Stanford Computer Science for Social Good Presentation

Ben Rigby, Founder & Technical Director, MobileVoter.org Stanford Class Presentation. 01.29.2009 Internet for Good

1995 Grad from Stanford 1995 “Streaming” Music Startup 1996-7 The Main Quad 1997-2003 Akimbo Design 1997 DFILM

1998 Global Collage 2004-now Mobile Voter

How are nonprofits using the Internet for social change?

Tendencies Jump In Blind (do everything) Do Nothing Do It 1.0

Blogs

Tell your story

Offer participation in a community

Report alternative news

Harness super supporters

Create a sounding board

Frame & promote your story

Blogs Reporting Alternative News

Social Networks

Recruit supporters

Promote your story

Raise money

Build a new network to engage an existing community

Social Networks http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=293503589 Recruiting Supporters

Web Photo & Video

Scrutinize opponents

Respond to news

Report news

Energize & focus supporters

Mobilize supporters

Have a conversation

Web Photo & Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rww0P0Uae5E BAD !

Web Photo & Video http://www.communitycounts.us/townhall/miller/ GOOD !

Web Photo & Video TV is dead

Wikis

Capture enthusiasm

Create a community resource

Conduct advocacy

Extend organizational capabilities

Enhance an existing service

Wikis AbbotsGreed.com

Maps

Direct to community services

Visualize hard-to-decipher data

Tell your story

Recruit supporters

Focus collective action

Connect people

Maps Crisis in Darfur Holocaust Museum

Virtual Worlds

Outreach & giveaways

Earn media recognition…

Connect offline groups

Organize meetups

Sell virtual objects

Pledge drives

Educate experientially

Virtual Worlds Meetup at Nonprofit Commons

Games

Alternate Reality Games

Casual games

Games that generate data

Game mechanics everywhere

Games "Akoha combines online games, social networking and real-world activity to help make the world a better place. Akoha players carry out acts of kindness - known as "missions" - to collect points recruit new players and, as important, spread acts of kindness. The Montreal-based company was founded in 2007 by long-time friends and entrepreneurs Austin Hill and Alex Eberts, who believe that games and online communities could make make a positive impact on people around the world."

Mobile Phones

Recruit supporters

Conduct petitions

Conduct on-demand advocacy

Coordinate protesters

Mobilize

Fundraise

Do citizen journalism

On-demand volunteerism

Mobile Phones Mobilizing Supporters

Mobile Phones On-demand Volunteerism

Trends Leading to Success

Understand how people use their technologies

Dedicate resources

Focus on people vs. technology

Embrace the Web 2.0 ethos

And the future?

The page is dead.

end.

On-Demand Volunteerism

Busy people rarely volunteer. 74% of citizens don’t do it. “ Lack of time” is main reason. Source: 2008 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm

But we DO have time… A few minutes here, a few there: Bus is late. Post office line is eternal. Dentist hasn’t called me yet. Friend is late to dinner. Dad is going off on the phone. Work is so boring.

Most of us won’t give a Saturday. But we’d give a few minutes of our spare time.

The Extraordinaries is designed to create real social good from these moments of spare time. It’s a mobile phone application that allows people to volunteer on-the-spot and on-demand.

How it works Select an opportunity Learn about it. Take action.

What you can do

Translate a nonprofit’s Website into a foreign language

Identify craters on the surface of Mars with NASA’s Clickworker program

Record the GPS location of potholes and city infrastructure issues for municipalities

Confirm addresses for a nonprofit’s membership list

Identify birds for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Tag images for the Smithsonian

Digitize old books from university libraries (ReCaptcha)

Review congressional bills for hidden pork

Fact check for reporters

It’s crowdsourcing for social good Each task is infinitely repeatable and incredibly valuable.

It’s volunteerism crafted for the mobile generation. But that serves as a feeder to traditional longer-term volunteer engagements. It’s the hook.

Appendix: Mobile Phones & Mobile Phone Gaming 60m iPhone apps sold in first 2 months that they were available. Being downloaded at a rate of 2m/day. 31m mobile phone gamers in the U.S. Average time spent playing mobile games: 4.6hrs/week. Over 80% of the U.S. population owns a mobile phone. 4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. Game mechanics drive loyalty and engagement. http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/08/11/steve-jobs-60-million-iphone-apps-downloaded/ http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006508 http://www.clickz.com/3623306 http://pewresearch.org/pubs/998/networked-families http://mobileactive.org/mobile-web-and-your-organization http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/putting-the-fun-in-functiona

Appendix: Volunteerism 74% of Americans did not volunteer in 2007. 15% of those who did, performed tasks related to their occupational skills. 46% of non-volunteers cited “lack of time” as the main reason for not volunteering. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm http://ww.volunteeringinamerica.gov/assets/resources/VolunteeringbyOccupation.pdf ??