click4africa - a brewing idea.

The more time I spend in the click exchanges, the more I am understanding what I'd like to do with what I've learned.

I would like to create a traffic exchange that caters specifically to people who are interested in using their time online to promote causes in Africa that they care about. I would be a place where African organizations in need of votes to win competitions could go to promote their latest online campaigns.

It would be a place where Ceris from Wales could spend 1/2 hour per day viewing other campaigns to help Africa and actions he could take to help, while at the same time viewing campaigns that other like-minded people care about and promoting the Kampala Junior League's proposal for a Life in Africa grant that he's been helping his KJT friends in uganda to put together.

It's not the income earning models in the traffic exchange market that offer the biggest insight into useful ways forward for the social sector, but the ability to create communities of like-minded people who agree to consider what others in the community are promoting.

I would so love to build an exchange where people like our old friends from Onet, our friends from ned.com and our friends from Razoo and Facebook - some of whom know each other and are actively involved in promoting wonderful grassroots projects in and for Africa - could come to find a receptive group of people who are willing to take time out of their day to click in support of their actions and initiatives.

After 3 months in the clickexchanges, I think that's my biggest takeaway. I'm pretty sure of the direction I'd like to eventually take with the knowledge I've gained.

By the way, I have owned the domain click4africa.com since late 2001 or early 2002. I just got a reminder from WHOIS that I still own it, so it's an old concept that's been freshly brought out from the back of the shelves of my mind, and I'm looking at it again for the first time in quite a while. We'll see where it goes from here.

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