Author: Kristy Lyn Levings

What NEED does this meet?

With the rapid change in climate and geopolitical strife possible in our lifetimes, we will see mass migrations of peoples. History has shown us that the movement of peoples has inevitably damaged or destroyed the social fabric that creates unique, diverse, and necessary cultural wisdom.

What is the APPROACH?

I would like to suggest a Cultural Wikipedia. We are in a technologically advantageous place in time where we have the capabilities to record and store things visually, auditorially, and in writing. I’m advocating that we create an uploadable website which people globally can add pictures, songs, writings, and more benchmarking cultures and civilizations before they disintigrate, or disappear entirely.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

Having a website dedicated solely to cultures would be priceless. And lets not forget about the advantages of having generational oral wisdom accessible to all people. Or to those who want to know the details of their ancestry.

What is the COMPETITION?

Obviously, there’s already Wiki- but its not dedicated to any one thing, and ours would be solely for the storage of cultural information.

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

It’s just a website.

Author: Jack Nichols

What NEED does this meet?

This is aimed primarily at university students, although has equal applicability to the wider student body.

There are plenty of events for students to get involved in to stimulate their interest in the wider world and community – model UNs, model EUs, moot courts, essay competitions, etc. However, it’s very hard to find out what’s going on, and how to get involved, to the extent that it’s often the same people time after time.

What is the APPROACH?

I have started developing a website along the lines of a database of student events (www.studentactivitynetwork.com) which has some advice on how to get involved and make the most of these events.

However, there are no websites that bring all these events together in one place. I believe that you’d get much more involvement from a wider range of people if these kinds of opportunities were made obvious in one central location.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

At the moment events are too narrowly targeted. Student event/competition/activity managers have limited resources to contact students. A central resource would make their work easier and students’ lives easier to find an event to develop their skills and interests or bring a new element to their lives.

What is the COMPETITION?

Similar sites – www.studentactivitynetwork.com. This is a website I am working on, but it does not have the key element yet – the database of events. This will add so much value that it would win out.

There are no other similar sites with a database that could be sorted by region/subject matter/type of event/date, so there is no immediate competition to win against.

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

I envisage a mySQL/PHP database which would not take much to build. The advice pages could be made very simply and easily.

Additional elements could be added, although these would be slightly more costly: wikipedia-style advice pages so people could make their own changes; a message board, so that new people could get advice on what to do, and competitors could catch up with friends – networking possibilities for students.

Author: Mita Williams

What NEED does this meet?

This project would encourage community. It would help others. It would make one feel a little less lonely in the world.

This website would assign interested indivduals to a randomized group of 150 people and would provide for them an online message board that would be private and exclusive to those members of the group. There are only two rules. One: once assigned to a group, you cannot leave that group. And two: you can only join one group. After that, it is up to the group to decide what is next for them.

What is the APPROACH?

What makes the approach of this plan distinctive is that it removes choice out of the formation of one’s social network. While most social software and web services attempt to bring together a person with others holding similar interests or from a similar background, my150.org will strive to bring groups of strangers together.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

Imagine if you had a group of 150 people that you could go to whenever you had a question, a problem, or a need that couldn’t be handled by yourself. You could tap into their collective knowledge, expertise, compassion, and tough love. And you could return such favours and the feel the good that comes from helping others. Over time, you would get know these fellow members. You would play online games with them. You would use Pledgebank with them. You would meet them in person. Perhaps you would begin to consider some of them friends.

According to research in cognitive psychology “the figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of individuals with whole we can have a genuinely social relationship” and that if you comb through the anthropological literature you will find that “the number 150 pops up again and again”. These quotes come from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point [how little things can make a big difference] which also offers the idea that “small, close-knit groups have the power to magnify the epidemic potential of a message or idea.” which is why mySociety should consider this project.

What is the COMPETITION?

The closest service that I could find is the “Slapstick / Lonesome no more” middle name generator at http://thesurrealist.co.uk/lonesome.

Unlike the “middle name generator”, my150.org will provide the necessary next steps to bring individuals together online. Not every group will be successful but some groups will have the right combination of indivduals to generate and sustain benefit, especially as the first groups to form will most likely come from those who support the efforts of mySociety, a population of those interested in promoting civic and community values. Word of mouth (“I found out about this restaurant from a girl in my150”) will encourage others to join.

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

The expense of this project would not stem from its design or but from its inherent promise to be hosted for at least a lifetime. It would be too difficult for me to build this idea but not too difficult, I don’t think, for someone with some experience.

Author: Tim Pateman

What NEED does this meet?

The intention of this project is that it would remove the barriers for people to act on aspects of public life they wanted to change. From people curious about a planning application down the road to those who’ve just seen a documentary about a global issue like AIDs and want to help, it would serve as a human ‘coin-sorter’, taking in large volumes of people and pointing them in the most efficient direction to fulfil their aims.

The premise is simple: the majority of people in the majority of situations would not know how to make a contribution to public life. This will continue until people know that there is always one port-of-call for the information they need.

What is the APPROACH?

In essence, the plan would be to build a website along the lines of existing ‘My Society’ projects, but with a much broader remit i.e. encouraging people to participate in public life in all kinds of ways.

There are many possible ways of sorting information – but only one element is, I think, absolutely neccessary. That would be to divide information along the lines or strategies on which people are observed to act. The front-page of the web-site would therefore have to grab people based on those distinctions e.g. having clear routes covering; for example:
– people who want to write a letter or make their opinions known;
– people who would like to be prompted or consulted in future;
– those who wish to change their habits or personal consumption patterns;
– those who can give one-off free time to a cause;
– those who can give regular free time to a cause ;
– those who have the energy or skills to start something new

Beyond that core structure, the project could be as big or as small as resources dictate. As a smaller initiative it could provide basic information on each route – a single webpage perhaps taking your postcode and then presenting you with links to the key organisations (e.g. your local volunteer bureau). It would rely on people using search engines to look for terms such as ‘write a letter’, or on usual publicity routes.

At the other end of the scale it could act as a massive umbrella group for charities and voluntary groups in the UK, by providing a publicly advertised ‘one stop shop’ service for anyone wishing to get involved in any aspect of public life. Obviously this is highly ambitious, but the project could deliver real benefits as a small initiative, and bloom into something that more and more people would hear about.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

The aim to broaden and deepen participation in public life beyond those who are already well-informed. Furthermore it would stop wasted efforts by putting people in contact with the information they need, rather than leaving it to chance.

It would also serve to remove excuses to act. People often moan about a problem to each other, but they very rarely say ‘you should do this’, or ‘I’ll do something about that’.

What is the COMPETITION?

There is no organisation currently providing a similar service that is well-known. My instincts are that people who do more than moan might choose one of two common strategies a) writing to their MP or councillor or b) writing to the local press.

This only brings results in some situations. If someone is concerned about global warming then contacting their MP is ideal when a new piece of legislation is being scrutinised; however MPs do not have the resources to suggest practical life-style changes the person might make, groups they might volunteer with, or projects they could support. All that information is out there, but it is not well connected. It is not a case of damming the river, but one of following the flow of the water and gently re-directing it in some places!

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

Potentially very cheap or very expensive. A system that simply provides basic information and links on each action-strategy could be done using some of the existing My Society technology and a moderate amount of web-developer time.

If the initial site proved potentially useful, then it could well attract funding to expand significantly. Ultimately a ‘dosomethingaboutit.org.uk’ website could become the source of information people think of first whenever they want to contribute to public life but are unclear as to how!

What NEED does this meet?

There are a few good open source programs that don’t seem to have active maintainers or bug-fixers any more. In another 20 years’ time, this problem will get worse, as authors who used to actively maintain their code pass on, get too busy, or pass away. In some cases the software is good enough and doesn’t need maintenance any more (eg TeX). In other cases new volunteers will take over (eg emacs, gcc). But what about the excellent projects that still need a little bit of work? Currently, even if volunteers provide precise bug fixes and enhancements, their contributions are liable to be lost. We need a system to ensure that orphaned projects are efficiently adopted.

What is the APPROACH?

I’m not sure how to scratch this itch, but as the leader of an open-source project, I reckon that some money is needed. I’d suggest creating an organization that would employ a small team of hackers expert in Open Source, and this organization would petition all linux vendors to give it a bit of money in return for which it would take on the maintenance of valuable open source packages that all would continue to distribute.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

This open source orphanage would rescue code that might die if neglected, thus enhancing linux and .

What is the COMPETITION?

Sourceforge provides much of what the community needs.

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

Sun microsystems occasionally inject money into open source projects that they think deserve help. I reckon the main people to ask would be IBM, redhat, Shuttleworth foundation.

What NEED does this meet?

Joe needs an electric drill with a 2cm masonry bit. He needs it for 5 minutes. Under business as usual, he goes to the DIY shop, buys the equipment, uses it, then lets it languish in his shed for the next 20 years. MEANWHILE, on his street, Fred, Freda, Frederik, and Frederika had exactly the thing he needed languishing in their sheds. They would have been happy to lend their drills to Joe, IF THEY HAD HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO OFFER THEM, and IF JOE HAD BEEN ABLE TO SEEK THEM OUT. Furthermore, this lending of useful things among neighbours, if it could be promoted, WOULD ENHANCE COMMUNITY SPIRIT, helping people get to know each other.
It’s like ebay, but (a) without money; and (b) local.
It’s like freecycle, but (a) organized better, like ebay (searchable, etc); (b) allowing many sorts of exchange, not just giving things away.

What is the APPROACH?

The idea needs a cool name that, like “google” and “ebay”, will pass into common parlance. Something like “koodle”. .
Set it up with the same look and feel as e-bay, including user accounts, but with the added detail that every object has associated with it a “street”. Each person who registers can associate themselves with a bunch of streets that are their community. When you search for a wood saw, the default is that it searches only in your street. If the search is unsuccessful, you can choose to add “saw wanted in this neighbourhood” to the “things-wanted scrolling-list thingy” that people see on their home page. Such requests for things-wanted would die off the wanted list on a time-scale of a few days.
Every time you find something is available you use the secure koodle communication interface to contact the person offering the thing. It sends email to them, or texts their mobile phone, or whatever method they have agreed. Like a dating site. Then the two of you get the chance to have a mutually consenting koodle. The koodle itself is the legal responsibility of those people alone, just like a dating agency isn’t responsible for your safety on your date.
WHEN THE KOODLE IS CONSUMATED, THE PERSON WHO LENT THE THING GETS A KOODLE CREDIT IN THE REGISTER OF KOODLES. (Like the ebayer rating system.) Koodle credits would have no obvious value, but it would be cool to be the koodle king on your street. Borrowing stuff through koodle would not use up any koodle credit. If you turned out to be a useless koodler, though, the lender could leave negative vibes. How to stop someone with negative vibes from just opening another account? Aha! The trick is to associate every person with a STREET ADDRESS. If anyone has any suspicions about someone they have never met before, they can just ask them to prove their address. With everyone identified by a userID and a street address, creating multiple identities would be much harder.
We’d have to figure out a good protocol for meeting people for the first time to make sure you are not ripped off by burglars.
I don’t think security would be an issue, though. People could include photos of themselves standing in their street, accessible by public key. The fact that DJCM lives at number 19 is in the public domain already. A typical exchange would be “Hi Freda from number 93! I’m DJCM at number 19 (maybe you’ve seen me on my bike) – I see you have a saw; please could I borrow it?” Freda checks that DJCM has got a 300-heart koodle rating, uses the secret key that DJCM has sent with the request to access DJCM’s photograph, confirms that it is a familiar face, and agrees the deal. Once the two of them make personal acquaintance, they can inform koodle that they are willing to open their full repositories to each other. Y’see, koodle allows you not only to list “stuff for the whole world to know about, that you are happy to lend”, but also “stuff that is fairly valuable, and that you are happy to lend to people on your street whom you come to trust, but want to keep secret from the general public.”