A conversation on TED.com: how can we make 'doing good' as easy as clicking a button?

Nathan Courcy
Norway, ME
United States

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how can we make 'doing good' as easy as clicking a button?

there are like buttons, email to check, tweets, quickmemes, upvotes, endless distractions. how can rewire our obsessive, novelty and reward seeking internet-based behaviors so those same impulses create tangible positive impacts on the world around us? And still be just as instantly 'rewarding' and addictive? what are some projects that are trying to do this? what might such projects look like?

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Topics: collaboration social change technology

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edward long 30+
- 0
Dec 24 2011: Install a "Contribute to Edward Long" button on the TED Conversations home page.
Rhona Pavis 30+
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Dec 24 2011: Program yourself to do good. Take a day, a week, a month, a year and a day and intentionally commit good acts. You will find that doing good will become a habit. As you do this, others will observe you doing this and notice the positive impacts it has on you and others and they will emulate your behavior. No need to make any effort at all to control other people. Just control your own behavior according to your own good values. POWER TO THE POSITIVE! Happy Today.
James Kindler 10+
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Dec 24 2011: Doing good instantly is easy and you don't need a computer to do it. Need is all around us and your mind is faster than any computer. When you see a need, do good and fill that need no matter who or what it is. The satisfaction is instant.
Nathan Courcy
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Dec 24 2011: so, I suppose the kickstarter model is one approach. would this be basically about redirecting small/.99cent app-store style purchases to 'social-justice' style causes, organizations and projects? what are some reputable web based groups that are doing this? why can kickstarter accept $1 payments but a site like kiva.com has a minimum $25? is there a way to overcome the social and genetic hardwiring and happenstance that makes it so much easier for this (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1168745039/i-hate-being-single-season-finale (just to take an example at random) get $6,000 than for (http://www.kiva.org/lend/357646) also at random, to raise $1500?

Are there other ways to do this? do your internet clicks and 'impact' actually have a use apart from data for advertisers to harvest, or communication within your social circles? is 'internet activity' a resource you could harvest and distribute for some good, somehow? Such as the model of those anonymous DDoS attacks, using easily downloadable software/instructions, etc to plug into. except, with other goals/causes in mind, such as....? donating cpu time? (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-ways-to-donate-your-cpu-time-to-science/)