Culture-Tech Verité
Micro Volunteer – You are the next big thing
I am challenging you to do good in five minutes or less! Real good. Don’t tell me you don’t have five minutes. Use that “clear your head moment” at the office. That cell phone that works on the train (in a way that doesn’t annoy everyone around you). Replace that cigarette break with a more intrinsic reward (okay, maybe I am pushing it). Become a “micro-volunteer.” When it comes to volunteerism, YOU can be the next big thing.
Micro-volunteerism is the ability to contribute small chunks of tasks or information in the service of a good cause. Most recently, micro-volunteerism is using cell phone apps (the most spontaneously afforded access) but other web connections are also used. The concept has recently gotten a fair bit of media play (see below), and perhaps its most ardent champion, promoter, facilitator (and maybe monetizer) is a group called “The Extraordinaries” which builds smartphone applications to realize micro-volunteerism’s potential.
Although the”gift” itself may take no more than five minutes, it may take a touch more than that to figure out exactly what kinds of good you want to do and to choose your favorites.
Here are just a few examples (the links go to their organizations – apps may might only be found here):
KaBoom! is an organization whose mission is to have “a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America.” They are mapping the country’s play spaces and “there’s an app for that”. Pass a playground. Stop. Photograph. Send it. Eureka– you are a micro-volunteer and some kids may be the better for it.
Big Cat Rescue. Anyone offer to sell you a lion or tiger lately?…or have you seen one mistreated? Photograph. Describe. Send. And you’ve done your part to help protect the species.
Smithsonian Institution or Bibliotheque Toulouse? Make your choice. Help tag their vast collections with terms and descriptions that will help us all find what we are looking for. Great for the true American patriot or the francophile looking for a treat.
If it sounds like micro-sourcing is the charmed progeny of “crowdsourcing,’ you are right. As a popular concept and term, “crowdsourcing,” described in wikipedia as “the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to a group (crowd) of people or community,” was unveiled by Jeff Howe in Wired in 2006. The books, We are Smarter than Me, Here Comes Everybody, and The Wisdom of Crowds have all explored and amplified the concept. Micro-volunteerism as a practice is not that new in the cultural community. The Steve project has for several years enabled the public to tag cultural objects for museums with key terms and concepts. The Brooklyn Museum’s “Click!” project was evolutionary (revolutionary?) in the way it allowed the public to “curate” a photograph exhibition. Last April, Dan Cohen, Director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University used twitter “to replicate digitally the traditional ‘author’s query,” where a scholar asks readers of a journal for assistance with a research project . However, if the word “micro-volunteerism” brings brings focus and definition to this crowdsourcing role and becomes a popular buzz word in the process, it’s purpose will have been served!
Below are some links to recent media coverage of micro-volunteerism and The Extraordinaries. I hope you will experiment with the process for yourself or even think about how your favorite non-profit organization or community group could benefit from it. Please share your thoughts, experiences and additional resources right here. Is this the way of the future, ready to ignite and blaze or just a fad for a few minutes of ego-gratifying distraction? Is it for you or your organization?
Mobile-volunteering puts thumbs to work for good causes – CNN
It’s all about stories…..
Welcome to Culture Tech Verite. What a broad swath that cuts! Culture: the languages with which we communicate, the arts and science panorama which our minds and souls explore and our bodies and intellect express, and our social and spiritual customs from which our communities evolve. Tech(nology): the craft of creating tools that extend our capabilities, and, even here, not necessarily those born of a digital age. Verite: simply a realistic, natural, view of the world, or in this case the license to be a nomadic voyeur on your behalf, who reports back to you on my sightings. This is a place of conversation, an online salon which should be stimulating and sharing, and, which, like a great dinner party, relies on its guests to help make it a success.
When you really get down to it, isn’t it really all about stories? And there seems to be a story renaissance. We are telling and collecting stories as never before. Consider the many “memory projects” out there, including Storycorps, through which “over 50,000 people have shared life stories with family and friends” and whose audio-recorded stories are now a permanently etched part of our national identity, courtesy of the Library of Congress. The Shoah project video’d holocaust testimony from more than 50,000 survivors and using this base, fosters educational programs “to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry
—and the suffering they cause—” today, across all cultural and geographic divides. Marjane Satrapi’s brilliant saga of growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Persepolis, extended the power and exposure of the graphic novel, and resulted in an acclaimed animated feature film. On a much lighter note, what started as an intimate private salon has become the national live story-telling franchise of The Moth. And cafes may offer their own brands such as the the Greenwich Village Cornelia Street Cafe’s Monologues and Madness series. You can even see me tell a story there.And of course there are millions of story vignettes comprised of tweets, blog entries and Youtube postings.
Are great conversations also stories? Can a combination of keen listening, cartoonesque thinking and the realtime flow of insights through a brilliant illustrator’s hand and pen result in the transmutation of one story form into a whole new one? The folks at the New York Public Library’s Live! series seem to think so! They have enlisted cartoonist, photographer, humorist, and New York Public Library Artist-in-Residence Flash Rosenberg to create animated “Conversation Portraits” of their acclaimed live talks. These concise animations, using hand drawings created and recorded in real time as these conversations take place lend focus and interpretation to the full events. Both the “portraits” and the full conversation videos are posted on the Live! website, where they complement each other and inform the viewer as no talk+pundit/critic ever could. Technology is the new enabler, the artist’s mind and talent lends insight and interpretation, and whether or not the audience embraces it defines its real efficacy. As an added bonus, Ms. Rosenberg also allowed me to video her in the process of creating a “portrait” at NYPL just a few weeks ago. Check that out here. (I tend to enjoy process as much as product, and I hope to share both with you in the days ahead.) I also want to recognize Sarah Lohman’s work as video editor for this series, and that she is a graduate of Cleveland Institute of Art’s digital media program.
So…what do you think about the evolution and ever-presence of today’s storytelling. Are we in story overload mode or is this a key to local and global understanding and cultural preservation? Is Flash’s invention a meaningful break-through? Are there other examples of great story telling, technology enhanced or not, you would like to share? Let our conversations begin.