I have an envelope on my desk from the American Cancer Society.  A very, very worthy organization, and one that I do indeed plan to support financially.  But—being the strange bird that I am—I’d like to do so creatively, selfishly, and, well, with your help

No, I’m not going to ask you to send me money… at least not until I’m masochistically running some 42K fundraiser race or whatever where I have to raise [$x] and [x] is some relatively high number.  Instead, I’m going to ask you to do work for me.  Let me explain…

You see, I have thousands of photos.  Tens of thousands of photos.  Lots of them are pretty darn cool (if I say so myself) and many of them I’ve actually bothered to put online via Flickr or Fotki.

But—and here’s where you come in—lots of the photos are sadly unannotated.  Heck, except for the country of origin, I probably don’t even remember anything about the people, the sculptures, the castles, the lakes… anything at all, really, and that’s rather regrettable IMHO.

Why not, as my boss has so aptly done in the past, invoke teh lazyweb!  You, oh sundry and smart and good looking BLADAM readers from Amsterdam and Berlin and Cairns and every other letter of the alphabet… you probably can easily identify what goofy and beautiful people places and things I’ve taken photos of!

So here’s the deal: If there’s enough of a response, I’m prepared to write a check for up to $500 to the American Cancer Society which—when matched by my generous employer—will become 1,000 donated smackeroos… based upon how many of my photos y’all annotate.  [x] cents per reasonable (and typically brief) annotation per photo. 

In the end, it’s win-win-win.

- I get to remember and learn more about the places I’ve visited.
- My photo pages may get better indexed and more frequently viewed… and they’ll be more interesting and informative for everyone, too!
- You get warm fuzzies and certainly recognition and thanks on my blog at a later date .
- The American Cancer Society gets up to $1,000!  Plus more if I decide to do this on a yearly basis or others decide to responsibly copy-cat the idea.

* * *

I don’t yet have a timeline for this (though “by Thanksgiving this year” seems reasonable, no?).  First, I have to upload a bunch more of my photos from around the world!  Also, I’d love to hear (either privately or in the comments below):

1) Where you’re from and what you think about this idea.
2) Whether you’d personally enjoy participating by annotating my photos online.
3) Any particular restrictions or guidelines you think I should set / anything else to consider logistically or policywise.
4) Whether you’ve ever seen this sort of fundraising idea implemented

Thanks in advance for your comments and, ultimately, your support!  Remember, speak out—I’m only going to do this if I get a sufficient number of volunteers!

* * *

Update just a few minutes after I posted this:
Here’s a very non-comprehensive list of where I’ve been and taken photos (I hope to make a more comprehensive list someday!)

In no particular order…

EUROPE:

• Austria: Vienna, Ischgl
• Belgium: Brussels, Antwerp
• Czech Republic: Prague
• Denmark: Copenhagen
• Estonia: Tallin*
• Finland: Helsinki*
• France: Paris
• Germany: Berlin, Mainz, Mannheim, Weinheim, Viernheim, Maulbronn, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Strausberg, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart
• Hungary: Budapest
• Ireland: Dublin, Glendalough
• Italy: Venice, Rome
• Luxembourg: Luxembourg
• Netherlands: Amsterdam, Venray, Haarlem, Rotterdam
• Spain: Barcelona
• Sweden: Herrang, Stockholm
• Switzerland: Geneva, Berne, Lucerne, Interlakken
• United Kingdom: London

NORTH AMERICA:

• California: San Francisco, Daly City, Thousand Oaks, Los Angeles, San Diego, Marin, Santa Cruz, Oakland, Berkeley, Sacramento
• Colorado: Denver*
• Hawaii: Kauai
• Illinois: Evanston, Chicago
• Maine: Er, I forget where!
• Nevada: Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas*
• New Hampshire: Hebron, somewhere else
• New York: New York City
• North Carolina: Charlotte*
• Other: D.C.
• Tennessee: Knoxville, Gatlinburg
• Texas: Austin,
• Virginia: Newport News
• Washington: Seattle
• Canada: Vancouver

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns
• Singapore: Singapore

LATIN AMERICA

• Costa Rica: San Jose, Montezuma

* I’ve visited here, but I don’t think I have pictures from this city.

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