Technology for the Masses

I give Microsoft a lot of flack sometimes, but it’s give and take.  As you know I’m a big fan of their DreamSpark program as was mentioned in a previous article.  However, I’m also a fan of their I’M Initiative (I’m Making A Difference) that donates small amounts of money to charities of your choice, for every instant message you send.

Big Love to Microsoft for this hidden yet interactive feature they built-in into Windows Live Messenger.  Basically, by changing your display name in MSN you can donate to a charity of your choice for each message you send.  Sounds great doesn’t it?  And it doesn’t cost you a penny but you can still feel less guilty about spending hours chatting with your friends.

Sound cool and want to sign up?  Read On…

How it works – from the Microsoft Site:

The i’m Initiative from Microsoft® makes helping social causes easy. Every time you use Windows Live™ Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail®, our free webmail service, we’ll share a portion of our advertising revenue with the cause you choose from among our partner social cause organizations. Exactly how much will we share with our partner causes? Well, that’s up to you and the growing masses of i’m Initiative users. The more messages you send, the more we give.

The charities currently offered are:

• The American Red Cross
• National AIDS Fund
• NineMillion – UN Refugee Agency
• Sierra Club
• StopGlobalWarming.org
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America
• The Humane Society
• National Multiple Sclerosis Society
• UNICEF
• Susan G Komen for the Breast Cancer Cure

How to Sign-Up:

Get started by checking out: http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/ then go to their “How to Join” section and follow the instructions.

It’s really really easy, trust me!

How I cheated but who cares – It’s good anyway right?

Anyone that has me on Messenger sees my name like this:

Most people set it up to only show one IM in their name.  Guess what?  Microsoft doesn’t apparently limit the amount of organizations you want to donate to!  So go ahead and add more!  Add them all if you want to.

My settings look like this under display name:

*sierra James *komen

Doing so enables me to have two activated. Great stuff!  Anyway, now that you all know about it – go ahead and change your display name.

Start giving something back other than giving yourself carpal tunnel from all that IMing you have been doing!

- James

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