Howells.

After writing this I realised it was long and rambling, so let’s start with an abstract:

A proposal for a platform which helps connect designers and developers with others who propose socially-focussed problems, to encourage discussion, ideas, and execution of simple solutions

In the last post about Brooklyn Beta, I mentioned that Todd Park gave a rousing talk about the opportunities that may lie on how we might use health data from the US government. Alongside his talk, was Viktoria Harrison, who founded the fabulous charity, Charity: Water (in fact, Brooklyn Beta was the first time I had even heard about them and I was blown away by what they are doing). Then there was Joel Rose who talked about School of One. Again, something I was only vaguely aware of but was excited by hearing him talk about it in person.

So many fantastic people, executing brilliant, socially-minded ideas, leveraging design, technology, all wrapped up with a bit of gusto. Awesome. Exciting. Filled with big ideas about how to change the world.

With the excitement of the conference over, and one red-eye flight back to London, I’m now sitting at my dining table typing this having contributed nothing socially-worthwhile in the past month following the trip to the US. I have been day-dreaming about how to get involved, but made no effort to contribute in whatever way I could to help fix problems that thousands of others must also be day-dreaming about.

The fact is, in my cozy West London world I’m simply not exposed to many problems that genuinely need fixing, for which I could offer my skills. Yes, I could Do the Right Thing and visit my local homeless drop-in centre to talk about their administration problems and how a simple web app might help, or visit a not-for-profit community support center to see what they struggle with, just to find all they need is a simple scheduling tool to help organise workshops. But honestly, without the knowledge and motivation, I’m more likely to find myself in my local pub explaining to someone why Made In Chelsea is such an awful TV programme.

So this sucks. What can we do to solve the mismatch of professional talent versus fixing problems?

In my mind there are a series of “objects” that all need to be fulfilled and interrelate to fix something:

• Problems
• Ideas
• Connections
• Skills
• Solutions
• Funding

Given this, imagine a platform where anybody could come along and contribute to any of these objects. Here’s a use case:

• Problem – Jamie, who works with autistic children in Liverpool hears about the platform, and visits the website to outline an issue that’s been on his mind for a long time. Jamie is encouraged to be as specific as possible about the problem: “There’s a great offline tool that helps me do X, but the licenses are extremely expensive and we simply can’t afford it.” Jamie tags the problem as being local to Liverpool/UK, but really, the issue could be anywhere.
• Ideas – Sarah, who is a web developer in London has an idea, which could help solve Jamie’s problem. She’s seen a similar tool, which could be tweaked and packaged to provide just what Jamie needs. Others – of any discipline at all – can come and offer commentary on Sarah’s idea, or provide ideas of their own, all the while fleshing out what could be done to help with the problem, and broaden it out such that it could help more people/more problems.
• Connections – Sarah begins to like what David (a web designer) and Sam (who works in branding and marketing for a charity in New York, who deals with autism) have both been saying about her idea. They can connect, and discuss the issue further in whatever method they choose, always involving Jamie in the discussion to validate their thoughts.
• Skills and Solutions – As a group, and leveraging their skills, they may end up with a solution - perhaps fully formed, perhaps half formed. It doesn’t matter.
• Funding – The solution is then packaged up and posted as something that investors or philanthropists might be interested in helping realise. A little funding can help produce a prototype, while a full investment can help realise a full product.

What we’re talking about here then is Kickstarter meets Skillshare meets Yammer meets… whatever, it doesn’t really matter. It just needs to be a platform to get good ideas out there and discussed.

Key to its success are a number of constraints:

• The problems posed should be single-minded, focussed, and usually quite small and/or local
• The ideas and solutions posed should be specific and executable
• The solutions should be executable largely through the intersection of design and technology

I have seen other platforms – such as the very wonderful OpenIDEO – which tackle huge social issues head-on: such as “How might we increase the availability of affordable learning tools & services for students in the developing world?”. That’s a superb issue to try to solve but wow - where would I, as a humble web designer/developer, start? Browsing the comments on that challenge (to use their nomenclature), I see people are unsure where to start, or talk in broad strokes rather that discuss specific ideas through to execution.

If the problem was posed as per the use case above – a specific problem that a specific teacher has in a specific school in a specific neighbourhood – then it might be easier to get a tangible understanding of the problem early on.

As for the second constraint, the ideas and solutions should be executable simply because that is what will motivate an audience of talented designers, strategists, and developers. Abstract ideas and discussion are welcome, but only if they spark tangible thoughts. Related to this is the third constraint: of course, a million problems could be solved via extraordinary high-tech products and insight, but most problems don’t need such complex solutions. The best solution would be one that one, two or three designers, developers, and UI/UX/IA/strategy people could work together to prototype.

So that’s it.

I’d love to have a discussion about this, either here, in person, or by email. And of course if you know of anything that comes close to this idea that exists already, please let me know.