bold idea
Revolutionize the way community organizations utilize volunteer resources and engage a new generation of volunteers through meaningful “micro volunteer” opportunities by leveraging the latest technological advancements, such as smartphones.
organization overview
The Sparked team works with scientists, doctors, journalists, nonprofits, associations, community organizations, and government agencies to design volunteer opportunities, breaking complex projects into small tasks that can be accomplished by a large number of people in a small amount of time. They then create a software tool that enables volunteers to complete specific tasks using smart phones and work with their clients to market the opportunities and recruit volunteers.
Personal Bio
Jacob Colker is an early-stage investor and founder focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and practical commercial use cases. Today, Jacob helps to lead the AI-first startup incubator at the Paul Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), where he has helped to create numerous AI-first startups, including WellSaid, BlueCanoe, Lexion, and more. Previous to Jacob’s work at AI2, he wore every nontechnical hat in a startup (CEO, CMO, general manager, co-founder). Jacob started working with data mining in 2006, crowdsourcing in 2008, machine learning in 2011, and computer vision/speech/NLP/deep learning in 2017. To give back, Jacob teaches MBA-level entrepreneurship at the University of Washington, Foster School of Business. He also mentors startups, nonprofits, and social enterprises across Washington State. Jacob is a 2009 Echoing Green Fellow.
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Organization/Fellow Location ?
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Impact Location ?
Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.
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Organization Structure ?
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