Hi everyone,

As part of the global SAP Corporate Social Responsibility team, I am responsible for managing our worldwide Technology Donation program that provides free reporting and data visualizaton tools to over 900 non-profts each year in 15 countries. We have been partnering with TechSoup for quite a while now and am excited about the many possibilites to engage.

Today is the final day of community voting for the 2010 FACT Social Justice Challenge. We need your support so please come VOTE. Let us start by saying a huge thank you to all the people who have already voted for the 60 seconds of Hope campaign, your support has been fantastic. 

VOTING requires a couple of minutes of your time. We wish it was easier, so here are some short directions to help make it as quick as possible:

1. Follow our link - Click VOTE and be redirected to another window where you will need to quickly register.

Voting is still open for the 2010 FACT Social Justice Challenge and Tole-rants Connect needs your help. Please spare a few moments and VOTE for 60 seconds of Hope.

The Tole-rants movement has garnered tremendous support in its inaugural year from partners such as The Council of Europe, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Search for Common Ground, Odyssey Networks, Youth Leader Magazine, and many other inspirational organizations.

Voting is now open for the 2010 FACT Social Justice Challenge and Tole-rants Connect needs YOUR help.

Community voting is open from the 11th October – 15th October. This is where you come in. We need your support and your vote to ensure that we have the best chance of being 1 of 15 featured projects selected for the expert judging round and the chance of receiving critical support to fund this important initiative.

Voting only takes a minute. So please come and vote for us at Tole-rants Connect Spread the word to friends, family, work colleagues, and anyone with a passion for “Communicating Solutions” via twitter, facebook, word of mouth, whatever you can think of.

I recently had the opportunity to connect with Kedar to learn about a new project to help users measure and manage their consumption, in effect encouraging them to control their environmental impact.  I found the project so interesting that I wanted to share it with you here in an interview, covering some key questions from Kedar.  There's also a chance for you to provide your feedback, ideas, and even contribute!

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International aid agency Oxfam launched ClimateVoice this week, bringing bloggers from around the world to New York for today’s high level climate summit at the United Nations, Clinton Global Iniative, Climate Week NYC events.

 Visit www.tcktcktck.org/climatevoice to see the coverage

Within the next month or two, events are being hosted in British Columbia, Paris, and San Francisco – helping to bring together and foster collaboration for those working within the environmental & social change space.

I wonder if there may be a unifying force striving through all of these gatherings - as if around the globe we are seeing that a renewed sense of collaboration is a major key to addressing our world's challenges. Take a look at the events and see for yourself!

Josh Catone (@Catone) recently shared a post on Mashable entitled, How To Use the Web for Socially Responsible Shopping. In the post, Josh profiled nine sites that “offer information for the conscious consumer about the companies and products we buy every day.”

Josh did an excellent job highlighting and bringing together an array of awesome tools: Knowmore, GoodGuide, Crocodyl, ClimateCounts, Transnationale, Corporate Critic, Citizens Market, Do the Right Thing, and Source Map.

And then in the comments, the Mashable community shared more great resources: Tuggly, MadeinNations, Business & Human Rights, EthiScore, Vanno, GreenLighted, and Zumer.

As well, there are even more useful sites which feature green & sustainability ratings – like 3rdWhale & GenGreen (who announced a partnership last night) GreenAmerica, Bilumi, BadBuster, & SustainLane. The list definitely goes on!

The thing is, after you read the post – you're left wondering: “Who is bringing all this data together?”

Who's making it easy to search across these sites? Who's working on making sense of the data – to potentially create aggregate profiles or scores. Who's working on open standards and formats so sites can talk to each other? Who's facilitating an Open API (like the Social Actions API & WiserEarth API) – to spread this information where it can be most relevant online? Who's figuring out the business & collaboration models so open sharing can be more likely to happen?

Catone's post changes the game because it forces us to look at the green shopping sector as a whole and wonder how we can help take it to the next level.

What do you think? How can we support and leverage this exploding sector to ultimately empower millions of people to shop in ways that create a better environmental & social impact?

Excited for your thoughts!

An entirely non-commercial forum site for local green groups and organizations has been created at Local Green Forum.    It is designed specifically for sharing information about environmental action at the local level.  This is an excerpt from the home page –

"This is a place where local communities can share information.  Although our site has been created for the Green Team at East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, WA, other church groups, schools, university groups, and local organizations are encouraged to use the site as well.  Originally created for the Puget Sound area, our forum can be easily expanded to accommodate local groups outside our area.  
 
Our Purpose

This month's Net2 Think Tank question is: How do real-world (offline) events fit into social media conversations and campaigns?

My thinking: Social media conversations and online campaigns create whole new models for bringing together & powering the progressive movement. Although at core: People coming together in the real-world are key to fueling how we organize for change. We need real world events to be a central part of our online organizing. We need offline events to meet each other, bond eye-to-eye, and forge the collaborations that will make our social networks stronger, better connected, and ultimately transformative.

So - a major question is: How can your online community also support events in the real world? What kind of offline events are the best fit for your community? And what real world event models can you learn from or partner with? Well, let's look at five different event types and see if one or more of 'em sparks some ideas for your community!