Maybe it’s the season or the recession or that I just need to pick some new locales to frequent, but it seems that my usual haunts have experienced a proliferation of fundraising street teams. For good causes. For causes I would, in theory, like to support, that I DO, support. HOWEVER.When the first of these street teams ventured forth in the early days of summer to counteract a long winter of impersonal mailing campaigns, they were still a novelty to me. Young, attractive guys with clipboards and cool hair would stand outside of my local Coffee Bean, smiling and asking mildly offensive leading questions such as, “Excuse me, miss, do you support human rights?” And I, like a moth to a flame or a Rainbow Trout to a sparkly worm, would take the bait.”Why, yes, I do!” I replied, forgetting entirely the lesson I learned a few years ago when sketchy salesmen would try to sell me two years worth of magazine subscriptions, which I would spend the 60 bucks on and subsequently receive with about a 50% success rate. (I know what you’re thinking. I’m thinking it, too.)From there, of course, I was a goner. It must have been so easy to see through my weak protestation, right to the core of my inability to just walk away (“I’m sorry, I really can’t make any donations today. Send me something in the mail? But first reassure me that you still think I’m a good person.”) At about minute four of our weird streetside discussion of the deplorable conditions pretty much everywhere, I took a brief look around at all the relieved people NOT rushing past, not staring ahead with grave determination, because I had approached the hungry lion and laid down as the sacrificial lamb.Finally, enough time had passed that I would have felt stupid if I didn’t just give him the $35, the “absolute minimum donation” that would do anything for anyone suffering right this moment as I breezed through my life of relative luxury, excess, and iced coffee. I’m not arguing with the absolute truth of that statement, I’m just saying. He gave me the hard sell even as he saw the fight go out of me.Somewhere in the course of these long minutes between my diving down the rabbit hole and his collection of my personal check, he asked me how old I was. No indication was ever given as to why that was relevant, but it confirmed (or disavowed?) some assumption of his that had the collateral effect of making me pay up that much faster. I’m sorry to say this scene, which always starts pleasantly enough until you realize you’re trapped, repeated itself just days later on my way into my preferred purveyor of liquid jitters. “Hi there! Do you support women’s rights?” I do, all $30 of me.Now, two months deep into the summer, I have wised up and sufficiently impoverished myself with trips to Mother Starbucks so as to adopt the techniques of a person who just keeps walking. I can’t stand to do so without at least some editorializing (shouts of “I’m so sorry!” as I practically run from their questions), and so far I’ve managed to keep my very susceptible checkbook in its place.And thus, I’m left wondering about this fundraising strategy. It seems predatory and wasteful of energetic, youthful manpower, and it makes me feel either guilty for rejecting these people who champion good causes or resentful if I help them do so. And why, if I have at least $30 a week for Starbucks, or sandwiches, or whatever, don’t I have $30 for them? If my cable bill was a person outside of a Coffee Bean, would I run from that too?So, I’m torn. For now, necessity has made my decision for me. Necessity is making that decision for a lot of people these days. But maybe it’s this central confusion that keeps the street teams in business. Because soon enough, winter will have come and gone, and it will be summer again, and I will probably need a coffee.

Posted in Confess

Here at AOK, our team is working on more than an app and more than a website. We are working on building a community – a living, growing, dynamic space for us to engage more deeply with each other to make an impact locally and, through Cause Currency, across the globe. It’s easy to slip into our routines, to orchestrate our days around maximizing efficiency, to hustle right past someone quietly requesting our help. But it’s also easy to pause for a second, take a look into the eyes of the people who surround us, and remember that we’re in this together. And isn’t it more fun that way?Pictory, the online photojournalism magazine, recently curated a feature entitled, “Local Legends.” These people (and in some cases their animals) have been adding color to their communities for decades, becoming as important to the identity of these diverse neighborhoods as the topography itself. Piragua Man, pictured above, can be reliably found on Avenue C in New York, doling out shaved ice in the summer heat. There are 21 additional Legends featured with gorgeous photography and brief essays here: Local Legends.One of the cool new features of the latest mobile app release is a way to view ‘My AOKs,’ a running list of all the mindful moments and kind gestures you’ve performed or observed since you downloaded the game. I can’t help but wonder what AOKs these local legends might share. As AOK grows, I hope we can find out.

Posted in Observe

Posted in Observe

It seems like everyone is doing battle with their stuff these days. Whether you’re a college student moving your life into a storage pod for the summer or digging out from under years of accumulation in your house, as soon as you start to chip away, more stuff reveals itself. A little overwhelming to say the least.Whenever I meditate on my own possessions I always think back to the much-lauded video and book, The Story of Stuff. Released back in 2007, which feels now like the height of “buy it today, toss it tomorrow” culture, Annie Leonard’s youtube sensation has been around for awhile, certainly, but seeing her work made me consider the larger battles being waged up and down the lines of production the world over. That video has certainly helped me think twice before being led astray by the fleeting thrill of acquisition.With the digitization of pretty much everything and so much of our lives transitioning to the on-line space (even our acts of kindness!), I really hope for a future where technology can save us from crushing ourselves under a mountain of stuff and trashing the planet.Someone else has been pondering this evolution, too. SHFT recently highlighted Nick Gentry, a Central Saint Martins grad whose work focuses on “throwaway culture and technological change.” Lucky for us, he’s found something productive to do with those floppy disks collecting dust in so many attics across America (or rather, the UK, but we can relate). Nick, should you ever lack for materials, have I got a basement for you.Take a look at his artful repurposing work below:http://vimeo.com/18966020

Posted in Act, Confess

I’m Good I’m Gone Acoustic Version – Director: Ted Malmros from Lykke Li on Vimeo.

Bullhorns in the hands of musicians. Can’t get enough.

Posted in Act

After posting several AOKs with my handy iPhone app, I realized that these AOKs, these brief glimpses into each other’s daily lives, serve the same function as some of the best fiction: they show us how similar we are, how our day-to-day is full of opportunities to put a smile on someone’s face, and help us to remember that, as Oprah preached for the last time on Wednesday, not a’one of us is ever alone. Sappy, yes. But gosh, AOKs are great, and so sometimes I must wax poetic. Oprah’s great, too. But alas, all good things…In keeping with the brevity of most AOK acts and observations such as, “Gave my last onion to my flatmate who needed it for his recipe,” and “Invited a stranger to join me for lunch,” you can imagine my delight when I happened upon a little book called Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer. Edited by Robert Swartwood, this exercise in brevity was undertaken by literary luminaries and their aspiring counterparts. The story I opened to that made me want to own this little gem? Written by Jess Row, entitled “A Quiet American:”

       He realized, taking a long swig from his beer, that no one had told

him whether swallowing the octopus was guaranteed to kill it.

Awesome. And an instant reminder that I may still have watermelon seeds growing in my stomach from swallowing them 15 years ago. Yikes. Even more awesome? That AOK about inviting a stranger to lunch told a whole tale in just 8 words, and it’s not even fiction.

Posted in Act, Observe

If anyone had asked me such a question a week ago, especially in the middle of a restaurant full of great-looking Angelinos, I would have wondered what parallel universe I’d stumbled upon (“Where am I and WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH LOS ANGELES?!”)However, I can now answer this question with ease: I am grateful for vegan spot Cafe Gratitude, which has fulfilled my quest for the delicious/healthy food Holy Grail that I seek but so rarely find. To clarify – I’m not a vegan, but am thrilled when I find any healthful place, vegan or otherwise, that captures my fancy enough to distract from my neighborhood taco cart (the ever-present danger zone).If you imagine such a warmly named vegan restaurant being heavy on the hippie and light on the irony, then you imagine correctly. Cafe Gratitude has embraced rather than shirked this association between food and spirituality. Dishes are named, “I am Fortified,” “I am Energized,” “I am Loved,” etc. and upon presentation the statement is flipped to give you a little empowerment with your side salad. “You are Fortified.” “You are Loved.”It takes a some getting used to if you’ve lost touch with your inner-flower child, but hey, where else can I go geek out about being alive over an amazing bowl of vegetables that actually taste like its made of love and energy??The best part of the whole enterprise is their “I am Grateful” dish. This bowl of satisfaction is like a donation-only yoga class or a museum where they recommend you pay five bucks but nobody’s mad if you can’t. The suggested value is $7, but they’re serious when they say you can pay $0 or $14, funding one for yourself and one for the next guy. Food for the body and the soul – what could be more AOK than that?

Posted in Act

Sure, you may not have known that April 28th is OFFICIALLY Pay It Forward Day, but now that you do, all those cool micro-kindnesses you do out in your world have their own holiday. AND their own app.Pay It Forward Day marks the launch of our beta app in the iTunes App Store and the Android Marketplace. It’s there for you on Pay It Forward Day and every day after that! Get the iTunes app here: AOK for iPhone and the Droid app here: AOK for Droid.The AOK team couldn’t be more stoked. Upload your AOKs and earn Virtue Points that go to real-world causes. AOK has issued a 500k point challenge, with a penny for every point the community earns. Check the point ticker here: AOK.

Act Locally, Impact Globally!

Posted in Act

AOK co-founder Ira Liss talked with Gameful.org recently to discuss the inspirations behind AOK and the process of gamification. In addition to his insights on shaping AOK into a social game for social good, the AOK team included some shots of the before and afters of translating the original wire-frames into a living, breathing game!Check it out here, and while you’re at it, take a look around the Gameful community. It’s a whole forum for creating world-changing games like AOK!

Behind the Scenes of Missions of Kindness

Posted in Act

KCRW and NPR keep me from resenting the excessive amount of time I spend in the car. They may even keep me in my car longer than I need to be – parked in my parking garage with one foot out the door, leaning towards my radio to catch the last minutes of an especially arresting topic.They also publicize cool events around town of which I would otherwise have zero awareness. (Whether that is through my own lazy ignorance or sheer overwhelming volume of fun stuff to do in LA is debatable.) One such (free!) event will be held tomorrow at the awesome-sounding Goethe Institut, where they will host the Zocalo event, “Is Global Utopia Closer Than You’d Think?” I certainly hope so.

Posted in Act, Observe