Many of us have been touched by the stories of people affected by cancer. With the advent of social media and social technology, connecting with survivors, discovering a community for support and fundraising online has never been easier.

Part one of a two part series focusing on Facebook’s API and using it to create Facebook applications for brands.

In the past ten years or so, I have worked on, or been presented with, dozens of online business ideas. From real estate to horses, hot sauce to social networking, they all share one thing in common: they started with an idea. What differs, however, is where the inspiration came from. One common formula I tend to see is the “me too – but different” syndrome. I’ll make facebook but for: fish, cats, seniors, small people, big people, beautiful people.

I have a confession to make. I I <3 twitter. For those of you who don’t know what twitter is, it’s basically a micro blogging platform. You get 140 characters to say whatever you want. You add friends – creating your own social network and let them know what you are doing through your status updates. If you want to read more about twitter, you can find more info here.

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The facebook Kiva application lets a user grow their funds by using the facebook platform as a means of soliciting friends for monetary contributions.