(A version of this item, with live links, is also available at
<http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2006/12/22/2591268.html>.)
Dear ISF Colleagues,
True confession: I intensely dislike giving presents on traditional
occasions and holidays. I'm an enthusiastic spontaneous gift-giver,
but have little patience for the social pressure and consumerist
hysteria that build up around the current season. I'd rather not give
or receive pointless trinkets.
But I do like meaningful gifts!
That's why I'm so enthusiastic about the new web-based project called
"Changing The Present." If you'd like to give or receive the gift of
positive social change, you might consider visiting the web site.
You can create a donation wish list for yourself (such as "peace,"
"human rights," "cancer research," "digital divide," or "civil
society," et cetera) - or encourage your loved ones to stipulate the
causes or nonprofit organizations that are closest to their hearts.
The web site also features a Stupid Gifts Hall of Shame that will
probably make you feel twice as good about spending $6.00 USD to to
fund one day of tech training through the Committee for Democracy in
Information Technology rather than spending an equivalent amount on
Sea Monkeys for someone on your list.
Best regards from Deborah
P.S. Full disclosure of financial relationship: I'm just a fan of
Changing The Present. They don't pay me to promote their web site, or
to do anything else!
Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn%40post.harvard.edu">deborah_elizabeth_finn
post.harvard.edu
www.cyber-yenta.org
"What is good...but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with your god?" (Micah 6:8)
.