# Sony's U+ app and Youthnet bring microvolunteering opportunities to mobiles

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/03/20/sony039s-u-app-and-youthnet-bring-microvolunteering-opportunities-mobiles/
- Published: 2012-03-20T08:20:20+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Sony has launched +U, a volunteering application for mobile phones, which lets
people access small volunteering opportunities to undertake while out and about.
+U works on Android devices, offering access to Do-it.org, YouthNet’s database of
volunteer opportunities.**

The app has been developed from Open Planet Ideas, Sony’s crowdsourcing platform,
Open Planet Ideas, which asked the public to consider new ways of using technology
for good.

Magdalena Wasowska, General Manager of Technology and Software Centre at Sony, and
a member of the Open Planet Ideas expert panel said: “The Open Planet Ideas platform
provided members of the online community with direct access to Sony and other partners
including WWF and IDEO experts. This exciting approach to collaboration meant that
a really diverse group of people were able to innovate together to address key social
and environmental challenges.”

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Emma Thomas, CEO of YouthNet said: “As the UK’s largest volunteering database, [Do-it](http://www.do-it.org)
exists to make volunteering easy and the development of +U provides huge potential
for the sector to develop the way that we encourage and motivate people to volunteer.

“We know from our own research that nearly three quarters of people who undertake
volunteer work do so to make more effective use of their spare time and, through
+U, people will potentially be able to browse and apply for opportunities wherever
and whenever it suits them.”

![“Around me I see challenges everyday. I want to see people help each other and
be part  of the solutions. One day I was waiting for a tram, there were a couple
of people around me, and I thought for those ten minutes we could be doing something
positive for the environment.” Paul Frigout, inventor of +U](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2012/03/paul-frigout-inventor-of-plusu@2x.png)

As part of the initiative, YouthNet is working with charities to explore new microvolunteering
opportunities.

The application code for [+U](http://www.sony.co.uk/+U) is open source so will be
made available for free for development by other charities and organisations across
Europe. Sony hope to see it used in a range of other ways and formats.

Wasowska added: “We hope that the +U application will be of interest to the many
hard working volunteering groups across Europe; we hope that they are able to utilise
this back-end solution to create further awareness, support and action for their
worthwhile causes.”