As Akohans, we love the idea that everyone can be an agent of change. We also know that people don’t need Akoha to be Akohan

As a company we are working to create a fun platform that provides a structure for players to be inspired to complete acts of kindness, a social and viral mechanism for those acts to spread throughout the world and a business that can support a variety of people and organizations goals for spreading their acts of change.

But the principles behind Akoha are beliefs that don’t require someone to play our game.

1) We believe that everyone has within them the ability to make a difference in the world.
2) We know that spreading kindness is fun, should be documented & celebrated by sharing those stories with friends.
3) We believe that we can aggregate many small acts to improve the world to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Together we can use technology to bring together other like minded agents of change and empower them to band together to be capable of tackling even the largest issues facing our world. We sometimes refer to this as the “Wikipedia of World Improvement” — where everyone can participate and together we can accomplish more then anyone of us could alone.

So when we see stories like this we smile - because everyone can be Akohan. No cards needed

I (Sean Power, community gardener for Akoha) will be in San Francisco this week to spend some time at Web 2.0 Expo and meet Akoha players and play some missions in the area.  I’ll be organizing a get together, but I’m still in the process of putting it together.  Expect to see an announcement coming up shortly, including some out-of-town blog posts this week.

Wherever you are, let’s get some Akoha missions played this week!  Keep up with the RSS feed, check out the Community feed and follow us on Twitter for inspiration, questions and guidance.

TED curator Chris Anderson humorously suggested title “Bill Gates releases more bugs into the world at TED” which got a laugh from the audience as Bill released some malaria-free mosquitoes into the theater. The presentation instead was an incredible introduction into the work that the Gates Foundation is doing in two of its areas of focus.

As the first TED 2009 presentation to go online I wanted to share it with the Akoha audience.

Bill Gates did an incredible job talking about two of the many issues the Gates Foundation has focused on. Malaria and Education reform. As the largest philanthropist on the planet, Bill leads his foundation in a metric & results based approach to some of the worlds largest problems.

You can hear him talk about these issues in the following TED video.

Very few of us will ever have the resources to undertake the massive social issues that the Gates Foundation is tackling. What struck me during the presentation though, was the thought that it is very possible that Gates may be one of the last great large philanthropists.

The type of organizational structures that are required to tackle the challenges of this century will most likely be lot’s of small organizations using new technologies to collaborate, engage and inform. There will be a role for major organizations like the Gates Foundation - but the future of change may very well be each of us.

Already the world of philanthropy is following what David Weinberger calls “Small Pieces Loosely Joined Together” model that refers to the organizational systems that have given us Wikipedia, Open Source Software, the blogosphere and the Internet itself. As David mentions in one of his chapters about the Web - Hope.

Hope - The Web’s hyperlinked architecture is connective and based on shared caring. It thus reflects the basic structure of morality. Hope is in order.

The optimism that Gates has in our ability as a society to face these challenges should not be a luxury afforded to the wealthy or priviledged. We have within each of us the ability, the tools & technologies to make a difference.

We hope Akoha will play a role in parts of this sea change of hope, but equally important is that we each feel empowered to make a difference.

There are more TED 2009 talks that will be coming online over the next few months. We’ll be posting some of our favorites including the small presentation I was able to share with the TED audience about the inspiration & history of the Akoha project.

Fellow Akohans,

Akoha will have a chance to present at TED 2009.  This amazing opportunity will give us a chance and platform to spread the message of Akoha to others, in hopes of igniting their inspiration and motivations to spread kindness through play.

TED 2009 is a conference whose mission is to showcase the ideas of thought leaders to change the world.  Standing for Technology, Entertainment and Design, it brings together masters of these fields that enlighten the listeners with inspirational topics.  Previous speakers have included people like Richard Branson, Bono, Paul Simon, Jeff Bezos, Al Gore and many, many more.

Past TED Talks

There are many astounding TED talks that continue to inspire others to bring about world change.  For example, Bono’s call for action at TED resulted in one million people signing up for the ONE campaign whose goal is to eradicate poverty.  TED videos can be found on the TED Talks page.  Additionally, there is content on YouTube (search for TEDTalksDirector).

Inspiration and Action

By using the TED videos as inspiration, we want you to get you involved.  In the coming days leading up to TED 2009, Akoha will be announcing new missions, upcoming changes to the Akoha site and various ways that you can get involved with Akoha.  Stay tuned to this blog by subscribing to the Akoha RSS feed for more updates.

You can follow us on Twitter too:

• The Official Akoha Twitter Account
• Our CEO Austin Hill is on Twitter.  He talks about what it’s like to be a serial entrepreneur and to inspire world change.
• I’m the Akoha Community Manager, and you can find me (Sean Power on Twitter) as well.  I’ll make sure @akoha and @seanpower follows you back, though it might not happen right away.

Trying to figure out how to play your next Akoha card?  Check out this blog post that outlines a few tips on how to play Akoha.

Want to talk to us?  Find out different ways that you can reach us on our blog.

Paul Graham the co-founder of Y Combinator gave a fascinating presentation at Y Combinator startup school this weekend about the similarities between great Internet companies and non-profits in this presentation about Being Good.

Paul also posted an essay version of this speech on his website.

This speech reminds me of many of the conversations that Alex and I had when co-founding Akoha. 

We were brainstorming about social entrepreneurship, our experiences in trying to make the world a better place at Zero-Knowledge Systems and our believe that there was an opportunity to make improving the world fun.  We discussed the best approach to implement some of our ideas and decided that a company with a strong social goal made the most amount of sense.

This lead to one of the principle questions that Akoha has been designed to answer.  "What if playing a game could make the world a better place?"

We look forward to sharing Akoha with the world later this year and sharing how we think we can help everyone Be Good together.

Thanks to Heri @ Montreal Tech Watch for the link.