Gavin Baker

Samasource might be my favorite new non-profit.  Why?  Because they bring together the scrapiness of a startup with the social effects of a non-profit.  Like charity:water they operate under the model that their “return” is about bringing an American commodity to the global poor.  So what is Samasource?  It’s pure and (not) so simple social entrepreneurship, using technology for social good with the powerful tagline of “Give Work.”

It was founded by Leila Chirayath Janah who is currently the CEO (and about my age) and she shares her vision in the video below at TEDxSV.  There is also a great write up here if you’d prefer to read than watch.

Leila Chirayath Janah: Ending Poverty in the Digital Age from TEDx Silicon Valley on Vimeo.

You can use them for the tasks below:

• Basic data services – business listings verification, data scraping, image and text tagging, content moderation, and data entry
• Advanced data services – subjective tasks including image- and text-based judgments
• Language services – audio and video transcription, video captioning, and translation
• Call center services – outbound services

So Give Work if you can.  I know I will.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Leila Chirayath Janah: The Virtual Assembly Line (huffingtonpost.com)
• Expedia launches new charity program (bizjournals.com)
• How Samasource Helps The World, And A Secret Tattoo Unveiled (Video) (techcrunch.com)

One of the first sessions at SoCon07 we talked about Web 2.0. Basically the idea that the web becomes dynamic and changes with use. One of the comments was “they get smarter with use” This stirred a thought, I’ve mentioned the TED conference before and one of my favorite TEDTalks is by a word-artist, Rives. Check out the video. He puts an interesting spin on “the internet.” Watch it once, twice, be changed.

.

It’s got a few lines that I find funny, but one that I find more interesting is “we can interfere with the interface”

WE CAN INTERFERE WITH THE INTERFACE

do you?
I know I haven’t, but can I, you bet.
Will I? I’ll try.

Going back to the above comment, they get smarter, they get EASIER with use. So Web 2.0 or 3.0 of 4.0 is not that we can do more interactive graphics or total flash takeover, but that the web becomes a connector of, dare I say it, everyone? Moving beyond the screen, what if we can take this connectivity, this interaction, this smarter with use web, and create a smarter with use world. Remember, “we can interfere with the interface. It’s not if you can, but do you?”