The Extraordinaries

#haiti Quake: Help find missing persons with @extraordinaries! http://beextra.org/haiti

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti, killing possibly thousands and leaving the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in ruins. The damage this disaster has caused is still unmeasurable as friends and families around the globe try to contact loved ones while thousands of others continue searching for ways to help.

The Extraordinaries have created a support page to harness the power of the crowd to help locate and identify missing persons with just a few minutes of your time.

Via http://beextra.org/haiti, people can upload information about their loved ones or sort through news photos to help identify missing persons. Our team is working around the clock to build a facial recognition matching system that will allow the crowd to match photos of the missing with photos coming in from the ground in Haiti.

In just a few spare moments of time, people around the globe can reach out to those affected by the quake and help reconnect the missing with their families and friends!

Chat with an Extraordinary: Daniel Phelps of the Wikimedia Foundation

Daniel Phelps, Office Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, first heard about The Extraordinaries during Penguin Day in San Francisco this spring, and downloaded it the first week it came out.  He was excited to have something "useful" to do on his iPhone.

"There's a lot of time where I'm either waiting in public transit, or you go on a trip and there's nothing to really do," said Phelps, "Do you play with some app that's not really going to do anything for you, or do you do something that might actually help someone?"

Phelps said he also downloaded the app because, "There are so many things that could come out of The Extraordinaries that have the potential to be very, very good.  I wanted to make sure I had it so that when those things come along, and I'm sitting there with 10 minutes in front of me, I can give 10 minutes, and do something that is hopefully going to help somebody."

He has contributed mostly to the Bibliothèque de Toulouse project by helping to catalog historic French photos. He also played with the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress image tagging projects, and has been watching the progress of KaBOOM!, where you can help build a map of places where kids can play.

He thought it would be great if in the future people could fill out a profile and match their particular skills with microvolunteer opportunities. For example, he'd like to be able to easily find opportunities where he could use his ability to speak French.

"Not that I wouldn't go in and kick the tires and find out what is interesting and what is exciting," says Phelps, "but having certain skills, I think, is really important for being able to help different places. My job is very organizational and administrative based, and I think there is a lot of good that could come out of somebody who has that skill set helping somebody who might not."

*****

Since my original conversation with Phelps a couple weeks ago, he has also contributed to GoodDogz, where you can help build a database of dog shelters, share information about dogs who need a home, or take a photo of your favorite dog.

He would also like to spend some time on Heal the Bay (where you can report pollution in your neighborhood, storm drain, or at the beach), and on Breakthrough (where you can record a 30-second audio clip telling the government what immigration means to you).  He's also figuring out how he can contribute best to wdydwyd where you can take a self portrait answering the question, "Why do you do what you do?" ask a friend wdydwyd?, or call a voicemail line and record your answer to wdydwyd?

Let us know about your experience using The Extraordinaries in the comments or contact a member of the team.

Photo by Lane Hartwell on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Britt Bravo also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer.com, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.

Turning Good Deeds into Cash?

Very interesting writeup by Paul Lamb on the idea that there could be an alternate currency in "goodness." Help your neighbor across the street, earn a couple of chits good for a soda at the local bodega. 

"In traditional economics, the nonfinancial contributions we make are basically worthless. Financial transactions and our monetary net worth are all that really matter. Sadly, we have sunk to measuring our individual and national value through debt, surpluses, and productivity gains."

Couldn't agree more. There's a humanity missing in our current definitions of "success." But I'd posit that by adding a financial incentive or value to a good deed might make it feel less like "good" and more like a financial transaction. I lean more towards the idea (that Paul mentions) of a reputation system that doesn't have a direct financial tie - but that is nonetheless valuable. 

Mobile phone sensors and crowdsourced citizen science

Finally have 1/2 a day to luxuriate in back copies of The Economist. Came across an article about mobile phone sensors and the future of data gathering. A great read and especially apropos The Extraordinaries in its closing paragraphs:

"Some computer scientists look forward to the day when mobile phones and sensors can provide a central nervous system for the entire planet. An abundance of sensors, they believe, will lead to two things. First, the amount of data will increase, allowing scientists to build more realistic models. Alessandro Vespignani of Indiana University compares the current state of affairs to weather forecasting a century ago, before satellites had provided meteorologists with the data to build and optimise mathematical models. When it comes to problems such as tracking and predicting the spread of diseases and other environmental hazards, he argues, scientists can never get enough data.

Second, once people are able to contribute data to research projects from their mobile phones, it could provide an ideal way to broaden public involvement in scientific activities. This would be the next logical step after the popularity of web-based participation in scientific research, from folding proteins to categorising photographs of galaxies. Eric Paulos, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, predicts the rise of “citizen scientists” able to measure and sample their surroundings wherever they go. When people can report mundane variables such as the level of traffic noise in their street or the degree of air pollution at the bus stop, he argues, their outlook on science changes. “People develop a relationship with and a sense of ownership over the data,” he says. He foresees amateur experts being driven by a new sense of volunteerism, the 21st-century equivalent of cleaning up the neighbourhood park."

Every time we turn around, there seems to be another article about crowdsourcing and volunteerism. The moment is ripe. 

Twitter Traffic Explodes. Twitter for Volunteers.

Well, it's confirmed- that feeling over the last month or so that Twitter is everywhere is now confirmed by the stats. Check out this post at ComScore. Interesting to note that the demographics skew more towards GenX and young Boomers than Millenials.

What's clear about these trends is that for volunteering to work, especially the online kind, it's gotta tie right into these types of social networks. It's where social reputation and connection is happening - which is what's at the core of making a volunteer feel good about doing work. 

Extras on the Chronicle of Philanthropy with Allison Fine

Hi all - Allison Fine interviewed Beka Economopoulos and I for her recent podcast called "Episode 5: Communicating With Volunteers Online." Ok, it's not as good as the real Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back, but it's worth a listen!

 

http://philanthropy.com/media/audio/socialgood/

And a little plug for both my interviewer and co-interviewee (not because they asked for it, but because I think their work is stellar). Allison's recent book is Momentum, which is a great introduction for the changing shape of activism in our now wired world. And of course there is no social good/activist/online-media/organizer rating system, but if there was, Beka would be at the very top. For my recent book, I used Beka's work at Greenpeace to cap the book - as the example that wound all the other examples together. She's now working at Fission Strategy. 

Are You A Virtual Volunteer? Fill Out The Survey Today!

Our buddy Nathaniel Whittemore passed along someone looking for research subjects, and we're always happy to help!

Here's the nice note and the link:

Hi Jacob,

My name is Chiara Camponeschi and I am writing to you based on a recommendation made to me by Nathaniel Whittemore.

I am currently working on a study on Virtual Volunteering as part of my Masters of Environmental Studies program at York University, in Canada. I am investigating the motivational factors that lead young people between the ages of 18-30 to volunteer on-line, and what can be done to improve their overall experience as on-line agents of change. As I am sure you know, many not-for-profits are now relying on the support of dedicated virtual volunteers, but at present not much literature is available on them. For this reason, I have put together a survey to learn more about who the typical volunteer is, what motivates youth to donate their time and skills for a cause or organization, what are some of the current difficulties they face, etc.

Because I believe volunteering and gift economies are an important part of social innovation, I would be grateful if you could promote this study to your network:

Are You A Virtual Volunteer? Fill Out The Survey Today!

Virtual Volunteering is a type of volunteer work that is carried out on-line through the use of ICTs. If you are currently a Virtual Volunteer, or have volunteered on-line in the past, fill out the survey today! You will contribute to an academic study that looks at the factors that inspire youth to volunteer on-line and what can be done to improve their overall experience as on-line agents of change!

To access the survey, click here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=skMQhno_2fsWG8bbv8gnYXBA_3d_3d

Jobs up in Volunteer & Service Sectors

This just in from the Newshour:

While service-oriented job programs like Teach for America and Peace Corps have enjoyed steady popularity with young people as an alternative to entering the traditional workforce upon graduation, these programs are reporting a major surge in applications in the past several months.

This surge in service appears indicative of the so-called Millennial Generation -- people born between 1983 and 2003 -- who have come of age as the Internet has increased access to information about communities around the world as well as service opportunities across cultural and national boundaries.

Good time to be in volunteerism. Find the article here:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/business/jan-june09/service_03-16.html

How to Take Action on Any Web Site

This is cool - it's been out for a while, but escaped my attention. From Social Actions and Marnie Webb, this Firefox plugin allows you to take action on a *phrase* basis. Here's the quote:

"The future is here! You can now take action on any website. I'm not kidding! Next time you're reading an article about global warming, you'll be able to just highlight the words “global warming” and easily connect to the various ways you can take action to save our planet."

Neato. I was just lamenting that there was no way to take action on TED talks. Well, here's one answer to that lament.

Next step: Semantic Matching... so that instead of matching on a phrase, you can match by meaning. Hm.... this could be a job for the crowd... just reminded myself of a post from the other day on this topic.

iVolunteer - proximate volunteering

Dale just brought my attention to this group called iVolunteer: http://www.actionfeed.org

Looks like they're working on a project with similar ethos. Here's their description:

"iVolunteer is a free location-aware iPhone application that makes it easy for people to find one-time volunteer opportunities and get involved in their communities.Since not everyone has an iPhone (yet!), we’re creating ActionFeed as a kayak.com-like web version of the same data."

So, just a shout out to them. Would love to be in touch to collaborate/share ideas. We're working in complementary spaces. And, in fact, this was the idea that launched me into The Extraordinaries last year... I wrote this in the 'Future Looking' section of the Mobile Chapter of my book:

"Political campaigns and nonprofits could also develop novel applications. Imagine a political-friending application that tells you which people in a given room share your political views, or a volunteercoordination service that gives you a list of nonprofits in your immediate vicinity that would benefit from thirty minutes of your time. Mobile phones will bring the power of social computing to real-world spaces. They will create opportunities for supporters to meet, discuss, and mobilize offline. In the hands, pockets, and purses of a majority of the world’s population, these diminutive devices are redefining what it means to be connected to
the Internet and to each other."

(Do I have to put quotes when quoting self? Interesting grammatical quandry). I think there are a bunch of problems with the model though, which is why we narrowed into crowdsourcing... Among them: liability and timing (which is a function of critical mass). 

Cheers,

Ben