OpenIDEO is an online community platform where creative thinkers from all walks of life collaborate to solve social problems. This project from the newly created nonprofit arm of “design and innovation firm” IDEO leverages crowdsourced innovation, the design thinking of IDEO staff and the experience of mission-driven organizations to address critical social issues.

More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease. As hand-held mobile devises connected to the internet spread to cities, villages, remote communities around the world, we need to continue finding ways to use these tools to make a positive impact.

Here are a few ways you can use technology today to learn more and act for water conservation!

I recently had the opportunity to connect with Arié Moyal, the force behind HugTrainUSA.  You can learn more about the project in the interview below.

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!

This is Richard Landry, reporting live from the NetSquared Conference. I am covering the session entitled, “Measuring Impact in Online Communities,” led by Scott Moore, formerly of Schwab Learning, an online community dedicated to parents of children with learning difficulties. Scott is leading a discussion about the lessons he and his team learned from trying to measure the social impact of this online community, which closed its doors after several years in operation.

Live blogging is a practice of careful listening, and I have a long way to go in that area! So if you see something that I misunderstood or misreported, please post a comment/correction.

• projects
  • HELP
  • Freecycle Network
  • Big Brothers, Big Sisters
    

liveblogging for the social impact track of feedback session 4. I'm switching from the outline format I was using before to a Q&A format, I hope it's more readable:

• evaluators
  • Ginger Thompson - YouthNoise
  • David Sezaki - Global Voices
  • Tate Howsman - dotOrganize
• projects
  • Stop Family Violence
  • Miro
  • MyKenyanSpace
  • WiserEarth
  • Innovatorz

Liveblogging from the social impact track of feedback session 2.

• feedback
  • Micha Sifry (Personal Democracy Forum, Sunlight Foundation)
  • Diana Scarce (Monitor Institute)
  • Alexandra Samuel (Social Signal)
• projects
  • Genocide Intervention Network
  • Nabuur
  • Global Women's Leadership Network
  • Social Source Commons
    

Liveblogging from the social impact track of feedback session 1:

• evaluators
  • Tesse (I may have spelled this incorrectly - I can't find it on the attendee list)
  • Jonathan Peizer
  • Haney Armstrong
• projects
  • Maps 2.0
  • Grassroots.org
  • Family Farm
  • TakingITGLobal

Session 1: Social Impact

Reviewers: Haney Armstrong, Jonathan Peizer, Tessie Guillermo,

Maps 2.0

Expert Reviewer Questions: