New Media Days 08 came and went. We’ve spent the past week feeling equally exhausted as conference organisers and ecstatic about the great feedback we’re getting from our guests; it’s an invaluable resource when planning for New Media Days 09 and we love you too!
Speaking of days past: Last Wednesday was Blog Action Day. 13.000 bloggers writing on the subject of poverty reaching 13.000.000 readers across the globe with the aim of changing the conversation, raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum. I had enlisted the New Media Blog for this important cause, but alas… Blog Action Day came and went and no post materialized. Sorry.
Of course it’s never too late to speak up about poverty, so I will now make amends for poor blogging character and let you in on the New Action Media subjects I considered:
One of our nominees for New Media of The Year 2008, MyC4 is a Danish micro banking initiative with a mission: “Let’s end poverty by 2015.” The scale, however, is not limited to Denmark: “So far 8,895 investors from 75 countries have invested €4,978,520 in 2,979 businesses in 6 African countries.” Besides investing in small African businesses, users on the MyC4 platform are also encouraged to share their knowledge and resources in a social forum forming a true web 2.0 link between developed and developing societies.
MyC4 would be the obvious Scandinavian web service to highlight on a Blog Action Day about poverty – and now I did – but New Media Days had already nominated them for an award, so I was looking for something else…
Suddenly We Mobile sprung to mind. Since it’s the mobile service provider I use myself, I was actually quite surprised I didn’t think of them sooner. Perhaps the explanation lies in the subtle business plan: Donate to a charity organisation of your choice every time you call or text somebody. A charitable concept so discrete that you almost forget you’re a regular philanthropist!
We Mobile went public with their charity telco concept one year ago. Back then I did a blog post in Danish about them and immediately signed up for their services. Running on the TDC network the coverage was great and the prices were little more than those of Telmore.
Four economists thought up the business plan as a sustainable non-profit experiment and launched We Mobile as a pet project while occupying high profile jobs as CEOs and CAOs of Danish companies. No shareholders, no marketing, just charity and phone services.
UNICEF is my charity of choice and in one year I’ve donated 231,72 DKK (€30) to secure the safety, education and health of children across the world. That counts as minimizing poverty right? It may not be huge a huge sum, but it’s still something. As We Mobile’s slogan goes: “Conversation helps.”
Anyways, for a Blog Action Day post I wanted to talk to one of the founders about We Mobile one year post-launch, but due to both of us being engulfed in other work it hasn’t happened yet. I’m the patient type, though, and sometime next week probably I’ll post some founder’s perspective right here. Hang tight, and don’t hang up – it’s for a good cause, remember.