Just recently finished a 6 minute video for the international charity Globe Shares. Here's a quick excerpt from their site:

Globe Shares is a certified 501(c)(3) charity with a mission to "facilitate global generosity". It attempts to accomplish this by helping long-term volunteers connect with charitable opportunities around the world. These volunteers then work with organizations and individuals, and act as onsite representatives for Globe Shares. In their role as onsite volunteers, they evaluate potential financial needs and serve as intermediaries for contributions from donors to charitable opportunities worldwide. The structure is designed to benefit the volunteers, the charitable organizations, and donors.

Benefit to Volunteers:

Many people decide to self-fund significant long-term international travel. We have found that many of these travelers seek temporary employment in various countries to more thoroughly experience and understand different local cultures. Globe Shares benefits our volunteers by finding productive charitable activities with partner organizations in locations and at times that correspond to availability in their travel itinerary. Globe Shares also act as a single connection to organize and verify the charitable work that our volunteers undertake in their time abroad.

Benefit to Charitable Organizations:

Charitable organizations around the globe partnering with Globe Shares will see two primary benefits. First, volunteers will be onsite to provide assistance based upon the organization's needs and the volunteers' skills. The second benefit is the transfer of donations and the purchase of supplies by Globe Shares for the local organization. This is done by the Globe Shares volunteers working locally with the organization with the intention of maximizing the impact of each dollar.

Benefit to Our Donors:

Globe Shares strongly believe in financial accountability and efficient economic practices. It is run entirely by volunteers. A donation given from a benefactor is transferred to a volunteer for direct use on a project. This results in very little organizational overhead, which is all described on this website. Also, with direct oversight, charitable giving is less susceptible to misuse. This means that almost 100% of every dollar Globe Shares receives in tax exempt donations goes directly to people in need. Another benefit to our donors is the specific and known results of their contributions. Volunteers will take pictures, blog, and track expenditures as they work with various charitable organizations around the world.

If you contribute to Globe Shares, you will be kept informed of the services and resources that your donations are used for on this website. It is the intention of Globe Shares to be a very efficient conduit of financial and labor resources to maximize the impact achieved by the charity of all our benefactors.

I'm working on this site in the total darkness of a blackout—glow little MacBook, glow. As far as I can see outside the only lights come from occasional passing cars and the soft orange luminance from the half of Ann Arbor that still has power. It's just after midnight and the power company doesn't expect the blown transformer that (aparently quite literally) exploded earlier tonight to be fixed for another eleven or twelve hours. Iteresting how we're so depedant on power. I actually kind of like the quiet; I just hope everyone in the apartments around me is warm and have enough blankets.

So, after a grueling three week effort filled with tacos and Pepsi (it wasn't actually that grueling—and there was actually more pizza than tacos), Silvanti.com is in a mostly manageable state and, as you are aware, in a form that is in adequate shape to be put online.

There are a few things to watch out for, as follows:

- Video trailers for my personal projects (in Features and Shorts) being very low quality since they were uploaded to YouTube when YouTube was streaming videos as Flash instead of H.264 (don't worry if that sounds like Latin, it basically means YouTube's videos are now widescreen and in much better quality).

- Comments in this blog might be wonky.

- The contact form should work fine and is the preferred method of contacting me, but if you use that form and don't get a response within 24 hours, please drop me a line at TedescoWebmail (at) gmail (dot) com.