The idea is simple. By tapping into the reach and influence of existing social networks, a message of charity and need can be spread further than would be possible via traditional means.

I mean everyone understands that charity relies upon the generosity of others, but the difficulty is that when people believe that the dollar or so that they might be able to contribute could not possibly make a difference, donations are few and far between. After all, a dollar here and there from every couple of people may not seem substantial when only a couple of thousand people are aware of a given cause.

Get that cause in front of hundreds of thousands or even millions though, and the dollar or so here and there from every couple of people suddenly becomes very substantial. Perhaps even more importantly, people begin to understand and recognise the momentum of what is happening, and begin to realise that any small amount they are able to contribute can actually make a difference.

Social networking is how you get that cause in front of thousands or even millions. Ask everyone you know to mention it. Ask anyone with whom it strikes a cord to write or blog about it. Ask people on Twitter to ReTweet it, people on Facebook to discuss it, people on YouTube to demonstrate it, and suddenly it becomes known.

It’s a simple idea, but a great idea, and one that I am happy to get behind.

The 12for12k stems from the fact that the challenge lasts 12 months, assists 12 charities, and aims to raise $12,000 per charity. A new charity is selected each month, and those supported to date include Yehu & Mom It Forward, War Child, UNICEF Believe in Zero, Stop the Silence, Share Our Strength, and Hospice of Peel.

Eye Care for Kids is the charity being supported throughout the month of July, a not for profit aiming to provide free eye care for more than 65,000 kids in low-income and underprivileged families, not only helping with education and learning difficulties, but also preventing more serious long-term damage as well.

I’m adding badges to my blog to encourage support. I’m chipping in and providing what little I can in the way of donations. I’ll be mentioning the challenge and the charity for each month when and where I can within my own social networks.

I’m encouraging you to do the same.

Read more about the challenge, the choice of Eye Care for Kids as the charity of the month, and donate over at 12for12k.org

I’ve signed up with http://livemocha.com, set up a profile, started making friends and am currently in the process of letting everyone know that I am learning Arabic and helping others learn English.

I’ve chosen what I believe will be a very difficult language for me. I cannot make a couple of the required sounds, I cannot pick apart the patterns in the writing enough to even recognise individual characters, and I do not know anyone who speaks the language.

I’m actually really keen. This could be a hell of a lot of fun.

An hour of digging around sees me capable of saying hello, thank you, and God willing. I can say man, woman, girl, boy, thin, fat, tall and short. And, more importantly I have now met several people interested in helping me learn.

The site is setup along very cool lines. If I help people learn, others will reciprocate. When I comment on the submissions of users learning English, assisting them with pronunciation, comprehension and writing, I essentially increase my reputation, demonstrating to others that I am someone who is sticking around and worth their time. This then means that when I submit an exercise others will take the time to help me where I go wrong, or to point out things I might do better.

There is also a chat mechanism where others wanting to practice language skills can chat with me and we can bumble along together. Look forward to hearing me wrestling with letters that I cannot yet fathom.

I’m impressed. This site has the potential to really take off, given the time I will obviously be looking at spending there during any given session, and considering the length of time it will take for me to learn the language.

Let’s see how it goes hey?

This killed me for a couple of days. I mean where do you start?

Thankfully though, with a little luck, and a lot of help from the guys over at whirlpool, I found the source of the problem - TPG have a transparent proxy issue.

Don’t worry if this doesn’t mean much to you. Most of the people I know wouldn’t have a clue what a transparent proxy is, or that they are even using one. I only mention it so that you have a couple more keywords if you decide to research any further via Google.

Put simply this is a TPG issue, and thankfully it’s relatively easy to fix.

Basically, all you have to do is to force your computer to use a specific proxy, rather than letting TPG decide for you transparently.

On a PC you’ll need to configure IE, Firefox, and any other browsers you use, to connect via the following proxy:

Server: proxy.tpg.com.au
Port: 3128

On a Mac you’ll need to configure your ethernet, airport, and any other network interfaces you use to connect via the following proxy:

Server: proxy.tpg.com.au
Port: 3128

This should put things right, but if it doesn’t work for you, you’ll find a number of other solutions discussed within the whirlpool forums, and you’ll also find a full list of alternative TPG proxies.