One of the greatest challenges in choosing a place to work is performing an accurate survey of what life is like inside the company.

Glassdoor.com alleviates that problem by letting its members view company reviews and salary charts submitted by current and former employees.

The site is free to use but does require new members to submit either a company review or salary information (which is kept anonymous) in order to view the same.

Link to [ Glassdoor.com ]

Is it all just to much for you? The Information Overload Research Group (IORG) may be able to help. The IORG works together to build awareness of the world’s greatest challenge to productivity, conduct research, help define best practices, contribute to the creation of solutions, share information and resources, offer guidance and facilitation, and help make the business case for fighting information overload.

A few information overload tips:

1. Turn email notifications off - save yourself from being constantly interrupted as new emails arrive.
2. Read the entire thread before responding - ensure you are responding to the latest posts and not repeating points already covered.
3. Set aside time for email - designate blocks of time in your day to focus on processing your email.
4. Limit your cc’s and replies to all - only copy people on emails who really need to get the email.
5. Be concise - write clear and concise subject lines and have each email focus on only one topic.

Link to [ Information Overload Research Group ]

SocialVibe, a site designed to enable interaction between people, the brands they love and the causes they are passionate about has established a cause called Disaster Relief that will enable SocialVibe to quickly mobilize fundraising efforts when a global or regional disaster strikes.

SocialVibe recognizes your influence within social networks and allows you to get sponsored by your favorite brands in a way that is entertaining and rewarding. In return for being sponsored, brands reward you with the goods you want and by supporting the causes that matter to you.

Link to [ SocialVibe ]

Crowdsourcing, a term coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 issue of Wired magazine, is a model of labor that has been fully embraced on the Internet over the past couple of years. Crowdsourcing takes tasks traditionally done by a single person or small groups of people, and farms them out to a global workforce. The large-scale committee approach is powerful because it leans on the concept of the “wisdom of crowds” (to a certain extent) which says basically that the more input, the better the output.

The term has become popular with business authors and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals. However, both the term and its underlying business models have attracted controversy and criticism.

Here is a look at some of the tools used to help you crowdsource.

Link to [ ReadWriteWeb on Crowdsourcing ]

SuggestionBox.com is the exciting new way to send suggestions and watch ideas turn into action. We’ve created one place where individuals can share ideas with every company, group, organization, and product on the planet. The best part of a free individual membership is that it’s interactive. People can stay in the loop by tracking their ideas, connecting with people, and improving the things around them.

• Is a concept that everyone already understands
• Fills a universal need
• Built using technology that users are comfortable with, similar to email
• Has tracking through dashboards and folders
• Standardizes feedback into one place for people to reach any company worldwide
• Allows a community to grow and interact around any brand

Link to [ SuggestionBox ]

GlobalGiving is a marketplace for goodness - where you can browse ways to help others around the world, pick the ones you are most passionate about, and give to the solution.

Their goals is to “connect people like you with great projects you might not otherwise find”.

Vision
Unleash the potential of people around the world to make positive change happen.

Mission
Build an efficient, open, thriving marketplace that connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them.

Link to [ Global Giving ]

Frozen Pea fund is a organization with Susan’s post and photo about a bag of frozen peas that started it all (explained here). Members of Susan’s Twitter community soon began adding peas to their avatar images; this supportive action quickly spread throughout a broader Twitter community and beyond.

It’s also the story of Connie Reece. A suggestion via Twitter for donating the equivalent of the cost of two bags of frozen peas to cancer research led to Connie Reece stepping into the peas picture with the formation of the Frozen Pea Fund, a fundraising effort for breast cancer research and programs through the American Cancer Society.

Link to [ Frozen Pea Fund ]

Web sites Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.

But to be clear, raising money isn’t the primary purpose of this web event.

The hope is that you turn your site pink (in whatever way works for your site), go out to that World Wide Web thing and educate yourself about the multiple issues related to Breast Cancer, then take that newfound knowledge and tell someone else what you’ve learned.

We hope that you will:

1. Turn your web site/blog pink (however you like, it’s up to you).
2. Educate yourself about the multiple issues related to breast cancer.
3. Take that newfound knowledge and teach someone else what you know.

Link to [ Pink for October ]

The web is a great medium for creating movement and change in the world so we are seeking to chronicle the sites and events that change the world using the web. If you run a site or have an organization that is using the web for change please let us know at webforchange [at] gmail [dot] com.