Dave The Chimp does other cool stuff too:

Thanks, Wooster.

This short film, called “Mankind Is No Island” was shot completely on a cellphone by Jason van Genderen, and won top prize at the world’s largest short-film festival, Tropfest. Get some tissue handy:

If you’re somewhere in or around Phoenix, don’t forget that tonight is another edition of the First Friday Artwalk. I’ll be checking out the new Ed Weston exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum, and then probably meandering my way through all the street vendors and ad hoc artists, towards a watering hole later in the evening.

Don’t forget the film screening tomorrow night. In the meantime, enjoy this:

Sure, the Internet is responsible for spreading questionable “newsworthy” items at Fiber Optic Speed, but it also has some amazing potential for good. And it’s now being tapped to help the victims of Gustav in ways that FEMA could only dream of.

Andy Carvin (@acarvin) has set up a Wiki for all things Gustav. The Gustave Information Center is chock full of up-to-date weather patterns, the latest related news, a flickr photo stream, videos from the area, and most importantly, ways in which you can seek or provide help. The site and its related pieces have the Twitterverse and other social media outlets abuzz. The coolest part about this endeavor for me is that it is 100% user-generated (read: the textbook definition of Web 2.0). The Federal Government didn’t ask Andy to start this up, nor is he receiving any huge amount of grant money to undertake the project. In all likeliness, he won’t even have to spend that much more time in the creation of the content. For the record, I’m sure tons of time went into the creation of the site, my point is that thanks to social media, the real meat of this project is going to be carried out by others. Users from around the country (and the world) now have access to everything they need to know about the storm, and the ability to alter that information as needed. Please take a moment to check the site out. It is well worth the visit.

The page for “Aid & Agencies” is currently being finalized, so in the meantime consider a donation to Mercy Corps, a disaster relief organization that is able to utilize at least 89 cents of every dollar donated to the earmarked cause you are giving towards.

One last thing before I let you go and take some action. Some of you remember our conversation about NoLA Rising, the art organization that was trying to lighten up the city a bit with creativity and color despite a few grouchy neighbors. Below is a letter from Michael that he posted on his blog today. Katrina was a difficult experience, but Gustav has now become a little more personal. Please keep Micheal and his brothers and sisters of NoLA in your thoughts and prayers as the long weekend continues.

To take action:

Stay tuned to the Gustav Information Center

Donate to Mercy Corps

Donate to NoLA Rising

Come to this film with me on Saturday

One thing I have decided though, is that I’m going to catch up. My friend Adam says he’s about four (4) days ahead in posts. I’m about eight (8) days behind that. I haven’t even finished up writing about my DC trip, I have a really cool idea brewing about Doctors Without Borders, and then there’s all these current events. One way bloggers catch-up a bit is to do something called a “link dump.” This is where, instead of lengthy post of stuff they came up with themselves, they will just post a conglomeration of links they have stumbled across and are collecting dust on their bookmark bookshelf. Some of you might argue that most of my posts integrate this technique with my gratuitous linking. To you, I say, “::silence::.”

I have some dumping to do. And it’s Wednesday, also known as (aka) “hump day”, so I concocted a clever title.

The Hump Dump

Animated street art by Blu. It’s about a seven (7) minute video, but worth every second. Sent to me by my cousin Matt. Pretty fun stuff.

The big-cactus-bloom-in-the-sky has already won awards. Boston area artist Janet Echelman designed the thirty-eight (38) foot tall sculpture that will be part of the new Downtown Civic Space, which is part of the Downtown Phoenix Campus of Arizona State University. Authorities are already on the lookout for David Ortiz jerseys…

The Phoenix Suns Charity gave over $1 million last year to the community, including a $100,000 grant to Valley of the Sun YMCA to continue a $4.3 million renovation of its Chris-Town facility. Oh yeah, and we have a new coach, too.

Last year, the IRS received over 85,000 applications for new nonprofit organizations. I’m a big fan of minimalizing duplication, so that wasn’t a very exciting number for me. The good news, however, is that the ASU Lodestar Center is partnering with the Lodestar Foundation to offer a $250,000 Collaboration Prize. If you know of any two organization like have like-minded interests and could serve their communities better by joining forces, here is a great opportunity to fund that conversation.

The Morrison Institute will be holding another edition of Forum 411: Engaging Arizona’s Leaders today. The topic is Immigration: From Global to Local to Kids, and is produced in collaboration with Community Outreach & Advocacy for Refugees (COAR). The event is today at 4PM.

I’ve talked about it before, but I am a big fan of the responsible use of technology in the Nonprofit Sector. Things like embracing Web 2.0, using New Media to be more effective message-bearers, and exploring Open Source programs and operating systems to cut down on administrative costs and increase efficiency. Well, check this out. Oxford Archeology has recently switched all of its servers over to Ubuntu, and transitioned into using the Open Office software package. The effect? A 20% decrease in IT costs over the last two years…

Hump Dump, Out!

It also means that my schedule doesn’t (read: shouldn’t) allow for blogging. So here’s a cheater’s way of updating. I found a few pictures of some street art that relates to the discussion that was started last week.

Enjoy, and I promise to be back in full swing after I get a few papers written…