Hi, I'm Kevin Bacon...

That's the first line of an email I got the other day (almost relegated it to the trash) inviting me to join his new web site, SixDegrees.org.

The site is the evolution of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, a game that asks you to link other famous people to Bacon. You get the most points for linking in as few steps as possible.

According to reports, Bacon decided to take advantage of the now classic game and put it to good use by using celebrity profiles to support charities. AOL, Entertainment Weekly, Network for Good, and Auction Cause have all teamed up to spread the news.

Network for Good creates charity badges on the site—sort of "doing good" profiles. Celebrities post their profiles and their favorite charities. You can click to donate. You can also create your own charity badge or download a snippet of code to link to Network for Good and your favorite charity from your own web site. When I checked the donation meter, it was at $72,000 raised; the site launched at the Sundance Film Festival in mid-January. Auction Cause is auctioning off celeb swag from Sundance, too.

In my email, Bacon wrote, "It is my hope that Six Degrees will soon be a force for good, by bringing a social conscience to social networking. I'd love you to be part of this important effort." I'm there, Kev.

Kevin Bacon Cheat Sheet

If you've never played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon you can find a history of the game with some examples at boost. For a cheat sheet, check out the University of Virginia's creation, The Oracle of Bacon. Every couple of weeks the Oracle downloads database files from IMDB and uses it to build a big map of actors and movies.