The Virtual Volunteering Wiki and The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook by Jayne Cravens and Susan Ellis. The book was published January 2014, the wiki continues to be updated. The book is the result of several years of research and experience by the authors regarding nonprofit organizations, schools, government agencies and other mission-based organizations using the Internet to support and involve volunteers. It is a practical guide to help organizations start, improve or expand virtual volunteering activities, including micro volunteering, online mentoring and other Internet-mediated volunteering. Whereas the book provides details on suggested practices regarding introducing virtual volunteering to an organization, recruiting online volunteers, screening and training online volunteers, working with online volunteers, evaluating virtual volunteering efforts, creating policies, etc., and includes short case studies to illustrate suggestions in practice, the wiki is a dynamic online resource that is focused on showcasing research on subjects related to virtual volunteering (the page you are reading now) and tech tools that are used or can be used to engage with or support volunteers.

Internet-mediated Volunteering in the EU: Its history, prevalence, and approaches and how it relates to employability and social inclusion, by Jayne Cravens, published in April 2014. This research was for the ICT4EMPL Future Work project undertaken by the Information Society Unit of the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

The results of a global survey regarding software used for volunteer management (in PDF) from 2012, by Rob Jackson and Jayne Cravens, which revealed how widespread Internet-mediated volunteering, episodic volunteering, and other volunteering that did not require long-term commitment or onsite-only involvement is among a variety of organizations worldwide. This blog, What do volunteers do? The answer may surprise you, summarizes these results.

"Involving International Online Volunteers: Factors for Success, Organizational Benefits, and New Views of Community," (in PDF) by Jayne Cravens, MSc. In conjunction with the Institute for Volunteering Research's November 2005 conference, "Volunteering Research: Frontiers and Horizons," this research, the first done regarding Online Volunteering in quite a while, was undertaken to assess current common practices among organizations successfully involving international online volunteers; to explore the role online volunteering may play in building a more cohesive global community; and to assess the relationship between involving online volunteers and building organizational capacities. This paper offers a brief history and overview of online volunteering practice and details survey results regarding organizations that involved the Outstanding Online Volunteers of 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 at onlinevolunteering.org. This paper was published in The International Journal of Volunteer Administration (IJOVA) in July 2006.

Not published: "More Than Performers: Factors for Success in Theater-for-Development Initiatives," an investigation completed in October 2005 of the elements needed for an organization to successfully use live, in-person performance as a tool for development, excluding performer training and theater techniques (also known as theater-for-development). Relevant theories of development management informed the investigation, with a specific focus on institutional development, inter-organizational collaboration, and trust-building. For my MSc in Development Management.

Handheld computer technologies in community service/volunteering/advocacy. This was a pioneering article, published in October 2001 and researched and written by Jayne Cravens. It provides early examples of volunteers/citizens/grass roots advocates using handheld computers, then called personal digital assistants (PDAs), or cell phones (pre- smart phones) as part of community service/volunteering/advocacy, or examples that could be applied to volunteer settings. It was part of the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) online knowledge base.

Technology-Assisted Delivery of School Based Mental Health Services: Defining School Social Work for the 21st Century, which was co-published simultaneously as the Journal of Technology in Human Services, Volume 21, Numbers 1/2 2003, by The Haworth Press, featured a paper by Jayne Cravens, Online Mentoring: Programs and Suggested Practices as of February 2001.
Haworth Press was acquired by the Taylor & Francis Group and became part of Routledge and Informa Healthcare.
 
Human Services Online: A New Arena for Service Delivery, which was co-published simultaneously as the Journal of Technology in Human Services, Volume 17, Numbers 1 and 2/3 2000, by The Haworth Press, featured a paper by Jayne Cravens, "Virtual Volunteering: Online Volunteers Providing Assistance to Human Service Agencies." Haworth Press was acquired by the Taylor & Francis Group and became part of Routledge and Informa Healthcare.

The Virtual Volunteering Project, based at the University of Texas at Austin and directed by Jayne Cravens. The project ended in January 2001. The information on this site came from research of and work with hundreds of nonprofit organizations in the USA, as well as some charities and NGOs outside the USA. The Project also did a few small, informal studies regarding online volunteering among different services and their users in 1997, 1998 & 1999.

As time permits, I also research and share how rumor and myth can derail development or relief efforts, and ways to address such.

As time permits, I also research how rumor and myth can derail development or relief efforts, and ways to address such.

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