Potential and promise of online volunteering

The Internet is often perceived as yet another technological innovation that causes a further widening of the gap between rich and poor. However, one of the most interesting phenomena to come out of the Internet revolution is its utilization as a channel for social development. Volunteers working in task forces who were recruited through the net, work to improve the lives of many millions of people in need throughout the world. Some of these volunteers are ‘field workers’, working in physical proximity to those they are trying to help, while others may be sitting at home, using their computers to help needy populations many thousands of miles away. This paper studies this trend and advocates a model to explain the potential and promise of online volunteerism from the perspective of the volunteer. It is suggested that understanding the characteristics behind Internet volunteering from the perspective of the volunteer may enhance the positive potential of the Internet. The model focuses on the unique informative and communicative aspects of net volunteering. It does so by separating this phenomenon into three separate subdivisions: the personal, the interpersonal, and the group. The personal subdivision refers to the advantages of volunteering on an individual level. The interpersonal subdivision refers to advantages in terms of dyadic interaction, and the group subdivision refers to the advantages as a result of being part of a task group. This paper concentrates almost exclusively on the positive, rather than negative, aspects of the Internet and Internet volunteering. This is because of the need for brevity, but more importantly, because the positive aspects of the Internet have been widely ignored by scholars. This paper aims to focus on these and to turn the spotlight on a fascinating combination of the affirmative harnessing of the Internet to increase social justice, and human well-being through unpaid volunteer work. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.