I have been following the FACT Social Justice Challenge and have been honored by the outpouring of support for the KABISSA CONNECTIONS project in the comments (see below) and number of fans. It appears the other African projects we support are also doing well which I find tremendously gratifying.

If you have not yet decided on all 5 projects you want to vote for and share our vision for empowering African organizations at the grassroots, please consider adding KABISSA CONNECTIONS to your ballot. Our project will help build their repuation online by revealing the many positive relationships they have with each other and with international organizations, foundations and online networks.  

Since there is no open leaderboard, please also tick the star or "add to my bookmarks" link on the Kabissa project page to help us see how we are doing. Add a comment too if you have suggestions or ideas for how you might use the platform. 

A selection of comments follows. 

Did you know that two thirds of people around the world who are blind are women?

To highlight this fact, Sightsavers has launched a Women and Blindness campaign in collaboration with iconic photographer Rankin. Working with six renowned make-up artists he has produced some incredible images, and we've launched a micro-site to showcase them:

 http://www.sightsavers.org/rankin

It would be great if you could view the site, share the link with your friends, family and colleagues, and become a fan of Sightsavers on Facebook and Twitter!

HI all,

I wanted to add a personal comment to the project description for PulseWire (www.pulsewire.net) because I truly believe that the mission and features of the project and web portal could dramatically change women's lives by putting needed resources and tools into their hands. I hope you will take another look at this project and realize how significant a project it is and help us to get it developed to share with all.

Joshua Levy at the Personal Democracy Forum has a post today about the use of MySpace for political campaigns and by advocacy organizations. He interviews Scott Goodstein, who has worked on the Save the Internet, Save1800Suicide and Military Free Zone campaigns, and me (I work for the Genocide Intervention Network).

In his NetSquared presentation with Howard Rheingold, Paul Saffo said that social movements, online and otherwise, "need elites" in order to effect change.

At first, this struck me as a popular myth — that social movements never accomplish things through activism alone — when in fact that's been pretty spectacularly disproven.

But then Paul continued, and said that what he meant was "thought leaders" like Dr. King — an instructive example, since his oratories and marches were supported by a network of churches and supporters and specific strategic planning that made his leadership possible. Read on...

I just submitted this as a question to Howard Rheingold for the session on disruption.

Listed here for anyone to comment on Information Barter.

• Given that empowerment of disempowered people is a positive disruptive force;
• Given that everyone knows something (for example, the local rural bus timetable);
• Given that it is empowering to share what you know, to have others value your knowledge;
• Given that people value things more if the things (including information) are not provided free;

Then what about information barter? - the process where information is traded for other information.

The CyberInstitute is adding to the “cornucopia of the commons” with online information for small businesses in developing countries, and investigating the use of information barter.