A new site has popped up called 8by1: Wishlist for Your World that is a Web 2.0 take on promoting social change (the name translates as “vertical infinity by anyone”). On this site, you can post your “wish for the world” that will make the world a better place. Besides just wishing, you can also provide action steps that people can take toward your goal, links for more information, and your own comments about the issue. Wishes that have been posted range from the predictable “world peace” to “more people with hybrid cars,” “affordable health care,” “keeping baseball in the Olympics” and “more nightspots in Vancouver.”
You can invite others to share your wish and even find others in your city that you can work with to make the wishes come true (okay, maybe not the people who wished for “Britney Spears to Dump K Fed”). The site is too new to know whether it will be an actual jumping-off point for any real change, but the idea has potential.
Another similar site, but geared toward the personal level, is 43 Things. On this site, people post the things they want most for themselves — things like “lose weight,” “get married,” “get organized,” “learn to tap dance” and “see the Northern Lights.” It’s a good place to see what kinds of things people value in their lives. For each goal that someone posts, they can provide updates on their progress and others can share their own success stories on how they made that change. For example, 639 people have said that they want to “give blood.” 98% of people who left comments said that it is “worth doing.” People talk about their own experiences, ask for advice about the donation process and receive answers from their peers. What a great place for an organization promoting blood donation to either advertise or become part of the conversation (with full disclosure of who they are, of course).
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
Hello Nedra,
Thanks for visiting and writing about 8by1! We have receive lots of valuable feedback from our early alpha users, and we are working very hard to release a more feature-rich beta version soon. Please stay tuned!
Weiting, 8by1