I came a cross an interesting word today, an oniomaniac. An oniomaniac is someone who has an uncontrollable desire to buy things. Well, we thought we should tell the world to “Not be an Oniomaniac.” The Creative Solution outlines ways you can help yourself to stop buying so many things.

If you need more motivation, watch the Story of Stuff.

This week’s Hype To Habit is all about the home and how a few parts of your daily life have a dramatic impact on the environment. Read through the articles to find Creative Solutions on each story.

You Have to Pay to Play…at the Beach.

First up, LA beaches are toxic. Which isn’t surprising given our storm water assessment fees haven’t been raised since Pamela Anderson first appeared on Baywatch. With the Mayor’s Office dragging its heels (verrucas perhaps?), we encourage individuals to take responsibility for their own actions.

EPA Approves More Mountaintop Removal Sites

Next, we investigate what’s missing from the Appalachian Mountains. Hint: it’s not Mark Sanford. Seriously, because of Mountaintop Removal (MTR), large swathes of the Appalachias is unable to support life and is causing residents to become very ill. Help support non-profits take the coal companies and banks to task.

Stop Wasteful Printing

Finally, font otakus rejoice. Inspired by a local cheese, Dutch creative agency has come up with a stylish new font that saves the planet by saving ink. Best of all, the ingenious eco-font also saves you money. Brilliant.

Citizen journalism, open government, status updates, community building, information sharing, crowdsourcing, and the election of a President.

In the spirit of sharesourscing, we are happy to partake in this community piece led by MaxGladwell.

Our children will inherit a world profoundly changed by the combination of technology and humanity that is social media. They’ll take for granted that their voices can be heard and that a social movement can be launched from their laptop. They’ll take for granted that they are connected and interconnected with hundreds of millions of people at any given moment. And they’ll take for granted that a black man is or was President of the United States.

What’s most profound is that these represent parts of a greater whole. They represent a shift in power from centralized institutions and organizations to the People they represent. It is the evolution of democracy by way of technology, and we are all better for it.

For most of us, social media has changed our lives in some meaningful way. Collectively it is changing the world for good. Given the pace of innovation and adoption, change has become a constant. Every so often we find the need to stop and reflect on its most recent and noteworthy developments, hence the following list.

Please note this is not a top-10 list, nor are these listed in any particular order. It’s also incomplete. So we ask that you add to this conversation in the comments. If you’d like to Retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Take Social Actions: The nonprofit organization Social Actions aggregates “opportunities to make a difference from over 50 online platforms” through its unique API. It recently held the Change the Web Challenge contest in order to inspire the most innovative applications for that API. The Social Actions Interactive Map won the $5,000 first prize. The result is a virtual tour of the world through the lens of social action. “People are volunteering, donating, signing petitions, making loans and doing other social actions as we speak — all over the world. To capture the context of the where, this project uses sophisticated techniques to extract location information from full text paragraphs.” You can also join the Social Actions Community, which is powered by Ning…which now boasts more than one million individual social networks.

2. Twitter with a Purpose: This list could be exclusive to Twitter. The micro-blogging sensation was featured on our first two lists (a three-tweet), and it’s certain to be a fixture. From Tweetsgiving, the virtual Thanksgiving feast, to the Twestival, which organized 202 off-line events around the world to benefit charity: water, it’s become the de facto tool for organizing and taking action. Tweet Congress won the SXSW activism award, and celebrity Tweeps Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Rose Tweeted their two million followers about ending malaria. Max Gladwell recently initiated the #EcoMonday follow meme as a way to connect and organize the Green Twittersphere.

3. Visit White House 2.0: Inside of its first 100 days, the Obama administration has managed to set the historic benchmark for government transparency and accountability. The President’s virtual town hall meeting used WhiteHouse.gov to crowdsource questions from his 300 million constituents, complete with voting to determine the ones he’d have to answer. All told, 97,937 people submitted 103,978 questions and cast 1,782,650 votes. The White House continues to raise the bar with its official Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter channels. In so doing President Obama is not just setting the standard for state and local government in the U.S. He’s establishing the world standard. The Obama administration is spreading democracy not by force but through example. Because you don’t have to be an American citizen to be a friend or follower of White House 2.0.

4. Claim your Zumbox: What happens when all mail can be sent and delivered online to any street address in a paperless form? That’s the big question for Zumbox, which has created an online mail system with a digital mailbox for every U.S. street address. And while the answer to that question remains to be seen, it promises to be as liberating as it is disruptive. A key quality for Zumbox is that it’s closed system much like that of Facebook, only instead of true identity it’s true address. This will enable people to better connect with their communities including their neighbors, local businesses, and the mayor’s office. The primary agent of change, though, might not be that this uses street addresses but that it enables direct and potentially viral feedback, which is a virtue that e-mail and the USPS do not offer. The first methods are to request exclusive paperless delivery and to block a sender, but others are certain to evolve such as real-time commenting and ways to share mail with friends, family, and colleagues. Welcome to Mail 2.0. (Disclosure: Zumbox is a client of Rob Reed, the founder of Max Gladwell.)

5. Host a Social Media Event: This is the year of the social media event. No meaningful gathering of people is complete without an interactive online audience, especially when it’s so easy and cost effective to pull off. Essential tools include a broadband connection, laptop, video camera, projector, and screen. Add people and a purpose, such as entrepreneurship. Promote it through social media channels, and you have a social media event. A recent example in the green world is the Evolution of Green, which was hosted by Creative Citizen, a green wiki community. It celebrated the launch of a new Web property, EcoMatters, while also establishing a new Twitter tag. By posing the question, “How can we go from green hype to green habit?” and including the #GreenQ hashtag, it sparked a conversation between attendees and the Twittersphere in real time. Thus was born a new mechanism for getting answers to green questions via Twitter.

6. Travel the World: More than anyone else, Tim O’Reilly knows the potential for social media to change the world. In his opening keynote at this year’s Web 2.0 Expo, he called for a new ethic in which we do more with less and create more value than we capture. This provided the context for SalaamGarage founder Amanda Koster, whose presentation followed O’Reilly’s. The idea is that social media has enabled each of us to have an audience. Whether through Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, or a personal blog, each of us can have influence and reach. What’s more, it can be used for good. SalaamGarage coordinates trips for citizen journalists (that means you) to places like India and Vietnam in conjunction with non-government organizations like Seattle-based Peace Trees. The destination is the story, as these humanitarian journalists report on the people they meet and discoveries they make. Their words, images, and video are posted to the social web to gain exposure and because these stories just need to be told.

7. Build It on Drupal: You may not have noticed, but the open-source Drupal content management system (CMS) has quickly become the dominant player on the social web. While we still prefer WordPress as a strict blogging application, Drupal has emerged as the go-to platform for building scalable, community-driven Web sites. It powers Recovery.gov, a key part of President Obama’s commitment to transparency and accountability. PopRule uses it as a social news platform for politics. And Drupal will soon become the platform for Causecast, a site where “media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose.” This is especially significant because Causecast CEO Ryan Scott is transitioning the site off of Ruby on Rails because Drupal has proved more efficient, user friendly, and cost effective. (Disclosure: Max Gladwell founder Rob Reed is co-founder of PopRule.)

8. Green Your iPhone: Looking for an organic diner within biking distance that has a three-star green rating? There’s a app for that. It’s called 3rd Whale, and you can download it for free. (Except that the star rating is actually a whale rating.) Complete with Facebook Connect, this iPhone app locates green products and businesses in 30 major North American cities. It uses the iPhone’s dial function to select a category (food), sub-category (restaurants), and distance (walking, biking, or driving). In Santa Monica, this might give you Swingers diner for its selection of veggie and vegan fare. You could then get directions from your current location using the iPhone’s built-in Google map, rate your experience on the three-whale scale, and write up a quick review. 3rd Whale recently released a new feature that integrates green-living tips, which can show how much energy or waste you’ll save by taking a given action.

9. Unite the World Through Video: Matt’s dancing around the world video inspired many to tears. Today, more than 20 million people have viewed his YouTube masterpiece, where he performs a kooky dance with the citizens of planet earth. The most recent example of this approach is Playing for Change, which connects the world through song. The project started in Santa Monica with a street performance of the classic Stand By Me and expanded to New Orleans, New Mexico, France, Brazil, Italy, Venezuela, South Africa, Spain, and The Netherlands. The project was superbly executed via social media, complete with a YouTube channel, MySpace, Facebook, and Blog. It’s received tremendous mainstream media exposure and also benefits a foundation of the same name.

10. Rate a Company: The conversation about corporate social responsibility (CSR) takes place across the social web on blogs, Twitter, and YouTube, but a central hub for this information and opinion is still to be determined. SocialYell seeks to address this by building an online community around the CSR conversation, where users can submit reviews of companies together with nonprofit organizations and even public figures like Michelle Obama. The major topics are the Environment, Health, Social Equity, Consumer Advocacy, and Charity. The reviews are voted and commented on by the community in a Reddit-like fashion with both up (Yell) and down (shhh) voting. The site is relatively new and still gaining traction, but there’s no question that a resource like this is needed to shine a bright light on CSR and and other related issues.

11. Publish a collective, simultaneous blog post on a universal topic: As Nigel Tufnel might say, this list goes to eleven. Let the #10Ways conversation begin…

Final note: This is Max Gladwell’s third list of “10 Ways to Change the World Through Social Media.” The first was posted a year ago today on Sustainablog.org, and the sequel followed five months later. If a single headline can capture the Max Gladwell raison d’etre, this is it.

We here at Creative Citizen are true information lovers.  We love communicating, collaborating, and creating with multiple tools.  Social media is one of those tools.  Naturally, when we’re out in the real world, we continue to have a flow of consciousness between us and the rest of the “connected” world.

While Scott (@thecitizen) was in Washington D.C. attending Power Shift, he was informed about news that Van Jones would be appointed as the Green Czar for the Obama administration.  Doing what he knows best, he quickly disseminated that information by tweeting “By the way twitter world…Van Jones is going to be the green jobs czar in the cabinet. That’s the word from the inside. U heard it here 1st.”  And as a matter of fact he was the first.  (About 10 days before anyone reported this)  Karl Burkhart of GreenDig later confirmed this appointment on GreenDig, his sources telling him the news via text message.  Karl was heralded the Perez Hilton of green, being the first to blog about this appointment.

Karl does point out however, that “this was first suggested/predicted in the blogosphere back in October by David Anderson of Green Options Media, who said that Van, equipped with years of grass roots experience in community development has built “a credible case for the win-win-win green collar economy of the future.”

It is the new age of communication and collaboration.  One piece of news can be disseminated in different ways, and by different walks of life.  As larger segments of the population communicate more effectively, we will have greater means of solving our global problems.  We are moving the movement, so let’s do it together.

Join the movement! Follow the whole Creative Citizen team @cr8tivecitizen, @argam, @ladyvirescent, and, of course, @thecitizen for exciting green updates, whether it be breaking news or our thoughts.

Want to get your mind stimulated this weekend?

If so, then check out the 7th annual Conscious Life Expo this weekend at the LAX Hilton.

What: @TheCitizen, our beloved Scott, will be representing Creative Citizen and speaking this Friday at the Conscious Life Expo.  The Conscious Life Expo is geared towards exploring our rapidly changing world through science, spirituality, health, green living, self, and community.  The conference will hold workshops, free lectures, seminars, and panels.  Between planned events, be sure to explore the exhibitors.

Scott will be speaking about the state of green business, radical collaboration as mantra, and the need for the green movement to ditch fear of corporations and misanthropic tendencies…be sure to bring a pen and paper!

Who: Network amongst the thought leaders of today.  Careful not to miss Keynote Speakers, David Wilcock, David Icke, David Carradine, Sona Choquette, Jon Young, and Eric Pearl.

Where: LAX Hilton- 5711 West Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045

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When: February 13-16th.

Admission fee:

General admission- between $10-$25

General workshop- $20 Online/ $25 Door

Keynote Speakers- $35 Online/ $45 Door

Why: For those you lonely on Valentines Day, The Conscience Life Expo with satisfy you and take you to places no one else can…

Remember, bring your Sigg water bottles, carpool or take the bus!

-Eco Warrior

Scott Badenoch and I, attended the Green Inaugural Ball in DC that took place 1 day before the inauguration of President Obama. We had the pleasure of meeting thought leaders in the Green movement, which we usually do not get to see at events on the West Coast. We were also happy to see familiar faces, such as Michael Franti and Van Jones that the Creative Citizen team greatly admire.

We also met great people from the National Audubon Society, as well as government officials looking to learn new things about sustainability.

Another highlight was partying with Will.I.Am as he debuted his new song that calls all of the citizens of the world to take action about global warming. Check out the video below and make sure to get all your friends to watch it. Take action now by adopting any one of the hundreds of solutions on Creative Citizen.

The past several months have been extremely fruitful for our company and we’d like to fill you in on just a couple developments.

*10,000 Green Products to be sold through Green Home.com

For all of your Christmas shopping, go to GreenHome.com where you can find over 10,000 green products.  As a gift to Creative Citizen, GreenHome is offering a 5% discount on all purchases until the end of the year!  Enter discount code: GoGreenNow. GreenHome will soon have a co-branded store on Creative Citizen and has been the leader in green products for about 10 years.  If you’re doing some holiday shopping online, they are the best in the business.

*Creative Citizen on Twitter
You can follow the newest Creative Solutions from Creative Citizen and the thoughts of it’s two founders on Twitter, live time.  If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it is a micro-blog where users can post, in 140 characters or less, what they are doing at that very moment.  It has become one of the most important tools in spreading the word ever created.  Follow us here: Creative Citizen Argam Scott

*Creative Citizen on Wiser Earth
Wiser Earth is an incredible organization built by Paul Hawken and his team to bring together the worlds change agents in one platform.  Collaboration is the key to our species’ future and WiserEarth is the master of this domain, with over 110,000 organizations as part of the WiserEarth network.  Creative Citizen now has a group page with WiserEarth and is working with their team to find more ways in which our two groups can work together.  Please take a look at our Creative Citizen page where you can give feedback and ideas about Creative Citizen and if you haven’t registered for WiserEarth yet, please do!  Feel free to add the CC founders as friends as well: Argam & Scott.

*Scott Speaks at the Eco Gift Festival
Eco Gift Festival is a real game changer of an event: come to one place for all of your holiday shopping and know that each product is environmentally friendly.  Along with the leading green products, the festival has amazing speakers and musicians, such as Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post and Michael Brune of Rainforest Action Network.  Scott, co-founder of Creative Citizen, will be speaking at the event on Saturday, December 13th at 5pm.  On the second evening of the event (Saturday, Dec 13) there will also be a huge bash hosted by the Los Angeles green community…please join us!  Big thanks to Tommy Rosen, Kia Miller, Brett Johnson and their amazing team for putting on this amazing event.

*Vote for Creative Citizen on TechCrunch
As you may have seen, Scott was featured on TechCrunch in the Elevator Pitch competition (we are currently ranked #13 out of 136 pitches!).  Now, we’d like to invite you to nominate Creative Citizen for two awards: 1) Most Likely to Make the World a Better Place and 2) Best Bootstrapped Company.

*Creative Citizen Welcomes Michael Leifer and Louis Fox to our Advisory Board
Creative Citizen is thrilled to announce the expansion of our already stellar Advisory Board with the additions of Michael Leifer, founder of GuerillaPR and SVP, Executive Director of Social Media for Swirl and Louis Fox, co-founder of Free Range Studios.  These two green wizards will help bring Creative Citizen to the mainstream through effective messaging, branding and interface.  Beyond that, they are two of the most caring, positive and generous individuals we’ve ever come across. You can read their bios as well as the rest of our Advisory Board here.

The coming year is going to be evolutionary for the planet as well as Creative Citizen.  We will keep you posted on the exciting developments.  Feel free to contact us directly for any reason.