The Record Breaking Blog

Walk the World 2007 was a huge success around the World! The President of El Salvador walked the world, the President of Uganda walked the world, the President of Slovenia walked the world, the Vice-President of Liberia walked the world, The King of Swaziland walked the world, and the Princess of Jordan Walked the World. And that's just presidents and royalty...students, kids, the elderly, and even mayors walked the world too (a guy even Swam the World!)!

Of course, TheRecordBreakingDomain.com walked the word as well. Considering this is an online project I thought it'd be most appropriate to Walk the World virtually in the online world Second Life! FightHunger.org did a great job of organizing the virtual walk, I was absolutely blown away. They had a designated path on a virtual resort island called the Dragon Moon Resort, filled with FightHunger.org posters, banners, stages, and even T-shirts and bracelets for your avatar! It was my first time in a virtual world, but I had a foxy character named Eddie who showed me the ropes. The island it was hosted on was enchanting, with waterfalls you could walk under, palm tree-lined beaches, thick tropical jungle, and interesting creatures...I even caught a sunset! More incredibly, everyone on the island could hear live musicians playing from the Walk the World stage. These were real people connected to Second Life who were playing live music for the whole virtual island to hear, which was a pretty cool experience as well since it was musicians from all over the world playing for a great cause. The beautiful setting, the live musicians, the different people from all over the world, and the FightHunger.org gear really made the virtual walk the world in Second Life a perfect opportunity to reflect on the seriousness of Child Hunger.

At the end of the walk, there were a bunch of people dancing (and doing some funky acrobatics in the air!) in front of a stage where the live musician's were playing their music...it was an incredible experience and the vibe was just great! I even bumped into Susanne from FightHunger.org on the dance floor, which was great seeing a familiar face!

It was a truly humbling experiencing to see so many people come together in a virtual environment for such a great cause, especially knowing that people around the world were physically walking the world as well at that very moment, all in the name of Child Hunger. Well, here's the pictorial and video tour from my Walk the World 2007 in Second Life, I really hope you enjoy it (and if you didn't get a chance to Walk the World, it'll hopefully give you 2-minutes to stop and really think about the global problem that is Child Hunger):

The time has come to Walk the World and increase the awareness of the global fight against child hunger. Walk the World is a global fundraising and awareness event organized by our partners, FightHunger.org of the U.N. World Food Programme, that takes place on one day, May 13, in all 24 times zones with one sole purpose - to call for an end to child hunger forever. So circle that date on your calendar, May 13, it is only 1 week away. Anyone and everyone can and should participate. All you have to do is WALK to show solidarity with the cause. And if you can make any donations to the cause, even better! Many cities around the world are hosting walks, so first check to see if there is a Walk the World organized in your city so you can join them. If not, then just walk on your own or with family and friends to show solidarity. MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER YOUR WALK! In 2007, no child should be going to bed hungry, yet 350 million all over the world do, even though there is plenty of food produced in the world today to feed every man, woman, and child. 350 million...that's greater than the population of the United States and Canada combined. Imagine every single American and Canadian being hungry. Now imagine if they were all children, and you start to get an idea of how big this problem is. So help end child hunger and Walk the World on May 13!

And if you are too tied to the computer to ever get out of the house (I know the feeling), then fear not because you can even do a Virtual Walk where you let your fingers do the walking! This year, for the first time, Walk the World will also take place in Second Life, a virtual world with over 6 million members! The event will take place during 24 hours in and around the Pooley Auditorium in Borrowdale sim. On the screens at the Auditorium there will be live feeds from the real life walk from all over the world. There will also be an opportunity to donate to help end child hunger in real life by donating in donation boxes surrounding the Auditorium. If you're going to be participating in the virtual Walk the World in Second Life, don't forget to sign-up. (For more info about this event please contact: secondlife@fighthunger.org)

It gets better! To help motivate you, I'm giving away a $10,000 prize to the person that registers to Walks the World on May 13 and sends me the coolest picture, video, and/or story about their walk. For more details, click here.

Well, there you have it, there is absolutely no excuse not to Walk the World for child hunger. If you truly believe that NO child in this home of ours we call Earth with the resources and technology we have at our disposal should EVER go hungry, then Walk the World in real-life or virtually in Second Life and express your solidarity with this important cause. Remember to register!

To child hunger, The Record-Breaking Domain says NO. See you on May 13!

Andres

I have been inspired by the FightHunger.org partnership and the goal to end child hunger by 2015 and want to help out a lot more people. The truth is, there are so many problems with the world today that they deserve the focus of this world record. I've given it a lot of thought with a lot of input from people in the forum, and I think this is the best way to go about it. I want people to participate in the project because they want to help others, not just themselves.

As a result, I'm making huge changes. First of all, I'm removing all monthly and grand prizes except for the $1 Million linking prize. To be fair, I will honor the prize money already awarded to winners who have continued to support TRBD (as was required), which will be taken from the reserved pool of $500,000 allocated for miscellaneous help. The linking prize will remain at $1 Million, but instead of being awarded to the person who's referred the most visitors to the site, it will be awarded randomly to a lucky referrer. However, the chances of winning will be proportional to the number of visitors referred, so the more visitors referred, the greater the chances of winning (think of this as a lottery and every unique visitor sent as a new lottery ticket increasing the chances of winning). This will give every single person that refers visitors to the record-breaking domain (using their unique referral link) a chance to win the $1 million, while still giving people an incentive to refer as many visitors as possible. Don't worry, you guys aren't the only one's whose prize pool is being reduced. To be fair, I'm reducing my own stake in TRBD from $4 million to $1 million (that's still a lot of money, so I won't complain! :). If you think about it, the winner of the linking prize will be making as much as me from the sale of this domain...THAT'S how much emphasis I'm putting into getting people to link here and refer visitors so that as many people as possible find out about this feat and the great causes we're supporting!

This will all leave exactly $9,500,001 for charity. That's a boat load of money! From that pool, I want $9 million going to 9 large, global charities fighting the worlds problems (that's $1 million a pop), and $500,000 going to smaller charities. I've already pledged $1 million from the "large charity pool" to FightHunger.org, so that means I need to find 8 more global charities to partner up with and give exposure to on TRBD. From the "small charity pool", I've already allocated $20,000, so that leaves $480,000 to pledge to smaller, yet very important causes. If there is any unallocated charity money by the time I break this record, I will split what's left over proportionally with the charities that I've already pledged to. As you can imagine, I will need as much help as possible to find these charities and organize these partnerships, so if you are interested in making a difference in this world, please drop me a line and post in the forum so we can work together.

In the end, almost 80% of the money from the sale of this domain will be going directly to charity. I think that's huge and it'll hopefully act as yet another incentive to convince a buyer now more than ever to buy this domain and break this record for some very good causes!

Before I leave you, I wanted to give a special and public thanks to the guys who've been giving TRBD the greatest support:

• Latino-Dragon
• LunchBreakShopping
• rebelbrowser
  
• christevens1000
• Solar
  
• jasonrhouse

You guys are awesome, I hope you continue to stick around even though I've removed the monthly prizes! :)

Here's to breaking this damn record and helping a planet-full of people!

Andres

I'm very pleased to announce that our very own Forum Moderator, Howard Borges (aka. Latino-Dragon), has won an Honorable Mention in FightHunger.org's Viral Video Competition! He had very short notice (only a few days!) and still produced an honorable mention for a great cause! We're proud of you, Latino-Dragon! Read more about his experience here.

Latino-Dragon's Video Entry:

UPDATE: Here's a picture of Latino-Dragon posing with his kids and the FightHunger.org gear he won!

Ladies and gentlemen, I've been in search of something newsworthy for a while to prove to the world that The Record-Breaking Domain is here to make a real difference. That search is over.

On November 17, 2006, I received an e-mail from Susanne Thörnqvist of FightHunger.org, a United Nations World Food Programme initiative tackling one of the 8 Millennium Goals. She was informing me about her charity in case I was interested in pledging part of my $4,000,001 of charity funds to FightHunger.org. From the moment I started this idea, I was hoping to fight hunger in some way. It started with "The Hunger Site" logo, but this opportunity with FightHunger.org was exactly what I was waiting for. I shot back with an ambitious proposal to make TheRecordBreakingDomain.com an Official Partner of FightHunger.org with a pledge of $1 million. Susanne was drawn to the idea, but had to mull it over with her team as this would be an Official Partnership with a United Nations organization, thus necessitating an official approval process. She requested contact details from current prize winners, but I went a step further and asked our prize winners to write a Statement of Support regarding TRBD and FightHunger.org. Ten absolutely awesome individuals replied within a week with a full statement of support, which I forwarded to Susanne. This morning, waiting in my inbox, was an e-mail from Susanne letting me know that a decision had been made and that TheRecordBreakingDomain.com was accepted as an Official Partner of FightHunger.org, becoming the 20^th partner of the program alongside the likes of Citibank and The Boston Consulting Group (you should see our logo up there within a week). As someone who has lived in Brazil several years and dealt directly with poverty, I cannot express to you the warmth and satisfaction of receiving that e-mail this morning, and realizing that everyone at TheRecordBreakingDomain.com from this point on will be helping to make a difference to end child hunger. At the end of the day, this is what it's all about.

As an official partner of a United Nations organization, this also elevates TheRecordBreakingDomain.com to a new status, and one I'm very proud of. A few people have doubted the seriousness of this world record attempt, but this will hopefully prove to every last skeptic that this idea is real, it's going to happen, and it's going to make a lasting difference.

Child hunger is a serious problem that desperately needs more awareness. If I told you there were 35 million hungry children in the world right now you would be absolutely shocked. But if I told you there are TEN times that many hungry children right this moment, it will hopefully get you to act. FightHunger.org is about getting UN agencies, NGOs, businesses, schools, universities, communities and individuals who believe that we can work together to end child hunger to come together and act to raise awareness for this dire global epidemic so that the necessary funds and resources are focused on feeding every single child on this planet. You can join the effort here and make a donation now. It's the 21^st century and the 3^rd millennium, hunger should have been eradicated a long time ago.

I wanted to thank Susanne for making this possible, all my supporters for making this an awesome record-breaking team, and the 10 individuals who wrote a statement of support in such short notice. You can discuss this partnership further in our forum here: http://www.therecordbreakingdomain.com/forum/showthread.php?p=11407

Hopefully this new partnership will get more people to join the TRBD cause and, as a result, the FightHunger.org cause. I'm hoping this added exposure and credibility will lead to us breaking the record sooner, allowing FightHunger.org to get its $1 million donation ASAP. I'm also interested in forming more official partnerships with large international charities tackling global problems, so please send me an e-mail if you are interested.

Here's to making a difference!

Andres