Post by Chris Golden, Executive Director

On Sunday, I took a day trip to New York City to speak on a panel on social media and new technology at the bi-annual Millennium Campus Network Conference. For 3 days, about 600 students from around the country, and several from around the world, gathered on the campus of Columbia University to discuss progress made towards the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, and how it will be imperative on our Generation to respond to the urgent problems facing our world. 

The focus of my small contribution to the Conference was how micro-actions, previously confined and singular in nature, can be amplified, magnified and combined using social media to make progress towards large problems. Faced with the challenge of a sleepy audience as I took the stage, I boldly declared that the era of “1:1 was over.” That got some attention. Then I qualified what I meant in the context of how individuals- citizens, volunteers, activisits, advocates- can do extraordinary things, and how new technology can enhance and extend offline action through new online tools.

As the story of myImpact.org comes clearer in focus, this concept- micro actions towards large problems- is one that is defining both our civic mission and our technical purpose. I presented a similar story Wednesday evening as myImpact.org began a fall series of workshop presentations at the National Young Leaders Conference to high school student leaders. 

myImpact.org is back in New York City today - as invited guests to attend The #Promise- an innovative daylong conference being hosted by the organization WeSocial along with a ton of partner organizations including TED, GOOD, FastCompany, JustMeans and PepsiCo. The event is focused on corporate social responsibility- and companies are being invited throughout the day to announce their commitments- their promises. You can follow along throughout the day online at www.thepromiseny.com and by following the hashtags #thepromise (information about the event) and #promise (commitments). 

For myImpact.org- the event is exiting for two reasons. 1) As a recipient of a Pepsi Refresh Project grant, it’s an opportunity for us to attend an event hosted by the managers of that online competition- namely PepsiCo and GOOD Magazine. (Pepsi Refresh has already been talked about extensively today). and 2) With less than one week until the beta launch of our platform- it gives us a good assessment of the current status of social media & corporate social responsibility- an area that we have plans to move in to in 2011. For example, Timberland mentioned that one of the main ways that they measure their social responsibility is by the engagement of their employee volunteers. Timberland has a longstanding relationship with City Year- another myImpact partner. 

The #Promise is taking place as part of New York Internet Week- a two-week technology festival similar to DC Week- which myImpact.org will be taking part in next week in Washington.