Serious about service on Martin Luther King Day

OK, the deal is that things get better for everyone when we pull together, and this is a really good day to remind each other of that. Check out the Facebook page for MLKday.

I've been asked to mention what I'm doing for the day, but figure it's time to up the ante, and to partially disclose a lot more of my efforts.

My deal is that I'm now spending most of my time in public service and philanthropy, and on MLK Day, ironically, I'll be flying to Washington in that pursuit. Makes sense to me to document some of what I've been doing and will do around MLK Day. Much of this I've been doing for five to 10 years, but it's time to step up my game.

Here's just the bullet list, incomplete where I haven't gotten permission to discuss, or it's too sensitive. This is a partial list, kind of a two-week snapshot.

• "accountability journalism" and public service media
• helping Charity Navigator and GreatNonprofits (get started to) measure the effectiveness of causes and related nonprofits
• supporting #veterans across the country, and particularly where I live, the Bay Area (multiple parallel efforts)
• helping teachers via DonorsChoose.org
• helping FEMA figure out how to use social media for emergency management #smem
• working with CiviliNation trying to get reasonable social discourse going
• supporting Wikipedia with customer service, also financially
• using social media on behalf of AARP
• helping several federal agencies with how to better do customer service online
• working with the State Department, Palestinian and Israeli gov'ts on jobs in IT in the West Bank (I just found out I'm a co-chairman of the U.S. Palestinian Partnership)
• working with multiple agencies regarding interoperability of health systems and medical records