Meet Entrepreneur Milcha Malaque

Let me introduce you to Milcha Malaque. She's an entrepreneur living in the Philippines, and thanks to Zoompass, I just loaned her $25 as an investment in her business via Kiva.

I did some research on the people that needed help, and was impressed by the fact that Milcha has already repaid a previous loan, and that revenue generated from her business will go to pay for her children's tuition fees.

People helping themselves is what it's all about, and I'm glad to invest in her future!

Blogger vs. Brands

I found this article very interesting.

Snip: London-based blogger Paul McCrudden has become the first to be paid for time 'owed' by brands after spending hours waiting around for different services and receiving poor responses from staff. McCruddon, who works in 'digital strategy and future technologies' at Imagination Digital, details his crusade on his blog, Six Weeks.

Here, he talks through the time he has spent sitting, viewing, queuing and waiting in restaurants or shops, put into context by contrasting with watching TV or sleeping, over a six-week period.

Hat tip: Contagious.

Hi, My Name's John And I'm A Social Media Addict, Kinda

I love this video. It's filmed nicely, and the script is spot on. But it got me thinking: am I a social media addict? Yes and no.

Yes, because if I don't write a blog post for a few days, connect to someone on LinkedIn, tweet about what I had for lunch -- my followers clamour for those insights -- upload a link on Facebook and generally immerse myself in the online world, then I get a bit shaky and my eyelid twitches in a disconcerting way.

No, because if I go on vacation for some much-needed R&R, then I don't feel the need to take a CrackBerry (don't have one, anyway), iPhone (waiting till the rates come down) or rush to find the nearest WiFi hotspot so I can log in, and not feel like I'm missing anything. The whole reason for the time off in the first place is to put things in perspective, wind down and realise that life is too short to be at work 24/7.

On a separate note -- quick plug for my friend in Ohio who's working on a Web-based sci-fi show called Aidan 5. I am setting up a social media monitoring system for them in return for calling one of the future characters "Evil Johnny C."

Social Media Revolution

TreeHugger

Greenscroll got its biggest spike in traffic so far today thanks to a nice mention by TreeHugger.

On a personal note, my wife read some of the comments on yesterday's Guardian review and asked if we thought it was going well, as there were some critical comments. It was a valid question.

The Greenscroll team expected to get those from the very start. We knew a million people weren't just going to say "Great idea! Here's my wad of cash. Go hither and do good."

We welcome the questions and critique; feedback is what we want every step of the way. Get the discussion started, and talk to people about the issues. My colleague Nik has already been into the comments section and put his point of view to address some of those. This is what we'll continue to do.

350.org

The above video is a promo for 350.org, something that is perfect for Greenscroll to get involved with. Will be checking it out.

We also got our first press mention today in the environment section of The Guardian; that helped with a spike in traffic.

Greenscroll Is Launching At 12:34:56 07/08/09

The Web is made up of numbers -- ones and zeroes -- so we thought it appropriate to officially launch Greenscroll at 12:34:56 07/08/09 as it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see that point in time come together like that.

It sums up our philosophy at Greenscroll: to bring people together who use the Web and help them offset some of the damage that the Web does to the environment, by encouraging them to invest in green energy projects and replenish the grid.

We're very excited to get this initiative off the ground, and ask that the green/tech community get behind it and help us to move it forward. We welcome feedback and conversation.

Thank you!

p.s. A special mention and thanks to @netscr1be for being Greenscroll's very first sign-up!

I Have My Twitter Follow Straightjacket On, And It's Tight

I tried to follow a cool person on Twitter last night, and was told that I had reached my follow limit of 2,001 people. The reason is in here somewhere or other. That really pisses me off.

Why? Because I have 1,682 followers of my own (thanks all!) and believe that 2,001-1,682=319 followers is not such a big margin. I also tweet on a regular basis and [99%] of that is original thoughts, not just retweets.

In other words, I am not a Lazy Tweeter and feel VERY frustrated that I can't follow more people. Sure, I can "drop one, add one" or open a second account, but it's taken me since May 2008 to build a solid Twitter presence and I want to carry on that integrity and foundation.

How does Ashton Kutcher get away with having over three million followers and only follow 190 people? Extra leeway for celebs?

This is not a post about the amount of people following me, by the way, but the fact I can't follow more than I do already. That means I am missing out on a lot of good stuff that people are tweeting right now that I'll never get to see.

Suggestions welcome.

/rant