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810 Posts
And another dumb title.
I wanted to explain my project a bit more on this blog lately, go into details, get feedback from smart people on how we could improve it, stuff like that.
It also happens that I am currently in the process of writing our application to a big festival, which would greatly help us if we were to be selected.
So, considering these people know about as much as you, seems logical to "submit" the application here in the first place. It is indeed very hard, when you've been living a project full time for almost a year, to understand what is not easily understood.
There we go. First off, I have to produce a paragraph to sum up the project, and here's what I've got so far:
Paranoïa took over that paragraph.
Then, we have to go into details, and explain the positive impact the project can have. Thats a tough one, it's quite a complicated project... But again, here's what I got :
And this one too.
So, thoughts ? If you read the whole thing, thanks for your attention. It's not exactly eye candy :/
 
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810 Posts
Man, you pretty much summed up all the criticism we heard from many sources lately. Good job :D Are you consultant ? Maybe you should ^^
Also, not exactly what I wanted to hear 2 days from deadline :D Oh man...
Anyway... As I said, not the first time we heard that. That in itself isn't good news for us, but at least I can debate a bit, although I do believe we try to achieve too much at the same time. Our UX guy warned us about that. Director of a large crowdfunding platform told us the same.
You'd think, but why the hell didn't we listen then ? Because next to that, we got fucking huge monsters that really got into our vision. I'm talking directors at Axxa, Sodexo, Engie etc. When you're a young dude with little real life experience, it's easy to get lulled into believing that you're onto something. And apparently even when you're experienced (thinking about my collegues) ! I still think we are onto something, but yeah, the idea that some serious revisiting of our solution is needed was slowly arising lately.
It's funny now thinking about the people that got behind us, and what I wrote in our application : "contrary to the usually top-down approach used in big companies, where those making decisions often have little to no idea about what their employees actually need." Guess we shouldn't have listened to them after all :D
Mh, yeah, the "debate". One issue I have with breaking down our vision, is that some pieces makes no sense by themselves. To go back on LinkedIn, if our reviewing methods are not tied to the fact that you've accomplished something real with the person you're reviewing (which would have been realizing a mission as a team), then we're not better. And how could we make sure they did something together if this module is isolated ? I think there is a great value in this full cycle, from ideas to realization, but you're most likely right that the way we want it to happen isn't quite realistic yet.
Lately, I've been trying to steer away from a single platform, toward an ecosystem of apps. Thing is, I'm not the original designer, and although my influence on him has grown over the last year, I'm not sure I can just say "well let's scratch all of it and start from 0 again". Not sure, but I just tried :D First thing I did after I read your post haha.
If we were to keep only one module... I think the mission system/granular distribution of funds would make the most sense. Idea sourcing apps are plenty, but they often lack the action part. Crowdfunding market is way saturated too, but there is this issue where it's not always clear where the money is going. It could even connect to LinkedIn or equivalent to have that reality based review system. Mh. Could work, and achieve 80% of what we first intended.
Well, thanks a lot, that was a great criticism. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with my week end and this festival now, but it's probably for the best in the end.
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It's getting two birds stoned at once.
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810 Posts
Had to google that. Now I hope you're not serious, else you sure deserve your signature.
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810 Posts
I almost took that bait. Damn it, my troll sensor is getting dull...
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This app (although it borders on a philosophy) takes on a lot of responsibility. Bringing an idea to full implementation while doing everything decentralized has a lot of risk involved, especially the funding bit.
(I have a software background, so the questions below may be slightly software-focused)
Say an idea is accepted, but after some time in development it appears more complex then expected. Implementation takes more time. Some of the people working on the project quit, because they have other stuff planned. Do they get rewarded when they leave halfway? The ones that remain, do they get rewarded the same as those that jumped ship?
The "really funny one", does he receive the same reward as " the really smart one"? If they all decide to quit the project (which then is blocked or even cancelled), but investments have been made (supply, hardware, contracts with 3rd parties) who will pay for those costs?
If the project is finished, who will pick up any support jobs?Fixing bugs is not as sexy as developing new stuff, so it might be harder to find people to pick up that task. Do you offer them the same reward as the original developers? From which budget? Did the crowd funding keep 10% reserved for support? What if the 10% is spent, but there are still issues remaining?
If the project makes a profit, whose profit is it? If the project is bought by a big company, who get a share? If the project runs put of steam after a year or so, who will pay the remaining bills?
Not to say this won't work. Just that you have to be very clear about all sorts of details, to all people involved.
(Also, unrelated: I once met a man who wanted to "basically combine the functionality of Facebook, Ebay, Outlook, Youtube and Twitter". He wanted us to rebuild this from scratch. Didn't quite work out)
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810 Posts
Those are all quite specific (and perfectly valid) questions. We thought about these things a lot, and we have some ideas about it, but in the end, it's implementation dependant (won't be the same for a big company or for an open community), and most importantly, it has to be tested. So nothing I'm going to tell you here is set is stone, it's just the first thing we'll try.
Say an idea is accepted, but after some time in development it appears more complex then expected. Implementation takes more time. Some of the people working on the project quit, because they have other stuff planned. Do they get rewarded when they leave halfway? The ones that remain, do they get rewarded the same as those that jumped ship?
As long as you contributed to a mission, you should be rewarded. To dive into details a bit more, say a mission for 100 bucks was done by 3 people. In the end, we ask each of them how they think the 100 bucks should be distributed among them, and average that to get the final distribution. So as long as you actually did something, and that other people can recognize it, you'll get something.
The "really funny one", does he receive the same reward as " the really smart one"? If they all decide to quit the project (which then is blocked or even cancelled), but investments have been made (supply, hardware, contracts with 3rd parties) who will pay for those costs?
The talents are unrelated to the rewards. The really funny one could get more money than the really smart one, if he contributed more (telling jokes isn't contributing, I'm talking acutal work here, regardless of if you're a piece of shit or the next superman). If a project fails, well, shit happens. The crowdfunded money is already reserved for the project at this point, so there is a risk involved. But any money not spent will be refunded. It's a delicate matter, but if you think about kickstarter, it's not that worse. In fact, if you're frustrated that a project isn't progressing, well, you can jump in and contribute !
If the project is finished, who will pick up any support jobs?Fixing bugs is not as sexy as developing new stuff, so it might be harder to find people to pick up that task. Do you offer them the same reward as the original developers? From which budget? Did the crowd funding keep 10% reserved for support? What if the 10% is spent, but there are still issues remaining?
Right now we do not handle the "after-launch". It's more of a startup incubator in its current form, although it is something I'd like to add. At some point. When everything else is done. 10 years from now ?
If the project makes a profit, whose profit is it? If the project is bought by a big company, who get a share? If the project runs put of steam after a year or so, who will pay the remaining bills?
Same as above. Good questions though. But no answer here.
You're right saying it borders on philosophy. This is what our project really is about. We don't really care about the app, it's just a tool. This one might not work, it's just what we think embodies our philosophy the best right now. Our pillars are open-source, open innovation and collective intelligence. So far from us to pretend we got all the solutions, quite the opposite actually.
Thanks for your feedback 
(Also, unrelated: I once met a man who wanted to "basically combine the functionality of Facebook, Ebay, Outlook, Youtube and Twitter". He wanted us to rebuild this from scratch. Didn't quite work out)
Haha, yeah, I get how it gives that vibe. I'm the most idealist of our board, but the original designer is another kind of idealist. The kind that have been called crazy, "Oh, this will NEVER work". But it's not his first project, and so far he has proven them all wrong. So, you know, I want to believe :D
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EPT
