Media Mentions

The following is a list of all media items featuring TakingITGlobal. If you'd like to add a media mention, let us know!

The Cause Web: Tech 10 Innovators

Contribute Magazine - October 1, 2007
Viral Communities
Michael Furdyk

Michael Furdyk's computer talents came early: At age two, he was already fiddling with a Commodore 64 computer, brought home by his father, who worked at the local phone company. By age 16, he'd already sold his first Internet start-up for $1 million and was consulting for Microsoft. Today, Furdyk, 25, leads Toronto-based TakingITGlobal, an international online community to ignite social change. The social networking site hosts more than 2,000 projects from over 50 countries, in 12 languages, ranging from youth voter mobilization efforts in Togo to a Canadian hip hop summer camp focused on boosting youth media literacy. Though the group doesn't hit up any of its 150,000 global affluentials for donations, it does provide a closely vetted list of more than 1,000 fundraising opportunities. When Muhammed Abdul Wahed Tomal, a Bangladeshi college activist, joined TIG in 2003, he wanted to use his computer skills to alleviate poverty. Through TIG's site, he organized a campaign with more than 100 members to push Bangladesh to take on technology access as a way to fight poverty and mobilize his efforts. It's a surprisingly substantive take on social networks - but that's precisely the point, says author and digital media expert Don Tapscott, an early mentor to Furdyk. Says Tapscott: "TakingITGlobal is one of the world's best examples of how Net-Geners are using digital technologies to transform the world around them."