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Volunteering Through the Internet

OKABE Shota (Hakodate National College of Technology)

Recently, the word “volunteer” is heard here and there. As you know, a volunteering activity is to do something for someone. It is based on your independence and without any compensation.

However, in Japan, volunteering is now recognized differently from the original meaning. My school, Hakodate National College of Technology has established a credit for volunteering activity since last year. I disagree with this academic enforcement of volunteering because the action is for a credit and it is not a freely donated action. If you do something ordered by someone or expecting some rewards, the activity is not a true volunteer but a pseudo-volunteer. But in Japan, this pseudo-volunteer is approved in society. This is very disappointing.

Now, let me explain how I volunteer. I mainly participate in a volunteering activity called “The World Community Grid.” This is an activity to provide cloud computing services by connecting personal computers through the Internet. This is called grid computing. It is a kind of world-wide volunteer activity project. This grid computing contributes to solving problems in bioengineering fields by discovering unknown viruses or agents such as AIDS, or searching for treatments for serious diseases. The data processing of these problems was previously conducted by supercomputers. However, these supercomputers were quite expensive and not available anywhere. The World Community Grid asks for people with personal computers all over the world to participate in data processing.

Practically, in ordinary use, our personal computers don’t need to perform at 100%. When I realized this, I looked for a way to activate extra power for something useful. Then, I learned about the World Community Grid. The action is really simple. When you boot up your personal computer, you just need one click to approve the activities proposed by the World Community Grid. Then, the activities appropriate for your computers’ performance are automatically downloaded and the data processing is performed with the extra computing power. You are able to use your computer for whatever you want. You don’t need any specific knowledge or information. By one click, you can participate in worldwide volunteering while having fun with your computer. Furthermore, the World Community Grid periodically e-mails you how much contribution your computer has done, which encourages you and motivates you to continue your participation.

I knew about this volunteering activity when I was a junior high school student. At that time, I was interested in building a high performance computer. I was keen to digitalize the performance to make it better. The World Community Grid was quite innovative in teaching me a way to assess a computer’s performance by looking at how much data processing helps to the society. At first, I was eager to review the evaluation of my computer performance, but one day, I read a message from “Influenza Antiviral Drug Search.” It said, “With your participation, we have been able to get thousands of smiles back!” The project was completed with my participation. After reading that message, I felt a new feeling coming from the bottom of my heart. It was fulfillment. I helped someone. My computer worked to help get back someone’s happiness. I also realized that I had worked with people whom I didn’t know to make this contribution. It was the moment I learned that I could easily help others in the world and the work was easy. Since then, I have started volunteering for local events such as working as a staff member for Hakodate festival.

Students who have never experienced the fulfillment of helping others don’t understand the values of volunteering, so they never engage in the activity. This is a vicious cycle. It is difficult to step out of this cycle. Giving credits for volunteering activity in school curriculums can be a step to change this cycle. However, if students don’t put any values on helping others and only put value on getting rewards after the work, they will stop volunteering after acquiring the credits. Giving some rewards with work may ruin a learner’s motivation to keep working. Actually, one of my classmates, the first student to get a credit for volunteering activity in our school, told me that he would not apply for volunteering activities anymore because he would not be able to earn extra credits. His attitude disappointed me. Of course, there are students who have opened their eyes through the volunteering activities with credits, and change themselves to participate in true volunteering activities independently without compensation. It depends on you after all.

Volunteering activity itself does not force you to sacrifice yourself. You can contribute whatever you like to the world. The World Community Grid taught me this idea. I would like to share this idea with others through my joyful volunteering activities.