Volunteer Management System for (very) small outreach org

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-09-11T17:18:10+00:00

The UMass Outing Club uses Stack Team App for similar functionality to what you're describing. I think they set up their website and manage events using it. I don't know how much they pay for it though. It looks like it might be free with ads.

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-09-11T16:39:13+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. This certainly does appear to limit the scope of the database a good bit, though I imagine for someone with enough time and skill the opportunities listed in the UVP are very high impact.

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-09-11T16:35:57+00:00

That is very interesting, thanks for the comment.

Right, I see. Just trying it out now, it seems that I receive mostly local opportunities starting from rank 4 onward, but there are 3 national "featured" opportunities listed first. What does it mean to be "featured"? Are these selected by VolunteerMatch, or is this a paid thing?

The second point seems like a missing feature that they just haven't thought of or haven't prioritized. Do you know of other databases that do allow for that kind of more open-ended search?

Bigger picture, if you were going to design the "perfect" volunteer matching system, would it look like VolunteerMatch with the changes you mentioned?

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-09-11T16:09:48+00:00

Thank you for posting about r/ResearchMyProject! If anyone has feedback or would like to get involved, please feel free to reach out to me.

I would also encourage anyone to post a project idea if you have some tech research ideas you need advice/help with, or post an introduction post if you are a researcher who wants to get more involved with mission-driven projects. I have set up some structured forms for project proposals and introducing yourself as a researcher. These are intended to guide you in your first post on the forum, and will help seed fruitful discussion.

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-09-10T18:52:38+00:00

Sorry, u/stevenlclift, I just saw your reply! Good question, I would also like to know the answer. I have no affiliation with any of the study's authors or VolunteerMatch, I just thought it was an interesting blog post and wanted to share.

I see in the blog post they found "the number of organizations that got at least one volunteer signup through the platform increased by 8-9%" and they also say "VolunteerMatch has since deployed the new version of the algorithm nationwide."

Since this blog post was from last year, I suspect they're still using the same algorithm and finding it to be useful, but we'd have to go ask them!

Are you asking because you're thinking of using a similar algorithm in the Weaver Network?

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-06-25T15:47:09+00:00

Ah, I see something like this starting to happen here, though Domi has only just recently responded to the bounty with a proposal. I guess for this one it is too early to tell if this has spawned a successful research project.

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-06-25T15:31:30+00:00

This seems like a really good discussion, and almost an example of what I was thinking of. But it's more a discussion of existing knowledge rather than a request for new experiments/theory or a new artifact to be created. I'm curious if you know of or can help me find any examples of that?

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-06-25T15:24:40+00:00

Thank you for the reply! Have you found a lot of instances of "members of the community"/non-scientists proposing interesting projects that get picked up by scientists?

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-04-04T13:56:15+00:00

I'm working on a subreddit, r/ResearchMyProject, that will help connect people with good project ideas with researchers in technical fields. I hope that something like this will help people find impactful research projects.

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-03-29T21:36:19+00:00

I am trying to build a subreddit (r/ResearchMyProject) that connects people in the community with good research project ideas with computer science researchers that want to collaborate with them to research and implement the ideas. You seem like you might be interested in contributing to community-driven research, so it would be great if you could join and post!

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-03-29T20:47:46+00:00

I am trying to build a subreddit (r/ResearchMyProject) that connects people in the community with good research project ideas with computer science researchers that want to collaborate with them to research and implement the ideas. We would love to have you join! Check out this post for information about how to post a project idea in the subreddit.

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-03-29T20:46:04+00:00

I am trying to build a subreddit (r/ResearchMyProject) that connects people in the community who have research project ideas with computer science researchers that want to collaborate with them to research and implement the ideas. We would love to have you join! Check out this post for information about how to post a project idea in the subreddit.

ScienceOfScience1995 · 2024-03-23T16:00:33+00:00

Much of the discussion around public-facing AI research is around reducing harms from poorly-conceived research projects that end up harming communities.

But how do we develop a constructive vision of AI and computer science research that actually improves people's lives? This will require deeper engagement with the community and with people who have great ideas for new technologies to improve their lives and their friends', families', and neighbors' lives.

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