Are you seeing examples of generosity on the social web?

I think: Yes, I see examples of generosity on the social web, but to see this you need see things positively.

For example: if you see a post "How to make money online" or "How to get rid of snorring", you'd think "Oh! great another internet scam". But you might something useful there too or you might learn something from there which you never known of it before.

All I am saying, even they internet marketers try to put more emphasis on their goal more than their post, they are actually showing some genrosity to share some wisdom; either collected or origianl by posting them for you.

Kathi

It's amazing to hear about yet another example of the wrong kind of generosity in the financial world:   AIG handing out skads of money in bonuses to execs while they get handouts from our government.  

I continue to be astonished about how utterly out of touch the banking, investment and financial firms seem to be with not only the real-world economics of how most of us live, but the outrage that most of us feel at the level of greed, irresponsibility, incompetence and hubris demonstrated by these firms.

Perhaps women in these businesses and others can help lead us to a better set of corporate ethics.

I have personally interviewed dozen of working moms- some celeb moms and other corp executives to mentor and inspire the members of my new site.  What I have witnessed is the strong desire for women, regardless of their status, to come together to empower one another.

Their stories are showcased on myworkbutterfly.com. You will be moved.. I know that I have been.

Best- 

Bradi

Co-Founder

MyWorkButterfly.com

Hi Beth-

I work as a community gardener for a site ( http://community.onrampconnections.com/ ) that is trying to incorporate generosity with social media. In a nutshell, we are trying to help women who left the workforce to raise children, etc. get back in (i.e. onramp). We also offer mentors for women to help and encourage them along this path. It's a tough time out there to be looking for a job, but we are trying to offer a place where women can come and chat about their issues and maybe even get some practical advice. We are also pursuing finding internships and job share situations. 

Hi Beth - I am observing generosity as a leading theme in business as well, and really welcome it. I recently read about the Ascendancy Awards at w2wlink.com, and think this is a great idea for recognizing women business acheivers who mentor other women to leadership positions (prizes such as AA airline tickets and Clubcorp membership). w2wlink is encouraging each of us to nominate a woman you know who has inspired and mentored others. Read more at http://www.w2wlink.com/Articles/Share-Success-Stor...

I just posted an apt story about this on the "Do You Give Good Blog" thread.  Here's the link:

http://www.blogher.com/do-you-give-good-blog#comme...

It's a story about some real "put your money where your heart is" action that arose from a social network I am privileged to belong to, the online forum at http://www.breastcancer.org/.  This is a forum for those of us who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, where we can give each other information, moral support, humor and cyber-hugs.  It has to be one of the most loving, supportive and amazingly generous social networks on the web.  One of the interesting things as well is the fact that most of us on this forum are not, in fact, "young," i.e., under age 30.  Many of us are Baby Boomers, many are over age 70, but all of us have embraced the opportunity to participate in this cyber-support group, which is a vehicle I think women in general really "get."

It was perhaps inevitable that the web would provide a new context in which to "unlock... in entirely new ways the perennial need of individuals to be appreciated, to be loved, to feel part of the greater good, to contribute, to help... To basically find status and gratification in something other than consuming the most or the best."  Personally though, I think it may trivialize this trend of web generosity to characterize it as "one of a new set of status symbols."  Perhaps among those who are financially secure enough to need the tax write-offs that donations to non-profits provide, generosity is a status symbol.  But for most of us, it represents something a lot more fundamental to our survival.  Or perhaps we need to redefine what we mean by "status."  But to me, "status" implies that one of the motives for generosity is public recognition, and I don't think that's what drives most people to give to others.  This is an interesting discussion, however, (especially apt for Valentine's Day!) and one which I hope will continue. 

Kathi, http://www.accidentalamazon.com/