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View Full Version : 20 Ways Ordinary People Can Change The World Via The Internet


Tundra
May 17th, 2009, 02:45 PM
1. Create a website that you think needs to be made, or help on someone else’s website.


2. Use websites such as freerice.org (http://www.freerice.org/) and raise money for charity while you play or view. Use bookcrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com/)and share the joy of seeing a book travel around the world. Search for other websites like that. Basically, have interesting and useful fun online.

3. Buy online from people who hand craft items if you can’t shop locally- support local/independent workers rather than corporations or factory machines. Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/)is good for this, but there are others. You’re paying for ethically made items, and for artisan made (often custom made!) items that take hours. You’re getting a bargain. Similarly, buy second hand online, or swap.


4. Link to great sites where you can. You’ll change the owner’s world, and if they really are great, you'll change the life of whoever now has a chance of seeing the link.

5. Comment on or talk about things that are important to you. There’s a lot of chatter on the internet, but the chatter could represent you and your opinions. One drop of water raises the sea. Don’t leave everything to other people and assume someone else will say it, if it really matters.

6. Protest.

7. If you like something you read on a website or a forum, tell them. Compliments can make people happy. There’s real people on the other end of the ‘series of tubes’ that make up the internet. People seem to only take the time to complain.

8. Make someone’s day.

9. Share your CPU cycles to cure diseases, study global warming or explore space. You’re not using your computer all the time, you might as well be part of a super computer system doing research.

10. Give advice. The internet is full of people needing help and advice or a shoulder to lean on temporarily. Or mentor someone.

11. Age does not matter on the internet- use that to your advantage.

12. Reach out to a friend or family member. So, it’s better to call or visit. But where that’s not possible, taking two minutes to send a message online is a very good alternative.

13. Write something profound- a blog entry, article, fanfiction, forum post, it doesn’t matter.

14. Interact with other cultures or thoughts or types of people. Both sides will learn something.

15. Add to the positivity in the world.

16. Find new friends, and then meet in real life with them if possible.

17. Use the internet to find ‘real life’ causes to help.

18. Study. You’ve got a wealth of information at your fingertips.

19. Research or learn better ways of living. If you change, the world changes slightly.

20. Think of other ways to add to this list, then do them.


Originally I posted it here. (http://bringinghimback.blogspot.com/2009/05/20-ways-ordinary-people-can-change.html)

cat_lover_4113
May 23rd, 2009, 06:35 PM
Join Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/) and loan entrepreneurs in developing worlds money. This will help them with their businesses, then they'll pay you back. And you've helped them help themselves to make better lives.

caraez
May 23rd, 2009, 10:01 PM
Book crossing looks really cool! I'll try that.

Scraps 2-point-0
February 28th, 2010, 11:38 AM
9. Share your CPU cycles to cure diseases, study global warming or explore space. You’re not using your computer all the time, you might as well be part of a super computer system doing research.

This one caught my interest. How do you do this?

Orion283
February 28th, 2010, 01:10 PM
There's a variety of @home projects like seti@home (scanning for signals from outer space) and folding@home (simulating protien folding) that use distributed computing to get a lot of work done. Basically there's situations such as the above where there's a lot of data to be crunched but a limited number of computers to do the crunching. With an @home project you use a client that downloads a packet, runs the numbers, then sends it back with the necessary data. In short, it's like solving a big bag of rubik's cubes by passing them out to the community instead of having one guy solve them all.

Locke
March 1st, 2010, 03:43 AM
9. Share your CPU cycles to cure diseases, study global warming or explore space. You’re not using your computer all the time, you might as well be part of a super computer system doing research.

This one caught my interest. How do you do this?

Cure diseases: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download

Global warming: I don't know, but the more accurate term is "man-made global climate change," and even that very loose terminology is currently under fire.

Explore space: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Note that these programs can run on a wide variety of platforms. There's been a recent way to even get your PS3 in on the action. Sadly, most of the "teams" I've seen online are using their statistics as a demonstration of the processing power they own, instead of being motivated charitably.

Scraps 2-point-0
March 1st, 2010, 07:32 AM
Awesome! I've just started with the SETI one.

IrelandBrady
April 7th, 2010, 07:57 AM
Very POSITIVE advise! Hope more people read this important article. Thank You for posting it.

moleskiners
April 14th, 2010, 10:27 PM
@Tundra: That is one very thoughtful piece. :)