Inside PBS Blog

Whatâ€â„¢s a good method to come up with new ways to use web for social good? Hereâ€â„¢s a curiously reflexive idea: Start a Facebook group about new ways to use web for social good.

Thatâ€â„¢s what Art Bushkin has done. The Washington D.C. venture capitalist and chairman of Stargazer.org, a collaboration tool for nonprofits, recently launched the âہ"Harnessing the Power of the Web for Social Goodâ€Â group on Facebook.

The online community, which already has more than 500 members, is attracting people interested in the social consequences of the web, with particular emphasis on coming up with uses and solutions that have socially beneficial applications. As Bushkin puts it in an online call to arms: âہ"The time has come to embark upon a cause to harness the power of the Web for social good, not just for social networkingâ€Â¦the time has come to raise a new standard.â€Â

The group has already swapped dozens of ideas, such as a planned web portal that will allow registrants to collect and virally generate fundraising for their preferred charity or civic action group. That in turn generated a discussion about how charitable and philanthropic websites need to do a better job about grabbing usersâ€â„¢ attention.

As one post diplomatically puts it: âہ"You only have a few seconds to grab people's attention. Expecting people to read a mission statement in the form of a letter speaking about the founder in the third person from the founder is perhaps not the most auspicious introduction to the site and the cause.â€Â

In fact, thatâ€â„¢s become one of the main themes of the Facebook group so far: Doing good on the web is no excuse not to do it well.