Video Volunteers On YouTube
6 July 2009 at 5:00 pm
The Internet video phenomenon YouTube has launched a very "21st century" way of doing good in the world online community with a new program called YouTube’s Video Volunteers.
YouTube’s Video Volunteers platform hopes to connect Not for Profit organisations with skilled video makers who can help them broadcast their causes through video, reaching new audiences online and driving action around issues and projects that matter to them. And there’s no reason why Australian Not for Profits can’t get involved.
YouTube (which is owned by Google) has some big support from organisations like idealist.org and All For Good.
Here’s how it works: The Video Volunteers page shows video-related volunteer opportunities that have been posted to allforgood.org (which includes listings from Idealist.org and and the US VolunteerMatch). As a result, a visitor to YouTube who is eager to help out might find a listing like "Afro Diaspora Music Video Website" in New York City or "Promotional Video for the GO-Science Challenger Learning Center" in Greenville, NC.
They follow the links to find out more about what the organisation is looking for in terms of a video promotion. The site offers examples of work already done and the growing list of opportunities. So far they all appear to be US Not for Profits but with the incredible success of YouTube which gets millions of hits a day often setting the news agenda with user generated content, the opportunities for other countries won’t be far away.
To learn more, visit www.youtube.com/videovolunteers
