In Gov. John Hickenlooper's second inaugural address he set forth a challenge for all Coloradans: to collectively perform 10,000 acts of kindness by the Biennial of the Americas in on July 14. Participation is simple, thanks to Denver's
Wayin, which aggregates social media content.
Participants will perform an act of goodwill then use the hashtag #StateOfKind. Wayin collects the information and posts it to
www.stateofkind.co which has a counter showing how many acts of kindness its recorded.
These don't have to be huge acts of kindness. For instance, one user posted: "Had a very kind gentleman offer me his seat on the bus ride home today." And another, from a native Tongan said: "I wrote a letter to my mom saying how much I appreciate and love her." The author goes on to say they don't express love much there.
"The social platforms included in the State Of Kind experience are Twitter, Vine, Facebook and Instagram," explains Wayin VP of Client Engineering and Operation Nate Frick. "Additionally, the team at the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is compiling random acts of kindness sent to them via email and including those in their own tweets, which are counted in the campaign."
Wayin's customers include The Weather Channel, MLB and other outlets -- customers that want access to real-time information, so it's used to the aggregating content quickly. "Wayin can display social content in real time, regardless of the device or screen," Frick says. "We make it easy for our clients to discover their desired conversation pieces quickly, select the most compelling contributions, and provide a way to moderate for any sensitive media or strong language."
Currently the project is only collecting the stories and quotes, according to Frick. "Our focus today is on providing a destination site for this incredible initiative, helping to drive as many social contributions as possible, and seeing other states accept Colorado's challenge," he says.
The project is part of the
Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, a Denver-based foundation dedicated to encourage benevolence. Wayin will provide services for the campaign throughout the U.S. Future campaigns will launch to coincide with Random Acts of Kindness Week Feb. 9-15, Frick says.
Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Chris Meehan with tips and leads for future stories at chris@confluence-denver.com.
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