Dr Stephen Atkins
"We hope that eventually, instead of hundreds, we could have thousands or even tens of thousands of people holding up their hands to become online volunteers."
The evening news abounds with harrowing images from disaster-struck areas such as Haiti, Sri Lanka and Padang that demonstrate the uphill battle faced by the various agencies attempting to deliver aid to those who desperately need it. Obstacles to effective aid delivery are myriad, but a dearth of volunteers who are actually able to contribute their skills and talents is a major factor, says Lori Foster Thompson, Associate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University in the United States.
"You see needs arise and want to help," she says. "You hear about tsunamis, kids without access to education, people without shelter and other atrocities, and the knee-jerk reaction is to want to hop on a plane and go do something about it. In reality, however, fi nding the time to do so is no trivial matter." Foster Thompson spent six months in Dunedin last year, working with Dr Steve Atkins, research director of the Otago Polytechnic School of Applied Business, on the development of an initiative created by Atkins and Massey University Professor Stuart Carr that proposes an innovative, distinctly 21st century response to this age-old problem.
SmartAid: Consultants Without Costs is a project that aims to enhance the effectiveness of aid delivery by engaging the services of online volunteers – in particular, skilled professionals that have much to offer the aid community but are unable to leave their jobs and families and travel half way around the world to do so.
The goal, Foster Thompson says, is to "assign virtual teams to volunteers on the ground, so that on-site volunteers have an extended network to turn to for technical, cultural and moral support and advice, while online volunteers' efforts are enriched and improved through the day-to-day contextual information offered by their team members on the ground."
The project's fi rst pilot study took place in Thailand in 2010, and Atkins is optimistic about the potential power of the idea. "We hope that eventually, instead of hundreds, we could have thousands or even tens of thousands of people holding up their hands to become online volunteers."