Virtual Volunteering 90
An anonymous reader writes "Virtual Volunteering is new to me, so I thought that I would pass the info. along. Given the downturn in employment and the need to keep an active resume or CV, becoming a 'Virtual Volunteer', may be just the way to refresh your outlook and your resume. A PC World article talks about two sites which list numerous opportunities; Volunteer Match lists 41,538 opportunities associated with 23,359 organizations, and World Computer Exchange which 'is a global nonprofit organization committed to helping the world's poorest youth bridge the disturbing global divides in information, technology and understanding. WCE does this by keeping donated PCs, Macs, and Laptops out of landfills and giving them new life connecting youth to the Internet in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.' There are most likely more organizations like this out there, anybody have a special one that they are associated with?"
How about this non-profit organization? (Score:3, Funny)
(For humor-impaired, this is a joke)
Re:How about this non-profit organization? (Score:1)
Relevant Links (Score:5, Informative)
Pearls of Africa [pearlsofafrica.org] is run entirely by online volunteers who research and develop programs, solicit donations, and run a children's resource library in Uganda geared toward disabilities. Moy traveled to Uganda in November 2001 with the United Nations to open the library.
World Computer Exchange [worldcompu...change.org], based in Massachusetts, relies on virtual volunteers in its mission to bring computers to schools in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Since it was founded in October 1999, the organization has helped 676 schools and almost 256,000 students go online, says Tim Anderson, president and founder.
VolunteerMatch [volunteermatch.org], which links volunteers with more than 23,000 organizations offering about 40,000 volunteer opportunities, is helping that cause, says Jason Willett, director of communications. Since 1998, nearly one million people signed up for an opportunity through VolunteerMatch.
As well, there are online mentors like NetMentors [netmentors.org], which offers online career development for teenagers. It serves as a virtual career counselor with expertise on 70 different careers. With about 800 mentors, the group has counseled 1000 students entirely through its Web site.
Re:Relevant Links (Score:1)
Re:Problem with volunteer work: (Score:1)
I suspect you are missing the point of volunteerism.
Re:Problem with volunteer work: (Score:2, Interesting)
I think what he's asking is perfectly reasonable. If nobody tends to his basic needs, he either has to:
1) Starve and rot
2) Get a job, siphoning off 40 or more hours each week.
Both put a substantial crimp in his ability to devote effort to the cause.
I admit the system he proposes is less than the pure model of volunteering, but it's a tradeoff. The sponsor will hand out some money and/or supplies to keep him fed, and he will be able to supply much more labour to the sponsor than he otherwise would be able to.
Re:Problem with volunteer work: (Score:1)
> If nobody tends to his basic needs, he either has to:
>
> 1) Starve and rot
> 2) Get a job, siphoning off 40 or more hours each week.
I'm afraid I disagree; the question he is asking isn't reasonable (as it presumes that this have never been addressed before) and your analysis of it is incomplete as it seems to presume that these are the only two alternatives).
He could do what many hundreds of thousands of volunteers do each year: he could save his money while he is working so that he could take the time off to volunteer and support himself doing it.
No one said that volunteeerism at this level was for the faint of heart.
Of course, volunteering locally is a different matter.
Re:Problem with volunteer work: (Score:1)
That doesn't solve the problem of the volunteer having to get a job instead of spending that time volunteering. It just shunts the time he spends working and not volunteering to another time period.
If you have to work 8 hours a day for six months before you can volunteer 8 hours a day for six months, it's no different from working 4 hours and volunteering 4 each day for a year, in terms of hours.
Re:Problem with volunteer work: (Score:1)
There is very little difference between feeding and clothing a volunteer and simply hiring them. That is typically what NGOs do; hire people to do the work. But that isn't the model that volunteer organisations work under -- they take the time that people donate. One doesn't pay for donations.
If what the poster to whom I was replying meant to criticise was the model, then he should have done so. I took him to be saying something like "Don't ask me to volunteer. You should hire me and get me 40 hours a week." Well, that _is_ fair enough, I suppose, but he's asking the wrong people for a job -- they want people to volunteer.
Cheers,
Norm Gall
Good idea... (Score:1)
I have some servers to donate. (Score:3, Funny)
Question about Virtual Volunteering... (Score:5, Funny)
oh great (Score:1)
Call me unenlightened, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
How about a global nonprofit organization committed to helping the world's poorest youth eat and avoid dying from preventable diseases?
You are unenlightened. (Score:1)
BUT, if we teach them to program in places where such a skill is useless then Microsoft will have a cheap and affordable source of labor for its future products!
The moral (only serious part): Send them food and hurt Micro$oft!
Re:You are unenlightened. (Score:3, Interesting)
a losing proposition -- not because we don't have food to spare, and
not because they don't need food, but for more practical reasons that
vary somewhat from area to area but start to look depressingly similar
after a while. Mostly it has to do with what Bill Cosby calls "Brain
Dammage".
The US government tried it in Somolia not very many years ago.
Almost none of the food got to actual starving people; local thugs
confiscated it so they could feed the armies they were using to
oppress the people. (This was entirely predictable, for people
who understand the third world.) We ended up getting involved
militarily (yeah, more US forces in the third world, that sure
makes us popular in the UN), but that didn't work so well either,
and the instant our forces pulled out everything went back like
it was. This was during the Clinton administration, and it was
well-intentioned, but it just plain didn't work.
The US government isn't the only entity to ever try it, not by a
long shot. Any number of church denominations have tried to set
up an infrastructure for taking food to starving people; these
experiments have all failed, and not for lack of food to take over.
GBIM (a missions organisation) concluded decades ago that providing
education is okay, but providing physical goods brings out the
worst in the people they are trying to help. They now have a
standing policy against giving people physical stuff that is out
of proportion to what they could get on their own. So they build
church buildings out of local materiels now, instead of importing
a nice one, and they don't hand out a lot of stuff. The reason
providing education works better? Nobody's sure _exactly_. It's
not because the people need it more than they need food and stuff;
they need both. Mostly it's because starving people don't _fight_
over education. The really interesting thing is, it's something
they want almost as much as they want food (in some places), but
they behave differently to acquire it. The theory is that you can't
steal or horde education because it takes too long to acquire, but
others say it's because it isn't lost when shared. Whatever, it
works: people behave more decently when you give them information
than when you try to give them food.
Now, I'm not sure where computers would fall in. It's worth trying
to see, but there's a distinct possibility they're going to fall
into the same category with food, and that giving them out is going
to prove to be impracticable. Of course, if that turns out to be the
case you could retain the computers at the organisation and use them
to provide training or whatnot.
If you want to avoid helping Microsoft, just make sure you train
them on OSS.
Re:You are unenlightened. (Score:2)
But...in many countries in Africa, there is no functioning free market economy to hire the newly educated. So often children drop out of school to work in the fields and make some money, or stay in school and come to the US and Europe once they have a college degree.
It is no suprise that 50 years of the West trying to get economic growth going in Africa has failed. The West has always missed the basics, free markets that are appropriately regulated, with strong currencies (that are really strong and not artifically propped up by exchange laws that encourage black-market currency trading) are what allows economic growth to occur.
In the meantime, we've been trying to get Africa to industrialize and educate. Industrial machinery has no inputs or way to sell outputs in the government-commanded economies. Oops. Education also failed for the reasons I mentioned above. Ooops. So then we just started to give them loans (bribes) to fix their economies. Didn't work because the people in charge kept the loans (bribes), didn't change, and now have Bono shilling for them to get debt forgiveness to get more loans (bribes).
If US geeks were more economically literate, that might help!
define irony (Score:2)
I find it utterly ironic that in the united states, the culmination of high school economics is playing monopoly with "pretend checks" instead of "pretend money."
I only took that shit because auto mechanics 2(best course set in my school aside from AP Physics) was full. I got in next semster!
Re:Call me unenlightened, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, we could be altruistic about it...but honestly, do you think most geeks (sorry, we are at slashdot, have to refer the herd this way) are truly interested enough in helping a poor kid in Africa eat as opposed to helping them set up Linux? Now, don't say I mean they think they should starve over Linux, but rather, just be honest with yourself. Everyone has a threshold on how much they will help, so any help is good help.
With that said, who is to say this poorest of the poor+1 social strata will not thus reach down and those even needier then them? Don't assume just because they are poor too that they have no interest in helping their neighbors. I am sure most Americans are much more apt to help a starving neighbor then a starving person 15000 miles away. Out of sight out of mind right?
Its human, sure, its not perfect, but no one claimed to be. So anyway, again, no bashing you, just wanted to point out why this argument does not constantly hold water like you would think it would.
Re:Call me unenlightened, but... (Score:2, Informative)
The difficulty with this is that most of the starvation and by extension diseases, in the world is due to political upheavals, North Koreans starve because it suits their government to let them starve. Zimbabwe starves because Robert Mugabe finds it to his political advantage to allow them to starve. (Zimbabwe is a nation blessed with an extremely fertile soil and was once known as the bread basket of southern Africa, yet now Zimbabweans starve). There are certainly many more examples of this.
So how can a global nonprofit organization solve this problem? Many already exist, and they usually end up helping the tyrant retain power. The nonprofit brings in supplies the tyrant's goons steal and the people still starve. (The taliban were notorious for this.)
Unless you are planning a nonprofit that has as it mission the overthrow of dictatorships, and the establishment of freedom in these nations.
Re:Call me unenlightened, but... (Score:2)
Sign me up! The "Licoln Brigade" of the new millenium, bringing democracy and free markets to the world's poor!
Generally, looks to be the right idea; watch out! (Score:4, Insightful)
I even agree with skipping the industrial revolution, or at least speeding through it for the sake of protecting our environment.
If all of these underpriviledged starving people start living out full lives and competing in our job market, a lot of people are going to get _really_ freaked out. It'll be the perfect breeding grounds for terrorist acitivities. Budding intellectuals can coordinate covert ops on the lazy fat established classes in a high tech wargame which really just replaces the chaos that is neatly tucked away in starving countries.
So instead of seeing a shrivelled up, dying child, expect an empowered generation emerge from the third world. They just might show us a thing or two, and they'll definitely give us a run for our money.
Amazing. All that from a donated TRS-80.
Re:Generally, looks to be the right idea; watch ou (Score:2)
Re:Generally, looks to be the right idea; watch ou (Score:3, Interesting)
As societies become more technologically and economically developed, resources are used more efficiently. Moreover, advanced economies can afford to search more far, wide, and smart with regard to resources. In the US, most commodities are cheaper now (in inflation adjusted terms) than 30 years ago. Richer countries also have decreased birth rates.
Moreover, "externalities" such as air pollution are easier to deal with in a rich economy because the extra money is there to add the exhaust controls and regulations neeeded. If you are going to starve, you don't care about micro-particles breathed in because of your in-home coal fire.
The big mistake is that economies are not zero-sum games. Everyone can get rich together, infact the world is far, far richer now than it was than at the turn of the century. Look at places like South Korea that went from a dirt-poor agricultural country to having better broadband than the US. Even very underdeveloped countries are better off, though lagging Western standards.
Every free market exchange raises the wealth of both parties, or else the parties would not agree to participate. Moreover, rises in market prices of resources (if they happen) either cause more effort to go into finding them, or cause more effort to go into alternatives.
This doesn't mean there won't be some specific environmental problems...global CO2 is probably a problem, but would be easier to deal with in a rich world than a poor one. But don't worry about non-externality commodities such as iron, tin, copper, and oil, the market will take care of them just fine.
Re:Generally, looks to be the right idea; watch ou (Score:1)
Also didnt the rich US refuse to sign upto the Kyoto agreement?
Re:Generally, looks to be the right idea; watch ou (Score:2)
CO2 is an issue. It is an economic "externality" that can only be effectively dealt with through regulation.
But the decision is whether you develop technology for economically reasonable CO2 reduction now and regulate later, or whether you regulate now (potentially disrupting global economies) in hope of developing technology later, if you can afford it.
The US government decided to look for technology first before adopting the Kyoto Protocol, which would provide a questionable envrionmental benefit even if it could be enforced.
Either way, the good news is that CO2 reducing technologies are under development (mainly in high-GDP countries). We already have nuclear fission which we may need global climate change to give us the guts to use. LED lighting, fuel cells, advanced solar, and hydrogen fuel are currently under development.
One other thought: The US produces the most CO2 per capita, but the least CO2 per dollar of GDP in the world. Thinking that way, it is the most efficient user of energy...
Oh no! More jobs will be lost! The horror! (Score:2, Funny)
Has anyone thought this through? Won't the third-world children who educate themselves on our used PCs grow up to compete in the labor market with good old American techies and engineers?
These commies and subversives are undermining the US economy! They are fostering a pool of cheap technical labour that will suck thousands of jobs across the border, to IT sweatshops where children as young as 12 pound out third-rate code for $1.75 a day! On our own PCs, no less... the irony!
Our very livelihoods are at stake and I, for one, will not stand for this terrorist plot. Do the patriotic thing and let your computers erode in landfills where they belong! (Just make sure you don't drink nearby well water for 30 years)
Or... (Score:1, Offtopic)
Another large volunteer group.. (Score:4, Funny)
There's a big group that controls a bunch of it called GNU [gnu.org] -- they're wacky and pronounce the 'g' in GNU.
There's even a open source kernel called "Linux [linux.org]" started by some European guy. He works for some other company that does processors [transmeta.com] but spends a lot of time on the Linux thing.
Anyways, just wanted to point some folks at some other volunteer possibilities..
Re:Another large volunteer group.. (Score:1)
Other issues (Score:2, Informative)
Volunteer Match [volunteermatch.com] and NetworkForGood [networkforgood.com] list in person volunteer opportunities online. But most opportunities to actually volunteer online are around mentoring.
The UN has an online volunteering (see:http://www.unv.org/volunteers/options/online/ index.htm. Their online volunteering specialist, Jayne Cravens (homepage www.coyotecommunications.org, has been vocal about the benefits of online volunteering for years (real years, not internet years).
There are also opportunities at Mentoring.org [mentoring.org] (a site devoted to mentoring youth), and MicroMentor [micromentor.org] a pilot project devoted to mentoring micro entrepreneurs.
Better methods needed for Collaboration (Score:1)
ISSHO Kikaku [issho.org] currently uses the JoinProject module [unige.ch] for PostNuke [postnuke.com] as a way to allow people to match their skills with the volunteer tasks that are in demand within the organization. It works well [issho.org] (need to register first), but it is very simple and is not adequate for more sophisticated needs. Why not look for something more sophisticated? We are, but don't forget that to give people all over the globe the potential for equitable access, everything must be translated - at least for some organizations.
So, mechanisms that match tasks and talent certainly need to be improved. But perhaps the bigger issue is tools for facilitating collaboration. These need to be reasonably priced, sophisticated and easy-to-use. And multilingual, of course.
In the specific case of ISSHO, an implementation of Wiki [issho.org] is very exciting so far, but - at the moment - lacks somewhat in the i18n area and in the linkage between the collaboration area and the website proper (this particular problem is related to the multiple flavors of RSS, ability or lack thereof of converting between encodings on the fly, and other issues). Sounds like it would be simple enough to solve, but so far these little nagging problems limit what organizations can do, considerably.
Once these and similar issues are addressed (and systems are in place to ensure that they will continue to be addressed, even as technology progresses) it will become much, much easier for volunteer organizations to get properly organized, and to organize potential volunteers. "Virtual Volunteering" will see a new dimension if and when these groups are able to focus more easily on the results, and don't have to do quite so many handstands to come up with adequate mechanisms for handling the basics.
I tried this but... (Score:5, Funny)
God, sometimes it gets so bad that I can't even be bothered to finish my own
landfills (Score:1)
diskless workstation is a gret tool!!! (Score:1)
Friday Night Slashdot! (Score:1)
2)POST!
3)Devise ways to live in a wooden grocery store.
4)Beards
5)Redundant popsicle hat.
Re:You forgot something (Score:1)
2n) ???
2n+1) Profit!
Sorry, I had to...
How to volunteer on a one time basis. (Score:1)
2. and precisely How?...
could people, the least experienced computer neophytes to the most experienced programmers, volunteer on a one time basis for short term tasks at a campus terminal, the office workstation or from their home computer setup?...
What other resources are there to volunteer on a one time basis from the home computer setup, a campus terminal or an office workstation?...
besides
http://www.bostoncares.com [bostoncares.com]
Re:How to volunteer on a one time basis. (Score:1)
There are many very short-term activities that you can do via the Internet for mission-based organizations; for instance, an organization may need someone to do research online, and this may take about five hours of your time, which you could do all at once or spread out over a few days or weeks. An organization may need experts in a particular subject -- linux, online learning, HIV/AIDS support groups, training people re-entering the workforce, etc. -- to log in to a discussion group once a month to answer any related questions, or to periodically answer questions from the organization's staff via email.
What's most important to remember is that the organization's mission is the most important priority, and they are going to create activities and look for volunteers that will support that mission.
My volunteering experience... (Score:2, Interesting)
I looked into a number of volunteering places. The post is true that it's "virtual volunteering" when you use those matchmaking sites, but there's nothing virtual when it comes to actually doing the hands-on volunteer work.
I found YTP Seattle [ytpseattle.org] which had special positions for IT specialists. In the end, I didn't get one of those positions because they didn't need any at the time, but I have happily given two hours of my week for the last nine months to some very deserving students from challenging backgrounds.
It's easy to say that these two hours feel like the most usefully-spent of each week.
Don't inundate YTP in particular, I'm sure they don't want to be slashdotted
Re:For the Slashdotter downunder (Score:2, Informative)
Opportunities... for crime (Score:1)
Most impoverished areas of developing countries in South America and Africa are hotbeds of illegal activity. Care must be taken to ensure that well-meaning donations of hardware and educational materials do not spawn a worldwide epidemic of hacking and computer crime.
LOTR (Score:1)
crypto rights (Score:2)
cryptorights [cryptorights.org]
more links (Score:5, Informative)
Thanks to Slashdot posters for having shown me these links in past discussions! :)
maybe i can find... (Score:2, Funny)
ComputerBank in Australia (Score:3, Insightful)
They take old hardware, repair/refurbish it, install Debian on it and distribute it to the needy. A better description is availble on their website (linked above).
US only site? (Score:2)
Re:US only site? (Score:1)
IdeaList [idealist.org] is globally-focused, and has an expanded mission to provide information beyond volunteering -- there's a database of events, a database of skills offered by volunteers, information for paid work, etc. It's a little harder to find online volunteering opportunities, but they are there, and the number of them grows regularly. I'm not sure how much screening of organizations or opportunities there are.
NetAid offers an online volunteering service [netaid.org], managed by the UN Volunteers program, and its focus is international: all opportunities are in support of organizations working in or for communities in developing countries, and volunteers are recruited from all over the world. Also, all organizations and opportunities are pre-screened, to ensure that the organizations are legitimate and that the opportunities are appropriate.
There are other volunteer matching services serving single countries -- Canada, the U.K., Australia, Spain, Chile... a google search should lead you to these relatively easily.
SF Bay Area Resource (Score:2)
The Alameda County Computer Resource Center [accrc.org] in Oakland doesn't just recycle old computers (and none of that China dumping shit either), but provides hardware to many organizations and individuals who otherwise would go without.
If you're local, they're definitely worth your time, your old hardware, and your money.
Virtual Volunteerism (Score:1)
Status: False. [snopes.com]
VVO's (Score:2, Informative)
Computerbank in Australia (Score:1)
Other IT Volunteer Resources (Score:1)
www.craigslist.org [craigslist.org]
And for open source projects, SourceForge has a help wanted area [sourceforge.net]
It's surprising how difficult it is to find companies looking for tech volunteers. I'm sure there must be thousands of non-profits out there that could use help setting up computers, databases, websites, etc., but there doesn't seem to be any good way for the two sides to communicate with each other (VolunteerMatch is painfully amateurish).
Good posting, thanks for the info... (Score:1)
comprehensive info on virtual volunteering (Score:1)
One of the best online volunteering services is by NetAid [netaid.org] , and is managed by the UN Volunteers program [unvolunteers.org] . This service is devoted exclusively to supporting organizations working in and for communities in developing countries. Yes, that's right -- online volunteers are making a difference in the lives of people in the third world. And have been for about two years via NetAid. NetAid is also more than a matching service -- organizations can use this free service to manage and communicate with online volunteers, and individuals can use it to report on organizations they support. There's extensive information to help both organizations and individuals during online volunteering. And there are LOTS of testimonials from both individuals and organizations about why online volunteering is worth doing.
Some of you have questioned why volunteer at all. A good place to explore this issue is at Serviceleader.org [serviceleader.org]. Enjoy. But for a personal testimonial -- some activities that I do as a volunteer are things that are applications of my professional skills to mission-based organizations. Other volunteer gigs involve activities which are new things I don't get to do (and sometimes don't want to do -- or, would like to do) in my job. As a volunteer, I feel more free to experiment. My approach to my volunteer activities is quite different than my approach to paid work. I feel more like an investor when I'm a volunteer, and more independent. I feel like I can take greater risks in my work "style." And I feel valued in a different way, a more emotional way, as a volunteer by organizations I help, than as a paid staff member. I wouldn't choose one over the other, but I wouldn't have one without the other.
I've been an evangelist for Virtual Volunteering since 1996 -- really glad to see it being discussed here, and I'm happy to answer any questions offlist for Slashdot users. Feel free to email me [mailto] on the subject.
http://www.bostoncares.org/about (Score:1)
http://www.bostoncares.org/about [bostoncares.org]
In 1991, a group of six young professionals met at Pizzeria Uno's in Harvard Square to share their frustrations at not being able to find meaningful volunteer opportunities that did not require an ongoing commitment - something their busy schedules would not allow them to do.
They agreed to work together to find non-profit organizations that could utilize the help of volunteers with limited and unpredictable free time. Their goal was to create a calendar of volunteer opportunities to send out to their friends who were interested in volunteering. And so, starting with a calendar of only 2 service projects, Boston Cares was founded. Today, Boston Cares' volunteer opportunities exceed 100 projects each month. [ more... ]
http://www.bostoncares.org/about [bostoncares.org]
Last Post! (Score:1)
It takes several _hours_ to do `make' a second time on my
machine with the latest glibc sources (and no files are recompiled a
second time). I think I'll remove `build' after changing one file if
I want to recompile it.
-- Juan Cespedes
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...