WOOLWORTHS MY SCHOOL FUND RAISING SYSTEM
Category: School, College, Greek

MySchool is South Africa's foremost school fund raising system, contributing more than R1.5 million to schools every month. The organisation was founded in 1996 as a social entrepreneurial initiative and is dedicated to supporting South African learners by creating sustainable income for schools, through a collaborative community support model.

The system gives parents and other community minded individuals a vehicle through which to make a meaningful contribution to schools, in a convenient and transparent manner.

The MySchool support system is not a donation service, but a true partnership between schools and business partners. Schools work hard at encouraging parents to support the programme while business partners commit to funding based on the parents' loyalty to their respective brands.

How MySchool works

MySchool facilitates school support on behalf of a range of business partners who have a specific interest in education. The fundraising system is a partnership through which all involved strive to create a better future for learners in South Africa.

Approximately 350 000 parents and community minded individuals have MySchool supporter cards. Whenever these supporters make a transaction at one of the MySchool partners, up to 1% of their transaction is allocated to the school they wish to support.

The supporter card is not a debit or credit card but serves as a measure through which valuable supporter data, such as transactions and funds raised for a particular school, are tracked.

In addition to channeling funds to schools, the system also promotes developmental initiatives in under resourced schools in conjunction with business partners. These initiatives are aimed at bringing much needed resources to these schools and starting partnerships with more affluent schools and business partners. Some initiatives include a Twinning model where resourced schools partner with under resourced schools in the pursuit of aiding development; multi-partner projects such as "Paint-a-thons" where a number of partners are involved in developing schools facilities, as well as advocating children's rights through collaborative campaigns such as the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.

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APPLE OPENS APP-STORE
Category: Fashion, Style, Shopping

With 552 applications, including 134 free options, Apple's much-hyped App Store opened for business today, exciting iPhone and iTouch users looking to jazz up their gadgets. Games like Super Monkey Ball and Cro-Mag Rally grabbed the early top spots for download popularity while MLB.com's real-time scores app dubbed At Bat also proved incredibly popular and landed in the second spot.

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CORNER PICTURE FRAMES BY YVONNE SCHROEDER DESIGN
Category: Art and Photography

They're designed for accessorising the inside or outside corners of a wall and come in beech black or natural maple. At $400 bucks a frame, I REALLY wish I would have thought of that before the product designer, Yvonne Schroeder did. They are approximately 35cm high, so don't worry about them getting lost if used in an interior corner.

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BLEACHER REPORT PUTS AMATEUR SPORTS WRITERS ON FRONT LINES
Category: Sports

Bleacher Report is a blogging platform for sports where users can write stories about college or professional sports.

The site is positioned as a publishing platform that leverages the rough-edged talents of amateur sports writers. Readers can track favorite writers, and stories are categorized by topic. Writers with preexisting blogs can opt to have their stories fed into the site.

The community also acts as a collective editor, correcting spelling and grammatical errors — even headlines. Writers can have articles reverted back to original formats if changes come uninvited. Otherwise, the site is a typical social network. Members list profiles — in addition to recent articles — alongside bios, fans, and recent activity.

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BABY JAMZ
Category: Music

Mathew Knowles' Music World Entertainment has partnered with Planet Toys to launch the first ever hip-hop/rhythm inspired preschool toy line promoting creativity, learning and movement through music.

Mr. Knowles, who has made it a top priority to create and release "child-friendly" music content over the past year with his Kid's Rap Radio series, has brought to fruition this groundbreaking line of innovative, educational and musically stimulating toys. The line, Baby Jamz, will be available exclusively at Wal-Mart stores beginning July 26, 2007.

"Baby Jamz allows children to have toys that they can identify with and enjoy. Many children love music and dancing to hip-hop, so we have creatively combined great toys with the hip-hop versions of popular nursery rhymes. My grandson Juelz was the inspiration for this idea and I am especially excited that most of the Nursery Rhymes are sung by my daughter, Solange Knowles," says Mathew Knowles, president and CEO of Music World Entertainment.

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WORDS OF WISDOM
Category: Religion and Philosophy

When you're the first one up, be quiet about it!

"He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it will be counted as a curse to him."                                   

Proverbs 27:14

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WORDS OF WISDOM
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Let your children hear you say things to your wife that lets them know how much you love and treasure her!

"Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."  Proverbs 31: 28-29

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BOONE OAKLEY SUPPORTS WGA WITH SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
Category: News and Politics

 

While the strike may be nearing an end, Boone Oakley has come to the aid of the Writer's Guild of America with a solidarity campaign along the lines of so many other ribbon-style cause-related campaigns. The lead graphic element in the campaign is a pencil twisted into the shape of a ribbon. The campaign urges writers, directors, actors, crew and fans to wear the pin in support of the writers and to show "media moguls" the WGA is united and won't back down. Checkout the campaign elements on the Bring Back the Dialogue site.

 

 

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PHOTOBUCKET REMAINS TOP DOG IN PHOTO-SHARING
Category: Blogging

Photobucket, which precedes Web 2.0 offerings like Flickr.com, remains No. 1 in photo-sharing due in great part to MySpace users who continue to upload pictures and videos to post elsewhere on the web, reports USA Today.

Photobucket currently serves 3 billion online images for 41 million members and accounts for 40 percent of all photo-sharing content. These figures eclipse Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly and Yahoo Photos, according to Hitwise. Together, Yahoo Photos and Flickr account for only 10 percent of the share.

The company is also generating ad revenue as users remain on the site for extended periods of time to upload photos. Brand equity and formidable revenue figures lend the sense it may be among the next major websites for sale. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch says the site could sell for between $300 and $400 million.

Photobucket's reliance on MySpace may leave the company open to a crippling blow should the social networking vortex develop its own uploading abilities. High numbers, however, keep the longstanding website confident. Last weekend alone over 8 million photos were uploaded.

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MOTOROLA MAY CALL MOBILE BUSINESS QUITS
Category: News and Politics

Motorola announced it is exploring a "structural and strategic realignment" after its mobile phone business sunk from second to third place last year, falling behind Samsung and Nokia, reports The Guardian.

Having sold over 50 million iconic Razr phones, Motorola has consistently failed to follow up with another popular handset. The Razr debuted in 2005. The push to sell its sleepy handset business is spurred on by billionaire activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who owns 3.3 percent of Motorola's stock. He sought boardroom representation last year and plans to unseat "four or five" of the company's 13 board members, according to The Guardian.

If Motorola leaves the mobile business to its betters, it may instead pursue radios, networking equipment and set-top boxes. The latter sector is enjoying renewed interest from Microsoft, Netflix, Vudu and Apple. Motorola's profits dropped 84 percent in the fourth quarter, to $100 million. CEO Greg Brown is currently managing its handset arm, reports Reuters.

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