Moonlighting for iMediaConnection, fellow Renegade Shana Lory and I wrote an article on emerging social networks that emerged last week. We got a lot of positive feedback about the content though we’ve been bombarded by folks representing sites that didn’t make the cut. Some took a positive tact while others criticized our selections suggesting that we didn’t have all our facts straight. For the record, I am reminded of William Goldman’s opening to his book Adventures in the Screen Trade in which he said “no one knows anything.”
With that off my chest, I want to call your attention to a great article on CoolHunting regarding cause oriented social networks. I have nothing but praise for this compilation and offer the highlights below:
Their potential as powerful tools for the greater good—beyond finding out where the party’s at—has been largely untapped, but we managed to find a few. The following are some of the latest and best sites where social networking meets social change.
A virtual soapbox for the online masses, the U.K.-based Friction TV is an online forum for public debate launching in the U.S. next month.
Nabuur uses an online platform to efficiently connect experts to people seeking advice from all over the world.
Helping to solve environmental and humanitarian problems, HumaniNet is a space to share Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to better map rural locations in need of relief.
Recently graduating out of Beta phase as of a couple weeks ago, Get Miro is open-source software for online video.
H.E.L.P. (Humanitarian Emergency Logistics & Preparedness) is a telemedicine-based online community of physicians and financial donors bringing advanced medical assistance to disaster zones and areas of humanitarian need around the world.
Building on Muhammad Yunus’ Nobel prize-winning efforts at pioneering a new category of banking known as micro-loans, Kiva is a site that connects the world’s poorer populations looking to develop unique business ideas to people with disposable incomes while providing a transparent lending platform.
Designed to highlight the connection between money and politics as a way to promote reform, MAPLight links campaign contributions and votes.
Combining social networking with the environmental movement, the four year-old site Freecycle creates a global gift economy in an nonprofit online community.
I encourage you to read the whole post. It is truly inspiring to see all the ways people can get together online to do some good. Marketers would be smart to carefully review this list for potential partnership opportunities with the dual goals of helping their brands and the world they share.