Weekly news roundup

News from the Case Foundation and what people are talking about this week in the world of giving, tech and everything in between.

Corporate Philanthropy Summit brings together leaders in CSR In spite of a difficult economy and tight corporate budgets, this week's Corporate Philanthropy Summit (hosted by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy) drew a sold-out crowd from companies all over the country to discuss the importance of corporate giving.  Our chairman, Steve Case, participated in an executive panel with Mark Benioff of Salesforce.com and Shelly Lazarus of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, moderated by Stephanie Strom of the New York Times on the continued importance for corporate philanthropy, particularly in tough times.  

In this same vein, Sean Stannard-Stockton at Tactical Philanthropy has a great post on the potential of a shift in thinking from corporate giving to corporate impact, contemplating:

It seems to me that this approach can be used to break down the natural suspicion we have of corporate giving. Consumers appreciate the fact that companies are charitable, but there is the lingering assumption that they do it only to help their bottom line... But if a company’s corporate giving program was focused on achieving impact (and actually achieves it) does the consumer care anymore about how much they gave or why? 

Mashable launches "Summer of Social Good"  This week, Mashable launched a new initiative, the Summer of Social Good, designed to raise funds for four charities - The Humane Society, LIVESTRONG, Oxfam America and WWF. Running from June 1 - August 28, the initiative seeks to raise funds strictly online, and is focused on leveraging social media tools and the Internet to encourage people to participate.  The initiative will culminate in the first Social Good Conference in New York on August 28th. 

Time magazine explains Twitter The blogosphere was buzzing this week with reaction to Time magazine's take on Twitter, entitled “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live."  The article seeks to explain the Twitter phenomenon to the magazine's broad audience, moving from talking about the basics of Twitter to the cultural impact - including celebrity Twitterers.  CNET News' Caroline McCarthy has an interesting take on the Time piece and the recent attention being paid to Twitter by the mainstream media, arguing that we aren't quite getting it right when assessing what the impact of Twitter might be:

It's not that this "Twitter is revolutionary" talk isn't true. Twitter is revolutionary in the sense that it turned the world on to a whole new form of information consumption--real-time, public conversations, aggregated and searchable. But just like blogging or instant messaging, this is going to get bigger than a single brand or company.

Mashable features a good summary of the article including key excerpts, but also expressing some skepticism that "Twitter’s hype cycle, however, may be winding down." VC and blogger Fred Wilson picks up on a point made in the article related to "user innovation" and notes that the founders of Twitter are a perfect example of this "fundamental shift in the way society innovates."  What do you think of the buzz around Twitter? Truly revolutionary, or just hype?

Differentiating between your professional and personal identities online In a post this week on the Social Citizens blog, the Case Foundation's Kristin Ivie sparked a hearty discussion about the challenges of drawing the line between personal and professional when it comes to social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter.  She concludes that:

I think Millennials and their use of social networks can usher in a new standard for transparency where we will all have to start admitting to being human. No, I don't need to know all the skeletons in everyone's closets, but I don't think we can continue to maintain the division between professional and personal lives that our parents had. Won't we all - as individuals and members of the public, private and nonprofit sectors - be better for it?

The discussion also carried over to the Chronicle of Philanthropy's "Give and Take" section, which features a summary of Kristin's post, and the ensuing discussion highlights the dilemma that so many of us are facing as social networking has become central to both our personal and professional lives.