Providing many helping hands, online
The best use of technology, like most things, is to help others. Sure, sitting on your backside for four hours playing Mass Effect 2 is edifying in some ways, but there's nothing like a bit of philanthropy to feel truly fulfilled. When the Haiti disaster struck, thousands of geeks across the US got together for code hacking workshops in an initiative called CrisisCamp. They built, on a voluntary and unpaid basis, software systems to map resources in Haiti, to help reunite families, and to aggregate news for aid workers.
We're not all experts in coding, but as technology users, there are some things that we can do to use technology to help others. I just discovered a smart little web application called the Extraordinaries. Also available as a mobile app, it lets you choose from any number of missions, that can be accomplished in just a few seconds. Examples: tagging places on maps where kids can play safely, for an online database. Reviewing small pieces of congressional legislation for hidden 'pork'. Identifying birds for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Helping to match pictures of the missing in Haiti with pictures taken by news journalists. Oh, and my favourite - fact checking for reporters. Yes, please!
I was in the cinema waiting for a film to start. Normally, I check my email, and read some news, when I have a couple of minutes downtime. But I sparked up the Extraordinaries application on my mobile and tagged some pictures of urban school gardens instead, before munching my popcorn. It was fun!
It turns out there are quite a few of these services, all of which take a slightly different approach to philanthrophical crowdsourcing. Social Actions, for example, helps to link people that want to volunteer with needy parties that need actions performed, such as web editing, or simply making a loan.
Samasource has an interesting angle on it - instead of helping out the disadvantaged in other countries by completing small tasks, it lets you outsource work to those people instead. Businesses can outsource everything from data entry to software testing to people that can earn much-needed income as a result. Crowdflower does something similar.
We've seen crowdsourcing activity through noble online causes like Wikipedia, but this concept takes things to the next level. It's an exciting and stimulating way to do something useful with your time, using technology as a tool.
Danny Bradbury, MSN Tech & Gadgets
Comments
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Posted by: Kim | Feb 4, 2010 12:26:31 PM
Thanks so much for the post, we really appreciate your help in spreading the word!
Kim
The Extraordinaries
www.BeExtra.org