Shaking your head ruefully at the evening news doesn't accomplish much, but designing a poster might. In response to recent incidents of campus violence, the University & College Designers Association, UCDA, has launched the Campus Violence Poster Project. It's a visual round table where any designer can respond to these events on a 12 x 18-inch or smaller canvas. UCDA plans to sell posters through an online auction and feature them in the organization's magazine and website. Deadline: April 4, 2008.
http://ucda.com/posterproject.lasso

QuarkXPress isn't ready to run up the white flag and surrender to InDesign just yet. In a clever bid for popularity—and software budgets—the company recently flipped the switch on www.ilovedesign.com. It's Facebook lite crossed with AIGA lectures and portfolio reviews. You can create a profile, upload design samples and rate other people's work. Or just watch videos featuring David Carson, Peter Saville and Chip Kidd.
http://www.ilovedesign.com/us/

Here's a perfect procrastination break: Through March 30, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York hosts an online exhibit, Montage: Unmonumental Online. It features digital collages from 14 artists that mash-up images, sound and programming know-how without a creative brief to play referee. Artist Oliver Laric strings together 50 YouTube videos with amateurs singing 50 Cent songs, while Guthrie Lonergan creates an Internet Group Shot by overlapping amateur group photos in a yearbook-style collage.
http://www.rhizome.org/montage