The Extraordinaries’ 20-Minute Volunteerism

November 30th, 2008 in News, by Head Honcho

You don’t have to do something, but you choose to do it. Even if you don’t get paid for it.

Sounds like you’re getting the short end of the stick, doesn’t it?

Not really, because that is the essence of volunteerism.

There may be a number of possible reasons why a person volunteers for a cause. It might be that he wants to do something good for others. Or it might be for personal growth. It might also be that he wants to gain new skills and experiences.

Whatever the reason might be, there is no doubt that a person gets a sense of accomplishment by volunteering. That is why people forego their routine lives for months and travel overseas just to serve for Peace Corps, or give up a day for Big Brother and be the mentor to children and teens.

But there are times when even if we want to help, we don’t even have an hour to spare.

But what if we can volunteer 20 minutes of our time, whenever and wherever we are available? Maybe there would be no more excuse not to volunteer, right?

Well, that is what The Extraordinaries is banking on.

The Extraordinaries aims to bring crowdsourcing to our mobile phones. The organization prods people to action by asking for just a few minutes of our spare time for volunteer work, even in the comforts of our own home. All a volunteer needs is a smartphone.

There are many things that a person can volunteer for with just a smartphone in hand. For instance, he can transcribe old books by looking at scanned images and typing in what you see. He can translate or review documents. He can provide technical assistance via a phone call to someone who is stuck with a network problem, non-functioning device, or just needs help learning an application. With the synergy of volunteerism and smartphones, the possibilities are endless.

The Extraordinaries is still in the pilot phase. It is currently looking for some non-profit crowdsourcing apps that it can offer as a part of its iPhone application. The Extraordinaries eventually intends to open the system to anyone interested. The only question is: will the people respond?

Hopefully, yes. Which such a novel and noble idea, one can’t help but wish them all the luck.

Here is a provoking call to action by The Extraordinaries: