BMP is an experimental attempt to create a map of the business world that starts from critical information regarding certain companies, extends to their organizational structures, and spreads out to their shareholders, partners, etc.

Our database grows through two main efforts:

1. Searching for articles featuring a business element criticized for issues such as war profiteering, worker abuse and a bad environmental record, taking these companies and extracting all possible information on their business structure – including subsidiaries, affiliates, shareholders, owners and investments.

2. Charting as much of the general business world as possible, with an emphasis on household names and companies that supply common services and produce consumer products.

This growing map of the business world provides a scale by which to measure companies of interest, and to judge how much “blood money” runs through their corporate veins.

By looking up their preferred toothpaste brand, local gas stations, insurance company or stock portfolios, users will help in the effort to make BMP a comprehensive tool that covers much of the business world.

We hope to see ethical considerations become a stronger influence on shopping habits, and offer BMP as a research tool for professionals, activists, and consumers. Our view is that all our efforts in condemning these corporations are diminished when we end up buying their products, and that the public battle should be taken to the financial field. Instead of cooing at some of these companies when they pledge to make minor concessions, we should promote their best available competitors, and keep our grudge until the corporate climate and culture changes.

Our country is facing the Iraq War, the War on Terror, the Drug War, environmental policies, support for Africa, education, and health.

Our congressional representatives are supposed to represent our interest, but are under increasing pressure from lobbyist, corporations, and big money. 

Govit is a website that is inspired to help balance the power, and get your voice heard on the issues.

•  On Govit you can learn about popular legislation, and discuss it
• Vote on legislation and have your vote sent instantly to your representatives
• Compare your votes to your representative and other members
• Connect with other members and rally support for issues

As part of our digital Inclusion work, we are developing a holistic approach to media change. We realize the importance of creating a digital infrastructure that is accountable to and sustained by the community it aims to serve and support. The development of a community based DigiMapping system enables community members to identify and track their local technology assets over time would be helpful in creating a infrastructure that comprehensively addresses the access needs and concerns of historically marginalized communities and groups on their own terms.

A mapping system that focuses on neighborhood technology assets offers a strengths-based approach to developing priorities, and would address the limitations of needs-based development. For example, county-wide needs surveys that are designed to extrapolate results down to the neighborhood level neglect specific neighborhood trends. In addition, county-wide surveys are often landline/telephone based, and exclude important segments of the population such as those without phones or permanent homes. Factors such as language, calling hours, and sample diversity are variables that weigh heavily on the quality of survey data, and yet are easily dismissed once decisions are made. By focusing exclusively on what is deficient in a community, needs-based approaches fail to incorporate the positive characteristics of a neighborhood into the survey. This gap has social implications that are beyond methodological. Our goal is to create a new method which better reflect neighborhood needs, desires, assets, and capacities which would translate into more effective and sustainable improvements for communities.

The information available through our proposed DigMapping system would be helpful for funders, policymakers, researchers, and organizers engaged in sustainable development, technology infrastructure, and community building strategies.

The project will change how we look at the world, thinking spatially and in terms of layered interwoven societal drivers.

With a map as the primary navigation tool users can access information on local, regional, national and international scales about:

1. The challenges;

2. Available resources;

3. Who is working to overcome the challenges; and

4. How 1,2 and 3 can be synergised.

Once upon a time, we all knew our neighbors.

We knew Daisy, the golden retriever addicted to soggy tennis balls. We knew the saggy sofa in the den, stained by one too many Strawberry Jello spills by the kids. We knew the noise of the lawnmower, the squeek of the garage door or the buzz of the doorbell. We knew just when we'd hear footsteps slogging up the stairway or when the elevator would ping open.

Now. in all too many cases, we only see 'neighborhood' on Sunday nights via Desperate Housewives or via Big Brother.

One of the best things about knowing your neighbors was knowing things like which house has the twins with chicken pox . . . which street has a couple of persistent gushers bubbling up . . . who has been 'down' with the flu or fighting breast cancer . . what new building/development is going on . . is that creek still flowing or drying up . . .

If we all still had BLOCK PARTIES, yes, that remnant of the 50's or 60's or whatever Leave It To Beaver era in which those organic mob-projects occurred, maybe we would have enough information to protect us and each other.

Yes, there are a wide variety of domestic and international public health/service agencies that track disease, safety issues, environmental trends, etc. But there are certainly legions of examples of why perhaps even the most ethical of public or corporate organizations seldom tell the whole or even the most realistic stories.

Which is why we must tap into the power of citizen journalism . . . or Neighbor-Sourcing to complete a realistic picture of health trends of all kinds, from traditional health care issues (including insurance) to environmental and safety. By harvesting glocallogy tools such as mapping, crowdsourcing and even crowdfunding, we may be able to act more quickly on trends, problems -- or opportunities -- as they occur. We need not wait for the government to announce issues long after it is too late to do something.

Greener One is empowering millions of mainstream consumers to shop responsibly.

The Greener One project is based on the following premise:

1. Human consumption is the driving factor behind environmental degradation.
2. People want to make the right purchasing choices, but:
   • They don’t know how to determine which products are better for the environment.
   • They don’t want to sacrifice quality or convenience.

Our goal is to provide a simple environmental score for most products sold in major retail outlets across the US online and offline. We are bringing this score to the point of sale when and where people make purchasing decisions.

The end result is twofold: first, companies will take notice that people are buying more responsible products and change their practices accordingly, and second and more importantly, the more that consumers buy greener products, the less damage will be done to the environment. Greener One believes that the positive power of information + critical mass = real change.

Agri Mashup is a strategic tool to increase data utilization for creating new economic opportunities and will have a considerable impact on facilitating access to information and knowledge for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) segment.

This project also present opportunity for visionary companies looking for new markets to increase competitive advantage while helping BoP communities meet their basic needs but also accelerate economic growth, reduce inequality and poverty.

Update for the DonateNow Mashup Challenge:

We are building a networking tool that uses a recommender system (similar to netflix.com or amazon.com) to help individuals and organizations understand which opportunities they are most likely to find interesting.

Communicating and collaborating online is no longer as simple as connecting with more people; the Internet is far too large and information overload can be as uninspiring as silence. Our solution is targeted information. When nonprofits use Squarepeg to build relationships and ask for donations, our recommender system will help them focus on individuals that are most likely to be inspired by their work. Individuals who use Squarepeg to find opportunities and organize people will have a more enjoyable user experience because we will mashup recommender data and social data, and filter out information that individuals are unlikely to act upon.

Utility: Squarepeg’s social networking features facilitate many tasks that are of daily concern for engaged individuals and organizations: finding or disseminating relevant opportunities, maintaining or building new relationships, and organizing and promoting events in a decentralized environment. We are quite ambitious about integrating online communication with tasks that occur offline, but Squarepeg’s recommender system is our most unique utility. A critical characteristic of this recommender system is that it is seamlessly integrated with social communication tools that will aid individuals and organizations in their everyday tasks. As a result, users will benefit from the efficiency and precision of this recommender system without significantly increasing their workload.

User Experience: Squarepeg cares deeply about removing noise, so that attractive opportunities for social change (such as donating to a particular campaign or initiative) are easier to find and are more actionable. Our commitment to targeted information, rather than just MORE information, is central to our theory of change. It also will have a huge impact on user experience. In addition to developing a user interface that is as simple, sensible, and as engaging as possible, our social action recommender system will help users identify and accomplish their online goals without sorting through loads and loads of information that they do not find interesting. Check out our progress: www.squarepegged.org

A Superfund site is an uncontrolled or abandoned place where hazardous waste is located, possibly affecting local ecosystems or people. Sites are listed on the National Priorities List (NPL) upon completion of Hazard Ranking System (HRS) screening, public solicitation of comments about the proposed site, and after all comments have been addressed.

For many years, I lived in a very large Superfund site area without knowing and I'm sure many are in the same situation. This is because the EPA's pollution information is buried in the files on the web that are not easily human readable. Even the information provided by the EPA is only cursory, naming possible hazards and whether is has yet been deemed "clean."

The "EPA Superfund Mashup: Exposing Environmental Hazards In Your Area" Project will make the 200+ Superfund Site's information visually available and human readable. It will promote engagement and accountability in private and public cleanup efforts and encourage those who live and work in those areas to document cleanup efforts and the human effect of large scale air, water, and soil pollution.