Press, Endorsements, and Wins

(Scroll down for press kit)

COMPETITION WINS

Winner, 2009 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Grant, Boston, Massachusetts
Winner, 2009 Echoing Green Fellowship Competition, New York, New York
Winner, 2009 WeMedia Pitch It! Social Entrepreneurship Competition, Miami, Florida
Winner, 2009 United Nations World Summit Youth Award, Monterrey, Mexico
Winner, 2009 NetSquared N2Y4 Mobile Challenge (second prize), San Jose, California

PRESS QUOTES The Extraordinaries was featured on NPR's Future Tense with Jon Gordon, on June 1, 2009. Listen to the Mp3 here! " The Extraordinaries, is a platform that enables citizens to perform "micro-volunteer" tasks on their phones when they find themselves with small amounts of time, such as waiting at a bus stop or in line at the bank." Huffington Post, June 4, 2009 "For folks like The Extraordinaries...there's no IPO at the end of the rainbow, no late-night fantasizing that Google might buy them out. In some ways, their ability to innovate is even more impressive, and more useful, because it's fueled by passion that can't help but inspire in this cynical age. And perhaps that's the best lesson of all for would-be innovators everywhere."     -San Jose Mercury News, May 30, 2009 "The Crowdsourcing-for-good revolution is on, with new applications rising out of San Francisco's petri dish of open-source activism. Waiting for the bus or the doctor? Bored in a staff meeting? [Use] an app created by The Extraordinaries."     -San Francisco Magazine, June, 2009 "The Extraordinaries will let multilingual users watch short clips of a documentary and translate subtitles while riding a bus."     -Washington Post, April 22, 2009 "The Extraordinaries...will be able to help immigrants improve their English, translate subtitles for human rights videos and help Cornell University collect data on urban birds."     -The Jakarta Globe (Jakarta, Indonesia) - May 3, 2009 "The first mobile program that lets you help society while you wait for your coffee."     -The Brisbane Courier Post (Brisbane, Australia) - May 14, 2009 "The micro-volunteering movement is being led by an organization called The Extraordinaries."     -About.com, April 15, 2009 “The charities know that it is increasingly difficult to ask (and get) a long time volunteer. This system could solve the problem.”     -Youphil.com - a leading French blog - May 5, 2009 " I could imagine (on demand volunteerism by mobile phone) having terrific potential in Africa"     -Kabissa.org - a leading African blog - Jan 5, 2009 The Extraordinaries...offers volunteer opportunities for people with busy work schedules to work with those who need it most."     -Voice of America, Spanish language coverage, February 27, 2009 "So you are too busy and stressed to find time to volunteer? No worries. The folks at The Extraordinaries have got your back."     -BeTheChangeInc.org, November 18, 2008 "What if you could empower the millions of Americans who want to volunteer but don't have the time? ...The Extraordinaries seek to do just that - turn ordinary free time into extraordinary social impact."     -Mobilefuture.org, May 15, 2009 “As issues of work life balance mount, and the constraints on our precious little free time become even greater, it's efforts like the Extraordinaries that may just transform the way we find time to give back and volunteer.”     -SocialCitizen.org, November 18, 2008

ENDORSEMENTS "I really see the potential of crowdsourcing for community organizations and think it's a big idea.  Much of Kiva's success can be attributed to the support and generosity of its fan base, as we've leaned on them for everything from translations to marketing.  Having a tool to effectively and efficiently engage them via microtasks would be a win-win, allowing Kiva to continue to scale while allowing Kiva's fans to feel a deeper sense of ownership through participation."     -Premal Shah, President, Kiva.org "Using mobile phones for volunteering in small chunks of time is a great idea. I believe that this application may well lower barriers to entry for volunteerism, and encourage organizations to engage volunteers and supporters in new ways."     -Ami Dar, Executive Director, Idealist.org (Ashoka Fellow, 2004) “The Extraordinaries have a very interesting concept for using mobile tech for volunteering and social involvement. The team has built a viable platform on a shoestring with nothing but vision, technical chops, and incredible outreach and community involvement. As a result, they have begun to garner considerable attention and are poised to take the application and it's use to the next level -- given adequate funding.”     -Katrin Verclas, Co-Founder, MobileActive.org (MIT Fellow, 2009)(TED Fellow, 2009) "Micro-volunteerism is going to be the next major stage of social activism, and The Extraordinaries are leading the effort to transform traditional volunteering for the good of all."     -Ben Rattray, Founder and CEO, Change.org         “The Extraordinaries are not a band, though if they were I’d want to hear their music. Instead they’ve created an ingenious mash-up of mobile technology, crowdsourcing and philanthropy. Technology has made countless tasks easier. The Extraordinaries want to show how it can make doing good easier as well.”     -Jeff Howe, Contributing Editor, Wired Magazine (Author of The Book, "Crowdsourcing”) "The Extraordinaries have developed a platform that helps solve a pressing need for both would be volunteers and not-for-profit organizations. Volunteers can provide their expertise in manageable moments, and organizations can access the previously inaccessible talents of their own members. It's a stellar example of using technology for social good."     -Jay Aldous, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, U.S. Fund for UNICEF

PRESS KIT:

Description

The Extraordinaries delivers micro-volunteer opportunities to mobile phones and web browsers that can be done on-demand and on-the-spot.  Currently available as an iPhone® application through Apple's iTunes® store, The Extraordinaries enables organizations to connect with their supporters through these micro-volunteer opportunities, strengthening relationships while leveraging their "crowds" to complete real work such as image tagging, translation and research.  Recently, The Extraordinaries was awarded an Echoing Green fellowship as well as a generous grant from the Knight Foundation. Led by a team with deep experience in activism, technology and social good from organizations including Kiva.org and MySpace, The Extraordinaries is a social business based in San Francisco, CA.

Photos

Click for large format. Please credit: www.BeExtra.org

Ben Rigby, headshot

Jacob Colker, headshots:
 

Editorial Photos:

   

The Extraordinaries Logo:
 

 

Screenshots:

Here are some screenshots of the iPhone application. This sequence of images shows the tag images function:

 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

Comments

[Brad Shannon]

-users download a song by an unsigned band, listen to it, give comments. maybe offer a 'browse by keyword' option for genre-sorting

-quick homework help, or a more general service for matching 'quick questions about...' to a person who can help in that area (think about quick tech support, for example)

-quick research help, or some kind of 'help me brainstorm' thing

-issue advocacy: 'engage someone near you in a polite conversation about...' or some other spread-the-word thing (think of the political campaign opportunity here -- it's mind-boggling)

-tutoring

-help students studying for similar exams find each other ("I'm reviewing for ___ and could use some help. I'm available to help with _____.")

-paper editing / comments

-similar to paper editing and brainstorming, but how about some kind of quick focus group (revenue potential here: "what do you think of this [ad/song/movie trailer/story idea/whatever]?")

I would volunteer my opinions about stuff if I knew it helped some worthy cause. Like those sites where you fill out surveys to receive a small amount of money for each one, except it gets donated to something awesome.

I'm thinking of lots more, but I'll stop there.