Crowdtasking – A New Concept for Volunteer Management in Disaster Relief

Based on governmental institutions and strong volunteer organizations, Austria provides a comprehensive and well developed emergency response system. As an important factor for the maintenance of the current quality standard of Austria’s protection and emergency system, the further engagement of voluntariness has to be ensured and enhanced in the light of the ongoing societal change. On the one hand, the involvement of new media provides opportunities to expand the organizations’ service portfolio to create a broader participation for citizens’ engagement; on the other hand, long lasting and formal memberships are often a challenge for the current dynamic lifestyle. To face this situation, the involvement of new media services for volunteer management in order to enable new modes of voluntary binding is a promising strategically effort. A new process called “crowdtasking” dedicated to the improvement of volunteer management applying new media is discussed; new processes of volunteer management are presented by exemplary initiatives of humanitarian non-governmental organizations, such as the Austrian Red Cross.