:DRHOP, A Platform Proposal for Online Charity

This short paper describes :DRHOP , a project proposal based on the idea of an “open interface” that aims to aggregate different types of “services” and to build around them a community of users who, without changing their usual online (and offline) habits, collect a wallet of drops, a sort of virtual currency that can be donated for charity purposes. The architecture of the system is introduced together with the present version of a proof of concept, currently implemented in the context of online advertising. :DRHOP is still in its initial design phase and important issues like trust, security, and privacy - that are fundamental for the success of a proposal like this - are only partially sketched. Nevertheless, we think the idea is worth to carry on as witnessed by some similar projects, which are also briefly introduced in the paper, showing the interest of the Internet community for online charity experiences.