NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.

online volunteering

TakingITGlobal and Nabuur Launch New Action Guide on Online Volunteering

TakingITGlobal and Nabuur Launch New Action Guide on Online Volunteering

*A free digital guide for youth interested in becoming online volunteers and learning more about the rich world of online volunteering.*

TakingITGlobal (TIG), an organization that operates the world’s most popular online community for young leaders, and Nabuur, an online volunteering platform that links Neighbours (online volunteers) with Villages (local communities) in Africa, Asia and Latin America, announced today the release of a new Action Guide on Online Volunteering available for download on the TIG website.

Volunteer Opportunities with TakingITGlobal

TakingITGlobal, the online community for youth interested in international issues and social change, is seeking Volunteer Translators, Content Researchers and Editors, and Platform Facilitators and Moderators. 

TIG is a multi-lingual website that specializes in connecting youth from around the globe, and they're looking to expand their reach into even more communities.  To that end, they are also seeking  Language and Engagement Coordinators for Swedish, Chinese, German, Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Dutch, Bengali, Turkish and Romanian. 

NABUUR & TakingITGlobal's Online Volunteering Campaign: Meet the Volunteers!

NABUUR has joined forces with TakingITGlobal (TIG) to launch an exciting initiative aimed at raising awareness on the rich world of online volunteering. The campaign will run until December 5th, the International Volunteer Day. For the next two months, we'll showcase the work of our tireless online volunteers, and provide an insight into the rich sphere of virtual volunteering. (If you've ever wondered what online volunteering is all about - and how you can get involved - stay tuned, we've got you covered!)

Projects, projects and more projects - How do You Choose one?

With hundreds of online projects on NABUUR.com, how do you decide which one to help? Some volunteers have their mind made up as soon as they register, beelining it for the project of their choice.

Thanks from the Neighbours

NABUUR is so excited and touched to be selected as one of the 21 featured projects! Not only because of the honour, but also because this means that developers, consulting firms, and other organizational supporters will help accelerate NABUUR to the next level. In other words, a tremendous and needed boost for the participating Local Communities and Neighbours. Thank you so much for giving your vote and confidence. We will work hard to make you proud.

My favourites?

Where to start? How to discover the unknown or unpolished gems? As the founder/ceo of NABUUR (see www.nabuur.com) I am interested in innovative approaches that have the potential to improves the lives of so many people in the South. So I quickly read the proposals under volunteer recruitment (as a strategy) and community improvement (as a cause).

These are the proposals that caught my eye. You may want to check them out.

ï‚§ NABUUR http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/global-neighbour-network-na...

A Global Neighbour Network: NABUUR.com

Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch): 

NABUUR is an internet platform where villages in developing countries get direct assistance. Online volunteers help create whatever is needed in 150 villages now, and with your help in 10,000 villages soon: a societal revolution in the making!

Type of expertise needed: 
Marketing/Media Expertise

HELP NABUUR BECOME VIRAL
- How can pulling in many new users be made fun and rewarding for the online volunteers?
- How to connect NABUUR to online social networks
- An easy, fun and rewarding way to make digital stories

Type of expertise needed: 
Technical Expertise

BRING THE SITE TO THE NEXT LEVEL
- Make site multilingual
- Combine site with mobile phones, SMS, chats,twitter,etc.
- Make concrete tasks on the site available to other sites (e.g API)
- Make creation and upload digital story easy

Type of expertise needed: 
Management Expertise

STRENGHTEN NABUUR's BUSINESS MODEL
- Identification marketable elements
- Match potential funders plus preparation of pitch
- Strategy to build an endowment
- Advice on inclusion social network fundraising
- Help to create a 501c3

call for academic articles re: eParticipation

Call for articles for a special issue of the Journal of Information Technology and Politics (JITP) on "Understanding eParticipation" -- efforts to broaden and deepen participation in societal decision making processes by enabling citizens to connect with one another, with public officials and with their elected representatives using information and communication technologies. Processes involved include both directly political ones such as petitioning and consultations and indirectly political ones such as city planning processes. (I checked with the guest editors: their definition of eParticipation includes online volunteers for advocacy groups/efforts and for nonprofits who are engaged in a politically-related activity).Topics include but are not limited to:

  • Current and emergent eParticipation technological infrastructures;
  • Current and emergent eParticipation methods;
  • Criteria and methods for evaluation of eParticipation initiatives to be undertaken in a systematic and standardised way;
  • The business case of eParticipation: Drivers and barriers;
  • Theories and contextual analysis of eParticipation.

Manuscripts should have significant theoretical and empirical roots, preferably in both social/political science and IT, but should at least contain significant content in both areas.

Neighbours in the Global Village

Supporting organization: 
NABUUR.com
URL: 
www.nabuur.com
Location: 
Amersfoort, Netherlands
Project Description: 

www.nabuur.com is a new concept in people-to-people global citizenship. The world is a global village and Nabuur facilitates contact among the neighbours.Nabuur builds virtual neighbourhoods around local communities in developing countries, to assist the latter to deal with their problems in their own terms. It links people in third world communities with their Neighbours on the internet. The locals say what they need, the virtual village helps them to find their future.

The characteristic features of NABUUR.COM are:

• Person to person contact, no bureaucracy between the local community and persons who assist
• The local community is in the lead. It is not thematic; they determine what needs to be done.
• It is not about giving money but about jointly working towards solutions
• It is transparent; the progress is visible to all
• Everyone can contribute, not just experts. What is needed is time, contacts, know-how, tools, manpower

After careful preparation NABUUR.COM is ready to expand. The basic tools, procedures and systems are in place. 75 local communities now take part. 200 local communities will be served by the end of 2006, 1000 by the end of 2007, many more after that.

Background.

There is no shortage of resources to assist Local Communities in their daily struggle. But, as William J. Clinton says, we do not have the systems to respond in a comprehensive way. Ngo’s, corporations and governments are all hierarchies and can therefore only deal with a limited number of projects. What is needed is something complementary, that can tap into the huge reservoir of resources in a self organizing way.

NABUUR.COM tries to create part of that structure, by combining the self organizing and time tested principle of neighbourship with the factor that makes the resources worldwide accessible, the Internet.

NABUUR.COM is a lab for democratized development assistance. It mobilizes world citizens. Not an amorphous anonymous mass, but as a collective of capable committed individuals ready for concrete individual tasks and responsibilities.

Nabuur is an old Dutch word for neighbour. Neighbours usually are not experts, funders or friends. But they do help each other in times of need by tapping into the resources out there. They organize themselves until the problem has been dealt with. That’s how it had worked for ages in a real communities, that’s how it can now work via the Internet. Today world citizens ARE neighbours in the Global Village .

User login

Sitemap