Towards a Taxonomy for Neighborhood Volunteering Management Platforms

The management and organization of volunteering in the social sector have been strongly influenced by technological progress over the last two decades. New proposals for IT-based volunteering management platforms that draw on many elements of social media are appearing with increasing frequency. In this article, we analyzed the current state of the art and use a methodological approach to develop a taxonomy for classifying existing and emerging developments in the field. The taxonomy is intended to assist practitioners in selecting appropriate systems for their respective purposes as well as support researchers in identifying research gaps. The resulting research artifact has undergone an initial evaluation and can support maintaining a better overview in a growing subject area

Optimal Dispatch of Volunteers to Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients

Initiatives with mobile phone dispatched volunteers to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) cases, can be found today in some countries, e.g. Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy. When an OHCA case is reported, an alarm is sent to the registered volunteers’ phones. However, the allocation of which volunteers to send to the automatic external defibrillator (AED) and who to send directly to the patient, is today based on simple rules of thumb. In this paper, we propose a model to optimally select how many and which volunteers to send directly to the patient, and who should pick up and deliver an AED. The results show that the model can help increase the survivability of the patients, compared to simple decision rules

Digital Design Considerations for Volunteer Recruitment: Making the Implicit Promises of Volunteering More Explicit

Non-profit organisations may find it difficult to demonstrate to potential volunteers what is required in their voluntary role-resulting in a mismatch between expectations and reality for volunteers. This mismatch could be perceived as a psychological contract breach. We interviewed 18 volunteers and 7 coordinators about their experiences and expectations in order to understand how the experience of volunteers can better be captured and communicated. Further, we wished to consider how future digital platforms might capture important elements of the volunteer experience to better support recruitment, retention and recognition. We present our findings and discuss digital platform implications around the four implicit 'promises' of volunteering: the social promise, the opportunity promise, the value promise and the organisational citizenship promise. We add to literature exploring the voluntary sector by assessing the feasibility of digital interventions to support various aspects of volunteer and coordinator roles

Positive Technology

Since the founding of positive psychology, the scientific study of well-being, in 1998 we have a much better understanding of how to define, measure, and cultivate well-being. For the first time, this means the field of technology can move forward with science on its side, designing and developing technology based on its actual impact on well-being. Through the lens of social relationships, this paper explores the current state of technology and well-being (part 1), ways in which we can improve existing technology (part 2), and how we can create new technology to systematically cultivate well-being (part 3). Recent research suggests that much of the fastest growing technology today has a negative effect on our social relationships and psychological well-being. To mitigate these negative outcomes, this paper calls for a foundational shift towards positive technology, defined as technology that uses principles from positive psychology to systematically cultivate well-being. To do this, positive psychology should dedicate more resources towards testing and validating well-being hypotheses as they relate to the latest technology applications. At the same time, technology companies should improve on their existing platforms by leveraging positive psychology research. Moreover, we should use the foundational principles of positive psychology to design new applications of technology that drive each of the core elements of well-being: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement (Seligman, 2011)

Vabatahtlike juhtimine ja nende motivatsioon Eesti Lasterikaste Perede Liidu näitel

https://www.ester.ee/record=b5423598*es

Re-Designing Planning Policy Processes and Embedding Technology: The Case of Neighbourhood Planning

Ph. D. ThesisNeighbourhood planning provided citizens with new rights through the Localism Act 2011, empowering them to organise together to produce their own policy which would be adopted by local planning authorities. By December 2020, over 2700 communities had embarked on the neighbourhood planning process with just under 1000 plans adopted. However, challenges remain in the way neighbourhood planning is enacted by citizens with a complex process, uneven geographical take up and a lack of appropriate support for citizens. At a broader level, citizen participation in policymaking processes has shown a contested picture over many decades with calls for more and better participation whilst questions of the level of influence such participation has on decisions have been raised. Furthermore, the configuration of citizen participation has long been questioned, particularly in relation to the methods used to reach out to communities. Alongside this, research regarding digital technology for policymaking and citizen participation has increased but has yet to have an impact in practice. In this research, I explore how digital and non-digital tools could be designed to better support citizens to shape places through the example of the neighbourhood planning policy process. I engaged with neighbourhood planning groups and planners to learn from their experiences, particularly centring citizens’ needs in considering the need for support in the citizen-led policy tool. Using an action research approach, I used a cycle of action and reflection to inform research design, enabling participants to help direct research through their own experiences. To understand how citizens enact the neighbourhood planning process and explore the use of digital tools, I engaged in an exploratory deployment of a participatory media technology, then moved to deliver interactive workshops to explore the neighbourhood planning process in-depth and co-designed new modes of digital and non-digital engagement. Through this research, I first demonstrate the complexity of neighbourhood planning, exploring the nuances of the process from a citizens’ perspective and, second, I identify both opportunities and barriers to the use of digital modes of participation. Through identifying the issues within the neighbourhood planning process, I put forward approaches to designing better support mechanisms to enable citizens to shape places, including two key design principles, cross-disciplinary design thinking and inclusive design, which can ensure an inclusive and equitable approach to the design of policy and support tools. I demonstrate how these design principles should manifest within the neighbourhood planning context and provide recommendations for specific policy changes and the development of digital and non-digital support. Ultimately, I argue the need to design and embed digital and non-digital tools and technologies within a re-designed neighbourhood planning process to enable an appropriate, navigable and sustainable citizen-led policy tool where modes of participation can link directly to policy outcomes allowing citizens to shape places