Raffles Institution Research Education 2011 Year One Project Work by John Chew Geronimo Jr.

1. Raffles Institution Research Education 2011Year One Project Work by John Chew Geronimo Jr. Preliminary Idea Advantage of Social Networking (SN) : Advancing Social Causes and Building a New Generation of ‘Do-gooders’

2. Possible Reasons for SN-related Advantage: • SN can be a powerful tool for change by attracting and connecting supporters around the world and rallying assistance for positive life-changing initiatives, through fund-raising, channelling resources: via Facebook, Twitter, myspace, squiddo, youtube, etc.

3. Possible Reasons for SN-related Advantage: • Advance social causes, gather voices and garner contributions, on a local and/or global platform.

4. Possible Reasons for SN-related Advantage: • The Internet is the ideal place to exchange ideas and create networks and communities that defy traditional community structures and hierarchies. SN sites are easy-to-use as "one stop" shops, since so many tools are all in one place: to chat live with other members, to share music and photos, to know which friends have updated information, etc.

5. SN platforms also feel exclusive and special, qualities that people under 30 find particularly appealing, thus SN can be harnessed to attract a new generation of younger ‘do-gooders’.

6. Examples • GIVE.sg: focuses on local charities, similar to the Causes application on Facebook and allows the creation of a page for a cause and uses SN to bring greater awareness to that cause. • SEforum: a directory of and SN portal for regional social enterprises. • Syinc.org: Syinc is a youth group in Singapore that connects people to seek innovative solutions for social change. • Save the Children • Changents.com: brings technologies to developing countries.

7. Examples • Donors Choose: Teachers and school officers post sums of money they need for school projects, and donors can fund all/partially. • Global Giving: Groups post their causes and what they need, and donors can find causes they want to support. Donors are kept apprised of the results. • Volunteer Match: Helps link potential volunteers with more than 50,000 non-profit organizations that need support. • Idealist: A community for non-profits to exchange ideas and resources, find groups that need help, and find volunteers and donors willing to provide support. • Network for Good: Users can find and donate to more than a million charities and search from among more than 36,000 volunteer opportunities.

8. Supporting Evidence • Surveys/studies show that potential exists for non-profits/social entrepreneurs to cultivate the next generation of significant donors through SN, by participating as trusted providers of credible information. • Beyond social fulfilment or professional networking opportunities, SN offers positive implications for non-profits/social entrepreneurs thereby gaining a vast opportunity to support the causes they represent.

9. Example • TechSoupoperates a community of non-profits using the 3D virtual-world of SecondLife to help achieve their missions by exploring and learning about the virtual world and investigating the ways in which non-profits might utilize this unique environment: incorporating free office space to meet, network, learn, foster outreach).

10. Reasons for choice of topic • SN sites are reputed as places where people get together to obsessively collect friends and update their profiles. • However, I aim is to present SN as a viable tool in connecting people who want to make a difference on important social issues, such as protecting the environment, improving health and society both at home and abroad, and extending help to others.

11. Reasons for choice of topic • In 2010, comScore, Inc. a leader in measuring the digital world, released its February 2010 report on SN activity in the Asia-Pacific region, showing that 50.8% of the total regional online population (equalling 240.3 million internet- and mobile device-users) visited an SN site, averaging 2.5 hours each.

12. Reasons for choice of topic • This high propensity prompts the question: isn’t SN a viable means of fostering awareness of important social issues and getting more people involved? If the eventual goal is to create a more connected, educated, and socially active community, SN has much to offer.

13. Feasibility of the project: • This project serves to show that SN can benefit society by advancing social causes. • By diligently following the key steps involved in the research process, we can carry out and complete this project.

14. Sufficient opportunity for generation, analysis and evaluation of ideas • Research into SN as a means of advancing social causes poses questions for which no ready answers are available. • Researching the topic as a question (or series of related questions) generates ideas primarily by requiring us to formulate answers. • It follows that in generating ideas and answers, even if ambiguous or controversial, we create/open avenues for analysing and evaluating those ideas and evidence.

15. Manageability of the Project Opportunity for Group work • Timeline • Brainstorming sessions, group concept-mapping, task-assignments. • Schedule-coordination, ideas-correlation, task-assignment according to best ability, cohesion of objectives, group dynamics.

16. Accessibility of the information required: • Relevant information: Studies, statistics, articles vis-à-vis SN and its impact on advancing social causes/education. • From secondary sources. • Alternatives: Interviews, surveys. • Problems: Plethora of irrelevant/inaccurate information.