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  •   over 8 years ago

Find.Fund.Fix.Fun

Main Pitch:
FFFF - a platform that gels different actors of the civil society into finding, funding and fixing their own problems and having fun doing so. We aspire to be the biggest portal for completed and new social projects awaiting to be delivered.

Detail:
The underpinning ideas is to make Government bodies come down to the level of citizenry and collaborate in a crowd sourced fashion and at the same time help the civil society to take things in their own hand.

No project is successful without a commercial aspect and collaboration of people, builders, investors, etc.

While the details are still being finalized with my team, we will define 5 key roles/stakeholders in our system.

1- The public
2- Scouts, Curators and Content Editors - (high energy youth can participate in this role. The system will provide tools to collect data and lobby and gather traction on projects)
3- Coordinators (high energy and experienced professionals can participate in this role. They have connections and communication skills to connect problems to their fund sources including CDA, NADRA, etc.)
4- Funders (Individual investors, investment groups and government bodies will mostly come in this role. Coordinators will work closely with scouts to collect and refine data and funders to ensure success).
5- Fixers (these are the independent contractors that actually do the work. Coordinators will lobby with contractors to engage in tenders and other RFQs, help them be successful).

Each role will have levels and as you gain more experience you can unlock more privileges. Of course all of this can be boasted on your public profile, resumé, etc.

We'll restrict this to Islamabad for now.

I envision this as a web application so looking for minimalist graphic designers, front end engineers and coders. I'm not sure about the technology right now but most could settle on MEAN stack or LAMP stack.

Feedback appreciated. The team currently includes Fahim Akhter, Ahmed Ali Nasir and myself.

  • 7 comments

  •   •   over 8 years ago

    One of the questions is why would a cordinator come to a third part platform when it is not his issue and he is not directed by anyone. Fe sabeelillah?

    Now that coordination is one aspect of it. the other would be to have the government body as the Fixer or the contractor. Some local issues can be solved by enthusiastic individuals but some require government responses.

    Let's run a use case for now :

    1 - A person (scout) has an issue with the main road that work was stopped on. The person takes the app and takes a few photos of the issue on it.
    2 - The post is submitted and the location is an essential part. Since its a local body thing people should be able to submit to particular areas or browse through particular areas. Everyone must submit their address.
    3 - The post is sent to the moderator (moderation is essential). If approved it is listed in the app.
    5 - Once a post is approved the user is notified and now he can integrate his facebook / email into the system and choose people from it who can help him with it. This is not an option but necessary this will help the app grow.
    6 - People can vote on the certain issue and sign it like a petition adding their comments on it.
    7 - If your friends / Followers upvote you get 5 points for a normal user you get 1.
    8 - A voter can vote without signing up.
    9 - Issues are of multiple types , city, sector, street. Each has a bare minimum to get work done on it. When the minimum is met. If the issue is a goverment issue a gazett on a weekly bases is sent to the authoritites by the moderators to get the issue solved.
    10 - Voting is closed and a tag is added.
    11 - If an issue is resolved its added to the directory and all the people involved are rewarded.
    12 - If a issue is not resolved for X numbers of days it is logged again and moderator informs the authority.
    13 - The issue is escalated if still not solved.
    14 - If its a issue to be solved by the local community in that case after the bare minimum all involved are sent text messages and lists are generator for people. The poster is provided with a platform to discuss and solve the issue now.
    15 - contractors are involved at this stage and in their login they see the problems they can help with and are able to contact the person involved. and the deed is done. Everyone gets point.

    The gamification needs to be more proper in all this but in essence the social integration, Goverment integration is a must.

  •   •   over 8 years ago

    "why would a cordinator come to a third part platform"
    Coordinators are normal people. He would come for the same reason open-source contributors come to help wikipedia or linux. Some are driven by social cause, some want easy ways to add experience to their portfolio, some are just bored and want to do something.

    "Now that coordination is one aspect of it. the other would be to have the government body as the Fixer or the contractor."
    Govt. almost always outsources all initiatives by issuing tenders. The catch here is to influence the tender mechanism.

  •   •   over 8 years ago

    I agree with spnding more time on gamification - but I'd say its not a critical part of our MVP. We should find things we do not want to do and have a clear concise, deployable MVP.

  •   •   over 8 years ago

    Interesting idea. Working through the street repair use case, how would you ensure that the relevant department actually gets involved in solving the problem? What is the downside for them if they simply ignore the request? What do they lose?

  •   •   over 8 years ago

    Excellent point.

    In this scenario we are assuming that this is build with the government under the e government initiative.

    A certain issue gets escalated and the relevant government official is given the details. A week is waited if there isn't a reply do it again and then the final time go directly or email the top level about it.

    We are talking local body issues here so essentially let's say we are building it for Islamabad then we require CDA head or the MNA to be in on it and be part of the system.

    Without it , the government part fails.

    The other part helping ourselves that zaki has explained that can still be achieved by involving contractors they are more concerned since they will make money off the contracts so they will try to reach the group that's trying to get something done.

    Ofcourse this scenario is for different things lets say everyone in our street we want to plant trees or cover all the dirt bits in our street with cement. That is something that should be taken care of by the people not the local body.

  •   •   over 8 years ago

    I think this is where the 'coordinator' will come in. Obviously Fahim posting a picture of broken chambeli road won't make its way to the clerks of CDA. But let's say there is Samer who's father or some uncle works in CDA or Samer is just generally a very well connected person (or aspires to be) so takes up the challenge to *find* someone within CDA who takes care of such issues, brings him onboard if possible, or become his spokesperson here.

  •   •   over 8 years ago

    Actually My Idea is more expanded in your post :) We must discuss with each other :)

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