Maybe you’ve noticed.  There’s something special going on at Mashable: The Summer of Social Good initiative. The uber technology and social media blog has created a charitable fund to benefit The Humane Society, LIVESTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF from June 1st until August 28th, 2009.  And while raising monies directly for these organizations, the media site has done more, already highlighting more than hundred voices and organizations in the social good movement.

Mashable Second in Command and COO Adam Hirsch took some time out of his busy schedule to interview with the Buzz Bin. Hirsch shed some light on this unusual and very special initiative.

GL: Why did Mashable host the Summer of Social Good initiative?

AH:  Mashable has always supported charitable movements in social media. Personally, I was very inspired by our CEO and Founder, Pete Cashmore’s birthday wish to donate money to Charity:Water. I felt there had to be a way to use Mashable’s social media influence directly to raise charitable contributions and awareness.

In February of 2009, after witnessing the Twestival growth, the idea for the Summer of Social Good was finalized and I began working on the many components and partners that you see today. We are also working on an educational event on August 28^th, 2009 that will take place in New York City. Our sponsors, Zappos and Mailchimp are covering the costs of the campaign and the event, so all donations and ticket sales go to the charitable fund.

GL: How does this differentiate you from other top tier social media/tech blogs?

AH: The Mashable team is a positive and enthusiastic group that feels strongly about using our social media influence to make a difference. I believe this attitude carries over in our editorial voice, operations and initiatives. Combined with strong editorial and resource content, forward and positive thinking, we have been able to emerge and separate ourselves from other blogs.

GL: What has your reader response been?

AH: The response has been fantastic overall. We are constantly receiving positive comments, notes and emails. The Summer of Social Good is not just a straight charitable campaign, it’s also an educational platform.

Every week, we are launching a new week-long engagement to interact and share some great stories, fun projects, and rewarding opportunities. Our audience is diverse and we aim to try and include everyone this summer in one way or another. Throughout the campaign our readers have been extremely helpful.

This is officially the first charitable campaign created and run by Mashable. We are certainly not experts in this field and we are trying to put our best foot forward, but sometimes we make mistakes. Many readers have come to me personally to offer advice and help to improve the campaign and create a better experience for our readers and the charities involved.

GL: Tell us about the wrap-up event in New York on August 28.  What do you hope it will do?

AH: Our wrap-up event at the 92nd Street Y in New York on August 28th will be both educational and celebratory. We plan to bring together industry leaders, representatives from a number of charities and organizations involved in the social media space, and members of our diverse audience for a day of learning and networking that we hope will lead to future collaborations and partnerships in the social media for good space.

Additionally, since 100% of ticket sales will be donated to our fund equally benefiting LIVESTRONG, The Humane Society, WWF, and Oxfam America, we hope to be able to add a large contribution to our ongoing online efforts.

GL: Midway through your effort, you’ve launched the #findthegood hashtag with the series.  What’s your goal there?

AH: #FindingTheGood was the theme for one of our week-long series that just concluded. The idea and goal behind it was to share, by using our influence, the other charitable projects out there that fit the theme of “Social Media for Social Good”.

Each day we shared a story about our charities involved (The Humane Society, LiveSTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF), and in addition we shared stories about other organizations’ and individuals’ initiatives and programs as well. However, this wasn’t just about Mashable’s coverage, it was about getting our communities involved and having them to share their “finds” as well. Although the “official” #FindingTheGood week has ended, we hope that this theme/concept and hashtag will live on.

GL: What will Mashable do in this space after the summer ends?

AH: We’ve always been great proponents of charitable organizations and projects using social media. This will not change. Through emails, comments and contacts, The Summer of Social Good has made us more aware of a huge spectrum of projects and organizations out there that previously were not on our radar. With the new audience and relationships in this space, we plan to become more involved.

GL: What has been the big takeaway from this initiative from your perspective?

AH: Thus far we’ve had two major takeaways: The first is that our community rocks! The second is that there is still a lot to learn and improve upon and I’m excited to do that.

About Adam Hirsch

Adam Hirsch, Chief Operations Officer, joined Mashable in Fall of 2007 as Community and Marketing Manager. Adam oversees Mashable’s business development, including marketing, partnerships, advertising and sponsorships, and events. His initiatives include the Open Web Awards and Summer of Social Good, as well as event series such as the Summer Mash Tour of 2008 and the 92YTribeca NextUp NYC educational series.

As Pete Cashmore’s “2nd in Command," Adam is always on the hunt for partnerships and opportunities to improve Mashable and connect with its dedicated readership. Adam is a New York City native and a graduate of Cornell University.

Last week, Mashable highlighted 75 Twitterers talking green online, but they’re not the only ones. Now with the increasingly widespread proliferation of social media in the corporate world, nonprofits and companies are getting into the mix, too. So I teamed with Mashable to write up five organizations – the United Nations, Dell, Greenpeace, the Environmental Defense Fund and GM – that are using social media to affect ecological change. Check out the post (Image courtesy of Axel_D on Flickr).

Since publishing on Mashable, another initiative has come to my attention that you can participate in today. charity: water is developing a gelaskin to raise money.  They’re asking Internet citizens to vote on which skin they like better via TwitPic comments. Vote today!

One of the most bizarre aspects of the Iran protests has been the claim of Netizens that it’s a Twitter revolution.  Certainly, our conversational medium has made great strides in the rapid spread of information. In fact, the use of social media has been a critical tool in the spread of ideas, not only amongst Iranians but in their ability to inform the world.  So let’s not get over our heads. People make revolutions happen, not tools.

The Washington Post had a great opinion piece on this topic this morning.  Here was the key section that I found compelling:

…there are sharp limits on what Twitter and other Web tools such as Facebook and blogs can do for citizens in authoritarian societies. The 140 characters allowed in a tweet are not the end of politics as we know it — and at times can even play into the hands of hard-line regimes.

Indeed, Twitter and all conversational media tools really are just that: Tools.  They can be used for good or bad purposes, and in the particular case of short forms, they do not equate to in depth information or understanding.  It’s really about people, and how they use these Internet tools to spread information, and what that data causes them to do. 

I had the great honor of appearing on Voice of America’s international broadcast last week to discuss this very topic. Conversational tools spread information in an uncontrolled fashion. Actions create revolutions, not the tools, but the tools have evolved over time to allow for instantaneous, independent movement outside of governments.  Consider the following historical development of communication:

1) The Gutenberg press was invented in 1440: The resulting books triggered the Renaissance and the spread of ideas throughout Europe in roughly 50 years. Information can be spread in weeks on a continent, and months or years depending on location of foreign countries.

2) By the 17th century, we had newspapers thanks to moveable type. Newspapers really took off in the 18th century.  As information spread quicker, we saw Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin create newspapers and documents. The rise of the fourth estate allows American and French revolutionaries to create Democracy. The trend accelerates in the 19th century.

3) The 20th century brought broadcast and mass communications. Propaganda wars take place amongst many political theologies, from Goebels and the Nazis to FDR and Fireside chats to the Stalin and Mao-brands of communism. Democracy spreads further, but autocratic regimes use broadcast to control their citizens.  Information is now spread in hours instead of in days.

4) The Internet also rose in the 20th century, but it is only in this decade that we’ve realized the dream of a Gutenberg press in everyone’s hand. Now because of conversational media anyone can be a citizen journalist.  Information is spread instantaneously, beating out broadcast, and autocratic control is no longer effective for societies enabled with mobile or regular Internet communications.

But in spite of the spread and the break of control we still have a very desperate situation in Iran.  Violent protests have broken out as the now information enabled the Moussavi opposition and supporters refuse to accept the broadcasted message of their government.

Now the real revolution must occur… Or falter.  Autocratic control has lots its grip on information in Iran, but not the military.  The human-powered Internet only serves as a toolset to organize and galvanize the Moussavi opposition in spite of Iran’s best attempts to control its people using conventional media. It’s a time of action, of stones in the street, of bloodshed. May it pass swiftly, successfully, and with minimal loss.

It’s been one week since we launched the List of Change, and the response has been outstanding. In that time, as of this morning when we complete our daily update, more than 115 changebloggers will have joined the original 10 blogs that populated the list. The end result is a List of Change that’s 125 bloggers strong.

Beth Kanter, Shannon Whitley and I will donate our efforts to the Chronicle of Philanthropy when the publication turns up its new web site. In the interim, we will continue to use the List as a means to promote the 125 changebloggers, and overall, hopefully benefit the many causes they represent.

To the many changebloggers particiapting in the List: Thank you for your fantastic support. We hope the List is useful to you, and want it to help your efforts by bringing you more community awareness and participation. Please let us know how we can be of service to your efforts.

Towards that end, we’ve already taken the master OPML file, fed it into Yahoo Pipes, and created an RSS stream for the collective List of Change. We’ve also created a Twitter profile for the List of Change, which is live, but also features periodic tweets from the collective RSS stream (h/t Joe Solomon for your help).

There are more ways to promote the changebloggers via the List that we are exploring, and we’re open to your suggestions. Please feel free to use the comments here as a means of adding your thoughts.

We still hope to attract more changebloggers to the list so feel free to tell friends about it. And we hope to improve the list with more function, etc. We have already begun discussing the BlogLines metric and whether or not to continue it. Again, we’re open to suggestions as the List of Change is really a tool to benefit the larger community.

The United Nations Environment Programme has engaged in a really cool Twitter campaign. For every follower @UNEPandYou gets by midnight on June 5 — World Environment Day — the Programme will plant a tree, with a cap of 100,000 trees.

The Twitter effort seeks to raise awareness of the World Environment Day initiative by not only getting followers, but also rewarding them with an actionable result. It’s a great PR move, not only for the immediate program, but it helps the UN build a following for the long term.

This will be especially crucial as the environmental movement braces itself for the United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen this December. Having a Twitter network will allow the UN to participate in the social context, answer questions, as well as offer news news and facts.  Social media is something traditional green players are struggling to master while newer online brands like Ecogeek, Treehugger and Triple Pundit have risen to the fore.

This campaign is reminiscent of the Nature Conservancy’s Lil Green Patch initiative.  Lil Green Patch is wildly successful, in large part because of the call-to-action is easy (little badge), and creates a feel good action, saving one square foot of rain forest.

The Friends of Live Earth Network (join today) is supporting the initiative, so I’d like to ask any of my green conscious readers to participate, too.   Go plant a tree by following @UNEPandYou.  If you would like your tweet to be tracked, use the hashtag #t4t.  Thank you in advance!

Today, Beth Kanter, Shannon Whitley and I are launching the List of Change, a ranking of the top English-language change and cause-related blogs in the world. The ranking provides a glimpse into the change and cause bloggers who are trying to positively affect our lives throughout the world. The List of Change only uses open APIs to weigh statistical performance, and does not include any subjective measures. Any blogger can participate by submitting their URL for inclusion in the List of Change.

The List of Change was developed by programmer Shannon Whitley and I, and is co-facilitated by leading Changeblogger Beth Kanter. The List was also one of Qui Diaz’s last projects as an employee of Livingston Communications.

Shannon and I created the List because we ended up owning the ranking code, something that happened during the past year and a half. We wanted to use the code for good, and as participants in the nonprofit industry we could think of no better place to do so. Beth thought it was a great idea, and graciously agreed to lend her name to and promote the List, thereby helping us give the ranking to the nonprofit industry. By creating the List of Change we felt we could benefit the sector for several reasons:

1) It will provide a single point of aggregation for change blogs, allowing new and old readers alike to discover new blogs

2) Change and cause bloggers can use the list to promote themselves to new readers. They can also use the list to benchmark their own performance against their peers.

3) We realize that some people see rankings as competitive or subjective, and don’t want to participate. The List of Change is an opt in ranking where change bloggers have to submit their URL to become part of the ranking. Only those who truly want to participate will, thus keeping a spirit of fellowship among the listed.

4) At SXSW Panel on Social Media ROI for Nonprofits - KD Paine was asked a question about metrics for blogs. KD said that she couldn’t answer that because you’d need to have some industry or nonprofit benchmark. And, if one does not exist - trade that information with your colleagues. The list helps facilitate the exchange of benchmarks. So, it isn’t about the score or the number - it gives an industry number and way to begin thinking about to improve our effort.

And so here we are. We hope you agree, and will join the List of Change today.

“The “List of Change” is something that has been needed in the non-profit and social change blogosphere for awhile,” said Fly4Change Changeblogger Alex “SocialBttrfly” Rampy. “It’ll help welcome newcomers and highlight our growing and diverse community. Whether you consider yourself a changeblogger, do-gooder, non-profiteer or have a heart for social good, get to know this valuable community. Engage them in conversation and recruit others in your wake as our times call for all hands on deck.”

There is no profit motive behind the List. While this is currently being hosted on the livingstonbuzz.com URL, my professional blog’s domain, the ultimate intent is to move the list to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s site when it launches its redesigned philanthropy.com. Thank you to Peter Panepento and the Chronicle team for serving as our partners in this endeavor.

When we do move the List to the Chronicle’s site, we will donate the code without financial compensation. You will also note there are no corporate logos affiliated with the list either. This is literally a gift from Shannon, Beth and I.

Methodology

Credit for the idea behind the List of Change Index goes to Todd Andrlik, who developed the AdAge Power150. Many of the sources for the List of Change are the same as the original Power150, including Technorati Rank, Technorati InLinks, Bloglines Subscribers, Alexa Points, Google PageRank, and Yahoo InLinks. The List of Change takes a slightly different approach in generating the actual ranks. All of the blogs are essentially graded on a curve, using standard deviations to rank the blogs against each other on a scale of 0 – 100.

P.S. I want to thank my employer CRT/tanaka for supporting my philanthropic side projects. Without their silent, but substantive help it would be much harder for me to participate.

Facebook Causes is oft criticized for its ability to build causes with tens of thousands of followers yet relatively few donations. But is it really the fault of the program, or the tendency for organizations deploying Causes (as well as a wide variety of social media tools across the Internet)? Isn’t the problem that we’re relying on tools instead of interacting with key stakeholders in communities?

To that point, it’s people that drive social media, not tools.  And so while an app can get people to join, it can’t make the right kind of ask for donations that an influential member of a network could.  A network of 100 influentials with strong connections can make a much bigger impact than 100,000 passive followers with no vested interest in the cause (brand, company, effort, etc.).

To demonstrate this point, I decided to use my birthday as a fundraising mechanism to raise money for the Clean Energy Coalition.  It seemed like a natural fit for this purpose, 70k members in the organization’s cause page and $996 in donations as of May 15th.  With a decent, but certainly not the largest Facebook network of more than 1500, I embarked on my birthday cause campaign to raise at least an initial goal $500 for the cause, if not tripling the funds to date.

As of 7 p.m. today, the eve of my birthday, I had raised $452. I had increased the amount of financial donations by almost 50% in just two weeks.  Imagine what 100 of me could do. $50,000? $100,000? 

The evidence is obvious.  Facebook Causes isn’t really the issue. The Cause application is just a tool that works best when people use it to fundraise, for their birthday or in general. Social media that involves commitments works best when people drive the initiatives as opposed to software programs.

P.S.

Thank you to everyone who donated to the Clean Energy Coalition on my behalf.  I really appreciate it.  My interest in the Coalition, Live Earth and other green efforts is a sincere one.

As I said in the original citation, for me the environmental crisis is the challenge of our generation. While we are focused on the current economic issue, it’s apparent that the ecological changes we are all facing continue to accelerate. We need to collectively ban together and change our lifestyles and habits to save energy, water and other precious resources while reducing our carbon footprint.

If you’d like to donate, my birthday cause page is here.

One of the biggest barriers to success can be traditional political positioning, the legacy of past representations and stances. Organizations can be encumbered with their prior actions, permanently creating a legacy that will always be part of the fabric of their brand reputation. And rebellious types can permanently alienate the establishment. There is no market space that seems to embody this quite like the environmental arena, where “treehuggers” regularly do battle with “suits.”

Unfortunately, the rebellious treehugger and the corporate suit were very appropriate images as short a period ago as five years. That was before Al Gore put to bed the questioning of global warming’s legitimacy . Now, in my opinion, that dichotomy is hurting the green movement.

While appropriate positions to combat or not combat political activism, it’s time for these antagonistic positions to move on as part of our ecological history. Yes, there is room for further political discourse, but it’s no longer a world of black and white. This is particularly true now that a vast majority of Americans and companies see general environmental action as a good move.

The common ground has to be taking action, whether that’s using filtered water instead of bottles, or refitting factories and buildings for energy preservation. All actions equal forward motion. That’s the common ground.

What should be viewed as wrong is extremism on either side. The only requirement for participation in sustainability is a desire to participate, from activist to large energy companies. Positive activity fuels more activity. Everyone wins when we all move forward in leaps or baby steps. That’s the positioning of now, and the environmental view we should all encourage regardless of our political stance or history (suit image by Greg Verdino).

We need a sense of compassion for the problem, and forgiveness for past legacies… So long as there is genuine interest to move forward in a progressive fashion (as opposed to greenwashing).

That’s one of the reasons why I really enjoy the Live Earth work. It’s about embracing everyone in an effort to move forward rather than get stuck on old positions. In that sense, it’s a recognition of the very significant problem we have, something that affects every single person on this planet.

I travel a lot, usually two cities a week, and get to see many places.  Last week’s trip to Detroit for the United Way’s Staff Leadership Conference affected me more than most (photos here).

The epicenter of America’s economic crisis has to be Detroit.  A city already beleaguered by long-standing auto industry woes and economic plight, the recession has hit the city hard, driving it into depression.  Real estate prices in the region are at astonishing low rates.

Nothing emphasized the hard times more than a trip to the restroom at the convention center (I always have to go frequently before I speak. Yeah, I know: TMI.). On my way out, two gentlemen walked in and physically blocked my exit, demanding a donation from me.  I politely declined while knifing my body between the men and through the door. No harm, no foul, but I did get a security guard to escort the gentlemen out.

Several reports of missing laptops coincided my experience.  Chalk it all up to signs of the times in Detroit, where things are pretty desperate right now.  Crime is but a by-product.

Such times bring a natural exodus. Yet, many of this city’s citizens refuse to give up.  They love their hometown and are committed to sticking it out.  And that’s what makes this situation so heart-rending, and yet full of hope.

Bottoms and Faith

It wasn’t all scary bathroom trips. There was the genuine kindness most Detroit citizens emote.  They are good people who want you to feel welcome, and that is clear.  When I discussed such problems, they were quick to defend their hometown, too. Detroit’s a good place, they said universally.

I  met with GM’s Social Media Wonk Christopher Barger for coffee.  Barger is a transplant who has only lived in Detroit for two years, but like other residents adamantly defends the city.

Barger told me of the city’s commitment to work through this, to change its business focus, to evolve and grow through the time. He cited the incredible family first and stick-togetherness that’s almost universal throughout Detroit.  And the city’s hope that a new focus on green, from the Volt and other auto initiatives to attracting general ecologically friendly industries could turn the tide. Perhaps even more tenacious was an attitude that this will take years, and that people were ready for the long haul.

Unlike New Orleans, another city that’s suffered great duress recently, there is no natural disaster to blame for Detroit’s situation. When New Orleans suffered the horrible knock out blow that Katrina delivered, associations and sports leagues rallied to host events there and infuse travel dollars. United Way did Detroit a service by being there, and talking with my friends in the organization it was a natural choice. It would be great if the U.S. events industry in general would also rally around Detroit.

Because of the nature of this situation, America seems to have abandoned Detroit.  That’s too bad, because I admire the city’s people.

Detroit reminds me of my youthful days in a severely depressed Philadelphia during the 80s, where I spent my weekends in Center City. I remember watching on TV as Mayor Wilson Goode bombed MOVE’s headquarters and burned down two city blocks.  That was Philly’s bottom.  That city was in hell then. I was personally mugged in the midst of a crowded street, and had my car broken into twice.  Other family members suffered worse crimes.  You never felt safe, and were always watching your back in the city.

Yet Philadelphians – like Detroit’s citizens – were committed to their culture and kept trying to move the yardstick forward.  Twenty years later, it’s a pretty cool city that for the most part I recognize, but only in the way you recognize an adult who was once a child from your past. Same, but different.

I know it’s bad right now, Detroit, but I love your heart. Keep the faith, things can and probably will get better.

Now that almost everyone across the political spectrum agrees that we are facing an ecological crisis, the main challenge of the green movement seems to be getting people to actually change behaviors. But this challenge is greater than it seems. It involves changing lifestyles that have become central to our culture for the past 100 years, ever since electricity has become part of our lives.

One of the best examples of marketing this lifestyle change is the Smart Home Green + WIRED exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (pictured above). This fun exhibit takes green and conservation needs and mixes it with the sexy, sizzle of the geekery known as WIRED! But more on this later. First, let’s take a look at the communications challenge that the green movement faces.

Three Big Hurdles

This inability to get past acknowledging the ecocrisis and actually acting upon it reminds me of an old adage. If a frog decides to jump off a log what happens? Nothing. He just “decided,” he didn’t do anything to actually physically leave the log.

So people talk green, but don’t act green. They keep taking 20 minute showers, leave the lights and computer on, and buy gas guzzlers while avoiding hybrid cars or mass transit. Companies greenwash their marketing message, and then serve bottles of water and print every email possible. As we can see, green is not necessarily pure green, it’s light green, medium green, and dark treehugger green (or any shade in between).

There’s a core of barriers stopping green from achieving immediate movement status with people. These issues are beyond the political differences that stand between the various range of liberal and conservative stakeholders in the ecomovement. For green to be quickly and successfully adapted, these hurdles need to be addressed by environmental groups, companies, and governing bodies alike:

1) Green products and services are technological innovations, too. That means the diffusion of green is suffering from the usual cycle of innovators and early adopters, as discussed by Everett Rogers in his timeless classic, “Diffusion of Innovations.” So while they make sense, they’re unproven, expensive and quite frankly, most people don’t feel comfortable (safe) buying these products yet.

2) The cost of green does not outweigh the cheapness and comfortable lifestyle of the current carbon footprint. And the good samaritan argument is not compelling enough to get people to move forward. Many feel the situation needs to get worse before people act. The most common lament I hear about this from green bloggers and environmentalists is, “by the time the crisis hits, it will be too late!”

3) There’s still a school marmish attitude towards green. I associate the word “conservation” with this attitude. In short, beyond the economics, beyond the fear of new technology, it’s just not cool or sexy to be green. It’s the right thing to do, but so is staying home on school nights. :)

These three factors equal a massive communications problem for everyone, businesses and consumers alike. And to me, this is not a public awareness campaign, more the need for green companies to make their wares attractive to end-users — as opposed to the right thing to do. We need Steve Jobs now, not Al Gore.

Green + WIRED = Sexy

Remember when nerds were really just nerds? You know, dorks?

Well those days are long over. The iPhone culture means being a geek girl or boy is sexy, and popularity contests for follower or friend counts dominate discussions of what makes for a good community member. Social media and tech geekery has become avant garde.

Nothing epitomizes this more than WIRED magazine, which has been at the forefront of the tech revolution for past two decades. Heck, WIRED even has a sexiest geeks contest every year.

One of the more interesting aspects of WIRED editorial coverage is its evolution beyond Internet related matters into the environmental space. Exhibits like the Green + WIRED teaming make environmental technology more than just the right thing to do, or an act of conservation. Accompanying efforts online, include blogs like EcoGeek and ecofriend are adding to the fire.

The geekification of green technology has begun in earnest, and in it lies great promise for societal adoption of environmentally progressive purchasing en masse. The discussion and seeding of green tech amongst innovators and early adopters in today’s geek community hastens the adoption curve. We’ve already seen the widespread adoption of social media and Internet access toys like netbooks and mobile Internet phones over the past few years.

It’s no secret that when there’s an air of panache associated with products, people are willing to pay a higher price for them. Hello iMac! Making green technology products more than the right thing to do, and adding an air of attractiveness to them is just smart.

In our current context, these activities open green tech to a new stakeholder beyond the do-gooder ecologist. And they add an element of sex appeal to green. While the climatologist is necessary, it’s time to move beyond brow beating environmental action into slow adoption. It’s time to market green + geek.