An architecture for synchronous micro-volunteering in Africa using social media

Abstract

Micro-Volunteering is the phenomenon of volunteering one's time and energy for extremely short periods of time. It is often considered a subset of Virtual Volunteering where one can volunteer one's time and energy via the Internet. There are many successful examples of Virtual Volunteering such as the Gutenberg project and the Librivox project. However, in both these cases, a volunteer must donate a substantial amount of his or her time in activities such as reading books or proofreading books. This paper examines the concept of synchronous micro-volunteering where potential volunteers can effectively donate as little as 10 minutes of their time and immediately assist other people. The paper then describes the architecture which supports synchronous micro-volunteering.