Social networking and charity

Some of us are looking into literature that studies volunteers, in particular, what types of factors motivate people to join and to continue participating in volunteer activities. From this perspective, the following NY Times article was quite interesting: "My Network, My Cause". It reports on how some students have used Facebook to organize "traditional" volunteering activities – here, getting donations for the people of Darfur – using a new technology. Personally, I’m more interested in how what’s known about "offline" volunteering can inform the design of online volounteer-based communities, but this still is quite intriguing.