Virtual volunteering is a term describing a volunteer who
completes tasks, in whole or in part, off-site from the
organization or person being assisted, using the Internet and a
computer, tablet, smart phone or other Internet-connected device.
Virtual volunteering is also known as online
volunteering, digital volunteering, e-volunteering and cyber
service, and includes microvolunteering, crowdsourcing, telementoring,
teletutoring,
online mentoring, Internet-mediated service, and various other
online activities undertaken by volunteers. Online volunteers can
be referred to as online volunteers, digitalvolunteers and digital
jedis - or even just as volunteers. We avoid calling them virtual
volunteers, as it implies they aren't real.
Virtual volunteering is similar to telecommuting,
except that, instead of online employees who are paid, these are
online volunteers who are not paid, and they are working to
benefit a nonprofit organization, school, government program or
other not-for-profit entity, as opposed to a for-profit business.
Virtual volunteering is similar to and can
include crowdsourcing, where services, ideas, opinions or content
for an organization or project are solicited from a large group of
people online - a crowd - rather than through a traditional,
onsite workforce. Members of this crowd may or may not have formal
ties with the organization seeking the services, nor formal ties
with each other.
There are a variety of other terms, in
addition to the ones already named, that are used to talk about
people doing work away from a work site, using networked
technologies, as employees, consultants or volunteers, formally
and informally, short-term or long-term. These terms and concepts
can often be used for virtual volunteering, when the people doing
the work are unpaid. All of these concepts may influence virtual
volunteering practices. These terms include:
virtual volunteering (and variations such as
virtual volunteers)
online volunteering (and variations such as online
volunteers)
evolunteering (and variations such as
e-volunteering, e-volunteers, etc.)
digital volunteers, digital volunteering
digital samaritans
digital jedis
voluntarios virtuales
voluntarios en línea
voluntarios digitales
voluntarios en red
bénévolat virtuel
bénévolat enligne
bénévolat Internet
e-wolontariat
digitales Ehrenamt
virtuelles Ehrenamt
Online-Freiwilligenarbeit
Freiwilliges Online-Engagement
e-mentoring (and variations such as online
mentors, online mentoring, telementoring, etc.)
microvolunteering (and variations such as
micro-volunteering, microvolunteers, etc.)
microtasking
micro work
crowdsourcing (sometimes with the phrase for good
or 4good tagged on)
crowddoing
wisdom of the crowd
crowd computing (sometimes with the phrase for
good or 4good tagged on)
crowdcasting
distributed computing
distributed development
distributed thinking
hive mind
smart mob
virtual community of practice
virtual management
virtual teams
virtual workforce
Internet-mediated volunteering
People who engage in virtual volunteering, in
any form, are volunteers, first and foremost. It's acceptable to
call them online volunteers as well, but Susan and Jayne avoid the
term virtual volunteers, because many have said to the authors
that this term makes it sound like volunteers are not real, or
puts online volunteers into a separate category from traditional
volunteers.
Detailed information about how to use the Internet to support and involve
volunteers - virtual volunteering - can be found in The
Last
Virtual
Volunteering Guidebook. This wiki is a supplement to the
book - but no substitution for it.
If
you tweet aboutTheLastVirtual
Volunteering Guidebookplease use
the tag#vvbook
Please note: this wiki project is entirely unfunded - and
I'm struggling to keep it going. If you would like to see this page
continue to be updated, here's how to support this work.
The most comprehensive guide
available on virtual volunteering, including online mentoring,
micro-volunteeirng, virtual teams, high-responsibility roles,
crowd sourcing to benefit nonprofits and other mission-based
organizations, and much more.
Published January 2014, based on
more than 30 years of research. Available as both a print
book and an ebook.
here's how to support this work.
The
Last Virtual
Volunteering Guidebook 