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coopr edited this page May 10, 2011 · 2 revisions

Welcome to the WishServer wiki!

What’s next for WishServer?

Is it just me, or does this press release sound like a pretty good description of ours? It’s a good thing that the person it’s about is the Mayor of Burlingame, who’s committed to helping us raise money and get fiscally sponsored (so we can take ‘investment’ as donations, etc).

Also/but, the more I think about it, the more I can’t ignore that we’ve somehow stumbled on an incredibly powerful concept that possibly should be pursed more directly. Eric Schmidt used to like to call Google a “serendipity engine.” But obviously, Google doesn’t let you predefine your wishes, then sit back and wait for actual opportunities to come to you. Incredibly, a Google search for “make the web come to you” turns up nothing significant beyond a couple of references for setting up iGoogle and RSS. I do really think that this would work for nonprofits. But this is a way bigger opportunity. It’s WishUponARobot, for anyone, and is something Craigslist probably should have already been doing, if it had any ambition. I love Craigslist, but it’s only using a sliver of the power of the web. It makes everything (potentially) visible, but it doesn’t let you see everything. WishServer could eventually let you see everything (that matters), truly making the web come to you.

And after that, I’m ready to put my day job on autopilot and start recruiting natural language hackers. Am I crazy? (I have had a couple of beers) -David!

Twitter: www.twitter.com/WishServer

Existing labor/technical talent matching services for Nonprofits

Email Addresses:

Stuff to show off

Validation

Feedback from Julie (Salesforce Foundation)

APIs Image recognition and tagging http://developer.iqengines.com/ Text processing to extract tags/keywords http://www.programmableweb.com/api/alchemyapi-keyword-and-term-extraction http://www.programmableweb.com/api/text-processing.com

Data Sources http://bayarea.ebayclassifieds.com/classified-ads/?maxPrice=0&minPrice=0&output=gallery Preview? from LaunchRock: http://launchrock.com/adm/livepreview.php?site=2751 LaunchRock live! www.WishServer.org ! Group Chat: http://tinychat.com/wishserver User Interface: https://gomockingbird.com/mockingbird/#k6wnkk1 Donor form: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AiM-DWHZZbvpdE9RdDNkRVlyQ3lSVHBzXzgxT19XelE&hl=en&authkey=CJ6I48QL

Marketing:

WishServer.com and WishServer.org registered on Cooper’s account at GoDaddy

Survey links: Donators: http://bit.ly/WishSurvey
Non-profits: http://bit.ly/mgYTQ2

Twitter: www.twitter.com/WishServer Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/WishServer/129569470452885

WishServer Email Adresses: [email protected] (for Twitter-related stuff only please) [email protected] (for anywhere you need an @wishserver email address!) Access either email at: google.com/a/wishserver.com pw: Ask

Timeline (please contribute!): 11:40am - launched customer development survey (Google Spreadsheet) - started publicizing on Twitter, FB, etc 2:30pm - continuing to work on Use Cases, UI, pitch, rev model, branding 3:55pm - User stores DONE! Use cases DONE! UI mockup list done! w00T! 5:50pm - Landing page launched! Sign-up now at http://WishServer.org and invite all your friends! 7:30pm - used http://www.google.com/search?q=site:.org%20%22wishlist to find WishList pages of non-profits - copied 80 URLs by hand (from pages 1-29 of search results) to start scraping for wish list items Sunday 10:25am - Split into working groups

Existing labor/technical talent matching services for Nonprofits http://www.npower.org/ http://techliminal.com/ http://volunteermatch.org http://taproot.org

Understanding the US Nonprofit Sector: goo.gl/STATj

LaunchRock.com user: [email protected] pass: Ask Cooper

Email Addresses: On Google Doc only - if you are interested in this project, please participate here

Stuff to show off http://www.mobiofy.com/tools/wishserver/ (initial wishlist scrape) http://deep-snow-233.heroku.com/ (Ruby on Rails demo site)

Pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/4nitsirk/4182842242/

Validation CV talking points

NPOS (~10+ directly, 50+ via intermediary)

  1. this is a huge problem. they waste time (1 hour on average before giving up) to try to find appropriate items (90+% need very close or exact items) before giving up, and only 10% only even bother to put up a wishlist
  2. only 2 NPOs say they would NOT pay for this service, and 75%+ specifically would pay a reasonable yearly subscription fee ($10/yr: 100% yes, $5/mo 100% no)

Donors (35+ answers):

  1. 50+% say they don't give stuff because there are no easy ways ( curb, goodwill, craigslist)

  2. 80+% care WHO benefits from their old stuff (not just selfish!) Feedback from Julie (Salesforce Foundation) Good meeting you all today. While I don't know the full extent of your research or progress, just wanted to share some stuff I know and some stuff I've found. And things to keep in mind when building for the nonprofit sector. As well as developing smart and well-informed donors.

    Keep it Simple - Goes without saying Gifts in Kind (now called Good 360 ). Similar to TechSoup. Here's a link to their catalog: https://catalog.giftsinkind.org/ - this looks VERY similar to what you guys are building (http://good360.org/AboutUs) , but they are missing the audience of "individual" donors. As a donor (and knowing other nonprofits) I'd want to make sure you have qualified nonprofits on there - CharityNavigator a good vetting site to "qualify" the organizations. Also GreatNonprofits - http://greatnonprofits.org/ (more of a YELP for nonprofits, but this might not be relevant to what you're doing....pardon my ADD) Database currently run by Charities Review Council of charities who are looking for goods or willing to accept goods - http://www.smartgivers.org/donatinggoodssearch.html - sorted goods, searchable by location as well. Also has full review of the organization from financials, board members, etc - likely pulled from CharityNavigator? How can this product/tool be integrated into or used with other platforms or tools? Nonprofits, corporates, donors, you name it are inundated with lots of tools to donate, volunteer, provide in-kind products or communicate about/with the nonprofit....(Causes, TechSoup, Gifts In Kind, Craigslist, DonorsChose, Facebook, Twitter...) - could be a revenue source - consulting/building out? Let me know how else I can help - hopefully you've gotten some additional surveys' completed from our nonprofit following?

Found two other sites in my quick search that might be relevant....yet small and seemingly not too successful.

DonationMatch: We know how much time and energy goes into planning charitable fundraising events. At DonationMatch we dedicate our resources toward creating mutually beneficial relationships between local businesses and nonprofit organizations through in-kind donations. As our way of giving back to our community we provide DonationMatch pro bono to all tax-exempt nonprofits. http://donationmatch.org/

Zealous Good: http://zealousgood.com/ (Pilot in Lincoln Park (IL) with 4 nonprofits) Zealous Good helps non-profits and donors connect with each other in order to help non-profits find goods and services they need donated and businesses and individuals find non-profits to donate excess goods or services to. Zealous Good does this via a simple and effective online local marketplace. This results in non-profits having increased access to donated goods and services and businesses and individuals receiving recognition for donations, tax incentives, and a simple way of donating goods and services. A quick example would be how Zealous Good would help a homeless shelter match with a local dry cleaner to get the dry cleaning of their client’s interview suits donated

if data is what you are looking to scrape - here's some stuff I found..

List of nonprofits who 'pick up' - http://www.oneprojectcloser.com/charities-local-pickup-list-goods-donations/ Freecycle (i think this was mentioned) http://www.freecycle.org/

Organizations who receive donated goods and then sell them in their "thrift" shops as fundraising

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