Hope Plus, Global Caring Portal, To Launch In December

Phil Noble describes Hope Plus, his upcoming online action network, as "a global eBay for caring." Hope Plus is being developed by Noble's PoliticsOnline, and plans to launch during December to coordinate with the Copenhagen Climate conference.

The site is attempting to get involvement from Barack Obama and Bill Gates.

So, what will Hope Plus do? Early buzz suggests it will act similarly to online social cause networks like TakePart.com and Causecast.org. (HuffPost Impact is partially managed by Causecast.org)

From BBC News:

The concept was in part inspired by Mr Noble's previous work with the BBC. He was a key advisor to the now defunct BBC Action Network, a nationwide portal for community activism...."I'd been throwing out the idea for a global network... and the consensus was - now was the time," he told E-Government Bulletin....The portal will be multi-lingual and consist of a range of activism tools. Companies such as Microsoft, Monster, Cisco and IBM and participating in creating the site....It will be user-generated, in terms of content and how it develops.

Comments

[RichardWalden]

This better not be an excuse to suck money out of operational NGOs who do the real work.

If it's a true "portal", it will not seek to collect any money in its own name but will profile worthy nonprofit partners and share their links with those seeking to find a good group to channel their compassion.

Even KIVA.org, with $100M distributed over just 4 years to microfinance partner agencies around the world, was questioned in today's NY Times because it is an intermediary not a direct provider of small loans to hundreds of thousands of borrowers.

"Hope Plus, a Global Caring Portal" should be just that, a portal...and only that.