automating motivote's voter engagement platform

What problem are we trying to solve?

motivote is a digital platform that helps young people hold their friends accountable for voting by leveraging behavioral economic principles to increase likelihood of voting. Currently, our communication with participants is almost entirely on an individual basis over email. We'd love to have some support automating our communication in time for primary elections in August!

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?

Directly: motivote's participants. Our target audience is Americans age 18-30, but the platform is open to anyone who is eligible to vote in the US. This will make communication much smoother and streamlined.

Indirectly: The US and the democratic process! Young voters are the demographic group least likely to vote, and therefore least likely to be represented by elected officials. More young voters = a more engaged citizenry moving into the future, and elected officials who are more representative of all US citizens.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

You can learn more about us and why our model works here.

What help is needed at this time?

Help automating our communications as we prepare for upcoming elections (August - November).

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

Great question! Our team isn't so tech savvy, and we're very early stage, so we're in the process of figuring out what's next. We're working on cleaning up our website to prepare for more traffic as we get closer to the 2018 midterm elections, and are welcome to other suggestions.

How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?

By email, at info@motivoteus.com, or on social: Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas :baby:

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing Progressive HackNight community. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

[x] Create this idea issue
[x] Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
[ ] Start the conversation about this new idea on Slack (this project uses #general )
[ ] Respond with at least one update on this issue within the next month

Checklist for ACTIVE projects :fire:

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Progressive HackNight Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

[ ] Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
[ ] Create a GitHub repository and Slack channel for work.
[ ] Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
[ ] Create a team for your core contributors
- This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
- You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
- Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
[ ] Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files
- Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
- Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team with an email to steering@progressivehacknight.org or come find an organizer at a HackNight. We're here to help bring great ideas to life!

Wooot! Welcome!

On Thu, Jun 7, 2018 at 12:21 PM motivote notifications@github.com wrote:

What problem are we trying to solve?

motivote is a digital platform that helps young people hold their friends accountable for voting by leveraging behavioral economic principles to increase likelihood of voting. Currently, our communication with participants is almost entirely on an individual basis over email. We'd love to have some support automating our communication in time for primary elections in August! Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?

Directly: motivote's participants. Our target audience is Americans age 18-30, but the platform is open to anyone who is eligible to vote in the US. This will make communication much smoother and streamlined.

Indirectly: The US and the democratic process! Young voters are the demographic group least likely to vote, and therefore least likely to be represented by elected officials. More young voters = a more engaged citizenry moving into the future, and elected officials who are more representative of all US citizens. Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

You can learn more about us and why our model works here https://www.motivoteus.com/why-it-works/. What help is needed at this time?

Help automating our communications as we prepare for upcoming elections (August - November). What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

Great question! Our team isn't so tech savvy, and we're very early stage, so we're in the process of figuring out what's next. We're working on cleaning up our website to prepare for more traffic as we get closer to the 2018 midterm elections, and are welcome to other suggestions. How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)? By email, at info@motivoteus.com, or on social: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/motivoteUS/, Twitter https://twitter.com/motivoteus, or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motivoteus/. Project management Checklist for NEW ideas 👶

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing Progressive HackNight community. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

Create this idea issue

Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above

Start the conversation about this new idea on Slack https://progressivehacknight.slack.com (this project uses #general https://progressivehacknight.slack.com/messages/C4CDHFMKN/ )

Respond with at least one update on this issue within the next month

Checklist for ACTIVE projects 🔥

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Progressive HackNight Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF https://github.com/open-austin/cheatsheet-basedef for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.

Create a GitHub repository https://github.com/new and Slack channel for work.

Create issues https://mozilla.github.io/open-leadership-training-series/articles/get-your-project-online/project-set-up-for-collaboration-with-github/#assignment--add-your-first-issue to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.

Create a team https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-team/ for your core contributors

This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.

You can remove and add people to your team as needed.

Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.

Create a Google Drive https://drive.google.com, Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/, or other cloud storage to share larger files

Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.

Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team with an email to steering@progressivehacknight.org or come find an organizer at a HackNight. We're here to help bring great ideas to life!

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/ProgressiveHackNight/project-ideas/issues/26, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAYZTBqdowvOp0TT1ZplcKx6Uv-IabqZks5t6VMFgaJpZM4UeuT4 .

ProgressiveHackNight / project-ideas