SquidWho, a people-powered Who’s Who on the web, launched this week. Twice really.

The first was an accident. The always watchful and very resourceful lensmasters spotted a test lens and started making their own before we were done. No surprise, they took the starter lenses SquidWho creates and turned them into detailed pages on their favorite people (and themselves).

A few favorites so far…

• the incomparable Kimberly Dawn Wells, and her clever “If Wikipedia would admit I AM special” introduction
• a lens about a certain Assistant (to the) Regional Manager
• a “bet you didn’t know that” about Walt Disney
• and a Hitchhiker’s Guide to Douglas Adams

Bonus (and I think this was a first): Seth mentioned Jaco on his blog. Maybe I’m rubbing off on him a little, or he’s been brainwashed by the hundred or two of my presentations with Jaco as the example subject matter :)

Who’s your favorite person?

Last night, Squidoo won the SXSW Web Award for best community. It was a deer-in-the-headlights moment for me, because I’m not one for public speaking, and because you just can’t out-funny the host, zefrank (and funny is what I try to fall back on in these situations). Thankfully, Gil was there too and did a great job accepting the award for us.

So now that the spotlights are off, the auditorium is empty, and zefrank is back in the ipod, here’s what I’d like to say:

It didn’t feel right to be on stage without Seth, Megan, Jill and Heath. We’re a tiny team, and we wouldn’t be where we are without any one of them.

This award belongs to our lensmasters. Big time. After all, this was for best community, and the lensmasters are the ones creating the great lenses and spreading the word. They amaze us all the time.

Our platform exists thanks to our development partner, Viget Labs. We were lucky to have Ben, Bryan and Thanny as part of the team to get us on the web.

And thanks to the great folks at SXSW, too. They selected us as finalists and took good care of us at the awards ceremony.

Heh, that was a lot easier than last night.

I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with all the great work Jill is doing at Squidoo. Today I found out that two of my passions (Squidoo and helping in New Orleans) came together in a really neat way:

We wanted to pass on a heartwarming thank-you note from Rebecca Besch, a 6th-grade teacher in Slidell, Louisiana. In Rebecca’s class, most students lost their computers (and in fact their entire homes) in Hurricane Katrina. But last month, due to the generosity of Squidoo lensmasters, we were able to give Rebecca approximately $1,200 from the Squidoo Charity Fund to purchase two new computers for her classroom via the nonprofit DonorsChoose.

There are hundreds more public-school teachers’ projects available for funding at DonorsChoose.org. And remember, you can always donate your Squidoo royalties to DonorsChoose, too.

From the Squid Blog.