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DoGood for iPhone encourages daily good deeds

This elegantly designed and wonderfully well-intentioned app suggests a good deed of the day. The more people who use it, the better the world gets. So what are you waiting for?

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
Here's a novel idea: Use crowd-sourcing to make the world a better place. That's DoGood in a nutshell.

Have you done your good deed for the day? I understand: You're busy. You forgot. You couldn't think of anything good to do. Enter DoGood, a free app that suggests and encourages good deeds, crowdsourcing-style.

The app recommends a new "DoGood" every day: give someone a hug, turn off some lights, thank an old teacher, and so on. Once you've done the deed, just tap "done" to record it.

DoGood keeps a running tally of how many people acted on the daily deed, and lets you post and read stories about it. There's also a Statistics screen so you can monitor DoGood history and an Old DoGoods page that lists previous entries.

The app can integrate with Facebook and/or Twitter, so your friends can follow your DoGood activities. (What's the old debate? Is it better to perform good deeds anonymously to avoid drawing attention to yourself, or to make your actions known so others might be encouraged to do likewise? Discuss.)

At the risk of coming across all touchy-feely, I love this app. I love everything about it: the idea, the execution, the price--and the fact that it was created by University of Michigan students. (I'm a Spartan myself, but good deeds know no rivalry.)