Hacking for Good

Two interesting examples of organisations using the mechanisms of existing popular websites to create revenue. These examples show that sometimes if you think intelligently and creatively about how things work now, you can work the system. In these two cases, for good cause. Enter the ‘fundraising hack’.

The video you’re watching above is a video by Creative Commons, the first nonprofit organization to raise money through online video sharing. Apart from it being a very informative and (I think) pretty cool creation, it’s also shared here for a reason. CC say

We’ve uploaded our short videos to Revver … Revver attaches a short ad at the end of each video on its network. When a viewer clicks on the ad, Revver splits the resulting ad revenue with the video’s creator. Usually, it’s a 50/50 split, but Revver is generously giving Creative Commons 100% of the money our videos make through the end of our fundraising campaign on December 31, 2006.

Meanwhile, this week Worldchanging organised a group hack of Amazon.com on 1st November. The plan was simple: co-ordinate potential readers of its Al Gore-endorsed new book to simultaneously purchase the book from Amazon on 1/11, and in so doing catapult the book to the top of the amazon bestseller list, thereby ‘hacking’ the usual route to besteller status. Guess what?

It reached number 12 in the bestseller chart. (As I write this, dropped only a little to 33.)

Perhaps almost as joyful is to see the obvious fun everyone’s enjoying whilst purchasing Worldchanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century.

Nice work, Worldchanging.

Has anyone got more ideas? (and can please we borrow them?)