Hacking Homelessness and Happiness - Hosting a Hack-a-Thon at H.S, and an invite to join

[Andy Focallocal]

Homelessness:

I've been working on a resource map for those who are homeless for over a year now and i'd like to host a hack day to try and get it launched, and i wondered if i could host it at the space on the 1st Saturday or Sunday of Feb, and also if any Hackspace members would like to join in.

Most people would be joining in remotely, so i'd anticipate between 10 and 20 people attending physically in Hackspace from my Positive Action Community.


More info: 
The map is called the 'Brighter Tomorrow's Map' and it lists all the resource available to people who are living on the streets, with a focus on reducing the barrier between the public who want to do something to help, and those who are living on the streets around the World.

Including;

• established resources to meet basic needs like where to find showers, washing machines, addiction support groups, shelters 
  
• informal resources to help change their circumstances like free suit hire for job interviews, pass it on coffee
• enabling the public to create a resource, for example i might offer informal CV help at a local library, or weekly web dev classes in a cafe
• enabling people to filter and print off maps and lists of resources so they can be easily handed out to rough sleepers

This project has been featured in The Independent, but as built by volunteers has taken an extra-ordinary amount of effort to get to this point and i sincerely hope to be able to launch it in Feb so we never have another winter where so many people are cold and on the streets

Needed Skills:

• Meteor Developers
• UX/UI Designers
  
• Graphic Design
• Marketing/SEO Skills

More:
Github: https://github.com/focallocal/fl-maps
(Rough) Roadmap: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hyNR4m5rMEOxlGA-G2HsYiO7SXlUJTrzdf3etv_z4Y4/edit

Happiness

As some of you here already know, i run a community which brings people together to volunteer their skills and time to design and build projects which tackle societal issues in creative and fun ways. Like the Map above.

Our community has currently struggles to achieve this over Facebook, and our website is mostly built by me, and is not able to support the activities and projects our community are building, or grow and recognise the efforts made by the community. Alongside the Homelessness Project i'll also be inviting people to come and get our web presence and portal into a state that is able to support and grow many more of these projects.

All skills can be used, these would be most helpful:

• HTML
• CSS
• Wordpress
• Graphic Design
• UX/UI
• Forum creation
• SEO
• Video Editing
• Database Management
• Copy Writing
• Marketing, PR and Branding
• Growth Hacking

(Rough) Roadmap: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hyNR4m5rMEOxlGA-G2HsYiO7SXlUJTrzdf3etv_z4Y4/edit

More projects being worked on: http://action.focallocal.org/
A terrible and fairly confusing 'about us' page: http://focallocal.org/

We will be operating on the day using the Storyboard method via Trello, and discussions organised with threaded forums and whatsapp chat groups, where you can bring in any other tools you care to use to open up development to the skills and creativity of those who are kind enough to join us. I will be funding Pizza and perhaps a couple of beers if i can afford it.

We are run 100% not-for-profit, and have for the past 5 years operated entirely on positive energy and good people. No finances, or money besides what i sink in to keep it afloat and a Kindness Auction we've just launched to help support it now its getting too large for me to keep funding it solely myself.

Kindly,
Andy :0)

[John Jordan]

I am a web developer and have many of the skill you are interested in. I would be happy to help if I can.

Im in the space most days so please come and find me to chat about it (I sot at the table in front of the class room)

John 

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[Martin (Crypt)]

Unfortunately not going to be around for this, but sounds like a great idea.  Let us know how things go.

[Charles Yarnold]

Are you thinking the classroom would be enough space, or how much area?

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[Alex Downey]

Hi There I have a background in Graphic design, would be happy to lend a hand where I can with Branding/logos. Also People in the warehouse communities are actively involved in helping the homeless so maybe worth posting on those FB groups (Manor house Warehouses, Fountayne road Community, Hackney wick locals) Good work by the way :)

[Andy T]

Yes, the classroom would do it. As most joining will be doing so online it'll be more informal with the organising and coordinating done online. Just a few new faces hanging around

[Andy T]

That'd be great. I'm going to set up a forum to organise this as long as no one has any objections

(just can't make my mind up which forum with upvoting possible is the best low skilled platform)

I'd love to have help in contacting people and groups.

In terms of graphic design, the developers working on the map wanted g.designers around, but also things like poster creation so there will be stuff. The Positive Action platform builders have heaps of graphic design tasks lined up

[Alex Downey]

Ok keep me posted with the graphics I'm not sure I'll be able to make it there in person that day but would be happy to contribute with what I can :) 

On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 6:00 PM, Andy T <the1n...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey John, I'll be in in around 10mins if you're there.

I have long hippie blonde hair and am either smiling, or looking annoyed because I've procrastinated too much that day. Never in between.

Andy

[josh hatfield]

Semi-relevant post but If you are a registered charity Google will give you $10000 of adwords credit to spend on search and display network advertising

https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/grants/eligibility/

You could drive plenty of traffic to the site and raise awareness with that kinda budget.

[Gen]

Count me in: graphic design and wordpress. I'm not sure how but I'd like to help.

[Sami]

I have a bit of a background in graphic design, marketing(ish), video editing. I should be able to make it but not guaranteed :)

[Andy Focallocal]

i would hate to go down the charity route. other projects i've seen do that instantly get their creativity and capacity for projects massively cut by red tape and pressure to gather donations and funding. i did look at it a few years back and was quoted 2k for having someone complete the process for us.

those ad words would be mightily useful though. i wonder about setting up a charity alongside our current significantly less formal 'charitable community', just to use those ad words to funnel traffic in and then letting it close down (unless its going really well). not really going against the spirit of it, as we're doing the same work, we can just do more of it without the tons of red-tape. a lot of projects seem to be realising this these days.

anyway, i guess its pontification as i don't have the money to set up as a charity. thanks for sharing though

[Andy Focallocal]

Thanks for the great replies everyone, i'd love to begin inviting you to a discussion forum for the day but i need to set one up 1st.

Alex suggested Discourse would be a great forum to use, if someone is able to set it up let me know. If we build a good enough platform (in the hack happiness group) perhaps there might be interest in using it as a platform to run a monthly 'Hack Society' day at Hackspace, for tech based solutions to issues around us ..anyway, getting a couple of steps ahead of myself atm.

On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 3:27:14 AM UTC, Andy Focallocal wrote:

[Roman]

Hi Andy,

I know Meteor so I can help with coding. I'm also working on a project to distribute power banks and means to charge them to rough sleepers so they can actually access useful web sites such as this map. I think you should take a second look at a running it as a charity. We've actually registered one and it was nowhere near 2k if you go DIY route. But if you don't want to do it we can help you with servers to host the map and adwords ( we got this Google grant ) as it's closely aligns with our goals. Being a charity does help and we don't have any pressure or red tape to speak of. What we do like is a hacker culture though :)

As for the forum, I can suggest using Slack to organize things. We can register either a separate team or I can create a channel on our Slack dedicated to the map.

Roman

On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 3:27:14 AM UTC, Andy Focallocal wrote:

[Alexander Baxevanis]

Having worked with charities and read a lot about their legal structures etc, I should also add that I haven't see much in terms of  onerous requirements or red tape.

The process for setting up a charity is described here in fairly simple terms: https://www.gov.uk/setting-up-charity/set-up-a-charity

[Andy Focallocal]

That sounds awesome Roman. i was thinking about those power banks actually, as you show, it seems there is interest so perhaps we could make this Society Hack into a monthly event where anyone can meet others and collaborate on using technical solutions to societies needs. Basically what my community has done for the past 5 years, but with a Hackspace flavour.

I'm averse to adding more onto my overflowing to-do-lists, but i would be curious to discuss how long the application process took you. We could certainly set up a parallel charity, use the ad words for both and just see how it goes.

We have a slack forum with 35 Meteor developers ..semi-active, and they've got the map to about 85% complete. Activity dropped off which is why i set up the hack-day, and it seems to be picking up again now. Someone has offered to set up Discourse for us tomorrow. The Hack Day will have non-techy people along too, writers, etc, and i can't explain it to you without seeing it for yourself, but a significant portion of people are very resistant to learning a new online system and getting our team to sign up to slack was not easy with about 40% of them. Discourse also gives us upvotes (Gratitude and Appreciation) which will be useful as the project grows

[Andy Focallocal]

that does look easier than i was led to believe in the past Alex. 

how would we get around 6? 
Register as a charity if your annual income is over £5,000 or if you set up a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO). without registering we wouldn't have a charity number to get the google ad words with. we don't have an income of £5k

[Roman]

There is no income requirement for the CIO. It took us about 6 months to sail through the process, but if you can get your application right the first time ( it's fairly challenging ) it could be as little as one month. In fact, getting bank account opened was a bigger challenge. By the way, Adwords grant can only be used to promote the charity and its projects.

Having a monthly event is a really interesting idea. Perhaps, we can talk about it next time you're in the Hackspace. Actually, for your map project power banks could be really handy. Meteor is quite heavy on CPU due to its client side rendering and it normally maintains connection to a server at all times. So the battery drain could be a problem. May be it would be a good idea to pre-render the map as a PDF or a JPEG file so it can be downloaded and stored locally.

[Andy Focallocal]

The map will have filters for different types of resources, and then allow users to print off a copy with a map and list of them in that town. This means anyone can print off and give a physical copy to someone on the streets. For the launch we are going to print and laminate 300 in London (if our auction raises enough money). Give me a shout sometime, i'm here most days.

[Andy Focallocal]

just to let you all know this hasn't gone quiet. i'm just waiting on someone who has offered to set up a Discourse forum for us to begin planning. Having a few issues as our server doesn't support Ruby on Rails.

On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 3:27:14 AM UTC, Andy Focallocal wrote:

[Andy Focallocal]

Ok, sorry for the silence. We've got a forum to begin discussing everything which needs to be prepared before the day.

you can join here, and start some topics. or wait for a few more to pop up: http://discuss.focallocal.org

i'll write to everyone who was interested before tomorrow as its 6.48am and i'm exhausted. not a lot of sleep going on while preparing this 

Andy

On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 3:27:14 AM UTC, Andy Focallocal wrote:

[Andy Focallocal]

no worries, you can join in remotely - or help out by inviting anyone else you know who might be interested.

thanks :)

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[Andy Focallocal]

Here's the forum Alex. it's being gradually populated with discussion which will turn into tasks on the day. please do join in, and invite anyone else you think might be interested, its fine for them to join in remotely.We are using the forum to do all the planning and designing of work flow and the website itself, before the Hack; so on the day we can just focus on the build. i would love to have your expertise participating to make sure we end up with a fantastic platform to help the homeless and build other projects in the future
http://discuss.focallocal.org/

Here's the Facebook page, just because as the numbers grow it draws more attention and attracts even more people.
https://www.facebook.com/events/234037933704134/

If you visit 'Building Focallocal.org' in the Action Center you can find more info. 
http://action.focallocal.org

Thanks so much for supporting this idea to make a difference to the many people homeless on the streets right now 

Andy :0)

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[Andy Focallocal]

Here's the forum Sami. it's being gradually populated with discussion which will turn into tasks on the day. please do join in, and invite anyone else you think might be interested, its fine for them to join in remotely.We are using the forum to do all the planning and designing of work flow and the website itself, before the Hack; so on the day we can just focus on the build. i would love to have your expertise participating to make sure we end up with a fantastic platform to help the homeless and build other projects in the future

http://discuss.focallocal.org/

Here's the Facebook page, just because as the numbers grow it draws more attention and attracts even more people.
https://www.facebook.com/events/234037933704134/

If you visit 'Building Focallocal.org' in the Action Center you can find more info. plenty of graphic deisgn to discuss and videos to edit - we'd like to Beta launch before the hack day and have a few days to review and test it for any bugs/improvements we haven't thought of.

http://action.focallocal.org

Thanks so much for supporting this idea to make a difference to the many people homeless on the streets right now 

Andy :0)

[Andy Focallocal]

Here's the forum Roman, thank you so much for your help getting it started. it's being gradually populated with discussion which will turn into tasks on the day. please do join in, and invite anyone else you think might be interested, its fine for them to join in remotely.We are using the forum to do all the planning and designing of work flow and the website itself, before the Hack; so on the day we can just focus on the build. i would love to have your expertise participating to make sure we end up with a fantastic platform to help the homeless and build other projects in the future

http://discuss.focallocal.org/

Here's the Facebook page, just because as the numbers grow it draws more attention and attracts even more people.
https://www.facebook.com/events/234037933704134/

If you visit 'Building Focallocal.org' in the Action Center you can find more info. If you'd like to get a few posts of your project onto the map here's the issue which needs to be solved before we can list them
https://github.com/focallocal/fl-maps/issues/57

We'd like to Beta launch before the hack day and have a few days to review and test it for any bugs/improvements we haven't thought of, so i'd like to try and get all of the planning done before the weekend, so we can just build on the Saturday and Sunday.

http://action.focallocal.org

Thanks so much for supporting this idea to make a difference to the many people homeless on the streets right now 

Andy :0)

On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 7:04:14 PM UTC, Roman wrote:

[Andy T]

Can those who are joining in, in person and online, please introduce themselves and their skills in the forum we set up for the day, so we all know what skills we'll have

discuss.focallocal.org/t/introductions-homelessness-and-happiness-hack-heros/72

I hope you have a fabulous day!

You have the amazing ability to make it into one whatever it brings :0)
☀✨🌻✨☀

[Andy Focallocal]

We're online now. anyone joining in can either come along to Hackspace, or visit http://discuss.focallocal.org and post in any of the threads asking whats going on

Andy