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Homeland Ties 2.0

Nadine Hampel — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:56:09 +0000

The football club, the city’s coat of arms, the marksmen’s festival – there are many ways to identify with a city. Whether you were born there, lived there for a long time, or always wanted to live there. There are many ways to show this too. The names of cities, or parts of a map, are printed nowadays on chains, bags, posters, and on anything. Now with Crowdfunding there is a whole new way to connect with a city – by lending it your money.

The platform “Lend Money to Your City” connects the city with the necessary citizens in order to support a project in the field of education, social, or family affairs. In this way, the citizens can exert some influence on which projects the Town Hall, or others communal groups voted, should be selected, promoted, and implemented. This allows residents and users who feel connected with the city to have a more direct influence on the cityscape. The procedure is simple: the citizens lend money to a bank, which in turn lends it to the respective municipality for the selected project. They get their money back with a pre-determined interest rate. If the project does not get enough supporters, the money will be reimbursed directly. So the platform works according to the principle “If a lot give a little, it is enough in the end”.

Of course, any city that would like to offer a project will have a few bureaucratic hurdles to jump over, but in view of the possibilities, this is acceptable. For example, the financing of a volunteer fire brigade has already been successfully implemented.

In other parts of the world, people have already discovered this principle too. Citizinvestor focuses on local community projects and beautifying cities in Philadelphia, Fquare offers the possibility to buy farms and plots of land and started off the project “Feed the Hungry”, which financed and rebuilt farms in remote and impoverished parts of the country. Anyone who ever dreamt of owning their own farm can borrow their start-up capital here.

Fundrise is working on the East Coast of America together with the Crowd to finance libraries, houses for the homeless, and recently a marketplace. Crowdfunding projects are getting popular here too – many people have made their dreams come true or have improved the look of their city – even if only by financing the plantation of urban green areas.

“Lend Money to Your City” is now diversifying the offer and started up the “Lend Money to Your Environment” as a sister project. The first goal: a solar park in Brandenburg, which will convert an entire industrial area into an environmentally friendly space.

It is too early to say whether the concept of promoting Homeland Ties by co-financing will be successful in the long run, or not. However, it does offer a good possibility of having a little influence on the image and functioning of a home city, or another favourite one. It may be a form of democracy that requires financial resources, but it is one where normal citizens are happy to participate in.

Crowdsourcing and crisis communication II

Jana Rademacher — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:16:55 +0000

The often quoted “wisdom of the crowd” is not necessarily a guarantee for dependable and truthful news. Users are quick to judge, provide alleged pictures and information in particular in cases of natural disasters or terror attacks.

By florianric @ Flickr.com

After the Boston Marathon attack, a student at Brown University who had not been seen at the university for a few weeks was suspected of being responsible for the attack. What followed was a downright witch-hunt. The media seized on the entirely unfounded charge of a social media user. This is evidence that it is getting harder for classical media and aid organizations to verify news that is being transmitted via the Internet and social media platforms in particular.

Use in cases of natural disasters

When major natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes strike, eyewitness accounts and videos can provide information about survivors and the course of the disaster, but this can also be problematical because nobody can verify the credibility of the information that is being handed out.

Verily is an online service that has been launched to help prevent future witch-hunts and false information. They want to use crowdsourcing to verify the accuracy of the news. The cooperative project of the Masdar Institute of Technology and the Qatar Computing Research Institute/QCRI is currently only available in the Beta version, however the launch of the platform is making rapid progress and is scheduled for completion in 2013.

This is how Verily works

The Verily system is based on a reward system and an ever-growing community. Members of the community can build up a positive reputation similar to the models on amazon or ebay. They can also invite friends to help strengthen the collaboration between the users.

The Beta version will initially be used to gather news about natural disasters. It will test whether users can judge if pictures have been edited or retouched and if the claims being made are truthful. Positive assessments will be given to those who have proven that they can judge information and pictures, and they will become reliable sources. The higher the reputation of a user, the more weight his opinion will be given in the future regarding the evaluation of information.

Patrick Meier, previously a director at ushahidi.com is also involved in the project. Find out more about that in our blog article dated 18.01.2011 “Crowdsourcing and crisis communication.”

Moving things with the Crowd: Avaaz.org

Nadine Hampel — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:31:58 +0000

“Petition 2.0″ – that is the objective of Avaaz.org and the way they work. The Crowdsourcing platform embraces a political problem, lets the users vote, and then collects signatures for the corresponding movement. The users can also suggest new projects to be supported.

Since 2007, this Platform with headquarters in New York has been mobilizing people all around the world in order to influence the decisions made by politicians and other responsible persons. This is how the Crowd interests have shown and promoted. They are given a big voice composed of lots of individual ones. That is exactly what “Avaaz” means – since the translation of this term in many languages is actually “voice”.

Who has never heard or even uttered the sentence “What can I do about it?” Avaaz provides the platform to change that. The supporting organisations and projects include, for example, the legal defence of Indian women, a counter-movement against the expulsion of the Massai, or the protection of endangered elephants in Asia. You can even click on the “About Us” page and get to know the individual members of the organisation from every corner of the globe by reading the short Member Stories written by the members themselves. So there is not exactly a dark grey mass behind the project as one would expect. Some members even met up in this way and started actions together.

Avaaz empowers everyone to start off their own campaign there. In this case, it is necessary to have the exact concept already worked out. All the objectives, possibilities, and contact persons to be supported or required must be detailed before the Petition is put online. Some pictures are also very helpful. Of course, some of the proposed petitions cannot be taken seriously, such as the reconstruction of the Berlin Wall, but most of the issues are very serious and important. A wide distribution of your own petition is ultimately the most solid basis for success. And there were quite a few successes: The Crowd helped the United Nations recognise Palestine as the world’s 194th state, supported a project for the education of Pakistani children and saved the coral reefs in Australia. These are only a few of the projects recently completed that had a decisive influence. A close collaboration with ambassadors, politicians, and organisations is decisive for a wide-spread and effective platform work. Avaaz has managed to organize the Crowd to organize themselves in order to really achieve something. Petition and supporting of petitions can contribute to make the world a little bit better. Every single voice really counts here.

clickworker.com is supporting animal welfare campaigners in Italy

tina — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:01:37 +0000

Crowdfunding is getting more and more popular. An increasing number of visionaries and creative persons are presenting their ideas on special internet platforms and asking the Crowd for financial support. Clickworker would like to contribute here too. Every two months, we will place a link to three different projects on our Facebook page and let you decide which actions should be supported. We then present the winning project on our social media channels and blog, while making a donation.

The first round of our voting session has finished and we are happy to announce our support of the “1000 Stones for Dogs in Italy” project, which was selected by our Facebook fans.

The association, “Tierschutzprojekt Italien e.V.” , is trying to improve the situation of stray dogs in Italy and standing up against the dreadful conditions in Italian dog homes. The animal shelter “OASI Vita Nuova”, where dogs will not only find shelter, but also medical care, is currently being built in Apulia. “It is high time to demonstrate that even an “animal shelter” can be a meeting-place between man and animals. It is also time to show how a “Dog Shelter” should be, so that the dogs can feel at home, while they are in temporary care”, wrote Julia Plugge, the person responsible for the platform betterplace.org , where the association is asking for donations from the Crowd. The animal welfare campaigners constantly inform on the progress of the works with photos, videos, and travel reports to let the donors know how their donations are being spent. “Over the last few months, we were able to help many dogs and continue with the construction of the Oasi shelter. Both the electrical power and a caravan were installed at the site, which greatly facilitates the work of the animal welfare campaigners. However, we are a step closer to our most important target: the animal home. This is thanks to all your help! The next important step is now the construction of a quarantine station”, wrote Plugge. 22% of the project has already been financed, so the association hopes to find the remaining 7.750 euro through support from the Crowd.

We are still looking for support non-profit or creative projects worthy of support for our next voting session. Please send your suggestions with a link and brief description to contest@clickworker.com.

Sharing is Caring

Jana Rademacher — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:15:56 +0000

Since CeBIT chose “Shareconomy” as their keynote theme in 2013, the term is now familiar to most Internet users. Originally, the term “Shareconomy” was coined by the economist, Martin Weitzman. However, in relation to Web 2.0 people have been talking about “Shared Economy” for a while now. Why buy anything, if the Internet offers the possibility to rent practically everything, either against payment or completely free of charge. You can even find a local user with the suitable item for rent straight away thanks to the modern apps.

by giulia.forsythe Flikr

Business in Web 2.0

On the net “Shared Economy” is understood to be the sharing of knowledge, content, and data. There are more and more projects where group products, or individual ones, are shared with the Internet community. Of course, the best example of this is Wikipedia. Huge volumes of data are also shared with employees, customers and clients via cloud technology. CeBit is betting on this. According to a CeBIT press release, “Shareconomy” describes the societal shift from owning to sharing. This does not only affect business relationships on the web, but also social interactions and initiatives.

by mikeedesign Flikr

Collaborative Consumption – Against the Throwaway Society

Nowadays, more and more everyday objects such as clothes, cars, or electronic equipment are shared, and there are more and more new platforms emerging in the sphere of collaborative consumption. What is still considered as normal social exchanges in good neighbourhoods or village communities is now being covered in the anonymous cities by apps and online communities. On Kokonsum you can find peer-to-peer marketplaces for exchanging and hiring anything from cars and homes to small everyday objects. Even large companies have already noticed that you can still make earnings on sharing things. Since 2009 the German railway service has been offering their customers a car-sharing pool on www.Flinkster.de, while many other commercial providers are jumping onboard in the major cities.

In Berlin, for example, you can choose from many peer-to-peer marketplaces and various rates, depending on whether the trip is long or short. For a monthly fee of 3€ you can get a small car for less than 1.90 €/hour or 23 € /day. After a one-time registration the rental car can be collected at various locations inside Berlin. To do this, the car can be reserved by phone, or with the help of an app, and then the keys can be picked up from a safe, which is opened with the membership card. When you no longer need the car, you just park it at one of the company designated parking lots; just throw the key back into the safe and go home. When you hire a car from a private vendor, you normally have to pay a fixed price for daily hire, but there are no other ongoing costs. In addition, you get to meet some new people in your own neighbourhood. However, there are not enough offers in all cities yet.

by boltzr flikr

Many small initiatives are trying to achieve a change of awareness among consumers. The trend is to get away from the insatiable consumer society and move towards a more sustainable and social society. More information can be found on the work in progress site and the Collaborative Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Wuppertal.

Ask the Crowd! Group action “Likes” are raging across the social networks

Nadine Hampel — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:50:08 +0000

It was cute when it started off: The Cordell children from Boston really wanted a little puppy. Their father, Ryan, agreed that another family member would be added, if they got a million Likes on Facebook. He set up the “twogirlsandapuppy” page on Facebook where the two sisters posed for a picture holding a sign displaying the agreement. It took just seven hours until a million Facebook users helped to make the children’s wish come true and “Millie” (called after the million likes) was brought home. This action not only caused a stir for the family, but it was also great publicity for both Facebook and the Animal Rescue Organisation “North Shore Animal League”, who provided the puppy.

This highly successful action, which received nearly 2.7 million Likes, was not the first of its kind, but definitely got the most attention. In 2012, a 7-year-old got a kitten from his parents after obtaining 1000 Likes. In 2011 an ambitious uncle started an action on Facebook to get a million Likes for his sister to name her baby Megatron. Of course, the follow-up actions didn’t take very long either. A Norwegian collected Likes to sleep with his best girlfriend, a German voluntary assistant wanted to be the Boss for a day, a TV team wanted either free beer or a free day on Carnival Monday, and children begged to go to Disneyland … and hundreds of other actions.

The “Crowd” has not only become an international and global networking site that spreads information, maintains contacts, and even provides companies with publicity stunts, but it has also developed into a pressure and decision-making tool.

At some stage, we will have seen enough of these types of actions and they could then be rejected, rather than supported. Counter-actions such as “My aunt from Wuppertal says that when we get 1 million Likes the stupid and meaningless “When we get X Likes” signs will finally disappear! The “HELP US!!!” stunts have been drawing more attention, but the trend of unleashing the Crowd as a bargaining and marketing tool with this Begging for Likes will probably follow us around for a while. The question is whether such begging actions could destroy charity campaigns that need Likes and if companies that buy Likes will experience a boom. Of course, there are hundreds of sweet stories about small children and animals outsmarting Daddy – especially in the present days of social media networking to attract attention and find the next brainwave. However, such non-strategies go out of fashion fast and often backfire on the profile owner or company.

Recently, a new trend appeared on the scene: Companies trying to get as many comments in the least time possible to increase the hit rates of their web pages. Radio Vest, for example, is calling for users to constantly post comments, and even paying users to do it. They even started some strange spam actions on their own homepage, which could constitute a violation of the Facebook terms and conditions.

North Korea’s secrets are revealed – new detailed maps on Google Maps

Jana Rademacher — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:23:13 +0000

North Korea is probably one of the most secret places in the world. As a result of years of seclusion and strict censorship hardly any news gets out. Residents of North Korea were equally unable to obtain foreign information. All the more surprising is the fact that Google was now been able to fill the formerly empty map of North Korea with places of interest, streets and even the notorious Yodŏk concentration camp.

Größere Kartenansicht

Map Maker

This map was not charted with the help of the well-known Google camera vehicles. The task was given to the crowd and satellite images were collected. With the lMap Maker Too that is not available in Germany, residents, visitors to North Korea and interested persons can edit the maps. Google Map Maker has been online since 2008. Registered users can edit maps, add places of interest or upload pictures. Google Map Maker is not available in every country, but new countries are being added regularly.

Uses

The new details on the North Korean map are probably most interesting for South Koreans with relatives in North Korea. In North Korea, Internet access is only available to officials and functionaries loyal to the regime. Anyone else can only access censored, domestic sites; access to the Google pages remains blocked.

Google is aware that the maps are not perfect yet, but thanks to the use of Map Maker and well-informed North and South Koreans, civilians are getting a glimpse of North Korean topography and urbanism that has remained unseen until now.

E-Paper Watch Pebble: Successful crowdsourcing causes nerds hearts to flutter

mandy — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 12:12:58 +0000

When Pebble innovator Eric Migicovsky launched a campaign to back the Smartwatch idea on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform on April 11, 2012 he probably was not expecting the kind of response he got. Within one month he was able to raise the fundraising target of $100,000.

The lightning start was followed by further support. Today, just under a year later, the watch that connects to Android smartphones and iPhones has won over numerous fans and investors. With $10 million in financial support the development team behind Migicovsky was able to create a customizable watch that finally began shipping to the worldwide network of backers who had ordered in advance in January 2013 at http://getpebble.com/.

Pebble Kickstarter Video from Pebble Technology at Vimeo.

The watch costs $150 and is available in white, black, red, orange and grey. In addition, the user can customize the format of the watchface. You cannot only select between classical watch formats and digital versions but also a binary display or the time display in text format.

This slim watch has numerous other functions that make it a must-have for nerds. Reminders include calendar alerts, incoming emails, and Facebook or Twitter messages. The notifications are displayed by means of a silent vibration that can be dismissed by a shake of your wrist. Because Pebble can be connected to iPhones, iPods or Android devices using Bluetooth, you can receive SMS or control music playback using the four, small buttons on the watch.

Source:Pebble Stickers from flickr User stickergiant

In addition, you can increase the wide-ranging functions of the watch with different apps. Cyclists and joggers can use Pebble as a bike computer or pedometer.

To improve these possibilities, experienced programmers can set to work themselves using ifttt.com or http://developer.getpebble.com/ to add new features to the watch.

Getting more jobs with social media platforms!

Nadine Hampel — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:04:51 +0000

Every Clickworker has probably had a similar experience: you take the qualification tests and eagerly wait for the first jobs. But you sometimes miss jobs because you don’t always have your start page open. However, there are ways of seeing the jobs more quickly and also more securely as soon as they are put online. Another common situation can arise when you work weekends or late at night, the support is not staffed, and you have a problem. Is there any way of getting some help? We have expanded our social media offers at clickworker.com. This means that questions and problems can be answered more quickly and that Clickworkers have quicker access to information. Find out what information we are providing on the respective platforms here.

Facebook:
Facebook is by far the most popular and well-known platform. With the fan page and the community we have succeeded in spreading blogs and answering questions more quickly. The platform has also helped Clickworkers cooperate and give each other mutual support.

Forum:

Our Forum”Clickworker-Lounge” might be young, but it’s a real teen star! Numerous Clickworkers stop by the forum every day and provide each other and newcomers with support if they have problems or questions that need to be answered. There’s a thread for nearly all questions and languages. And they are also actively involved in the forum games.

Twitter:
Many people are not accustomed to Twitter yet. Yet it is the best way to post purely informative short messages. That’s how we use it too: for short, direct and quick information about new jobs. You will find information about German-language jobs at clickworker_de, and about other language jobs at clickworker_com. Another practical item is the use of so-called hashtags, relevant keywords that lead you directly to the information you desire. The jobs are therefore marked with the hashtag “#cwjobs” and additionally with “#cwjobs-language abbreviation” for every language, for example “#cwjobsEN” for English or “#cwjobsFI” for Finnish etc.

Google+:
Our Google+ site is perfect for anyone who prefer more details and wants to find all the information in one place. Criticized as a “Facebook replicate” this platform is better than its image. Whereas Facebook is quite cluttered, Google+ presents a better overview. In contrast to Facebook, the spotlight is on detailed information whereas communication remains in the background. We also pay particular attention to the up-to-datedness of the jobs, blogs and work relevant information.

As you can see, whatever your preferences there is a suitable platform for everyone. And if you can’t decide, we’ll be glad to greet on all of them! Try it right now and follow the links to visit us!

The Clickworker support and community management team

Jana Rademacher — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:16:29 +0000

Some staff changes have been made in the Support and Community Management team in the course of the past year. Mandy began work as a permanently employed Junior Community Manager in July 2012. She joins Angelina and Daniel, who have been staff members since 2008 and 2010. Mandy will work full time in Community Support as soon as she has completed her studies.

Angelina, Mandy, Ann-Kristin, Daniel, Jana, Nadine

In addition to the permanent employees we now have three student assistants again. Ann Kristin is the longest-serving student and has worked at clickworker.com for over two years. Jana joined the team in August 2012, and Nadine who rounds off the trio, began work at the end of November.

But only Daniel and Angelina are there every day to answer your emails and inquiries. The other four take turns working, which is why messages aren’t always answered by the same person. At the moment the office has a maximum capacity of four people. We hope we will get a larger office in the course of this year so that we can continue to sit together, because things will be a bit “cramped” as soon as Mandy starts working full time.

It goes without saying that we all have other tasks apart from answering inquiries. Mandy is responsible for Clickworker campaigns, Tina for creating the Clicknews and the newsletters, Jana is in charge of blog connection maintenance and answering knowledge portal questions, and Nadine keeps our Twitter channels up to date. Angelina is in charge of recruiting new Clickworkers, and Daniel is crucial for our UHRS support. Additionally they both work on the development of new concepts to improve the work surface at clickworker.com and make it easier to use.

And although he doesn’t come along very often anymore, Angelina’s dog Josh still has a basket in the corner and whenever he’s here he enjoys sleeping on the threshold of the office door. His main job is it to scare people by nudging them with his wet nose under the table.

Josh