3 ms·
I'm actively working on data-based civics projects that should hopefully have positive individual financial impact - particularly for lower income households. I
by bpchaps 11y ago
I'm actively working on data-based civics projects that should hopefully have positive individual financial impact - particularly for lower income households. It's very fulfilling work that perhaps comes close in addressing localized economic problems (eg, neighborhoods).
Problem with this sort of work is that it's generally incremental and has zero immediate effects. In other words, there's no way in hell anyone's going to fund me even on principal. Philanthropists? Nah. YC types? Nope. AVs? heh. Volunteers? Eh. The only way I've found to make it happen is to apply some sort of gamification (ads, app selling), which switches motivation from helping all, to only helping those with a smart phone or easy access to internet.
"No shit, you're asking for free work." is pretty common, but I have a persistently hard time believing it's 100% systemic.
Any thoughts on building capital for a company whose goal is in helping low income areas using YC-loved technology without any expectation of direct income?
(Two examples:
Find/Contest bad parking tickets in Chicago. Work in progress with a newly created team of 3: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/red-bin/chitickets/master/chicago.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/red-bin/chitickets/master/...
Mapping domestic violence shelters in US, as this exists nowhere else : https://red-bin.github.io/ https://red-bin.github.io/ (unfinished) )
- tdaltonc 11y agoApplying for government grants?
- bpchaps 11y agoNever thought of that, honestly - I'll look into it. I've had surprising amount of folk ask in seriousness why I'm trying to take money away from the budget starved city, though.. That mindset might push back. Still worth a shot! ;)
- tdaltonc 11y agoMind if I ask what city? Some cities and states have grant programs for exactly this kind of thing.
- bpchaps 11y agoNice! I'm doing this out of Chicago, IL.
- tdaltonc 11y agoThis would be a good place to start: http://digital.cityofchicago.org/index.php/developer-resources/ http://digital.cityofchicago.org/index.php/developer-resourc...
- bpchaps 11y agoThey're the ones who inspired me to start these projects and seek funding, actually. Half of that inspiration comes from a huge amount of annoyance in the ineffectiveness of most of their work, though. It's all very feel-good in the same spirit as building useless schools in Brown Country is. That's not to say all of their work is bad. For example, their speaker this week was an "Opposition Contractor" whose whole dig was that he sells himself out to the highest bidder to use data in ensuring the other candidate doesn't get elected - no matter the party affiliation. All discussed in the frame of "civics". Pardon the cynicism. :) Thanks for the help and motivation to get me searching again, though! Hopefully there's something out there..
- tangled_zans 11y agoHey! I was replying to your comment on my other thread and then it disappeared :P You sound like you're going through a lot of the same stuff that I am. I'm 27 also and my mind is a maze of incomprehensible things. Let me know if you want to chat about it, my e-mail is in my profile. Might be something that we can both share insights on!
- ScottBurson 11y agoYC does have a nonprofit track -- is that something you would consider?