I heard Youngme Moon, a Harvard Business School professor mention an app called Be My Eyes. I signed up for this app that allows me to help people who are blind or have difficulty seeing. The app assists them in connecting volunteers through video. It is an opportunity to be helpful and do what I call micro-volunteering. Taking small moments of the day to be helpful to some people who can’t read a label or find the color shirt they need. Through technology and the Be My Eyes app, I can see for someone who can’t.
From their website, here is some background:
Be My Eyes is a free mobile app with one main goal: to make the world more accessible for blind and low-vision people. The app connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers and companies from all over the world through a live video call.
Since we launched in January 2015, more than 2,000,000 volunteers have signed up to assist blind and low-vision users.
Therefore, Be My Eyes users can request assistance in over 180 languages making the app the biggest online community for blind and low-vision people as well as one of the largest micro-volunteering platforms in the world! Every day, volunteers sign onto Be My Eyes to lend their sight to blind and low-vision individuals to tackle challenges and solve problems together.
The Be My Eyes story started in Denmark in 2012 with Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a Danish furniture craftsman, who has visually impaired himself.
Through his work at ‘The Danish Association of the Blind,’ he recognized that blind or low-vision people often needed a little assistance to solve everyday tasks. However, it wasn’t until a blind friend told him that he used video calls to connect with family and friends, who could help him with these tasks, that Hans Jørgen got the idea for Be My Eyes. He believed that the technology of video calls could be used to visually assist blind or low-vision individuals, without them having to rely on friends and family, but using a network of volunteers.
In April 2012, Hans Jørgen presented his idea at a Danish startup event, where he got connected with a team that was ready to make Be My Eyes a reality. On January 15th, 2015, the Be My Eyes app was released for iOS, and within 24 hours, the app had more than 10,000 users.
Watch this video to see how it works.
Disrupting Volunteerism
There are lots of great organizations focusing on volunteers like Activate Good in Raleigh. They connect people willing to volunteer with non-profits who want and need helpers. Check them out if you are in Raleigh and interested in local volunteerism. Amber Smith and her team are providing a wonderful service to the community.
The idea of helping through micro-moments intrigues me.
Imagine all the ways that people could help others in small increments of time. Five minutes here, ten minutes there.
I love this concept so much and it has, and please excuse the pun, opened my eyes.
Imagine
How else could an apt connect communities in need of help?
One idea that I’m thinking about is the need for people visiting with older people to check in with them. Imagine being able to meet some elderly person who is alone but could benefit from a FaceTime call and get a “micro-visit” from a friend.
Consider how micro-tutoring might work? Imagine connecting with someone willing to help in a moment to explain how to solve an algebraic equation for low-income students in an inner-city.
Think about the expertise of people who are retired, who could help guide someone to solve a problem from plumbing to poetry to how to pay your bills.
Eyes Wide Open
Sometimes a new business idea or technology leads the way to encourage other ways to bring the world closer together.
A Jewish concept called Tikkun Olam is defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world. The phrase is found in the Mishnah, a body of classical rabbinic teachings.
How are you going to repair the world today?
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You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conversation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com Let’s explore working together today.
Photo by Rene Böhmer on Unsplash
