Interview: Urbantastic - Today Vancouver, Tomorrow the World.

If you live in the Greater Vancouver area, chances are you may have heard of a great organization called Urbantastic. If you haven't, Yum-O-Rama (YOR) answered their call on twitter for a blogger to interview them. Read on to discover more about Urbantastic, the brainchild of Benjamin Johnson and Health Johns.

YOR: What is Urbantastics mission statement? How was it born?

Urbantastic: Urbantastic is a micro-volunteering site. Micro-volunteering is bite-sized ways for busy people to help out a cause they believe in. We didn’t start with an idea - we started with a problem that we wanted to solve. The problem we chose is that our present-day urban culture has a lot of us feeling disconnected.

YOR: : So Urbantastic is a way of connecting people with a common goal.

Urbantastic: Exactly! Well, we're very new. We just recently made it possible to do stuff and we're trying to get the word out to people and Orgs.

YOR: What are some of the projects that Urbantastic has on the go right now?

Urbantastic: Recently UGM found answers to music licensing, donating via SMS, and Take a Hike Foundation had a form turned into a fillable pdf.

YOR: Nifty! Kind of like karma-inducing outsourcing. :) I like it! Can anyone become involved with Urbantastic? Can volunteers suggest non profit causes to be posted on the UBT site?

Urbantastic: Yes! It's important that everyone contribute to the common causes they find. This will inspire those organizations to amp up the good they do.

YOR: I notice that there's a "point" system for the tasks (things to do) on your site. How does this work?

Urbantastic: We think it's important to give volunteers credit for what they do. It's also an easy way to see the size of a task. In the future, the credit system will be a quick way to see who are the leading orgs/people.

YOR: Great! Sounds like you two have grand plans. How can people learn more about Urbantastic and get involved in their community?

Urbantastic: The best way to keep in touch is to follow us [on twitter at micro_volunteer] and learn more about orgs in town through the newsfeed on Urbantastic.

There you have it folks! If you want to get involved and make a difference in your community, check out Urbantastic. There are many opportunities through there that do *not* require hours of your time, and many opportunities that would require *your* special touch - including photography, image editing, blogging - the volunteer opportunities are endless!