Only a week to go before I head out for Thailand. Frantic rush to get a new engagement off the ground at work while also finishing off research that validates what we're trying to do. In terms of priority, been putting off everything else that gets in the way; blogging included.
Anyway exciting update. Have finished the bulk of the research I wanted to do, and the outcome looks good for what we're trying to achieve. While there are loads of volunteering sites out there, most of them fall into what we could call 'Web 1.0' category i.e. static, corporate and text based, where the user has to search for what they want to do, and then apply.
Amidst these, there's a small few that have moved into 'Web 2.0' category in terms of design and interaction, with some nice innovative ideas for connecting people with ideas and causes and non-profits. Some of them have member profiles too, but none of them allow any social graph recreation and they are all still about trying to improve the way organisations find help, funding or volunteers.
The Urban Survival Project and iVoluntr.org are about revolutionising the way volunteering works by coming at it from a true social networking perspective, and then differentiating again by making social networks useful.
Anyway, watch this space for some nice visuals that explain what I mean as soon as I've got time to create them in power point :)
Finally, we're good to go!
