By signing this petition, members declare that the “terrorist attacks in Mumbai have not divided us, will not divide us, and that we stand together, as one people, against all violent extremists who shamefully target the innocent.”

This is like creating a petition for people to declare they have all five of their fingers. It’s a banal, superfluous statement to be made by the collective. I don’t mean to sound heartless in the midst of a tragedy, and I would let this pass without comment, but I actually think this petition is doing harm. Everyone who signs this petition goes away feeling like they did a little something, when in fact, they’ve done nothing. This petition takes the signatories earnest ambition to help and channels it into a black hole.

I’m sure the people at Avaaz mean well, but this feels like ambulance chasing. The only thing this petition will accomplish is increasing Avaaz’s membership. There’s nothing wrong with organizing people in response to a disaster, but organize with purpose. To do otherwise makes online organizing smell bad as a whole.

As social entrepreneurs, it is our mission to build things that do good, but more than that, it is our responsibility to renounce tools that give people a false sense of accomplishment, depleting them of the precious discomfort that drives them to take action. Petitions are such tools. The Web offers us so much more - let’s starting using it.

We’ve been following Spot.Us for quite some time at The Point - since the basic fundraising model is similar, David used The Point to fund several successful stories while Spot.Us was in its early stages of development.

For now, Spot.Us is limited to the San Francisco area - but you can always start a campaign on The Point to fund a story elsewhere.

Spot.Us is extremely well-executed, and the idea has tons of potential. So if you live in the San Francisco area, start using Spot.Us.

The Point is powering a new site that will launch later this month called Groupon, as in “group + coupon.” The idea is simple: each day there’s a huge discount on something fun to do (launch version is Chicago only), but only if enough people join to “tip” the deal. By guaranteeing a lot of sales, Groupon is able to offer some amazing discounts.

Much like woot, each Groupon includes a fun writeup, often by someone who went out and experienced whatever it is you’re buying. Aside from the great deals, I’m excited about Groupon simply to get a daily dose of interesting new things to do in my home town.

So if you live in Chicago and you’re interested in great deals on local stores, services, and entertainment, stop by and sign up to be notified when Groupon launches. And if you’ve got something you want to sell, send Groupon an email

Finally, someone has hit on a time-saving solution that organizes key federal data while also shining a bright spotlight on what’s really happening in government: OpenRegulations.org. It’s the only place on the Net that offers individual RSS feeds for each federal agency (there are more than 150 agencies cataloged). Feeds range from the Administration of Children and Families to the United Institute for Peace, offering reports, lists of statistics, meeting notes, and every other bit of regulatory data you can imagine, right at your fingertips.

Jerry Brito, a senior research fellow with the regulatory studies program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is the creator of this project. He came up with the idea after he subscribed to theRSS-feed of Regulations.gov, the “federal government’s official regulatory clearinghouse,” and got flooded with thousands of updates on every piece of regulation posted about on the site. Frustrated by the information overload, Brito, a self-described neat-freak (see Unclutterer), formed OpenRegulations.org as analternative to Regulations.gov.

By doing the sorting via RSS feed for users, Brito’s site makes it possible for activists and organizers to spend less time researching and more time on advocacy efforts, all while gaining a clearer picture of what the government is up to.

Brito sees the development of OpenRegulations as a step toward future opportunities for interesting mash-ups. He points to MAPLight, an award-winning database that tracks campaign contributions and political action, as an example of what can be done when websites parse, tag, and catalog otherwise cluttered bits of information.

With this newly organized, inside information about how our government behaves, organizers will soon have a clearer picture of a politician’s relationship with funding, policy, and legislation right at their fingertips. With the advancement of Brito’s project, pajama and traditionalist activists alike will have another tool with which they can understand and respond to government waste, clumsiness, and irresponsibility.

Sabat describes Mobile Commons as “an online platform that allows organizations to create and manage SMS/voice/mobile communication campaigns.” To convey the effectiveness of SMS campaigning, he compares text message based campaigns to an email campaign. Whereas emails are opened over the course of many hours, he says that a high volume of text messages are opened much closer to their reception. People are nearly always within inches of their phone, and thus the messages they receive there. Further, SMS response rates, compared to email, are much higher (70% is common). It is for these reasons (and more), he claims, that organizations should consider using mobile phones to mobilize their user-base.

Michael Sabat: So what SMS allows you to do is communicate instantly with a core group of supports that wants to hear and is expecting to hear from your organization. SMS allows you to call for immediate or timely action (because it is safe to say that people are reading the message within an hour) and Mobile Commons let’s organizations track and measure these actions. SMS/Mobile Commons helps your organization reach people where email and computers can’t - for example in a store or restaurant.

Make Something Happen: As a collective activist, how would I use the site to further my goals and mission?

Sabat: You can use Mobile Commons to engage supporters at live events, spread news quickly and call for actions. For example we have an application perfect for calling lawmakers in an advocacy campaign. mConnect allows a custom activist to set up a campaign with the end result of having supports call their legislators with cohesive and direct messaging.

With mConnect the organization send a text message including a phone number to their supporter list. The receivers reply CALL or simply press SEND and they are connected to a voice recording that the organization records. This can be talking points or an overview of the situation. The caller is then forwarded on to a destination number (radio show, or congressman’s office) with a clear message and talking points fresh in their memory.

MSH: How would you like to see people use the site in a way they are not already using it?

Sabat: The ideas are endless, but I would like to see more effective txt to voice campaigns through mConnect. In the near future our software and a (smart/fortunate) organization will drive 10,000 phonecalls to a specific cause and that will help change a decision that matters. This will happen soon, we are just waiting for the right circumstance.

The most exciting idea ahead is mobile giving. Basically someone can donate $5, $10 or $25 simply by texting in. The charge will appear on their cellphone bill. This can have serious applications at live events and for emergencies. It’s a great way to do micropayments. So this is brand new and there is a ton of interest and many good ideas. I’m sure that we’ll hear a lot about this moving forward.