Ben Rattray and Change.org
By the time his second-grade teacher was explaining the concept of the nickel and dime, Ben Rattray was already making a pile of them, trading baseball cards with friends who knew the player stats, but not the card values.
His natural instinct for money led him to an investment banking track at Stanford, a path that promised a life of wealth and ease. But when he saw his younger gay brother suffering in his conservative environment, Rattray's goal of chasing the dollar somehow seemed hollow. He began to dream of making a difference - fighting for the little guys of the world.
Now the 32-year-old San Franciscan is earning an international reputation with his website, Change.org, a social network for social justice. He's done it using one of the oldest political tools - the petition - to shame everything and everyone from banks to HMOs to government leaders into better behavior.
Using a David versus Goliath framework, Change.org galvanizes people to turn their personal stories of hardships into online uprisings that get banks to drop fees, the movie industry to change film ratings, judges to unshackle minors, and countries to create new human rights protections
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Ben-Rattray-and-Change-org-3781962.php#ixzz23KKTdtru