While on business in Seattle this week I visited one of the most daring examples of public architecture of the past decade, the Seattle Central Library.   The building, designed primarily by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, has drawn mixed reviews both architecture afficianados and the general public as I found out in a conversation with a Taxi Driver the evening before my visit:

“Is that the Seattle Central Library?” I asked.

“Yeah.   But it’s pretty much become like an enormous Temple to Nerds.” he replied.

“Are there plaques to nerds in there?”

“No, but there are plaques to the companies run by nerds that gave them the money to build that piece of s***.  Microsoft, Amazon, Amgen…”

“Those are some rich nerds.” I added.

“Yeah, but the funny thing is that at this point all there products are f****** s***!”

At this point the conversation devolved into some typical thing about Bill Gates taking his ideas from other companies, yada, yada, yada.   But I digress.

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I’m just going to go out on a limb here, and go ahead and guess you’re reading this post on a computer. I know, I’m pretty quick like that. Not only that, but you may be surprised to know that I wrote this post on a computer, too. Shocking, I know. Now, already, just for this little bit of business we’re dealing with right now, we have two computers going. And the odds are, though maybe not for a site like this, all this is being done on PCs. There are an estimated one billion PCs chugging away on this planet these days, and it turns out that burns a lot of energy.

And now a global corporation, a nonprofit, and a startup company are joining together to reduce that energy burned through PCs, at no cost to you!   Microsoft, Climate Savers Computing Initiative, and Verdiem are distributing a free software tool, right now, to consumers wanting to reduce emissions coming from household PCs.

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UPDATE: Windows did end up unveiling the site today with videos from the Mojave Experiment. The Mojave Experiment was as deadpan as rumored to be - it’s simply videos taken on a hidden camera of people testing a disguised version of Windows Vista then talking about how much they like it. The look and feel of the site reminds us a lot of Pic Lens, which is a good thing. The videos remind us of old school TV commercials with hidden cameras, which is neither good nor bad. All in all, we’re underwhelmed and a little surprised that you can’t send the videos to your friends.

Tomorrow Microsoft is pulling the veil off the Mojave Experiment. What is the Mojave Experiment? We don’t know much about it yet here at TakePart (we were tipped off when Michael Gartenberg mentioned it in his Twitter feed), but from what we can tell it looks like a viral marketing ploy from Microsoft to convince folks that it’s Vista operating system (OS) isn’t that bad after all. In the experiment, over 120 computer users from all different backgrounds used the same HP Pavillion computer to “test” Microsoft’s new operating system. What the users didn’t know the “next Microsoft OS codenamed Mojave” they were testing was actually just Windows Vista.

While the experiment itself hasn’t been shown to the public, it was met with positive reviews at a Microsoft financial analysts meeting last week. It’s interesting that Microsoft has put together a campaign so quickly, even more so considering that the campaign was not concieved or run under their new-ish $300 million dollar deal with advertising agency Crispin Glover.

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Can a person change the world by instant messenger? That’s what a guy named Parker is trying to do. He’s raising money and awareness for causes by emailing, blogging and vlogging for 30 days! A couple of months ago, Parker found out about the i’m Initiative. It’s a Microsoft program that gives to a social causes every time you use Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail. The i’m Initiative claims, ”the more you talk, the more we give. So Parker is getting a bunch of people talking for 30 days to see how much will they give.

So takepart and visit Parkers site at http://imtalkathon.com.

More and more, branded-entertainment is being used as a way to distribute corporate-responsibility campaigns, hoping to create stronger ties with socialy responsible consumers.  Some brands using this tactic include Boost Mobile, the Microsoft Network and Virgin Mobile USA.

“Content creates an emotional bond with the consumer. It [forges] a connection between the brand message … and the viewer in a way that a 30-second ad can’t do,” said Bill Hilary, president of Interpublic Group-owned Magna Global Entertainment.

Gayle Troberman, head of digital marketing at Microsoft’s consumer marketing group, added that social responsibility branded-entertainment marketing: “is going to be the next big wave of content and marketing investments.”

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