Posts Tagged ‘Add new tag’
-
On-demand volunteerism by mobile phone
A perceived lack of time is one of the biggest barriers to volunteering, and virtual volunteering is often cited as an ideal solution for time-strapped people, so when I stumbled upon The Extraodinaries, I was fascinated. This American initiative delivers micro-volunteer opportunities to mobile phones, from translating a charity’s website into a foreign language to identifying craters for NASA or birds for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The theory is simple: everyone has moments of spare time, so what if everyone used these moments for the common good?
The Extraordinaries blog claims: “Thus far, no-one has brought crowdsourcing to mobile phones… the device that’s always on-hand when people have spare time. And while there have been one-off efforts to turn crowdsourcing to social good, no-one has built an organization dedicated to the purpose. With The Extraordinaries, we’re pioneering a promising new field.”
The service is currently in Beta testing, and is only available on the iPhone. I’d be really interested to hear from anyone involved in the Beta testing. If you’d like to find out more about how the service works for voluntary organisations, watch the interview with co-founder Jacob Colker on Volunteer Match’s Engaging Volunteers blog.
-
‘United We Serve’: Michelle Obama opens US volunteering conference
In what is becoming a signature domestic issue for the First Lady and the President, Michelle Obama kicked off the ‘United We Serve’ summer initiative, which runs from June 22nd to the National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11th 2009.
In a video message released on May 16, Michelle Obama called on all Americans to help in the nation’s recovery by volunteering in their communities this summer and beyond to help lay a new foundation for growth by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service.
The ‘United We Serve’ campaign launch formed part of the First Lady’s keynote opening speech at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. The conference, co-hosted by the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Points of Light Institute, brings together more than 4,000 volunteer and service leaders from across the nation and globe at a time of strong momentum for service and civic engagement.
In the US, momentum is building following President Barack Obama’s signing on April 21, 2009, of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. The Serve America Act reauthorizes and expands national service programs administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency created in 1993.
Check out the conference programme and speeches.
Loading ...
Comments