microvolunteerism
n. The practice of volunteering for extremely short stints, particularly by using mobile phone messaging or apps.
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2012
"The advent of mobile communication technologies and online volunteering, for example, has enabled many more people to participate for the first time. Mass Short Message Service (SMS) communication is one form of "microvolunteerism" that contributes to the production and sharing of information," the report says.
—Anil Sinha, “'Asians more generous than Europeans',” Deccan Herald, December 06, 2012
2011
Microvolunteerism explores the newly emerging design territory for volunteering on the order of seconds—"I have forty-two seconds at this bus stop; how can I volunteer?"
—Eric Paulos, et al., “The Rise of the Expert Amateur: Citizen Science and Microvolunteerism,” From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen, November 18, 2011
2006 (earliest)
There have been some interesting thoughts about 'What makes people work for free?’ since it was published on openbusiness.cc. The idea of 'micro-innovation’, the act of making very small contributions to a much larger, much broader innovation sprung op [sic] at principledinnovation.com. A reply to this idea was the idea of 'micro-volunteerism’ i.e. you can put a touch on something and never spend time on it again.
—Ben Zevenbergen, “What makes people work for free?,” Open Business, July 13, 2006
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