Fred Wilson is a well known and respected leader at Union Square Ventures, a New York City based venture fund that has invested in the likes of blog management system Feedburner and online marketplace for home-made goods, Etsy. Fred has a ritual of taking a vacation to Europe for a month every year. He describes it as a way to refresh, and achieve a unique perspective on how his particular area of interest, web, is affecting and improving the lives of those around the world. Before his plane took off across the pond, he took a moment to reflect on Web 2.0 and where’s its headed on his blog. Clearly, there is a tone of frustration and anxiousness in his discussion as he laments about “Throwing food at your friends on Facebook” and he explains, “The work that we do at Union Square Ventures can't just be about making money. At least that's not enough for me. It has to be a force for positive social change. It needs to be about making the world a better place for our children and their children.” Wilson goes on to mention a series of objectives presented in media strategist Umair Haque’s musings titled, “A Manifesto for the Next Indutrial Revolution”. This next revolution of web, Haque argues, must seek to achieve the following goals:

Organize the world’s hunger.
Organize the world's energy.
Organize the world's thirst.
Organize the world’s health.
Organize the world’s freedom.
Organize the world’s finance.
Organize the world’s education.

It’s an incredibly daunting list to look at. Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger, 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, over 2 million people die each year from AIDS, and nearly one billion people in the world are illiterate. Soaring oil prices stare us in the face each day at the gas pump, tuition costs are rising faster and faster, and the U.S. economy is on a downhill dive.

Can all of that change? Is it changing? And how can web 2.0 even attempt to begin to organize, or better understand and improve, some of the world’s most pressing problems and topics? Well, web 2.0 in this regard is not perfect, and it’s not the full answer, but it’s significant, and it’s making a change. It may even be safe to say that web 2.0 is changing the world. That’s not something new is it? Well, take a step back. We’re not talking about changing the world in all the obvious ways that are commonly associated with web: not how it’s changing the way we communicate, the way we establish and preserve relationships, not even the way we find information. No, changing the world, in this conversation, is about taking on the most impossible tasks and creating significant improvements in each field. Take a closer look:

Organize the world’s hunger.

The Hunger Site- The perfect example of how a single click of the mouse can make a difference? The Hunger Site, where visitor’s clicks are turned into food donations, supported by sponsors and advertisers of the website. Since its launch in 1999, the site has funded over 573 million cups of food. More than half a billion cups of staple food have found their way to people in need in 74 countries that the program supports, and all it took was a click of the mouse from the estimated 220,000 people who visit the website each day. The Hunger Site is part of the GreaterGood Network, a series of websites that operate in a similar manner and support other issues including literacy efforts, breast cancer mammograms, and rain forest preservation. Each click generates just a penny or so, but it adds up – the network generated over $1.5 million last year to dedicate towards their campaigns. COO Lisa Halstead says, “There is now this forum for people all around the world to take action together to support an issue, and small actions can really add up to do a lot of good.” Small actions that would not be possible if it weren’t for the advent of the internet. Take a moment, and go click- it will make a world of difference.

FreeRice - What if you could improve your vocabulary while donating food to those who need it most? Free Rice operates on this principle. Visitors to the site are prompted to answer questions asking about the meaning of words such as “despoil”, “wizen”, and “intrinsic”. For each word correctly defined, 20 grains of rice is donated through the United Nations World Food Program. Words get more difficult and obscure, going up to level 50, which features words like “inimical”, “anamenesis” and “coquille”. FreeRice defines its two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

The premise is working -visitors contribute an average of 100,000 grains of rice to the fund each day, bringing FreeRice’s total to nearly 38 billion grains of rice! (By the way, inimical=hostile, coquille=scalloped dish, and anamenesis=recollection.)

Organize the world’s energy

TerraPass- Dr. Karl Ulrich biked sixteen miles a day to and from his office: a classroom at the University of Pennsylvania. But, sometimes he needed to drive, especially when he headed up to build a new cabin in Vermont. A strong environmentalist, Dr. Ulrich was torn and wished there was someway to offset all the emissions that his weekend drives created. He did some research, but wasn’t satisfied with the current options. So, in the fall of 2004, Dr. Ulrich walked into his classroom and presented his students a check for $5,000 and a mission: to create an easy way for everyday citizens to help offset their carbon dioxide emissions. Today, TerraPass is the brainchild of the students research and ideas. Users purchase different levels of carbon offsets based off the Carbon Footprint Calculator, and TerraPass uses these contributions to help fuel clean energy and efficiency projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as Wind Farms. TerraPass is making a difference: 946, 421, 186 lbs of co₂ has been reduced through the purchase of over 100,000 offsets. Adding TerraPass to simple, everyday changes to help combat the energy crisis and save the environment is a smart move that makes a big difference – something that wouldn’t have been possible without the web.

Organize the world’s thirst

PlayPumps International -Sure, PlayPumps International would be okay without the web – they’d be going about their business and helping create some change. But factor in the web and a dedicated following, and PlayPumps is creating a world of change. The groups mission is simple: leverage playground equipment into valuable tools to create clean water. PlayPumps are a powerful system of water pumps that operate through the power generated by children playing on the pumps. The group uses the web to expand and promote their mission – they use it to execute donation campaigns, including a recent drive that helped fund 100 new pumps in just 100 days, they use it to create interactive Google maps that show the location of their pumps, and they use it stay involved and connected on a number of popular social networks. Their efforts are working, and they are creating a world of change. Over 1,000 water pumps (each creating clean water for thousands) have been installed in 10 countries in Africa since 1994. Their future goals are lofty: reaching 10 million people in their target countries in the next few years. Sure, it’s a big goal, but with the advent of the web, and a potential audience of 1.4 billion users, anything is possible.

Organize the world’s health

Google Health-Google Health offers a way for anyone to organize their health information and create a unique health profile that compiles medical records, medications, and surgery reports into a powerful system. When you add a new medication into your profile, Google Health automatically checks for drug interactions and warns of possible side effects. The system also makes it easy to connect to relevant, local doctors and health care professionals by reviewing profiles and patient feedback ratings. Google Health is new, it’s still in Beta, but it’s an idea that has the potential to completely revolutionize the way people store and use their health information. Lethal interactions between multiple medicines result in the death of thousands of Americans each year, and many are blamed on doctors errors. Giving patients the ability to look out for their own well-being and take control of their health profiles may be an answer to stop the growing rate of drug error deaths.

WebMD- WebMD is the leading internet source of medical related resources and information. Research at Miami University has found services like WebMD to be beneficial in doctor-patient relationships, and has also found a growing trend in people using the services- up to 62.5% of patients say they now look up their medical information on their own before they meet with doctors. Clearly, WebMD is changing the way health information is organized and accessed, and its bringing that change into doctors offices across the country and around the world.

Organize the world’s freedom

Political Base- Every statistic reads the same: Americans, in comparison to other countries, just don’t vote. Our level of political activism is low, and our knowledge of the potential candidates who are vying to lead our countries is often inaccurate or flawed. People point to a number of barriers, with lack of interest and concern being atop the list. In comes Political Base, an online wiki powered community that attempts to make politics a little more interesting and much more interactive. The site is robust- it’s a full community, populated by candidate and voter profiles, driven by numerous blogs and message boards, and overflowing with exciting, useful interactive features like Issue Comparison Grids, Company Contribution Lists, and Election Polls and Trends. Knowledge empowers…and empowerment creates change.

Organize the world’s finance

Kiva – Loans can help people buy lots of things – cars, houses, even expensive jewelry and fancy clothes. But loans can also change lives – truly change them in a powerful, meaningful way. That’s the whole idea behind Kiva.org – an organization that seeks “to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.” Kiva allows entrepreneurs in developing countries to have an audience for their pitch, and pitch they do – potential investors can sort through dozens of entrepreneurs who dabble in the agriculture, commerce, and services fields to support themselves and their families. Lenders make small loans – say $25 or $50- that are usually paid back to them within one year. Kiva has a dedicated, large following, and it’s working. 270,000 lenders have helped some 40,000 borrowers in over 40 countries. These numbers add up to $27 million in funds lent to deserving entrepreneurs in developing countries – a huge accomplishment that would not have been possible without the internet and the Web 2.0 movement.

edun LIVE- Does something as simple as a T-Shirt have the potential to change the world? edun LIVE thinks so, and they may be on to something. edun LIVE is a socially conscious t-shirt company launched in 2005 by U2′s Bono and his wife, Ali Hewston. The company distributes t-shirts that are 100% African grown and produced, supporting sustainable and safe employment in the five countries that edun LIVE operates in. One of the key ideas behind the venture is: trade not aid. edun LIVE is a for-profit initiative, a deliberate move that is mean to allow outside firms to see the economic values of sustainable and socially conscious operations. So how did edun LIVE leverage the internet to expand their brand? They partnered with Zazzle, a site that allows shirts to be customized, to give users unlimited freedom and flexibility in designing edun LIVE shirts. The brand also operates edun, a high fashion socially conscious line, and edun LIVE on Campus, which seeks to bring the shirts to the college market. Maybe one shirt really can make a difference.

Organzie the world’s education

MIT OpenCourseWare – How would education change if anyone, free of charge, could have access to over 1,800 courses at one of the leading universities in the world? Massachusetts Institute of Technology is dedicated to finding the answer by operating MIT OpenCourseWare, an online collection of the universities offerings in the form of lecture notes and videos, exams, and teacher guidance and discussion. The site isn’t inexpensive to maintain: the university, corporate sponsors, and individual donors work to cover the nearly $4 million it costs each year to operate OCW. It’s a high price – but one peek at the statistics and success stories of the program reveal that it has paid invaluable dividends. 1 million people visit the site each month, 59% of them are outside of the United States, and 49% of them use OCW solely as a self-learning tool. With time and dedication, the uses for using OCW are nearly endless.The most popular course include Physics, Linear Algebra, and Psychology, but the offerings also include some unique courses like Toy Product Design, Soil Behavior, Hip Hop, and Advanced Kitchen Chemistry. With 1,800 courses and access unhindered by location or tuition costs, OCW is truly changing how the world’s education is organized and accessed.

It’s a start. And, after all this, maybe it’s time for a new list…

So…

Answer a question and donate food or Click and feed the hungry.

Calculate and make up for your pollution.

Play and create clean drinking water.

Diagnose yourself and help your doctor or Track your health profile.

Participate and make your political voice heard.

Design a t-shirt and help an African farmer or Lend and change a life.

Educate yourself and make a difference.

If you like this post, please digg it and help create change.

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Dynamit was honored as one of the “Best Places to Work” in 2010 & 2011 by Columbus Business First newspaper and Interactive Agency of the Year. Times are even better in 2012 and we’re hiring a Web/Graphic Designer for our aggressively growing team.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on cutting edge projects for well-known brands in a dynamic, entrepreneurial and highly creative environment. Please email resumes/cover letters and portfolio information (documents or links to online examples) to Gary Moneysmith via gmoney@dynamit.us.

A web/graphic designer on the Dynamit team will:

• Be well versed with Adobe Creative Suite: Strong knowledge of Photoshop, experience with Illustrator and InDesign.
• Have a strong understanding of Usability & Web Trends: Experience with user interface design, knowledge of best practices & examples of this in a portfolio or live site/application design. They will also be up-to-date on web trends and design tactics with examples.
• Have experience in user experience design (UXD) designing application and system interfaces. This experience is crucial for this position.
• Have Basic Programming Knowledge: We’re not looking for a developer here, but the designer should have the ability to design for web with a knowledge of the boundaries and how to design for execution by a programmer.
• Have a Strong Portfolio: We’d like to see much more web work than print.
• Be eager to learn, with a passion for design & the web. The designer should have a strong internal drive for industry knowledge and be committed to furthering the craft.

Experience is important, but personality is key. Our culture is what drives us, and we’re looking to build our team with someone who both fits and contributes to it.

The position is full time at our office in the Arena District in Columbus, Ohio. We offer a competitive salary and benefits package as well as a fun, high-energy, intellectually-stimulating work environment.

Benefits Include

• Competitive salary (compensation will be based on skills and experience)
• Fully paid medical/dental insurance for employees
• Paid parking
• Unlimited vacation time (within reason)
• Office bar + climbing wall — not recommended together

Don’t sit back. If you want to work in a fast paced work environment with great people who love what they do, apply today.

About Dynamit
Dynamit is a digital agency based in the Arena District in Columbus, Ohio. We work with clients and brands on digital initiatives that include strategy, design, user experience and development. We influence communication and commerce. Client work includes Hilton Worldwide, Charley's Grilled Subs, McGraw-Hill, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), E-Z-GO, American Electric Power (AEP), Columbus College of Art & Design and the Ohio State Medical Center (OSUMC) to name but a few.