My experience as a regular Internet user is that I often receive emails from friends, relatives or colleagues asking for something. It could be the address of a good Hotel in Bangkok, where to find information about something I am knowledgeable of, or if they can come and stay over for the weekend.
All these friendly demands requests time. MY time. And if most of the time I am happy to oblige I need to factor that in my day/week schedule.
I believe it is the same for an online volunteer who has decided to give part of his free time to do something online. Now this free time is not unlimited! It is then reasonable that online work must match what a volunteer is happy to give.
This raises the question of Task vs. Project. A project will require a lot of time whilst tasks are less time demanding. I agree that a project can be cut into small parts, but there is still a need for someone to oversee the project and ensure it is going the right way. I am not thinking here about a facilitator or a Moderator as discussed elsewhere, but of a real project manager.
Is that something a Online Voluntary Organisation (OVO) can afford? If not what kind of "projects/Tasks" such OVO can take on? Does it limit the scope or ambition of the OVO?
What you say?
~R