coming weeks, people in the United States, alone, are going to spend an amazing $100 BILLION on gifts. Alas, too much of it will be wasted on unwanted key chains, fruitcakes, pen & pencil sets. . .
This year, it could be different. Just imagine what nonprofits could do with some of that money. They could preserve critical acres of the rainforest, fund hours of life-saving cancer research; and provide children with their first books so they learn how to read.
In fact, these are just a few of the thousand donation gifts available from hundreds of leading nonprofits, all in one convenient place: a new nonprofit website called http://www.ChangingThePresent.org. Whether you care about saving the environment, fighting disease, helping children, or a full range of other causes, you are sure to find something that moves you and that your friends will appreciate.
You can also send a beautiful, personalized printed greeting card, which includes a photo and description of your gift, right from the site. We even offer wish lists so your friends will know know what you care about most.
Just imagine the impact we can make together as more people join us in this new kind of gift-giving. Please help spread the word by forwarding this email to everyone who might be interested!
Great sites! Have you been to GoodSearch http://www.goodsearch.com/ and GoodShop http://www.goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx? Every time do a search in goodsearch a penny will be donated to whatever cause you choose. And the companies that sell through goodshop.com will donate various amounts to the cause of your choice as well. You're going to do searches (a Yahoo! search) and your going to shop - might as well do some good at the same time!
Hi Mark, Thanks for the great links - dailygood had a post on "greening the ghetto" which is excellent.
From a usability perspective, your readers may enjoy
http://www.mobile-mentor.com
And, in a bit of shameless self-promotion, may I mention my own site, http://www.conservationcalling.com, where bird and wildlife ringtones for cell phones support American Forests and planting trees.
Happy Thanksgiving!
sherry
Really liked your take on the subject. The links look good and useful, too.
The good news idea is not new. My father had a weekly radio show by that name in the 50s in Cleveland. But it is still a great idea. Now if only someone would produce a show that avoided all worthless junk about celebrities.
I manage virtual communities for SAP -- a developer community and one for business process experts -- plus events that connect those "virtual" community members at locations around the world. We have a long-standing recognition system in place whereby community members reward each other for sharing their knowledge, experience, and expertise with each other... Answer a discussion forum question, and get 3 or 6 points. Post a blog and get 40 points. Share a formal presentation/demo at an event and earn 130 points. And so on. Members compete good-naturedly for top rankings and we recognize the top contributors regularly. That usually means t-shirts at various point levels, and then an on-stage recognition in front of 5000 or 6000 peers at our SAP TechEd conferences.
Based on feedback from our community members, we announced a change this week, which goes into effect January 1, 2008. Instead of shipping tshirts around the world all year long (expensive to produce and ship, when you consider that our community is 1M+ members in 120 countries and 100+ territories), we will make donations to the United Nations Food-for-Education program. Kids will be fed lunch if they go to school. We committed 100,000 euros as a baseline... but as the community shares more knowledge with other community members during 2008, we will as much as double the donation to 200,000 euros next year.
We (SAP) save on tshirt production costs, shipping costs, logistics. Children in poor countries will be fed and will be drawn to get an education since lunch will be provided at school. The community members see a direct correlation between sharing their knowledge with each other and benefiting the less privileged in the larger world community. And the U.N. has agreed to share reports-from-the-field (blogs, articles, and video) with our community members at least on a quarterly basis so we can see our donations in action.
Here are a few links to more info, in case you're interested ...
http://www.sap.com/usa/company/press/press.epx?pressid=8631
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/7898
http://www.sapfeedingknowledge.com/2007/11/welcome_to_sap_feeding_knowled.html
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/7723
Best regards,
Mark Yolton
Am I the only person in the world that is a little bit suspicious of Catalog Choice?
Sure, merchants might stop sending me a particular catalog, but what's to stop them from sending me other ones presumably more tailored to my preferences? As quoted from the Merchant section of the site "Consumer preferences can be downloaded on-demand."
To me, this means I'll keep getting buried alive with catalogs, just, like, tailored to my interests more. Whoopee!