Sama (company): Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox Non-profit |
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| Non-profit_name = Samasource |
| Non-profit_name = Samasource |
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| image = File:Samasource.jpg|thumb|Samasource |
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Revision as of 10:35, 25 April 2011
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| Founded | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Leila Chirayath Janah |
| Location | |
Area served | Haiti, India, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda |
| Method | Outsourcing |
| Website | www.samasource.org |
Samasource is a nonprofit organization that brings dignified, computer-based work opportunities to people living in poverty around the world. The organization's mission is based on the belief that poverty can be alleviated by tapping into the brainpower of the poor and empowering them as producers of goods and services in the global economy. Samasource secures contracts from enterprise customers to provide data entry, digitization, content moderation, and other outsourcing services.[1] The work is divided into smaller tasks called "microwork" which are completed by Samasource's distributed workforce. This workforce comes from Service Partners in 6 different countries including Haiti, India, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda.[2]
Samasource is headquartered in San Francisco, California.[3]
Business Model
Enterprise customers send Samasource a project that is broken down by a proprietary technology platform into smaller tasks called "microwork,"[4] a term coined by Samasource founder Leila Chirayath Janah in 2008. These tasks are sent to Service Partners - nonprofit organizations, grassroots businesses, and educational institutions that work with people living in poverty. Service Partners, which are in charge of managing and paying Samasource's workers, must meet a range of criteria in line with Samasource's social mission including:
1. Reducing poverty in a low-income region with untapped human capital. (Low-income countries must be in accordance with the World Bank's definition and low-income regions within other countries must be in accordance with the Columbia University Global Distribution of Poverty Dataset).
2. Working with women, youth aged 18 to 30, and/or refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs).
3. Paying workers a living wage (as defined by the Fair Wage Guide) for the country in which they operate.[5]
Samasource's workers are all connected to the organization's cloud, or the "SamaHub," a proprietary online work distribution system.[6] Once the microwork is completed, Samasource staff reviews the work, assures quality, and delivers the completed work to the client.[7] Samasource distributes the majority of this earned income to Service Partners, which ultimately compensate Samasource workers. [8] Samasource provides these services for free to its Service Partners, but charges a service fee to its clients and takes a small percentage of the value of the work done by its service partners to cover operational costs.
Samasource is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit, financed through a combination of its profits and grants. [9]
History
Samasource was founded in 2008 by Leila Chirayath Janah.[10] Janah's interest in development began when she was 16 and teaching English and creative writing at an impoverished school in Ghana. Working with students in a country where one third of the population lives below the poverty line opened Janah's eyes to the lack of meritocratic opportunities for those living in developing economies.
After completing a degree in African Development Studies from Harvard University, Janah worked as a consultant at the World Bank and at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Company). There, working with clients in the outsourcing sector and nonprofit world, Janah developed the idea for Samasource. [11]
The organization received its initial seed funding from the International Business in Development Challenge and the Stanford Social Enterprise Challenge in 2008, and has received additional funding from grantors including the Rockefeller Foundation, Mulago Foundation, Peery Foundation and Google.org. The organization has since grown into a team and board with backgrounds in distributed work, economic development, and outsourcing.[12] Samasource derives its name from the Sanskrit word "sama", which means equal.[13]
References
- ^ "Samasource: Give Work"
- ^ "Samasource One Pager"
- ^ "Samasource FAQ"
- ^ "Samasource One Pager"
- ^ "Samasource Service Partners"
- ^ http://www.samasource.com/api/
- ^ "Samasource One Pager"
- ^ "Samasource FAQ"
- ^ http://www.samasource.org/about/faq
- ^ "Samasource: Give Work"
- ^ de Waal, Mandy. "Samasource, a cyber solution to global poverty" "The Daily Maverick", August 3, 2010, accessed November 29, 2010.
- ^ "Samasource Crunchbase Profile"
- ^ "Samasource: Give Work"