Microvolunteerism Takes Shape
Volunteerism used to be something you did over the weekend for the overall good of society; however, now there's a Web site dedicated to "microvolunteerism." It kind of reminds me of the microbrews I enjoy. Not like the big conglomerate breweries, but a smaller, handcrafted batch of volunteerism.
The goal is to facilitate effective distributed volunteer work, which I guess is kind of like the church I attend organizing Habitat for Humanity workdays, which I will be participating in the for the first time this weekend. Ever since former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn worked on Habitat for Humanity projects in 1984, I have been interested in the work the organization does. Each year since, the Carters have given a week of their time to build homes and raise awareness about the need for affordable housing. Check back in the coming weeks for my blog about my experience in this volunteer effort.
The Microvolunteerism Project, according to its Web presence, aims to build communities of not-for-profit projects and volunteers who can mutually support one another.
The Project organizes regular meetings, both in physical spaces and on Skype. There are also several links on the Microvolunteerism.org Web site, including MediaMatic and bidnetwork.org
There's also a technology focus in one of the microvolunteerism opportunities, The RFID Guardian Project.
According to the RFID Guardian Project's wiki, as its name indicates, the RFID Guardian Project is a collaborative effort whose focus is to provide security and privacy to radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. The goals of the project are to:
- investigate the security and privacy threats faced by RFID systems;
- design and implement real solutions against these threats; and
- investigate the associated technological and legal issues.
The RFID Guardian is a mobile battery-powered device that offers personal RFID security and privacy management. One of the focuses of the project is to build an RFID Guardian prototype.
Not sure if this is true microvolunteerism, but I'll work with it. I'm not sure how it is helping one's neighbor in need like a soup kitchen volunteer, local food pantry volunteer, tutor to young people volunteer or building a house for someone in need volunteer, but I can see that it has its place in our society.
There's also another interesting microvolunteerism site, picnicnetwork.org, which brings together creative minds from all over the world, including a gathering planned for September in Amsterdam for the fourth edition of PICNIC. It's really a creative person's conference/festival.
PICNIC collaborates on ideas and knowledge from creators and innovators, through a conference, with ample participative sessions, interactive experience, matchmaking events wrapped in a festival experience. PICNIC 09's program includes three days of inspiration, fun and sensory stimulation in media, technology, entertainment, art and science.
Tell me about your volunteerism experiences from this summer and I will post them online over the summer. And, be sure to check back here later this summer for my report on my first experience with Habitat.