MICROVOLUNTEERISM

I should have gotten my mother an iPhone for her birthday. A reader reminded me about The Extraordinaires (.org), a social media website that sends micro volunteer opportunities to mobile phones. This is an easy way to slip good works into busy peoples’ free time. For example, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia seeks volunteers to tag photos from their exhibitions so thousands of images can be available for public search.

The opportunities here are limitless. Can we harness micro tasks for the overscheduled to be a real benefit, e.g. proofreading, graphic design, asking that alerts be passed on from friend to friend for lobbying, in-person events or volunteer activities? Will we keep up with data capture to bring casual iPhone encounters into our cultivation sphere? Who will be the in-house Snopes equivalent to fact check donated services of lawyers, accountants, art identifiers and the rest of us with walking around sense?

We’ll keep an eye on it! Mark your calendars for Using Social Media/ePhilanthropy, Sept. 11, Chicago.