Tuesday, December 22, 2009

How Can Twitter Find Cure For Cancer?

Why this site? I, like most, have been amazed by the number of people in my work, school, neighborhood, and family that have had a battle with cancer. Some minor clashes, others major and unfortunately, some life-threatening. While I often give to a charitable organization to assist in the battle to end cancer, I never really feel as if I do enough to try and stop this deadly disease that’s so prominent in today’s world.

Secondly, I’m very interested in technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and the idea of bringing people together to solve problems. (crowdsourcing) As any entrepreneur knows, the greater the problem, the greater the opportunity.

We know that there are thousands of people and organizations working hard to find a cure for cancer or find ways to prevent cancer from ever occurring. Hats off to all those enlisted in the fight and the progress that has been made in this battle. BUT….what’s the “little guy” to do other than donate towards such a cause?

Well, enter another interest of mine, social networking. While I once thought Twitter was a wasteful app, I now have embraced it for what it is, a global networking tool that connects, informs, creates and maybe, just maybe can bring people together to do great things.

So I set up a twitter account, which costs nothing, called @abolishcancer. The goal was to get the Power of the People to make a difference and contribute towards cancer research. Then I came up with the idea that if I could get new “daily” sponsors to donate for every new follower of @abolishcancer to the American Cancer Society, we could get people connected for a common cause. A benefit to the sponsor, which is just for one calendar day, would be for me to tweet and retweet throughout the day about the sponsor and give them some press about their willingness to help. Lastly, the more followers we received at @abolishcancer, the greater the word would spread for the sponsor and for the site.

So far we have had 5 sponsors in the month or so in existence and close to 500 followers. What’s the goal you may ask? Well, what if we received 1 million followers and hence, 1 million towards cancer research? If Shaq or Ashton Kutcher could do it, why not us?

Please help us get daily sponsors so more money can be raised in the fight to abolishcancer. Email me at bonham.darah@gmail.com to become a sponsor or if you have other ideas to help this grow.

Help us use Twitter to find a cure for cancer.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Staci England Helps Raise $56 For American Cancer Society

Thanks to Staci England for sponsoring our Twitter feed (@Abolishcancer) on Friday, December 4, 2009. We started off the day with 251 followers and ended with 307. That's 56 new followers which equals $56 that Staci agrees to donate to the American Cancer Society.



In the 3 plus weeks we've started this program, "the people" have raised $187 just by following a twitter account. This, of course, can only be possible with "daily sponsors" who agree to pay for new followers for any particular day. Send an email to bonham.darah@gmail.com or mention @abolishcancer on Twitter to see about sponsoring. Who's next?



Here's the brief history of our sponsors and the amount they helped raise to fight cancer:

Sponsor Amount
@EnglandinVa $56
@debbiegannon $27
@michaelscher $14
@irishchari $65
@darahbonham $25
For grand total of $187





We all realize that cancer is a killer and has impacted way too many lives. This site is designed to bring together individuals who want to do their part to help find a cure for this disease. We've created this "platform" to let anyone sponsor our @abolishcancer twitter site, and in return, agree to donate $1 for every new follower that day. Each day we get 50 or so new followers, which not only means $50 more dollars to the ACS, but also means our followers grow. As our followership grows, our voice will spread and more people will get involved. In addition to getting more followers, whoever sponsors for that day will get more "press" as we spread the word about their contribution.What would be our ultimate goal? 1,000,000 followers? How about a concerted effort from the "power of the crowd" to win the battle against this disease and abolishcancer.This is a grassroots movement that will only thrive on the viral spread of our followers and sponsors. Lets make this viral spread a positive one. Any efforts, on your behalf, to spread the word are greatly appreciated.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

New Sponsor for Friday, December 4, 2009

Special thanks goes out to Staci England for being our sponsor @abolishcancer for Friday, December 4, 2009. As a sponsor, Staci agrees to pay $1 to the American Cancer Society for every new follower to @AbolishCancer on Twitter for that one day. We need the Power of the Crowd to beat this horrible disease and it's people like Staci that make this happen.

Staci is an educator in Charlottesville, Virginia who cares about doing good. Along with many others, she has relatives & friends who have died from cancer. Staci can be reached on Twitter @EnglandinVA.

Staci starts her sponsorship with 251 followers of @abolishcancer.

We all realize that cancer is a killer and has impacted way too many lives. This site is designed to bring together individuals who want to do their part to help find a cure for this disease. We've created this "platform" to let anyone sponsor our @abolishcancer twitter site, and in return, agree to donate $1 for every new follower that day. We have had 4 sponsors in the three weeks since we started this campaign raising a total of $131 that the sponsor agrees to pay to the American Cancer Society. Think about what might happen if this takes off. Each day we get 50 or so new followers, which not only means $50 more dollars to the ACS, but also means our followers grow. As our followership grows, our voice will spread and more people will get involved. In addition to getting more followers, whoever sponsors for that day will get more "press" as we spread the word about their contribution.

What would be our ultimate goal? 1,000,000 followers? How about a concerted effort from the "power of the crowd" to win the battle against this disease and abolishcancer.This is a grassroots movement that will only thrive on the viral spread of our followers and sponsors. Lets make this viral spread a positive one. Any efforts, on your behalf, to spread the word are greatly appreciated.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Our Purpose

We all realize that cancer is a killer and has impacted way too many lives. This site is designed to bring together individuals who want to do their part to help find a cure for this disease. We've created this "platform" to let anyone sponsor our @abolishcancer twitter site, and in return, agree to donate $1 for every new follower that day.

We have had 4 sponsors in the two weeks since we started this campaign raising a total of $131 that the sponsor agrees to pay to the American Cancer Society. Think about what might happen if this takes off. Each day we get 50 or so new followers, which not only means $50 more dollars to the ACS, but also means our followers grow. As our followership grows, our voice will spread and more people will get involved. In addition to getting more followers, whoever sponsors for that day will get more "press" as we spread the word about their contribution.

What would be our ultimate goal? 1,000,000 followers? How about a concerted effort from the "power of the crowd" to win the battle against this disease and abolishcancer.

This is a grassroots movement that will only thrive on the viral spread of our followers and sponsors. Lets make this viral spread a positive one. Any efforts, on your behalf, to spread the word are greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Debbie Gannon Helps Raise $27

Special thanks to Debbie Gannon (@debbiegannon on Twitter) for sponsoring us for today on @AbolishCancer. We started the day with 114 followers and end it with 141. That's 27 new followers and $27 that Debbie agrees to donate to the American Cancer Society.


This twitter account (and idea) has been up now for just over a week and our results so far are:
Sponsor Amount
Darah Bonham (me) $25
@irishchari $65
@michalescher $14
@debbiegannon $27
For grand total of $131.

Nothing earthshatering but its a start. Think what we can do if we get sponsors every day. Please pass on the word and have anyone interested tweet me @Abolishcancer or email at helpabolishcancer@gmail.com

Let's use the power of the crowd to sponsor this site and help abolishcancer

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

New Sponsor For Wednesday November 4th

Please pass the word to get more followers for @AbolishCancer. For each follower on Wednesday, November 4th, @debbiegannon will donate $1 to the American Cancer Society. We need to use the power of the crowd (and Twitter) to get more money and awareness to tackle this disease with the goal of abolishing cancer. We start the day with 114 followers.

Debbie Gannon is an educator at the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center who is trying to help a good cause. Debbie has lost a few family members to cancer and hopes that more people will do things like this, so we can make it better for our children and grandchildren. Debbie is a great instructional technology administrator who truly helps kids find their way in an ever-changing environment.

This twitter account (and idea) has been up now for just over a week and our results so far are:
Sponsor Amount
Darah Bonham (me) $25
@irishchari $65
@michalescher $14
@debbiegannon ?

$104 in a week and continuing to grow. Thanks for spreading the word to support the fight to abolishcancer

$104 raised in 1st week. Who's Next?

Thanks to Michael Scher (@michaelscher) for sponsoring our feed on Nov 2. We received 14 new followers and for every new follower for that day, Michael agreed to write a check to the American Cancer Society for $14.

This twitter account (and idea) has been up now for just over a week and our results so far are:

Sponsor Amount
Darah Bonham (me) $25
@irishchari $65
@michalescher $14

For grand total of $104. Nothing earthshatering but its a start. Think what we can do if we get sponsors every day.

please pass on the word and have anyone interested tweet me @Abolishcancer or emial at helpabolishcancer@gmail.com

keep up the fight to cure cancer

Sunday, November 1, 2009

So, what’s the deal with this Twitter account?

Someone asked me why I created a Twitter account called @AbolishCancer , and my response was simple. Why not? Nobody wants to hear from their doctor those terrible words, “you’ve got cancer”. Not that I have experienced that personally, I know of many people who have heard those numbing words. Since I can’t name a single person who hasn’t been affected by cancer in some manner, I felt this was a worthy cause that we could all rally around…….the search for a cure.

You see, I’m an educator who has a passion for technology and for the idea of “crowdsourcing”, getting unlike people together to solve problems. This has been enhanced with social media tools that allow such ease of sharing- ideas, businesses, problems, etc. So I figured, why not let the “power of the crowd” pull together to fight cancer. I have to admit that I give Jeff Jarvis a great deal of credit for the idea. In his book, “What Would Google Do”, Jeff talks about developing platforms that make a difference.

Some may think I have an ulterior motive. Not really. Sure I would like to see the site grow and to gain critical mass for personal reasons, but more importantly, I would like to see that the power of the people can come together for a common cause to help win this war vs cancer.

Here’s the basic premise. I have a Twitter site called @AbolishCancer . I ask for people to “sponsor” the site for a day, meaning they agree to pay $1 for every new follower that day to the American Cancer Society. I, in turn, tweet about the person or business on my blog to give them “some love” and PR at the same time. At the end of the day, the sponsor agrees to pay ACS the amount for the new followers that came on board. This is an honor system. I’m not collecting any money, just asking whoever sponsors to follow through with their payment. Obviously, the greater the number of followers to my twitter feed, the more press the sponsor will get when they sign up.

Pretty simple huh? What could come of this in the end? Just think if we got a sponsor for 300 days out of the year with an average # of new followers at 50. We would collect $15,000 by the end of the year.

What happens if we run out of followers some day? Then I will say that we have made a dent towards providing monies towards cancer research, and perhaps found the ultimate goal, a cure.

Please pass along so we can get the power of the people rolling………

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Chari Olmedo raises $65 to fight Cancer

Chari Olmedo was our first feed sponsor to support the fight against cancer. By sponsoring @AbolishCancer she helped raise $65 towards the fight against cancer. Chari agreed to sponsor our site, and in return, doante $1 for every new follower for that particular day.

Join the fight and sponsor our site. Looking for anyone who may be interested to sponsor future days. Simply give me a tweet @abolishcancer or email at bonham.darah@gmail.com

Every NEW follower to @Abolishcancer on specific, sponsored days will result in $1 donation to American Cancer Society. Help support the fight and sponsor @Abolishcancer.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Tuesday Feed Sponsor To Help Fight Cancer

Special thanks to Chari Olmedo as our first feed sponsor to support the fight against cancer. Chari lives in Dublin, Ireland and can be followed on twitter @irishchari and her web site at http://www.myartprofile.com/irlanda

Chari would like to promote the work of @survivors (twitter) or Voices of Survivors (FB fan page)Lynn Lane, founder/exec. director does an amazing job documenting cancer survivorship in different formats: video, written word... Check him out at www.voicesofsurvivors.com

Every NEW follower to @Abolishcancer on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 will result in $1 donation to American Cancer Society. Our day starts with 22 followers. Help support the fight and follow @Abolishcancer.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Fighting Cancer

I've been playing around with social media tools for a while now and have developed a keen interest in how new tech tools can bring more people together than ever before. I am also fascinated with ideas such as "crowd sourcing" led by people like Jeff Jarvis in his book, What Would Google Do?

The ability to create opportunities to bring the "power of the crowd" together for a common cause led me to create a collaborative book in education, along with a Twitter feed called @LetsBuyTheSkins to see how we can positively influence ownership of my beloved Washington Redskins.

Now, my next venture. I want to try and use the power of the crowd for a good cause, Fighting Cancer. I don't know of anyone who hasn't been affected by someone who has or is battling cancer. With this in mind, we are creating opportunities for sponsors to donate $1 dollar for each new follower that the @AbolishCancer feed on Twitter gets on that particular day.

At the end of the day, we ask the sponsor to donate the amount (based on how many new followers were added) of money to the American Cancer Society. In return, we will tweet about the sponsor to our followers (which will surely grow) and provide a bit of information about who they are on this blog.

So, what are you waiting for? Spread the word and help find a cure for cancer.