Not much I recall, but the story was about a guy in our near future where everyone has a connected / networked PDA that would tell you to do seemingly random things that would benefit strangers and (thru the similar acts of others) yourself.
For example- your PDA would tell you to take your umbrella even though there was no rain, but you would give it to a guy that would need it to stop water spilling from a second floor window.
It was probably from the mid-90’s in one of those scifi magazines or monthly collections.