There are a couple of jobs advertised on Elgg.com – if you’re an excellent PHP developer, Linux system administrator or business development manager with experience in social media, we’d like to hear from you.

I’ve got about twenty topics for blog posts that I intend to write at some point, but there’s a lot going on, and there hasn’t quite been the time. More prolific posting will resume soon. In the meantime, I’ve engaged in one of those self-indulgent Internet memes, and will be attempting to take a photo per day throughout all of 2009.

So far it’s been an interesting exercise in finding new ways to look at the world. Trying to create something creative and noteworthy every day is a challenge that I haven’t always been able to meet (one photograph involves a macro shot of my bedroom rug), but I’m learning to see things differently. I’ll find it interesting to see how I’ve progressed over the year – whether anyone else will is another matter.

Here’s my favourite so far:

And here’s my set as it progresses.

1. Play it forward with Akoha

Akoha is a game. You buy a deck of cards, each of which contains a simple, altruistic, real-world mission: buy someone a cup of coffee, and so on. Once you perform the mission, you pass the card on, and the recipient registers it on the website. You gain karma points and they then use the card on someone else.

Okay, so if you were cynical, you could say that it’s a cunning way to piggyback viral marketing onto peoples’ good intentions, because you need to buy the cards and visit the website to make the game work. And there’s something a bit funny about literally earning points from doing good things. But it rests on a great idea: doing lots of little things for other people adds up to something big, which will ultimately provide its own rewards. I’ve purchased the starter kit, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

2. Lend to a third world entrepreneur through Kiva

Kiva allows you to directly lend to individual entrepreneurs in the third world. You flick through a gallery of candidates, which explains how much they need and what they’re going to use it for, and can then loan them $25 as easily as buying a book on Amazon or ordering pizza from Domino’s. Kiva fellows blog about their experiences (here’s a recent post about Honduras) and give the impression that the money is being used well.

Part of me feels like you should be able to put your money into a balanced package of third world entrepreneurial investments: because each entrepreneur is browsed through and loaned to individually, there’s a danger that a viable and important endeavour will be passed over because it doesn’t appeal as much to western sensibilities. Also, microloans have had their critics. However, the management of the loan is outsourced to Kiva’s field partners in each country, which implies that the entrepreneur will receive local support, and the implementation seems solid.

3. Finance music you like with Slicethepie

Slicethepie allows you to invest in new music in much the same was as Kiva allows you to invest in third world entrepreneurs, except that while Kiva’s recipients are people who generally live in great poverty in very harsh conditions, the recipients here are kids with impeccably ruffled hair who quite possibly live in Shoreditch.

Nonetheless, this is a great chance to help make an impact on the music industry. If you find a band you like on the site, you can put a little money in the pot to help them record and release a full album. In return you get some free tracks and a return on your investment if the album proves to be popular, as well as the knowledge that your money has gone to music you like from an indepdent artist rather than an album commercially tailored to be suitable for your demographic.

Any more?

I’d love to hear any recommendations you have; let me know in the comments.

Vero nails what I’ve thought for a long time:

Since I moved from Canada, I have seen too many Brits or Europeans be very sheepish about self-promotion. American sales people are reputed to be bubbly, brash and bigger than life, speaking louder than anyone else in the room and gesticulating endlessly to illustrate what they’re saying. Quite at the other extreme, British marketing folks are often seen to be more reserved and self-deprecating.

It’s worth reading the whole post; particularly her tips for breaking the habit. I’ve been to some Toastmasters meetings, but I just might give karaoke a go.

Milk (Directed by Gus Van Sant)

After the Open Stack meeting at the Digg offices the other week, I turned down a kind offer from Tony to allow me to invade his dinner date and walked back to my hotel. The route took me up Sixteenth St, through the Mission, past Castro and into the Haight. Having mostly spent my San Francisco time further up Market St and around the various companies who make their homes in SoMa, it was a side to the city I’d never seen before – particularly at night.

Alongside the Christmas lights and leftover Obama posters (”HOPE” shone from nearly every window), Castro was glowing with anti-Proposition 8 signs. (Prop 8 is the unconstitutional, recently-passed legislation that formalises marriage as being between a man and a woman.) The sidewalks along Market St were filled with openly gay couples being free and open with each other, in a way that – despite significant civil rights advances – you still really don’t see anywhere.

Milk is the story of Harvey Milk, the “Mayor of Castro St”, who was the first openly gay man to hold public office in the United States. It does have its flaws, but as Jeff Jarvis says:

Sean Penn does an incredible job capturing Milk’s intensity, humor, joy, and decency. It is a great performance. [...] What Milk does brilliantly is portray the moment and the movement in intimate human terms, not with soaring music, not with gay cliches, not with PC delicacies but with emotion and reality. I recommend it highly.

Alongside Wall-E, I think it’s one of the best films I’ve seen over the last twelve months. (And on that note, if you don’t believe a kids’ cartoon can be a genuinely good movie with wide appeal and message, I recommend you give it a try …)

What has struck me, though, is that the movie only seems to be opening in cities – in other words, bypassing the more homophobic small town communities that could really use it. As this article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes:

Even with strides, remnants of the discrimination that people like Mr. Milk and Mr. Bell faced still linger, school officials say, and that is why they need safe and supportive environments for students who are gay.

Last year the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network unveiled its “National School Climate Survey.” Of the 6,200 gay middle and high school students surveyed, about 90 percent had been harassed and 60 percent said they felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation.

One of the most powerful moments in the movie comes when Milk realises he is empowering young people across the country who previously thought, and were being told, that there was something wrong with them – which is one reason why this inspirational film should have wide distribution. Another is that it’s an exceptionally well-made, powerful film that any intelligent person should enjoy.

This lecture by Obama transition team member Greg Simon is worth a watch (click the Flash icon in the top right). While ostensibly about advocacy strategies for lobbyists, the fundamentals of what he talks about are applicable to marketing of ideas much more generally – commercial marketing, creative writing, and so on. The first 40 minutes or so are particularly worth paying attention to.

Essentially, marketing your ideas – what Greg euphemistically calls “getting someone to listen to your iPod” – comes down to providing an emotional reason for them to listen to you and buy into what you’re saying. This lecture is a great starting point for thinking about how to do that, and provides lots of food for thought.

A very happy new year to everyone reading this (assuming you follow the Gregorian calendar, obviously).

One of my new year’s resolutions, alongside the annual stalwarts like “lose weight”, “eat better” and “go to bed before midnight once in a while”, is “update your blog more often”. I’m also going to turn this site into much more of a personal space for reflection and splurging jotting down what I’m thinking, which might not always be technology related, or even very sensible. When I have time, the design will change accordingly. As ever, I welcome your comments with open arms and the offer of a beer if you’re ever in my neck of the woods.

In the meantime, I hope 2009 brings peace and prosperity to you as individuals, but also to your families and the communities around you. Have a good one.