Starbucks is running a special promotion until January 2, 2009 to donate 5¢ for (STARBUCKS)RED beverages sold to the Global Fund to help save lives in Africa. Today, on World Aids Day, every hand-crafted beverage will generate a 5¢ donation.

Drop by your local Starbucks to support this important cause. Learn more at Starbucks.com.

Yahoo - Added a vote button and turned theirs into a poll.

Cafemom - had a nice button standing in for their O.

Boston.com - also choose a Vote button.

FriendFeed - went with a sticker instead.

Google - outdid themselves with voting booths.

I also came across this version at googlevote.com, but there isn’t anything else at that domain. Not sure what the story is there.

AOL - had a spiffy, but lengthy, animated version of their logo.

Ask.com - had a dramatic White House and sticker

Surprisingly, my favorite was Microsoft’s Live Search (click the image to enlarge). I love the power of the photo background.

When I saw this tweet last night, after chuckling at the HTML joke, I started thinking about all the folks who’d be stocking up on paper copies of newspapers today. That lead to some surfing of major news sites and, ultimately, to the collection below of post-election screenshots from around the web. Thanks to Kristofer Layon for the inspiration.

What did you do to commemorate this historic event?

A bunch of these posters by Stacy Schwartz were taped up in the neighborhood around my office this morning. Aside from being incredibly cool on its own, the concept was inspired by a 1960’s draft resistance photo featuring Joan Baez. 

The most important thing you can do today is get out and vote. Google can help you find your polling place. Starbucks will even give you a free cup of coffee. Follow the action at Twitter Vote Report. All that’s left is for you to go and make the world a better place.

So much of this most recent election cycle has taken place across the social web. Twitter and SocialMedian have created stand-alone political sites, Current TV combined Twitter and the televised debates, CNN is reading Facebook and Myspace mail from viewers during reports. How, if at all, has this influenced your vote? Jump onto Seemic and join the conversation or leave a comment here.

“Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world”
- Maria Montessori

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my daughters’ potential. The world they’ve entered seems to be constantly on the edge of crisis. The environmental, financial and political events of this past year alone have left me feeling uneasy about their future to say the least. I worry that their individual potential may be overshadowed by these larger forces.

I realize that they will have to learn to face these challenges, and many more, eventually. So I focus on teaching them some basic concepts to navigate with:

• Everything can teach us something
• Questions are important
• Everyone deserves compassion
• Believe in the power of an individual to affect change

I usually don’t pay much attention to the other factors affecting their potential. How many of us do? They eat regular meals, sleep in warm beds, receive any medical care they require and have access to formal education. They enjoy music and food from all over the world. They feel protected and loved.

They’re lucky. Of the 2.2 billion children in the world, 1 billion live in poverty. According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. They “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world.”

Blog Action Day is helping raise awareness of this crisis today. Thousands of bloggers are reaching out to a worldwide audience of millions to incite action. The internet has become the most powerful tool ever concieved to connect, share, learn, understand and unite. All this is meaningless if it just increases the divide between the connected and those most in need.

What can you do right now? Start by supporting organizations already working on the issue. A few suggestions:

• Kiva is a person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.
• Closer to home, Cheerful Givers is a Minnesota-based nonprofit providing toy-filled birthday gift bags to food shelves and shelters so that parents living in poverty can give their child a birthday gift.
• Change.org is a social network for people interested in a better world. They help translate interest in social change into effective action.
• The Blog Action Day site has lots more about what one person can do.

This is a problem we can solve. Together.

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Al Gore may not have invented the internet, but he’s doing a hell of a job to make it better. Gore’s cable network, Current TV has mashed together two of my favorite vices: politics and Twitter.

Hack the Debate is an innovative use of the two mediums. During each debate (last week’s vice presidential debate shown above), they show tweets in pretty close to real-time on the lower portion of the screen. As a new one appears, the previous tweet moves up, slowly breaks apart and fades away. The animation is quite beautiful and actually less distracting than I had anticipated.

Twitterers from both sides of the aisle took part last week, and I must say it’s quite addicting to watch and participate in. Anyone on Twitter can join in by simply adding the hastag #current to tweets during the debate. It’s become my preferred way of watching. Find Current TV in your area.

Other broadcasters take note: this is how you do it right. No frills, elegant execution, using the data in a contextual way to add value and encourage participation, minimal filtering. Well done Current TV!