Is David Armano the first person to use his power of influence on the twitter community to raise money for a cause or the first one to do it really well?
Here’s how much they’ve raised to date:

December 17, 2008, K&L Gates’ gorgeous, white, marble offices played host to MITX: Planning Your Online Video Strategy 2009. I sat in on an amazing session that was well worth far more than the price of admission. There was a perfect blend of technologists, analysts and practitioners. The session was unselfishly and actually was beautifully moderated by Will Richmond of VideoNuze. He masterfully kept the conversation flowing.

The session confirmed what I suspected; 2009 is the year of video. Nimble companies like Hubspot.com spent 2008 paving the way, showing people the power of communication through “under-produced” content. Mike Volpe of Hubspot contended that he would rather do 100 (under produced) videos for $10,000 than 1. And this is what 2009 is about.

Companies are going to try to figure out ways to act more like people. One to one marketing has traditionally been about customization of message for a particular audience using matrices and models. Social Media technologies make actual human contact and conversations practical and scalable and inexpensive. Sure, a commitment is necessary and I did not say it would be easy, but the relatively low cost of technology, combined with creativity and dedication to the scene will allow companies to adopt strategies based on a range of video content: under-produced content, produced and a percentage will even delve into non-linear video.

James McQuivey of Forrester agrees, asking: How do corporations act more like individuals? Can they be more comfortable with the personal, lower quality approach? Corporations need to do do this. He also reminds that this is not a put-all-your-eggs-in-one-basket strategy, but an approach to one marketing channel.

It’s measurable. It’s consumable. It’s understandable. It’s doable!