My friend in the Dominican Republic sent a quick e-mail update tonight that included this link.

She’ll be visiting this beach, which is only accessible via horseback or boat, next weekend. I’m jealous! Maybe I’ll get to visit this beach when I visit in November…

Those who know me will certainly not be suprised that I think this is absolutely AWESOME. What am I talking about? Google Checkout is now free for non-profits. That means no more transaction fees need to be paid by non-profits raising money. There can’t be much bad about making it cheaper to to raise money for good causes.

There’s a great article at WorldChanging mentioning that the “single most effective way to cut one’s personal quotient of carbon dioxide pollution is switching from cars to public transit.” Here’s the report.

So, do you take public transit?

Check out this post at Businesspundit — there is a $10,000 scholarship available for blogging.

And I actually think it’s a pretty good idea, mainly because of the importance of passion in blogging.

If you haven’t read this story, please do so. It’s great to see so many real estate bloggers rallying around a fellow member of the RE.net (just look at all the trackbacks and comments on the post on RERevealed). If you feel like helping, you can donate via paypal, link to the story on your own blog, or bid on a 30 gigabyte ipod (all proceeds go to Aaron’s family).

My thoughts and prayers are with Lani and her extended family.

Thanks to those who commented, wrote, or e-mailed me regarding the post I wrote on Thursday night — I’m glad it impacted some people the way I had hoped it would. Benn found this cool graphic, which I like.

And he also directed me to this video on YouTube put together by the Grameen Bank.

Hopefully, you’ll consider donating the minimum of $25 to one of the businesses looking for loans on Kiva. I just donated to Preab Thongdy (photo below).

Mrs. Preab Thongdy, 57, and her husband live together in the Siem Reap Province of Cambodia. Between them they have 3 children, one of whom works at an airport earning $200 a month, one as a construction worker earning $3 a day, and one selling souvenir products to tourists for $2 a day. They have applied for this loan so that they can build a house as there own house has fallen into disrepair.

First of all, if you are reading this — realize you are extremely, extremely privileged . If you can’t agree with that statement, well, I really feel sorry for you. If you want to continue your current perspective, go right ahead. However, I hope reading this post (if you choose to) at least makes you question some of your priorities in life. If even one person is moved enough to improve the life of someone else or do something for the greater good, this post is a success in my book.

The utterly fantastic thing about blogging is that it encourages transparency. Blogging exposes the ins and outs of life and the world — unfiltered by the media. I’ve said before that part of what motivates me to blog is to bring awareness to issues that don’t get enough exposure in the traditional media, which is exactly why I’m sharing this story.

My good friends know that I’m passionate about micro-finance and its ability to empower those living below the poverty line. One of my best friends is also passionate about micro-finance and made the tough decision to work abroad for a year. A month ago, she moved to the Dominican Republic and is working for Esperanza International, an organization founded by Dave Valle, the Mariner’s catcher from 1984-1993. Esperanza’s mission is “to free children and their families from poverty through initiatives that generate income, education and health, restoring self-worth and dignity to those who have lost hope.” Esperanze works with Kiva (who you know I’m a huge fan of) as one source of micro-funding, and part of my friend’s job is to coordinate Esperanza’s relationship with Kiva. Additionally, she is interviewing local entrepreneurs who have received loans and putting their stories online at Kiva. Anyway, last night around 9:30 pm, I got an e-mail from my friend detailing her experiences during the 1st month working in the Dominican. It was an e-mail that put a knot in my stomach — I can truthfully say that it made me question a lot of things about my life and the way people in America live and think. Here’s an excerpt from her e-mail (and yes, I got her permission to re-post it):

Saturday through Friday we spent from 7:30-6:00pm cleaning teeth, doing fillings, and extracting teeth. In all, this group served at least 605 children, adolescents, and adults. And of those 605 patients, at least 296 had their teeth cleaned, 391 cavities were filled, 563 teeth were pulled, and 7 people received major cosmetic reconstruction. On Monday alone we pulled 183 teeth! What surprised me most too was that over 75% of the teeth we pulled weren’t even teeth anymore—but were rather rotten chards of teeth and roots…I can’t even begin to imagine the acute pain those people must have felt on a daily basis.

There were so many touching experiences I couldn’t do justice if I tried to explain them, and then there were also some pretty sobering ones. Some of the neatest work I thought was when some young people would come in with their two front teeth rotten away to nearly nothing, but somehow the dentists managed to save enough that they could create new ones. You should have seen how happy and proud they were when they left—a new smile, a new confidence, a new start in some ways— There is a picture of one of the girls in the album below–she was just 22(looks more like 32 though!)

Of the sobering experiences there were two that really stand out. One, is that for the first time in my life I came face-to-face with people with AIDS, and many more with hepatitis. I realized that never once in my entire life had I ever met, or personally known, someone with AIDS. It was interesting to acknowledge my reactions to those people; I felt fear first, then compassion, then fear, then division—then sadness…

The second thing, and something that really shook me up was on Wednesday. It was REALLY hot, and there was a line of about 70 people waiting to get seen—I noticed a girl about ten years old just sitting by herself away from everyone under a tree; you looked at her face and saw hardship, sadness, exhaustion, hunger, desperation…and she was only 10. I went over and asked her if she wanted to be seen and she wouldn’t talk to me. I spent the next 15 minutes or so asking her different questions, and what was wrong—she looked and acted like she had been abused. As I was about to leave I gave her hug and asked her one last time what was wrong—it was almost at the same time that I hugged her that I felt her little shoulders start to shake under my arms, and she barely managed to whisper “Porque yo soy asi”…meaning, because I am like this. That little girl in my arms, and every hardship and struggle she lives with every day absolutely shook me, and recounting that memory right now brings tears to my eyes again. It really makes you wonder why you were born into your life…how I can have such a healthy family, unlimited opportunity really—and how that little girl can have literally nothing. Another feeling that comes is fear—really allowing yourself to connect to a reality like hers makes me wonder what I would do if that were me. If I couldn’t go home, and I lived in a shack with 7 other people, had one meal a day, was expected to have children at 17, was not worth more than the time I spent cooking…what kind of person would I be? It’s rather strange that you can be right in the middle of extreme poverty, and that you can let yourself love the people you meet, but it is still just never quite real.

A census about two years ago found that nearly 40% of the population in this country lives in conditions like those—another 40% hovers just above the poverty line…that means nearly 80% of the population in this country lives like this! The people I met this past week lived on an average of $1.50-$3.00 a day—for an entire family of anywhere from 6-10 people usually. Again, I am here working with these people, and it still seems unreal.

I hope stories like this make people stop and think about their values and what they are doing with their lives. Often times, people need to hear a real life story that they cannot ignore in order to change. This e-mail was something I couldn’t ignore. Granted, it hits me harder because it’s from a best friend, but I think the story brings up several questions you should seriously ask yourself:

• Why were you born into your life?
• What are you doing to improve the lives of others?

While traveling Europe 2 years ago, my perception about life changed for the better. I no longer pay much attention to the material possessions I own. I don’t care if I have a trick stereo in my car, a HDTV, or a brand new computer — there’s much more to life than that. All the materialistic bullshit in America is pathetic. Regardless, your true friends and family shouldn’t care what material possessions you have. Though I haven’t taken a vacation in awhile, I now save my money for travel. I realize I’m only 25 and have strayed outside the US borders just once (though I did hit 13 countries during my 2 month trip), but if you haven’t traveled the world — please do so and get some perspective outside the confines of your “safe” zone. It’s the best thing you can possibly do. It helps you realize the “necessities” such as shoes and electricity are NOT necessities, but extreme LUXURIES to much of the world’s population.

I’m going to the Dominican Republic in late November, both to visit my friend as well as to get some 1st hand experience with micro-finance, so I’ll definitely share my experiences along with some photos after (or maybe during) my trip. I think there is a huge need to catapult all the great things micro-lenders around the world (and non-profits like Kiva) are doing into the national spotlight. If you’re passionate about micro-finance and bringing people out of poverty, please either leave a comment or e-mail me — maybe we can collaborate and figure out a way to bring more attention to these stories and issues.

This video is over a year old, but a friend sent it to me on Facebook today and I hadn’t seen it — so I imagine some of you haven’t either.

In the age of social media, are corporations evil? Chris Brogan has an interesting take on the subject that is worth reading (in response to this article). This is the paragraph I really related to (since I’m a community relations guy):

From Faceless to Human

It’s REAL easy to throw stones at a company. Earlier in the year, I found the startup where I worked, Network2, in a situation where a passionate community had some disapproval of how we’d done certain things with the product. And the fire from the community was hot. People were passionately against how we’d done certain things (it was essentially an opt-out vs. opt-in issue).

I found myself in the position of being the “face” of that organization, and showing people that I wasn’t a big company, or an evil corporation. I was a guy, a guy who made mistakes like everyone else, and a human. Further, I wasn’t just someone capitalizing on the community. I was part of it. So, three dozen apologies later, and lots of attempts to better understand people, I discovered a better path. I believe, all this time later, that what little standing I have with that community was earned by showing them that I’m a human representing an organization.

Humanizing a brand is exactly why social media is powerful. It’s easy to dislike a company, but not so easy to dislike a person you know. When you think of a company & automatically think of a person you know as opposed to thinking of “the Corporation” — that’s a good thing for the company in my mind.

So, my answer is — of course corporations participating in social media are not evil.

The New York Times is getting rid of their current subscription model. The NYT finally realized they can likely make more money from advertising than from the 227,000 subscribers paying for premium content.

The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times and to some students and educators.

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.

I’m pretty confident they will grow traffic pretty significantly as a result of ditching the subscription model (in addition to opening up their archives to everyone). More content will be viewable by search engines. More bloggers will link to them. The cycle will repeat itself numerous times and the end result? More visitors, both from blogs and search engines.

I won’t say the subscription model is “dead” — but I will say any business relying on a subscription model is in serious danger. Too many others will be willing to try their hand giving away information/content and trying to earn revenue via advertising.

Today, my buddy sent me a link to this article by Jonah Keri at ESPN page 2 — titled “100 Players You Love to Hate.” This article is a can’t miss for any sports fan. I’m sure almost every sports fan has several players they just despise — I certainly do.  If you’re a seattle sports fan, number 100 will certainly ring a bell — Bobby Ayala. Another one on the list Seattlites will recognize is Rick Mirer, who was possibly the biggest bust ever (don’t forget Dan McGwire though).

If you’re wondering who is at the top of my list, it’s probably Kobe Bryant. Turns out I’m not the only person who thinks Kobe should have been on the list — the 1st comment by RajRerunDwayne says this:

Kobe isn’t on this list…are you kidding me? He has divided Laker Nation like no one else, and he doesn’t even crack the Top 100? I’m stunned.

Who is the sports player you hate the most??

I was just looking for more businesses to loan to and got this message on kiva.org -

Due to a recent surge in support ignited by viewers of the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today Show, and readers of President Clinton’s newly released book Giving, there is currently a shortage of businesses in need of loans. The Kiva.org staff and our Field Partners are working overtime to get more businesses on the website. In the meantime, thank you for your patience!

I’m pretty certain no one will be complaining about this message.

It’s no secret I love what Kiva.org is doing. The other day, I got an e-mail regarding my Kiva loan. Here’s an update about the Kodjo’s Store that I loaned to -

The business you have loaned to, Kodjo’s Store, has made a repayment of $75.00. The total amount repaid up to now is $75.00. The payment was collected and deposited by Microfund Togo. This repayment will be divided amongst all the lenders who helped to fund this business, depending upon the percentage each lender contributed. Note that you cannot actually withdraw or reloan these funds until after the loan term is complete.

In my mind, this is proof that microfinance can and does work.

If you haven’t looked at Kiva.org, I’d encourage you to do so & find a business to loan to (minimum $25).

Seth Godin has brought up a subject worth talking about — NFYB.

“Not for your blog” is becoming more and more of an issue as the line between “off the record” on “on the record” is blurring with the increase in citizen journalism.

So next time you want to say something “off the record” — make sure to tell them NFYB (especially in tech hotspots like the Bay Area).

I just wanted to quickly congratulate Marshall Kirkpatrick for his new role at Read/Write Web. He has chosen to step down from his role at Splashcast and focus more on breaking news and providing interesting content on Read/Write. I always enjoy reading Marshall’s writing and now he’ll have a much larger built-in audience for his writing.

Congrats on the new gig!

I really try to stay away from political posts & don’t know what got me thinking about this specific subject tonight, but I decided to write it anyway.

I’ve thought about this issue quite a bit over the last couple years. My basic thesis is that the major reason that the innovative business execs who SHOULD be running this country aren’t is that there is too much bullshit involved in politics. By “should be running this country,” I mean those who could balance our budget and solve some of the major issues this country faces (healthcare, social security, etc). Innovators don’t want to spend time dealing with bureaucracy (which is what politics is) all day long — they want to make things happen quickly. That means weeks, not months or years. Many who have a strong desire for helping others and improving the world choose to instead focus their time/effort in the non-profit sector, where they can actually see immediate progress for their time. Non-profits such as the Gates Foundation, Kiva, ONE, and the Grameen Bank are where the innovative business leaders go.

And the people who ARE running this country? Well, many of them seem to be the ones that enjoy wining and dining w/ lobbyists and holding positions of power.

Several of my friends have told me they can see me in politics later on in life — but I’m not convinced yet. Like many others with an entrepreneurial mindset, I don’t have a huge amount of patience, something that is critical in politics. Without patience, it would be difficult to champion a bill for several months or a year to the House or Senate. But maybe my thinking will change over the next decade or two, who knows.

In the mean time, hopefully, Obama can change politics.

With the speed of the blogosphere, this is old news already on Techmeme, but interesting nonetheless. Kara Swisher reports that Facebook may be doing some additional fundraising to tide them over til a potential IPO. I wonder which company or type of company FB is thinking about acquiring if they take on a massive round of funding? Facebook’s got it all going for them right now. I can’t even really remember the last time I heard myspace in the traditional media (which is awesome). The lack of the media attention probably has something to do w/ myspace’s declining traffic — Compete now ranks facebook as the 3rd most trafficed page on the net.

Here’s a slideshow for the marketers reading this.

[Via This is Going to Be Big w/ Credit to Social Media Buzz]

Digg this if you’re tired of IE costing you money!

[Via Matt Goyer's Real Estate Blog]

The Washington Post reported today that the Deptartment of Justice has decided it is okay for internet service providers to charge a premium for priority web traffic. I wrote about the issue of “Net neutrality” back in March and my thinking still hasn’t changed on the issue — ISP’s being able to charge content providers for the right to reach consumers at high speeds (read: rich user-experience)  is terrible for internet innovation as a whole. I’m tired of the stranglehold network providers have on their respective industries — consumers shouldn’t have their hand forced regarding what search engine to use or which online video site to watch based upon which content providers are willing to pay ISP’s for high-speed internet broadband capabilities.

Here’s the DOJ’s official comments on the issue. I think the following argument by the DOJ is absolutely ridiculous -

The Department also noted that differentiating service levels and pricing is a common and often efficient way of allocating scarce resources and satisfying consumer demand. The U.S. Postal Service, for example, allows consumers to send packages with a variety of different delivery guarantees and speeds, from bulk mail to overnight delivery. These differentiated services respond to market demand and expand consumer choice.

There is a huge difference between the post office and the internet. The content received in the mail is the EXACT same no matter how long it takes to reach your front door — whether that be overnight, 3-day, 7-day, or over a month (it took 4 weeks for postcards I sent from Italy to arrive in Washington). However, the content available online via a T1 line versus a 56k dial-up modem is VASTLY different. An internet user is not going to be able to watch CNN video or listen to streaming audio on a slow modem, unless they are willing to wait 30 – 60 minutes to download a file. Remember what it was like to download a 1 megabyte file back in the 90′s? Click download, leave the computer for an hour or two, and then come back. Well, the DOJ’s decision potentially takes us back to the 90′s in terms of internet experience — varying speeds of internet broadband for different content providers is a huge step backward for internet innovation; it increases the barriers for new players building internet businesses. Much of the reason for the wealth of recent innovation over the last several years is that barriers to entry are low and broadband is fast (and was getting faster) — and I don’t believe we should be adding barriers back into the equation.

At this point, my hope is that one large provider will refuse to charge content providers for priority web traffic and the others are forced to follow.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see which internet companies pay for “priority web traffic.”

There are a stack of blogs who covered this issue today at Techmeme – so head there and check out some of the commentary if you want to read further.

Note: I’m tired and going to bed, so forgive me if all my thoughts aren’t totally thought out.