All for multi-tasking and passing the boredom of standing in the grocery line, this new application from The Extraordinaries has gotten me excited about the new possibilities of volunteering.
Smartphone software that allows someone to use micro amounts of spare time for social good. We deliver volunteer tasks on-demand directly to the phone like a stream of new adventures, that people complete on the phone in a few minutes, while riding the bus or waiting in line. It’s information age volunteerism, enabling doctors, scientists, organizations, and more to harness the power of the crowd.
While my quality of life is enhanced by learning the latest gossip in the tabloids and in the lives of celebrities, the possibilities of micro-volunteerism may be equally as thrilling (and certainly more useful). I’m hesitant to love the new jargony term, but I love how the term makes volunteering more accessible and more dispersed. Less about a central system and more about doing a little for a lot of different organizations/causes/etc.
I’m not alone in the excitement over The Extraordinaries – they’ve just won $25,000 through the We Media Pitch It! Awards. The global is now very local.