Best of Green 2010 Awards: Green Skeptic Nominated

Readers who follow The Green Skeptic on Twitter http://twitter.com/greenskeptic have a chance to vote for me in Treehugger's Best of Green 2010 Awards.

I'm nominated in the category Best Twitter Feed for Business & Politics.

I'm up against some pretty stiff competition, including @kate_sheppard, @drgrist, @HuffPostGreen, and @YahooGreen.

If I provide value to your daily Twitterstream, I hope you'll vote for me. You can vote everyday until April 2nd.

Thanks for your support!

Related articles by Zemanta

• The 16 People You Must Follow on Twitter for Green Business (thegreenskeptic.com)
• TreeHugger's Best of Green 2010: Cast Your Vote Today! (treehugger.com)

The 16 People You Must Follow on Twitter for Green Business

Image by respres via Flickr

Last week, I was named one of "The 16 People You Must Follow on Twitter for Green Business" by Earth and Industry

It's a pretty impressive list and I am honored to be on it. (Although, I'm not sure what "shooting hops" is...have to ask my local brewer.)

From sharing news or quality content, to communicating with friends and communities of interest, the micro-blogging platform Twitter has something for everybody. And there are few communities of interest that have swarmed around Twitter with more fury than the business community. Granted, maybe 'business community' is too large a group to even classify as a community, but 'green business community' isn’t. On that note, we bring you the Earth & Industry 16 must-follows on Twitter.

Read the full article: Earth & Industry

And you can follow me: @greenskeptic

Omidyar Network Relaunches Itself, Turns ON

Omidyar Network today launched a new brand, including a new logo and website. The web site is much easier to navigate and to find their areas of focus, background and multimedia on their investee organizations and portfolio companies.

Omidyar Network (ON) has been a unique experiment and it is exciting to see the changes that Matt Bannick has instituted since taking over a short time ago. ON, like google.org, seemed to struggle with focus and clarity until recently.

Now, as illustrated by this new site, the focus of ON is clearer. And more good news: innovation is not lost for the sake of that focus. ON is a hybrid investor, taking equity stakes in some ventures as well as providing early stage philanthropic risk capital for social entrepreneurs or Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets.

Some of ON's investments include Ashoka, Unitus, MicroVest, DonorsChoose.org, Common Sense Media, Digg, MeetUp, GlobalGiving, Seesmic, Endeavor, CellBazaar, and WITNESS. (For a full portfolio, click here.)

"The new brand brings our work into sharp focus for the constituencies that we serve," said Matt Bannick, Managing Partner at Omidyar Network. "The logo embodies what we stand for, and the website offers greater insight into how we work and how our investees deliver social impact."

Omidyar Network was started in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. They say it is dedicated to the idea that every person has the power to make a difference.

I like what the new logo says about turning "on" that power, encouraging people to improve their lives and the lives of others. The logo also, as ON says in its press release, makes reference to the transformative power of technology, which many of ON's investee organizations use to amplify and accelerate their impact.

In addition to in-depth descriptions of each investment area, Omidyar Network's new site features profiles of ON's investee organizations, which helps raise the visibility of those organizations and makes ON's investments more transparent. It also provides a better picture of their overall approach and strategy.

There's also a "VentureLoop" portal for users to search and apply for job opportunities at Omidyar Network portfolio companies, as well as all the financial and investment information a user may need to evaluate ON's investments.

Check it out: Omidyar.com


(Disclosure: The author was formerly VP of Global Development at Ashoka, an Omidyar investee organization. He is not affiliated with either entity at this time.)

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