"Fundathon": toward massively multiplayer online fundraising games.The Need Walkathons, bikeathons, concerts, and similar events have a large overhead, and often return disappointingly little money to the cause (there are important exceptions). Getting hundreds of people to walk two miles or bike two hundred may be good for exercise and for networking, but the headline physical activity such as walking or pedaling does not by itself fight AIDS. The real purpose of these events is to provide opportunities to ask people for money--a good thing, but at a heavy cost in extraneous ex·tra·ne·ous adj. 1. Not constituting a vital element or part. 2. Inessential or unrelated to the topic or matter at hand; irrelevant. See Synonyms at irrelevant. 3. effort. We need alternatives. A fundraising
(2) A software-based control panel for one or more applications, network devices or industrial machines. Dashboards display simulated gauges and dials that look somewhat like an automobile dashboard. (a public Web page showing results in colorful multimedia displays, once the bankcard bank·card n. A card issued by a bank authorizing the holder to receive bank services and often functioning as a debit card. , etc. has been successfully charged), letting donors and everyone else see the action right away. Donors might click to fund special projects if they want to, each described on the fundraising site. And their money will be available for use immediately. Using the dashboard to most effectively support emergency relief could become a recognized skill. Two or more competing teams might raise money for the same cause--or for different causes, including competitions between ideological opponents or competitors in the same game. Donor Recognition Donors can get recognition for their gift if they wish, by leaving their name or any acceptable short message on the same multimedia page that shows current result (which team is ahead, etc.) Larger donations will receive more prominent messages--allowing bidding wars between donors, which could greatly increase the money raised. Donors could get a password to change or delete To remove an item of data from a file or to remove a file from the disk. See file wipe, trash and undelete. 1. (operating system) delete - (Or "erase") To make a file inaccessible. their message later if they wish. In a world of relentless competition for attention, giving a lot of money to a good cause through such a contest will be one quick way to get it. And these Web pages might be publicly archived after the contest and saved online indefinitely in·def·i·nite adj. Not definite, especially: a. Unclear; vague. b. Lacking precise limits: an indefinite leave of absence. c. , linked to the histories of relevant movements, organizations, and people--a modem, digital totem pole totem pole Carved and painted vertical log, constructed by many Northwest Coast Indian peoples. The poles display mythological images, usually animal spirits, whose significance is their association with the lineage. Each figure represents a type of family crest. . Recognition works in fundraising; note donors' names on multimillion-dollar buildings. The recognition here has the advantage of being immediate, hopefully eternal (outlasting a physical building at least), flexible (donors can provide messages and multimedia, not just their names), and always changeable by the donor or whoever has his or her password. And there is digital precedent--for example, the university student who sold a million pixels See pixel. at $1 each, to be displayed with links for at least five years at http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com Besides the competition between teams, and sometimes bidding wars between donors, individual fundraisers themselves could compete for recognition and prizes for raising a lot of money. When making a contribution, donors could credit whichever fundraiser or team they wanted to (usually the one that brought them into the contest). Probably the best strategy for teams to win these fundraising games will be to organize major donors in advance. The winning play will start before the game officially begins. Walkathons, etc. work because they give a different, lighter kind of occasion to discuss donations--separate from the grim realities in the background (which still provide the central motivation). A fundraising contest has the same advantage. But instead of a walk, the main activity is to find, meet with, and mobilize mo·bi·lize v. 1. To make mobile or capable of movement. 2. To restore the power of motion to a joint. 3. To release into the body, as glycogen from the liver. potential donors, especially big donors, in competition with other fundraisers and teams. Accountability Instant publication of all online donation amounts will improve transparency and accountability. Donors could direct their funds into subprojects or even specific purchases of their choice. Eventually, software could publicly track the actual use of every donation. The cost of the computer processing will be trivial (except for the standard bank-card or PayPal fees), so people will expect (and be able to confirm) that almost all of their money goes to the purpose for which it was given. Campaigns by new or less-known organizations could be audited and certified See certification. in various ways to assure trust. Major donors can and will insist on accountability. Summary This contest structure will bring a host of motivations and social occasions into play. Fundraising usually works best as a socially meaningful process, instead of just asking people to write checks. But while most fundraising events have substantial overhead to bring the people together, a fundathon could have almost none. One Web site could support many separate fundathons, for many different causes. Once such a site is available, creating the technology for a new fundathon will be easy, much like starting a biog. If you know of any existing site that allows users to set up their own fundraising contests, please let us know. Massively multiplayer online games “MMO” redirects here. For other uses, see MMO (disambiguation). Massively multiplayer online game (also called MMOG or simply MMO) is a computer game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. and other activities (such as World of Warcraft “WoW” redirects here. For other uses, see Wow.  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. , EverQuest, or Second Life) have created an industry
with experience in what does or does not work in this format. The cash
value in real money generated by business within some currently existing
online games is greater than the entire national income of many
countries. Could this experience help improve or even revolutionize rev·o·lu·tion·ize tr.v. rev·o·lu·tion·ized, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·ing, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·es 1. To bring about a radical change in: Television has revolutionized news coverage. 2. support for activist and charitable organizations This article is about charitable organizations. For other uses of the word charity, see Charity. A charitable organization (also known as a charity) is an organization with charitable purposes only. ? We see no reason why not. |
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