Virtual Volunteering - in Practice

In Practice

People engaged in virtual volunteering undertake a variety of activities from locations remote to the organization or people they are assisting, via a computer or other Internet-connected device, such as:

• translating documents
• researching subjects
• creating web pages
• editing or writing proposals, press releases, newsletter articles, etc.
• developing material for a curriculum
• designing a database
• designing graphics
• scanning documents
• providing legal, business, medical, agricultural or any other expertise
• counseling people
• tutoring or mentoring students
• moderating online discussion groups
• writing songs
• creating a podcast
• editing a video
• monitoring the news
• answering questions
• tagging photos and files
• managing other online volunteers

Online micro-volunteering is also an example of virtual volunteering and crowdsourcing, where volunteers undertake assignments via their PDAs or smartphones. These volunteers either aren't required to undergo any screening or training by the nonprofit for such tasks, and do not have to make any other commitment when a micro-task is completed, or, have already undergone screening or training by the nonprofit, and are therefore approved to take on micro-tasks as their availability and interests allow. Online micro-volunteering was originally called "byte-sized volunteering" by the Virtual Volunteering Project, and has always been a part of the more than 30-year-old practice of online volunteering. An early example of both micro-volunteering and crowdsourcing is ClickWorkers, a small NASA project begun in 2001 that engaged online volunteers in scientific-related tasks that required just a person's perception and common sense, but not scientific training, such as identifying craters on Mars in photos the project posted online; volunteers were not trained or screened before participating. The phrase micro-volunteering is usually credited to a San Francisco-based nonprofit called The Extraordinaries.