The Six Degrees concept is nothing new. The popular trivia game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, challenges players to link any actor to Kevin Bacon through no more than six connections. It’s a small world indeed – and made even smaller by the rise of social networks.

Everyone is interlinked in this “human web” today – that’s the idea SixDegrees.org was founded upon. SixDegrees, a nonprofit founded by Kevin Bacon, is “social networking with a social conscience”. The website allows any Internet users to support a registered charity by donating or creating fundraising badges for a charity of their choice. These badges can be displayed on blogs, websites social networking pages to encourage friends to donate to a specific cause. In addition, SixDegrees also serves as a social site by providing updates on causes people are supporting, including celebrities.

What does that mean? To put things into perspective, if a New Yorker makes a donation to PoP, he or she is only six or fewer steps away from the child who will be sitting in one of our classrooms in Laos. Six degrees of separation = connection within six steps or fewer. We are more closely linked to them than what we perhaps think. Actually, we might even say that there is no them – they are part of us. Wouldn’t you join us?