Video Volunteers is a simple way for you to help raise awareness for causes you care about, and compete for recognition of your work on the YouTube homepage.

Each month, the channel will feature a different relevant issue on the Video Volunteers channel with a new guest curator, and you could have the opportunity to showcase your work (and your favorite org) to a huge audience. [YouTube]

MagCloud started as an HP Labs incubation project to evaluate new, online marketplaces for buying and selling custom and niche magazines with print on demand fulfillment. MagCloud is inventing new ways to bring consumers and publishers together in a web-based marketplace where choice, flexibility and print on demand are the cornerstones of the community.

Give it a try!

Then it made me think, what is it that makes geeks hate the new social networks hype? It’s not like we are unfamiliar or feel uncomfortable, come on, we create these things for breakfast! And there definitely is an issue with geeks and social networks – all my geek friends avoid them, at least the fashion ones. It does not matter where everybody is, I just don’t care if I get a thousand invitations to Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, etc. And it is not like we don’t have social contacts also. It’s more like “you go into that fancy place and mingle with the fancy people. If you want to contact me, come where I am”.

So far so good. But then again, where am I? And most importantly, what makes it different from the other places where people communicate on the Internet?
I am on Twitter, I even have 2 accounts – one personal and one for the blog. I am on LinkedIn. I am on Jamendo. I may even be on some, or even most of the other social networks, but I am not really on them.

What is common between all of these places – they are not commercial. Even though Twitter is so popular, it is somehow clean. No marketing, no spam, no SEO bullshit. It got out of nowhere, some people were just having fun, others thought it is fun too. Another thing common is privacy – you are not bugged 20 times a day with invitations for mindless activities, fake causes and not embarrassed by someone, who thought it is very funny to share a picture of you when you had a bad day. Without asking you do you mind, or giving you any choice. And it is more personal too. You are not part of the crowd, it is like going out with friends.

What do you think about it? How is it for you? And don’t forget to share this within your social network!

[Image by Davide Guglielmo, taken from www.sxc.hu]

Ten years ago, a special day was chosen to be the day of appreciation for these people – The SysAdmin Day. If you are happy with the geek that fixed your computer, or the internet connection of that new ISP – some congratulations are due.

To all tech people, who make our lives better by taming the technology beasts for us – Cheers, mates! May you never have to wake up early, or stay at work overnight! May all your data be safe, the rest is a matter of money :->