Core Facts
As Volunteers' Week kicks off across the UK, Sony has today announced that it is partnering with YouthNet - the organisation behind Do-it, the UK's largest volunteering database - to create ‘+U'.
+U is a mobile app that will make volunteering more accessible than ever before by putting bite size volunteering opportunities into the palm of your hand.
What is +U?
+U will be a revolutionary android mobile app that will deliver real world, bite-size volunteering to a new, socially motivated audience.
+U will be a unique mobile phone volunteering application that combines real world volunteering opportunities with social and gaming incentives
Potential volunteers will be matched with local projects through geo-location technology
Users will be rewarded with points based on the voluntary opportunities they complete, and will be able to share their experiences and achievements on their social networks. Volunteering will get faster, easier and more social
+U could be set to give charitable organisations a vital boost by inspiring a new generation of volunteers to put themselves forward
+U was the final concept to emerge from Sony and WWF's crowd sourcing project, Open Planet Ideas.
How will it work?
Through the agreement with YouthNet, the Do-it database will provide +U with a feed of thousands of volunteering opportunities, many of which are drawn from local Volunteer Centres and grass-roots organisations throughout England.
+U is still very much in the early stages of development. As a trial partner, YouthNet will be playing a central role in the design and implementation of the app.
How was +U born?
+U was the final concept to emerge from a joint Sony and WWF crowd sourcing project called Open Planet Ideas which launched in September 2010
Open Planet Ideas laid down a challenge to the online community: to come up with ways to use existing technology to help create more sustainable lifestyles and communities
Sony received hundreds of brilliant ideas, but judges eventually decided that +U - then called ‘Greenbook' - was the idea they would like to take forward for development
Since then, Sony has been developing the idea using further feedback from the community on its Open Planet Ideas Facebook page
Sony announced that it was partnering with YouthNet - who offer more than one million opportunities to volunteer through 28,000 partners - on Wednesday 1 June 2011
What's next?
From Thursday 2nd June we will be asking for feedback on what the +U logo should look like
We'll be posting three logo options on Facebook and asking the community to tell us which ones they like best. Sony and YouthNet will use that feedback to help them decide which one to go with. Get involved!
Sony and YouthNet will continue working on the development of +U, and aim to share a preview version for testing in the coming months
We intend to announce the date for release of the final application in IFA in September 2011
Ultimately, Sony plan to release +U as an ‘open source' application for any organisation to use
