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Solving the begging problem: A social media platform focused on allowing philanthropists to donate to those less fortunate #121

Open dnk8n opened 5 years ago

dnk8n commented 5 years ago

This, http://secretloveproject.co.za/ , got me thinking a bit this morning.

Based on that idea... it would be cool to have a global and open-source social media platform based around gifting and donating to those less fortunate. A place where each user profile has a QR code to do with sending money, services or items (snapscan, zapper for example).

The profiles could optionally be associated to some sort of accredited body/charity. In the case of charities (my main focus, but this idea could also be open to independent artists/musicians, etc), they can then offer services to the public in a collaborative way (inspired by this video in which free showers and haircuts are offered to the less fortunate in a festival setting). I think this really goes a long way towards giving disadvantaged people some time to forget about their problems for a while and may even enable them to attend a job interview they otherwise couldn't.

One way this could work is if homeless people were given a bunch of business cards with their social media profile (i.e. this idea) link / payment QR code and some description about their history and circumstances (Potentially this could be designed with the help of people like us at an event described above). I think that would go a long way towards humanizing those less fortunate in the eyes of a potential philanthropist (because often I think people are just scared of a person they know nothing about). Also, people will not be pressured to make an on the spot donation and can take the card home and donate when it suits them.

I also thought of the idea of some way in which people currently begging are incentivized to gift to others. In that way roles get reversed a bit, and a human connection is made before potential donations are made down the line (referring to the business card idea above).

I think this is something I may start working on and fleshing out through the CapeDiff organisation. And it is something I could tinker on even in the rural area I am moving to next year (directly impacting the local community anywhere in the world is something I hope to achieve through this idea).

Would be great to have some remote collaborators! Thoughts?

KOLANICH commented 5 years ago

Money is not fortune. And rich people would prefer not to use a foreign platform for that but to build an own one: they are businessmen and they understand that it is more profitable to make the money they donate benefit own public image and own public image benefits a little to the business they have rather than to a foreign website.

dnk8n commented 5 years ago

Money is not fortune. And rich people would prefer not to use a foreign platform for that but to build an own one: they are businessmen and they understand that it is more profitable to make the money they donate benefit own public image and own public image benefits a little to the business they have rather than to a foreign website.

Not sure what you are implying here. Care to explain more clearly what you mean?

KOLANICH commented 5 years ago

One way this could work is if homeless people were given a bunch of business cards with their social media profile (i.e. this idea) link / payment QR code and some description about their history and circumstances (Potentially this could be designed with the help of people like us at an event described above).

This implies that businesmen would have registered in the website in order to give charity. But it may be more profitable for them to have an own website for that, maybe even on a subdomain of a corporate domain in order to promote own corporation. And on own website they can have own terms, like "in order to get charity you must surrender all your personal data and give us access to all your account and devices", so they can collect personal data of people and use their devices for espionage on their neighbours.

dnk8n commented 5 years ago

I am not targeting businessmen at all. Think of it like crowdsourcing for the homeless. My implementation details can be taken with a pinch of salt.

The problem is: People don't like to be confronted in passing by beggars. How can we avoid that uncomfortable situation and instil a culture of generosity at the same time.

omendezmorales commented 5 years ago

Hey @dnk8n, Have you considered submitting your initiative to the socialcoder site https://socialcoder.org/Home/Index? I bet they could find the matching programming talent for the media platform you have in mind. Best of luck ;-)

FredrikAugust commented 5 years ago

Great idea! Love to see ideas for the good of humanity ♥