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Friday, August 21, 2009
How I See It
Web, ResourceMatcher used to help those in need
MHT's Galen Moore: New 'hyperlocal' web trend
MHT's Efrain Viscarolasaga: How social networking is changing business
MHT managing editor Rodney Brown on NECN: 22 tech companies give back to community
An Arlington social studies teacher would like to organize her students to do a food drive. A social action group in Cambridge is looking for space for a temporary office in downtown Boston. A Boston bank has a floor of unused office space and would like to make it available to a good cause. A shop in Medford wants to help their community by offering cases of bottled water from time to time. Where do these people go to scratch their itch — to solve their problem?
Currently, people can tap their personal network by calling or e-mailing their friends and professional contacts. Technologies such as e-mail lists and social networking sites have made it easier for people to have more regular contact with a wider network than was previously possible. Yet the fundamental nature of the way people approach the situation is the same.
One problem with this approach is that it relies on a certain degree of luck to find the right person and make a connection. Another problem is that there’s no good way to sustain the information over time; either people make a connection right away or it probably drops off the radar of the people who would facilitate the connection.
We believe that with the web it is possible to create a site to help those looking with those offering resources — their time, money, expertise, equipment or facilities. Perhaps a service like Craigslist meets Angies List meets Kayak.com — providing a structured matching application specifically focused on local philanthropic opportunities and actions.
We have been thinking about creating just such a service. We are calling it “ResourceMatcher.org.” We envision this as a free service, which would be built first as a pilot around the Boston area and a specific category of resources.
ResourceMatcher.org would be dead-simple to use, starting from a home page divided in two: “Want To Give” and “Looking For.” Here’s how it might work:
The bank and the shop owner would go into the “Want To Give” section. It would indicate that they had office space or food items, respectively, to offer. They would fill in some further details, such as where, what and when. And they would sign off.
Some time in the future, the social studies teacher and the social action group in Cambridge, respectively, would go into the “Looking For” part of the site. They, in turn, indicate what they need. Then they would sign off.
ResourceMatcher.org would allow people to search available resources and needs, and would even look for opportunities for automatic matching when new information becomes available.
Does this make sense to you? We are looking for partners who believe in the potential of this idea and are interested in working with us to make it a reality. If your organization would like to discuss ways in which to partner with us, please get in touch.
Pito Salas is a Boston-area technologist, developer of BlogBridge, is on the core team of the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation, and was co-founder of eRoom Technology. He blogs at www.salas.com and can be reached at rps@salas.com. Gavin Murphy is founder and president of Annkissam, an Cambridge-based company providing operational and technology consulting to the nonprofit sector. Contact him at gavin.murphy@annkissam.com.
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