Finding out if you’re a match requires just a cheek swab or simple blood test, and you are not under any obligation to follow through later.

Emru’s chances of finding a suitable donor are complicated by a lack of registered donors from minority groups. While the chances are higher if the potential donor is of African or West Indian descent, Emru’s match can come from anyone, from any ethnic background, in any country. And if you’re not a match for Emru, you may end up helping somebody else.

You can read more at the Montreal Gazette or BoingBoing. Then head on over to healemru.com (version française ici) to find out how you can sign up with your country’s donor registry.

The goal is to raise a million dollars for charity. After trying to figure out the site’s business model (there isn’t one) or the future business model of Austin and Alex’s Project Ojibwe, I realized I was missing the point. Who cares? They’re encouraging people to give to charity, and that’s good enough for me.

So here’s my receipt. $500 for Seeds of Peace. The organization runs a camp in Maine which brings together teenagers from conflict regions and equips them with leadership skills to promote reconciliation and coexistence. After graduating from the camp, alumni continue to contribute towards advancing these goals in their respective communities.

A recent trip to Israel and Egypt reinforced my belief that a lasting, durable peace (however difficult or far off it may seem under the current circumstances) cannot be achieved by politicians alone but also needs to involve grassroots links between everyday citizens of different countries. Think of it as crowdsourcing for a good cause.

Please take a few moments to visit Gifter.org to either sponsor or make a wish. Happy holidays, everyone, and see you in 2007.

Updated: As a Canadian, I can’t benefit from the tax deductibility of this donation, but that’s tempered by the fact that board member David Avital has offered to match any donations received by December 31st of  this year.

I’ve been watching my friend Adam Shostack nurture his blog with much enthusiam and for some time now. I emailed Adam asking for suggestions about blog software. His suggestion: Forget about the software and focus instead on developping a “message, a voice, and a reason for people to come back.” (Thanks for the inspiration and the tip, which earn you the inaugural link on my Blogroll. )

Thinking about “a reason for people to come back,” I found myself asking myself an even bigger question: Why am I writing? It turns out the question is harder to answer than I originally though. [So hard, in fact, that I'm posting this message almost a week after having started to write it.]

The short answer is that I’m writing because I have something to say. The long answer is, well, longer.

My first contact with the Internet was in 1993, when, at a student journalism conference, I had the chance to see a preview of Gopher. I was bored out of my mind, left the room early, and just plain didn’t get it. Some months later, I saw a live demo of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser. Many in the room couldn’t grasp the significance of watching the level of a coffee pot at a university in the UK, but I was awe-struck. I knew this was the beginning of something great, something that would change society in a fundamental way, even though I wasn’t quite sure how. And I wanted to be a part of it.

That year I jumped head-first into the fray and have been making a living off the Internet ever since. I experienced first-hand both extremes of the dot com boom and bust as employee number 11 at Zero-Knowledge Systems, only to watch from the sidelines as it rebounded. And I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but also some good moves, while co-founding three companies. My hope is that if I can share even a little bit of insight that might — just might — help someone out in a small way, then I would have given something back.

I plan to blog about issues I’m thinking about. Since I spend most of my time these days helping financial services companies attract customers online, it’s only natural that many of my posts will relate to this topic. (And I’m sure I will post articles that have no relation to anything I’ve just talked about. You may think this takes away from the blog’s focus, and you’d be right. But it’s my blog, after all.)

So welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy your stay. Some items may have shifted during transit. Please fill out the comments card on your way out.