I've been reading more and more in the news about a surge of patriotism across America and a continued call for Americans everywhere to get involved in their community and their country. The Obama campaign had suggested that we need a "Craigslist for Service", and Craig Newmark said, in effect, "that already exists" but they created one anyway, at USAService.org. The new website is a fine idea, but it's just another website with it's own silo of data. It does not have all the volunteer opportuntities, and if you were really looking for something that suited your availability and ability, you might have to search dozens or more websites.

I continue to think that Americans who want to answer the call will ask, "where do I go? what can I do?" And the answers are spread across hundreds of websites... so a part of the big answer, is for websites to share that information with each other, so people can spend their time helping, not searching hundreds of websites.

Imagine you could go to a website and search for sales at local stores happening this weekend. Or find open houses in the area you're interested in. Perhaps you're travelling on business and want to find sports events at your destination. Maybe you've got some free time and would volunteer for a charitable cause, if only you could find something nearby, and happening during the time you're available.

A lot of this information is available on the internet, but you have to go to a multitude of websites for different geographical areas or types of events. You can search with a search engine, but that will pull up all kinds of websites about the type of event you're interested in, but not the specific events.

Our vision is about making that information much more accessible.

Using a simple technology called RSS that is commonly used to syndicate news and weblogs, and extending it just a little bit, people can publish and find events in ways that computers and humans can understand. That means that you will be able to search for garage sales near Aunt Sara's house, or concerts in Spokane, or community events in your own neighborhood.

This website is just a small proof-of-concept application. It pulls event information in from several sources, and indexes and caches that information, so it is searchable right here. It gets updated information once per day, so the events stay current, but it does not use other websites resources unwisely. To learn how you can help, read on.