Many people ask what all this social networking is good for.  Is it just about sending around silly videos?  Messaging friends?  How about it being used to build a well in Ethiopia that will supply 200 people with clean water for 20 years?

CharityWater.org is a charity set up by a user on Twitter by the name of Scott Harrison that its sole purpose is to collect donations to build wells of clean drinking water in the African country of Ethiopia.  Seeing as Mr. Harrison’s birthday is in September, he suggested all Twitter users with a September birthday suggest people donate to the charity instead of having their friends buy them gifts.  Pete Cashmore, my boss at Mashable, turned 23 on September 18th, and so he did this project, suggesting that people give $23 in honor of his 23rd birthday.  By the end of the day, Pete had raised $3536.  Along with two people he knows that share the same birthday, they raised over $4500, and seeing as each well is targeted at costing $4000, they have nicknamed it “The Well Twitter Built“.

While this may not be a normal example of a social networking activity, it is certainly an example of what crowd sourcing via a social media network can certainly create some interesting results.  With the likes of sites like MySpace being what people usually think of when they hear “social networking”, they think of silly glittery graphics, and teenagers, but this whole event certainlyd emonstrates that the whole concept can be so much more.