The Sun Microsystems Foundation

Asia is getting hit with natural disasters.  First the Myanmar cyclone which is estimated to have affected 1.5 million people.  MILLION.  On Monday, China was hit with a 7.9 magnitude earthquake, killing an estimated 9,000 people.  Eighty percent of the buildings in Beichuan county collapsed.

China and Myanmar need our help.  How do we help?  Financial contributions are the best way.  This insures that the right supplies get to the right places.  And charities that buy these supplies typically get wholesale prices. 

The Sun online drive benefits organizations that help disaster victims, and makes giving so easy.  Try it.

The estimate of the number of casualties from the Myanmar disaster is increasing by the day.  Disease, lack of supplies and food will only compound this number.  Estimates of victims range from 40,000 to over 60,000. 

Unfortunately, there is conflicting news about the relief efforts.  The UN is having difficulty assessing the situation but the International Federation of Red Cross, one of the charities included in our online giving drive, is reportedly on the ground in Myanmar, delivering needed aid.

If you want to help, consider participating in Sun's online disaster relief drive.  Your donation can go to one of a handful of agencies providing relief to the Myanmar disaster.

 

It's now several days after the devastating cyclone hit Myanmar.  It is estimated that over 22,000 lives have been lost and possibly one million people left homeless.  And these numbers are most likely going to increase in the coming days.  Continued flooding and outbreak of disease will contribute to already incredible suffering.

The Sun community rallies in times of crisis.  This is the reason we have a partnership with the nonprofit organization Aidmatrix.  Through Aidmatrix, Sun has a year-round, online disaster relief drive where employees can easily make financial donations to worthy nonprofit organizations.  Charities working to aid the people of Myanmar have just been added.  This drive is open to everyone, not just Sun employees.  But employees are eligible for matching funds from the Sun Microsystems Foundation.  Just check the box at the check out page of the drive.

Sunday was the Meetup/Mashup event I promoted on this blog about two weeks ago. As you can guess by the title of this entry, it was fantastic. We had 37 participants with strong representation from both the developer and the non-profit communities.

After some networking over lunch, Director of Global Citizenship, Larry Nelson, kicked off the event by welcoming everybody on behalf of Sun. Then Billy Bicket, of our nonprofit partner NetSquared, introduced the planned agenda. This was the second time NetSquared has facilitated an in-person event of this type and Sun's first. Because it's still so new, Billy suggested a format but gave the group option to participate in the design and format of the event. And, with that, in real time, participants both designed and participated in a powerful Meetup/Mashup.

After a round of introductions, developers "speed geeked" (similar to "speed dating") with nonprofit representatives stationed at different tables. These four minute speed geek sessions gave developers an opportunity to identify which projects were most compatible with their skills and interests while providing the nonprofits with an opportunity to hear a variety of perspectives on how to solve their web-based needs. After speed geeking, participants self-organized themselves into groups based on their skills, needs and interests. 

Throughout the event, I noticed CommunityOne developers asking an important and meaningful question; "What can I do to help you?". This question sparked new interactions that resulted in tangible outcomes. Following are snapshots of a few:

• Kevin Braithwaite, Director of a Lebanon based nonprofit called Root Space was able to get help mashing a database of NGO's based in Beirut with Google Maps.
  
• Brian Hamlin and Howard Pearlmutter were able to help one participant, Matt, identify software to help him create a web-app to map the direct impact of rising sea-levels on the Earth's coastal regions.
• Pedro Reyes of the Bay Area organization Streetside Stories was able to get ideas about how to integrate the organization's archive of youth generated content into their web-site.
• Brooke Murray and Dave Caldwell outlined a series of nine steps for the National Center for Lesbian Rights to utilize document management and information organization technologies in their work to efficiently provide legal advice to their clients. 
  
• Joshua Wiese was able to learn about different applications to capture names and emails of individual supporters for project he is working on for Virgin Unite called The Elders Campaign.
  

Throughout the entire event there was an electric sense of stewardship and community. Many of the developers expressed a desire to deepen their involvement with nonprofits and the nonprofits seemed excited to have received expert advice.

And here is what success looks like...

 

We even had some tech celebrities like Scott Mattoon (pictured above with the red ? t-shirt) Sun's Chief Architect for Western U.S. Sales & Services and also Architecture for Humanity Board Member.

Brian and Matt talk about geo-spacial mapping for Matt's vision of creating a web-app that shows the impact of rising sea levels.

 

 

Dave Caldwell thinking through document management and information organization with his group of fellow hackers.
 

Thank you! to NetSquared for collaborating with us. to Julian Edwards of Sun for help organizing this event. to all the developers and nonprofit participants who made this event successful.

We at Sun are well known for our blogging habits. Two volunteers recently shared with me WWVW blog entries that do a fantastic job describing their projects. The first is from a blog kept by Sun Partner Account Manager, Johannes Hogg. You can read about his groups volunteer construction project in Hamburg , Germany here.

Another participant in last Saturday's "Clean and Green" project in Bangalore, India blogged about his experience here. The really cool thing about this blog's author, Tarle-Nagendra HK, is that he is an ex-Sun employee who brought his entire family back to engage with Sun employees for this environmentally themed project.

These are just two of many great WWVW projects happening across the globe!

World Wide Volunteer Week started last Saturday, April 26 and we are already getting reports and pictures from the field. Stella Chan shared these fantastic photos of Sun employees working with children in Guangzhou, China. These employees donated time to play with orphaned and disabled children at the Guangzhou Social Welfare House. During the visit, these generous employees also donated food, stationary and toys to this program.

Stay tuned for more stories and pictures from the field....

Help nonprofits harness the power of the web.

We are doing a really cool thing on May 4th in conjunction with CommunityOne.   We are inviting attendees from CommunityOne & JavaOne, plus student developers, to participate in a Meetup/Mashup to support nonprofits.    Working with the San Francisco based nonprofit, NetSquared, Sun Microsystems, Inc. is leveraging a diverse and talented community of technology experts to help organizations with the technology challenges they face.

The event is happening on May 4 from noon – 5pm at the Moscone Center in San Francisco

Meetup/Mashup provides you an opportunity to direct your talent and programming skills to nonprofits focused on making positive social change, to see how others are using to technology to enact positive social change, and an opportunity meet some passionate people working to make the communities where we live and work a better place.

Participating nonprofits will have a variety of technology needs, including:

Refining some of their ideas about how the data they are using could be rendered in mashups; and
Building mashups using a variety of APIs, products, or coming up with creative technical solutions to particular problems they are facing.

Signup to Participate!

If you are a student developer or an attendee of CommunityOne and/or JavaOne and you want to help make a difference by attending this event, please email: meetup.mashup@sun.com with your:

Name:

• Technology expertise:

• Employer/Nonprofit or/School 

• Interests (for developers: Cause that you are passionate about; for non profits: technology challenge(s) you hope to address)

• Developers, please indicate if you are interested in being a discussion leader at the event

Confirmation of participation as well as logistics will be sent out by Tuesday, April 29.

Space is limited: so please sign up today!

This event is organized by NetSquared and Sun Microsystems.

Help us spread the word about this fantastic event by sharing the following link with your nonprofit and developer communities: http://developers.sun.com/events/communityone/meetup_mashup.jsp

It's not everyday that Sun volunteers make an appearance on TV.  But yesterday was a day for them to shine!  Volunteer Barbara Moran spearheaded the effort to get employees to Eldora Mountain to showcase the Eldora Special Recreation Program.  This program works with special needs people to give them the ability to participate in snow sports.  Al Roker gave away oodles to the program to help them continue to meet this community need.  You can also check out the video.

Last night I was invited by an organization I am involved with (Bay Area Wilderness Training) to attend the Goldman Environmental Prize Ceremony. I've attended this ceremony 5+ times and leave each ceremony equally awed by the degree of change made by the award recipients. 

As described on their website: "In 1990 San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman (1924-1996) created the Goldman Environmental Prize. The Goldman Prize continues today with its original mission to annually honor grassroots environmental heroes from the six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. The Goldman Prize views “grassroots” leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world."

One reoccurring theme echoed through participant acceptance speeches was the role that changing our personal habits can have on our planet. Although this theme seems cliche, I was inspired by how it was weaved into multiple facets of the ceremony. Award recipient Ignace Schops of Belguim summed up this theme at the end of his speech by adding, what I think is a fantastic iteration to a common environmental phrase, "Think global, act local". Schops encouraged the jam packed San Francisco Opera House to "Think globally, act locally and change personally". To me, "change personally" is a welcome iteration that emphasizes personal responsibility.

To learn more about the amazing work of this years recipients click here.

 

Amazed might not be the right word.  Humbled?  Awestruck?  Sun volunteers continue to amaze and humble me.  Team Managers around the world are leading volunteer projects, giving back to the local community and engaging Sun volunteers:

Scott in the California Bay Area is leading a team at the Humane Society on April 29.  Sprucing up the facility for all the homeless pets that need adopting.

In New Jersey, Diane is leading volunteers for a mentoring program.  Mentors will work with girls between the ages of 12 and 18.

In New York City, volunteers, including myself, will help at Baby Buggy, an organization that provides baby supplies for low income families.

 

And there's more.  In a couple of weeks, we will share pictures from all of these great projects.  Then you will get to see the impact that Worldwide Volunteer Week has on so many people around the globe.

Global Youth Service Day is the largest annual celebration of young volunteers, when millions of young people everywhere highlight and carry out thousands of community improvement projects. GYSD is organized by Youth Service America with the Global Youth Action Network as its key partner and a consortium of international organizations and over 120 national coordinating committees in participating countries.

Through my own experiences working with youth leadership programs, I have gained insight into the tremendous impact that youth led projects can have on local communities and beyond. Some of my most inspiring role models are youth who have shaped legislation, started their own non-profits organizations and organized communities to fight injustice. Stories about some of my youth heroes can be seen at the Brower Youth Awards web-site.

If you too would like to be inspired, feel reassured about the future, and/or humbled by our next generation of leaders; get involved with a GYSD project happening near you. GYSD dates, April 25-27, just so happen to overlap with our Worldwide Volunteer Week. So, if you are a Sun employee who doesn't have project, Search the GYSD map to find out if a project near you is recruiting adult volunteers. Visit here for US-based projects.

Boston Area Sun Women supported Women's History month with a toiletry drive.  Over 1000 donated items went to Bridges, a nonprofit organization supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence.  Kudos to all participants.  Read more here.

Sun is on fire!  We have so many great projects taking place during Worldwide Volunteer Week. (Did I mention it is April 26-May 4?)  We are still a few weeks away but we have at least 60 volunteer projects listed in our internal volunteer tool.  (Did I mention sixty?!)  Here's a sampling of projects that could use more volunteers:

 In the Bay Area, volunteers will be helping a bike race on May 3.

On April 30, volunteers from MA will be doing a spring clean up for a local school.

Virtually, Sun employees will meet on April 30 to discuss creating a chess program for kids.

Don't you get those warm fuzzy feelings?

How cool is it that Sun volunteers all over the world will be volunteering during Worldwide Volunteer Week?  

The latest project idea for a team of Sun volunteers located anywhere, is to collaborate with a local school to teach kids about different careers, interviewing, filming, and editing.  This is a cool project in which kids and volunteers work hand in hand.  Interested?  Contact Julie.Smith@sun.com for more info on CareerBytes.

Exciting Worldwide Volunteer Week opportunities are plentiful. However, finding specific projects for Sun employee volunteers to donate specific engineering skills can be more difficult. Grassroots.org is among a growing number of organizations that enable coders to apply their skills to non-profits.

Grassroots.org has over 1000 member organizations working on issues ranging from voter registration to AIDS awareness to homelessness prevention. Most of our organizations have little to no web presence. Grassroots mission is to change that! 

A talented and dedicated web designer is critical to give these websites the usability and creative voice that each nonprofit business requires. Incorporating the greatest and most appropriate tools is essential in giving these groups the online platform they need. For instance, the greatest trend in nonprofits today is online fundraising. Making a website for these organizations not only brings them a step into the future but gives them a chance to really change the world.

Sura Hart, Grassroots Outreach Coordinator, recently created a fantastic Volunteer Bulletin Board to share opportunities for volunteers to help non-profits establish a web-presence. 

If you're a Sun employee who's got the skills, get a small group together to make one of these projects your Worldwide Volunteer Week project.