Individuals Paying It Forward

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Flash back to 1993. I had been receiving so many benefits from stumbling onto the internet, that I began casting about for a way to return the favor. I asked myself, "What do I have that other people could use?"

And then I realized it. Living in one of this wonderful city with so many visitors, I could create a massive non-profit web site giving advice to people planning to visit or move to San Francisco, written by a real insider smitten with the city.

I pictured the poor newlywed couple from the midwest, saving so they could have a wonderful week in San Francisco. Or the group of shivering women huddled around a map, the young woman escaping to a freer city, the retired old man who had saved us in World War II.

The web site was a good success, and many people wrote me to say thanks. A very few asked how they could pay me back.

I thought about it, and in the spirit that moved me to create the web site, I wrote them back and I told them. Eventually, I inscribed the answer within the web site's "Frequently asked question" section. For anyone who wondered how they could pay me back I wrote, "You know what I would really like? Out of the blue and for no reason, do a favor for a stranger."

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When I got off the plane, I went home and decided I would put my long- bubbling plan into action. At the office I got permission, spent many 20-hour days building a computer from spare parts, and when it was done I connected it to the internet. My dream was now a reality. I called it dreamworld.

dreamworld.org is a non-profit, non-commercial internet domain that gives away free services to any good cause. To me that simply means when someone is looking to help out other people.

The first web pages it would host was my now-grown San Francisco web site. Eventually I would create a web site for alumni from my high school, which eventually was responsible for reuniting two high school friends who found love and were soon married. Other good things have come from dreamworld, including three major incidents where the victims credit it with saving their lives.

Dreamworld continues to grow, as people write me almost daily to apply for services. My most carefully observed criterion is that they are working hard to make things better for others.

From the very beginning I knew that dreamworld could not be about money. One of the guiding principles is that I forbid myself from accepting anything of value in return for dreamworld services.

All I ask is that they do a favor for someone else.

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I had never seen the movie. I didn't even know who was in it, or what it was about. All I knew was the title. But someone wrote something that caused me to go out and get the dvd. I watched it last night.

Two days ago, someone wrote me to thank me for the San Francisco web site. They seemed to have got a great deal out of it, and they said something that still makes me pause with emotion as I try to write it.

They said they would be sure to do something for someone else. They said that they were going to pay it forward.

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Main dreamworld web site : http://www.dreamworld.org

San Francisco Guide : http://www.dreamworld.org/sfguide

Washington High Alumni : http://www.dreamworld.org/wash