Online Volunteers Support UNITeS - May 2002

In February 2002, UNV staff posted its first online opportunities to NetAid, via the online volunteering service managed by UN Volunteers staff. As of the end of May, more than 20 online volunteers have provided support to both UNITeS staff and ICT volunteers onsite in developing countries through UNITeS OV efforts. Their activities include:

updating resources in the UNITeS Knowledge Base; the updates these online volunteers have provided will be launched in July

finding resources in French, Spanish and Arabic that would be appropriate to include in the UNITeS Knowledge Base; these new materials will be added in July

answering open source and Linux-related questions from ICT volunteers in the field, via the UNITeS online community

researching examples of ICT volunteering in developing countries

This diverse group of online volunteers, half of whom are women, are based in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Hong Kong, Kenya, Lebanon, Philippines, Nigeria, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.A.

Online volunteers have already completed some assignments in support of UNITeS and UN Volunteers, such as serving as moderators of an online discussion group in conjunction with United Nations Day in 2001 that was focused on the Global Digital Divide and "Tech for Humanity" and featured a live web cast with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

To view open online volunteering opportunities with UNITeS, go to UNV's Online Volunteering service, click on "Search Groups", and type in "UNITeS."

For more information about online volunteering, visit UNV's Online Volunteering service.