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Affero
Community Random Hacks of Kindness Newsletter Volume #6 | June/July 2003 |
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Are you one of the millions of
individuals who turn to the Internet to provide valuable content represented
by posts in help forums, email, weblogs (blogs), research, newsletters,
articles and other forms of digital media? If your answer is yes
then you are guilty of committing "random hacks of kindness".
Each month we recognize a few kind individuals that do good work, provide a fix to that annoying bug, raise awareness about a socially relevant topic and also those that took the time to say "Hey THANKS". Below are some of the comments Affero members have made to recognize the help and information they received.
"thank you yet again for helping me with my problem the step by step instruction you sent me has really been ALOT of help... til next... thnx again!" It's quick and easy to JOIN Affero. Once you do then you too will have the ability to enable others to show their respects when you help them. And hey, consider leaving a nice word behind when someone helps you too. Many people take a great deal of time and effort to provide information in online communities and sending them a warm fuzzy now and then is not only a nice thing to do but also helps build their reputation in the Affero system as one of the good guys (or gals). |
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Newsworthy Hack of Kindness: Geeklog is a 'blog', otherwise known
as a Weblog. It allows you to create your own virtual community area, complete
with user administration, story posting, messaging, comments, polls,
calendar, weblinks, and more! It can run on many different operating
systems, and uses PHP4 and MySQL. |
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This month we recognize Geeklog as our featured open source project. GeekLog was originally developed for the Security Geeks web site and was originally authored by Jason Whittenburg. In early 2001, Jason decided it was time to devote his time to other things and the project has since been maintained by Tony Bibbs. Geeklog is bona fide open-source software and has been released under the GNU GPL for use by others.
Weblogs are one of the hottest growing trends on the Internet. There are
currently an estimated 500,000 weblogs in the virtual world and are being
seen as a new interactive form of participatory journalism. A desire
share ideas motivates many bloggers and the readership is growing like crazy.
An estimated 5 million weblog readers a day seek out this connection
with like-minded people. The opportunity for them to correspond with writers
and voice their opinion creates an interactive dialog that fosters personal
expression and gives people the information they need to make choices.
Being a type of personal online journal or diary, often times an individual of particular interest has a weblog where the public can visit and read the ideas of this person and interact with them in real time. And it's not just for the techies of the world. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who is seeking the democratic nomination for president, has a Geeklog weblog where he shares his ideas and views on the issues. And there is a great deal of people reading and posting to it. Check it out here: 
For all of you that still think the term "Hack" has a negative connotation - please read the definition in The Jargon File 4.3.3 , which states that a hack is "an incredibly good, and perhaps very time consuming piece of work that produces exactly what is needed." Don't confuse a hacker with a cracker :) Know of a Hack of Kindness that you want to share with us for consideration in the next newsletter? Send it to: submit@affero.com Do you like reading about this good news for a change? Subscribe to receive our Random Hacks of Kindness Newsletter here. GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK: What do you think of this newsletter? Click on the button to leave your Questions/Comments/Suggestions: 
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"Life is not so short but that there is always
time enough for courtesy
." Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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