Volunteering at iSPIRT Archives

11/04/202311/04/2023

Balloon Volunteering #7: Doubling Down on Building India’s Product Nation”

iSPIRT turned 10 in February this year. We are about rewriting the script of the nation. The past year indicates that some of this has happened with India Stack. The idea of Digital Public Infrastructure, aka DPI, is now part of the national lexicon. It has also become India’s calling card for the world.

Back in 2015, India Stack was a response to possible digital colonization. This risk has been contained.

We have made progress. It is something to be proud of.

But this doesn’t make us a Product Nation.

India has potential. We can be a France instead of Spain, a Korea instead of Thailand. France and Korea have products that the world needs. Spain and Thailand are countries where people work for foreigners.

So, iSPIRT is only halfway there in its mission. We need to remain focused on this unfinished mission. Our next ten years will make India’s true potential come to life.

Can we make it happen? Yes!

We are doubling down. This year will see more public technology from iSPIRT than ever before.

We seek volunteers who can think outside the box and contribute their unique perspectives for this unprecedented journey. Volunteering is very different from a job. Hence, having the right mindset and approach is essential.

To volunteer for iSPIRT, kindly fill the form located at the bottom of the volunteer page available at this link. Join us as we build on our decade-long journey and welcome the next chapter of iSPIRT’s story.

03/01/202203/01/2022

iSPIRT’s Fifth Open House Session on Volunteering

At iSPIRT, we are about nation-building. So what kind of nation are we talking about here? And does it matter? Well, you do need to watch the video to get those answers.

What sets this Volunteer Open House session apart is that it includes four volunteer stories. Almost every volunteer who comes in leaves a mark. Get a sense of how that happens in this session.

Previous Open House sessions have pointed to specific volunteer challenges. The focus here is to explain playground building in more detail. Often, playground building is an impetus for volunteers to do something they have never done before. This is a different perspective on volunteering.

If you want to be an ISPIRT volunteer, check out the video and fill the form on our volunteer page: volunteers.ispirt.in

01/07/202101/07/2021

iSPIRT Balloon Volunteering Open House #4 – Opportunities in Technology

Building on the previous Balloon Volunteering Open House Sessions, we will give a flavour of available volunteering opportunities in the Technology space.

In the fourth Session, we have Dr Pramod Varma, Chief Architect of Aadhaar and IndiaStack, giving you an insight into what it takes to volunteer in iSPIRT. He describes our design principles for building digital public infrastructure and gives you a peek into the thought process of an architect in iSPIRT. Finally, he breaks down how we are redefining the approach towards solving societal problems. We are playground builders. We orchestrate or create a playground so that market players can bring out an array of solutions.

iSPIRT is addressing solvability. We have a multi-decade horizon as a mission-oriented volunteer-based Think-and-Do-Tank.

As part of this session, we have some of our volunteers explaining the technical challenges you can embrace as new volunteers at iSPIRT Foundation. The problems that we are tackling require a thought process that is new and innovative. We use cutting-edge technology.

In addition to the new technical volunteering options outlined in this session, other policy-related and ecosystem-building volunteer options also exist. Apply now on https://volunteers.ispirt.in.

How do you build using Lego Blocks? Watch the recording to learn more.

iSPIRT Balloon Volunteering Open House Session #4 – Opportunities in Technology [30 June 2021] from ProductNation/iSPIRT

07/03/202122/03/2021

iSPIRT’s Third Balloon Volunteering Open House Summary

Following the success of our previous two sessions, we are back again. We are presenting this next session of our open house on the theme of Market Mavens and Market Architecture.

Please find attached the video, which will talk about the available opportunities and what it means to be a volunteer at iSPIRT.

There are many volunteering challenges available. So, if in the past you wanted to volunteer but couldn’t, please do check out the additional challenges listed here. We are adding to the existing challenges that we are working towards. So go ahead and choose any of the options that resonate with you.

This Balloon Volunteering process takes anywhere from 3-4 weeks to start. Also, to get a better idea please do read our Volunteer Handbook and Playground Coda here https://volunteers.ispirt.in/.

iSPIRT Volunteering is about being mission-oriented and being self-motivated, for there is no glory here. So if you have the bandwidth and want to write the new India script, please reach out to us.

19/12/202019/12/2020

iSPIRT’s Second Open House on Balloon Volunteering

We had our second Open House session on Balloon Volunteering on 14th December over Zoom Conference. Do watch the session video to decide if you would like to explore volunteering with iSPIRT.

Till recently, all our new volunteers (aka Balloon Volunteers) came in through referrals from existing volunteers. Eight weeks back, on 20th Sep, we experimented with an open process in the first Open House session (https://pn.ispirt.in/balloon-volunteering).

We explained the process of Balloon Volunteering and shared a few volunteer challenges. Dozens of people registered. We spoke to each of them and worked with them on the next steps. Three applicants have been accepted as Balloon Volunteers so far. This has given us the confidence to go further in opening up our Balloon Volunteering process.

As you know, iSPIRT is a mission-based non-profit technology think tank. In this second Open House session, we talk about this mission so that you can ask yourself if our cause and theory of change animates you. To understand what volunteers do and how they work, you can read our Volunteer Handbook and Playground Coda. Pointers to these documents are on our new Volunteering page https://volunteers.ispirt.in

If our mission motivates you and volunteering is your passion, see if one of the open volunteering challenges resonates with you. You can then apply using one of the forms on the webpage.

However, keep in mind, volunteering is not for everybody. So, don’t be disheartened if you aren’t able to become a Balloon Volunteer right now. All of us grow with time. Volunteering may be the right thing for you a few years down the line. iSPIRT sticks with hard problems for 20-30 years, so you can be sure that there will be many volunteer opportunities in the future!