Valuations in Volunteer Work
Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/jobs/matching-volunteers-to-the-right-missions.html
The article I read focused on a service that directed volunteer workers to specific volunteer opportunities based on their skills and desires to work. The program “Sparked”, connects workers to volunteer jobs that best suit what they can do. New York Cares, an organization that coordinates volunteer work in New York, uses the service “Sparked” to match its volunteers all around New York. On a more global level, Sparked has a geographic impact, allowing workers in different states to coordinate with business on topics such as web design, consulting, and other internet needs. While these business and organizations receive the help they need, the volunteers get a chance to build up their resumes and Linked-in pages with their work on Sparked. With Sparked, one woman from Buffalo was able to help puppet theater in Australia increase their social media presence.
In terms of how such a topic applies to class, one of the more noticeable connections is the idea of market clearing and valuations. The volunteers have different valuations for each job based on their skills and desires to add to their resume. Sparked serves as the source that matches each volunteer to the job they value most, attempting to “clear the market” of the volunteer work. While Sparked doesn’t have the ability to add priced to ensure the market is cleared, the company does have the ability provide incentives for doing extra volunteer work in the form of awards, allowing the market for volunteer work to “clear” successfully. Another way this article applies to class is through the power of web searching by ranking. The organization applies a ranking service for each user based on what they search for and what skills they applied to their profile, providing them with the highest ranked jobs for their skill set first.