Crises and disasters are portrayed significantly in both legacy and onlinemedia, and attract the attention of millions of Internet users. Many of these users are willing to help humanitarian relief efforts remotely, through tasks that go from providing, curating, and synthesizing information about the disaster (Vieweg et al., 2010; Gao et al., 2011; Starbird, 2012a; Liu, 2014), to performing crisis mapping and all sort of digital humanitarian tasks (Meier, 2015).

While a seamless integration of digital volunteering efforts into professional/ formal response efforts has yet to be realized, volunteer groups have been successful in certain areas, such as creating maps that are useful for humanitarian organizations: “After Haiyan [November 2013 typhoon in the Philippines], many relief organizations, including the OCHA and the medical aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders), have gone into the Philippines carrying with them continually updated maps of the country generated by more than 1,000 OpenStreetMap volunteers from 82 countries” (Butler, 2013). A survey among officers from large humanitarian organizations found that many of them used some type of volunteer-processed social media data (Tapia and Moore, 2014).

Volunteering during disasters is not a product of newmedia or new technologies. Instead, it is an integral part of how communities react to disasters (Dynes, 1970). What is new today is that electronic communications have effectively redefined the boundaries of these communities. The “village” that feels, for instance, the devastating effects of a Typhoon in the Philippines, is indeed a global village. People living half a world away can become actively involved, and even become key players in the response to an ongoing crisis (Carvin, 2013).

In general, the involvement of volunteers has been described by formal organizations as a mixed blessing. Disasters involve the convergence of people, resources, and information. Naturally, some of the people, some of the resources, and some of the information are actually helpful in the disaster response, but not all of them (Fritz and Mathewson, 1957).

This chapter focuses on how large groups of people can contribute effectively, via the Internet, to response and relief efforts. In addition to obstacles regarding the integration of their contributions into the work of formal organizations, further challenges include recruiting volunteers, keeping them engaged, and ensuring a high-quality output.