Business Use Case: Public Freelancer Trade Show

[Michael J. Fuhrman]

All,

You are tasked with locating a site for 1000 freelancers to present
their skills and marketing it to people who will view their skills.
To complete this project you turn to Collaboration Alley to connect
with freelancers who will both present and help you complete the
project.

What resources do you need at Collaboration Alley to make this
collaborative project as easy as possible?

Mike,

[noonan.m.e]

You would need a profile where you had to use check boxes for all of your skills. Then you could use that as a query to find others that had skills you need to finish you project. The only question at that point is, do you use the honor system with skill level?

[David]

LinkedIn.com is a great way to reference peoples' skills. If they have
the b**ls to put a skillset on LinkedIn, its probably fro real.

[WJho...@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/9/2011 3:29:11 AM Pacific Standard Time, noona...@gmail.com writes:

You would need a profile where you had to use check boxes for all of your skills. Then you could use that as a query to find others that had skills you need to finish you project. The only question at that point is, do you use the honor system with skill level?

If we were to go with a skill set, we need a way for people to *add* new skills.  I have many skills of which some of you have never even heard :)
(Hey don't get personal!)

And also a free-form box, where a person could give their own speel in their own words.

[WJho...@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/9/2011 8:03:20 AM Pacific Standard Time, poppin...@gmail.com writes:

LinkedIn.com is a great way to reference peoples' skills. If they have
the b**ls to put a skillset on LinkedIn, its probably fro real.

Hmm damn.
I need to put that I have a 75 years in bullsh*ting on there.

[Warren Vail]

Well close, if you make clear in a Terms of Service Agreement that it is the
members responsibility to verify claims of competence and that The Alley
makes no warentees of accuracy (or some such legal stuff), the The Alley is
off the hook. Need to find ways to reveal deception in claims, if that's
possible.

Warren Vail
Vail Systems Technology
war...@vailtech.net
(510) 444-5380

[WJho...@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/9/2011 8:26:11 AM Pacific Standard Time, war...@vailtech.net writes:

Well close, if you make clear in a Terms of Service Agreement that it is the
members responsibility to verify claims of competence and that The Alley
makes no warentees of accuracy (or some such legal stuff), the The Alley is
off the hook.  Need to find ways to reveal deception in claims, if that's
possible. >>

It would be really a wasted effort, if we tried to test people.
I went through something like that on WyzAnt (a tutoring site) and it's a silly idea.  The testers themselves sometimes have little idea of what their testing, so the tests are either laughably easy or pathetically unsuited for the requirement.

Credentials are also hard to verify and easy to fake.

I would suggest a point-scoring system, and a feedback system, like Ebay, Amazon, Yelp.

[noonan.m.e]

It would be really a wasted effort, if we tried to test people.
I went through something like that on WyzAnt (a tutoring site) and it's a silly idea.  The testers themselves sometimes have little idea of what their testing, so the tests are either laughably easy or pathetically unsuited for the requirement.

Credentials are also hard to verify and easy to fake.

I would suggest a point-scoring system, and a feedback system, like Ebay, Amazon, Yelp.

 

So a star rating system to let you know if they have burnt someone before with a comment box?

[WJho...@aol.com]

I would suggest if we allow the posting of user comments, that they be moderated.
That would be one thing.

But I don't think we should get too far into this without a place where we can mock-up the site at least.

[Michael J. Fuhrman]

So if I were the organizer my Project Plan would look something like:

Resources Needed:
- Presentation Space
- Marketing Firm (maybe with affiliations to a web master)
- Web Master (if need to be seperate)
- Web Hosting (If I don't have it)
- Presentation Sponsors
- Caterer for refreshments
- City & Local certificates
- Insurances certificates
- Security Staff
- Show Staff


Timeline:
- Day (-300) Start gathering resources
- - Locate Floor Space
- - Locate Sponsors
- - Locate Website Design & Marketing Firm
-
- Day (-250) WebSite Build Out
- - Opening Page for Presenters and Patrons
- - Registration Page(s) for Presenters
- - - Floor Plan to choose presentation locations
- - - Advertising from presenters
- - - Billing
- -
- - Registration Page(s) for Patrons
- - - Floor Plan of show
- - - Ticket Sales

- Day (-100) Marketing to Presenters
- - Post call for presenters
- - Post call for staff

- Day (-100) Marketing to Public
- - Press releases
- - Advertizements
- -

- Day 0 of Show
- - Open space for Presenters to setup

- Day 1 - 3 Of Show

- Day 4 of show
- - Open Space for Presenters to tear down

[Michael J. Fuhrman]

So we have a credentials system, like Monster or Career Buider, where
people state what types of skills they have, the number of years of
experience performing this type of skill, and their level of
expertise. Ok.

Based on the project plan above, the organizer would need access to
several different resources to help them create the trade show.
Another resource that they would need is project management. And
event registration ...

Or look at it from the presenters aspect. If they are part of
Collaboration Alley.com, they could call on Advertizers and Marketers
to help them create a presentation for their booth, and online
marketing specific for this show. Or capture video and digital data
that could be used later. Maybe they need a small construction crew to
assemble their booth.

Any other specific services that would beneficial to the organizer or
presenter that would make Collaborating easier?

[Michael J. Fuhrman]

DubYa (WJohnson),

How would you like to mock up the site? Will the Wiki allow us to
create forms, and position elements and such for a visual look and
feel?

Mike,

[WJho...@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/9/2011 9:25:20 AM Pacific Standard Time, mfuh...@enetarch.net writes:

How would you like to mock up the site?  Will the Wiki allow us to
create forms, and position elements and such for a visual look and
feel?

I'm not sure about Wikipedia, but Knol allows Google Docs to be embedded within articles.

Knol has the (perhaps slight) advantage in that you can choose who your co-authors are, instead of allowing all registered users to make modifications to each article.

I believe either pbWiki or Sites.google.com allows Javascript as well.  I don't think Knol allows that.
Javascript might be useful if we got to the point, in the mockup of allowing forms submissions.

Knol allows some kind of forms, but I never got deeply enough into it to figure out how to use them well.

The advantage of doing a mock-up in a system which is already setup is that... you dont have to re-create all the tools to set the darn thing up, and it's instant marketing without any effort to market.

[Warren Vail]

I’d suggest something like letting the member rate their own strength in a skill (say Java Script) using a 1 to 5 star system with provision of a text area for the member to describe their most memorable accomplishment with that skill.  Kinda hard to fake it all, but those with believable narratives will score higher, and most of those will be reasonably accurate.  Those that simply click and provide no description will score less in almost everyones mind.

 

Warren Vail

Vail Systems Technology

war...@vailtech.net

(510) 444-5380

From: collabora...@googlegroups.com [mailto:collabora...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of WJho...@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:59 AM
To: collabora...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Business Use Case: Public Freelancer Trade Show

 

I would suggest if we allow the posting of user comments, that they be moderated.

[Michael J. Fuhrman]

WJhonson,

> The advantage of doing a mock-up in a system which is already setup is
> that... you dont have to re-create all the tools to set the darn thing up, and
> it's instant marketing without any effort to market.

While a template site like that may be fast and provides a framework
for marketing, from a business perspective though this creates a
problem for the client. They become used to one method of doing
something and then suddenly the whole method changes. It is better to
have an 85% complete package that's well laid out to market, than to
up and change the whole system when we think we have it ready.

Now if you want to look at marketing ideas, that's a different issue.
As long as the client doesn't see the marketing material until the
real site is posted.

Also, he who provides the best solution doesn't have to out the gate
first.

Mike,

[WJho...@aol.com]

I find it very difficult to maintain the entire conceptual framework in my mind, through email.  That's why I suggested we have a site where we can mock-up how we want something to look.

By mock-up I mean, as I've stated several times, privately.  There is no need to share with the world the mock-up.  Knol, Sites.Google and pbWiki all allow private but mutual sharing.

[Warren Vail]

Must admit I’m having some difficulty as well keeping the scope under control.  What started out as an online collaboration place to meet (which is no minor accomplishment) has morphed into a Public Freelance Trade Show, illustrating that when you think outside the box you sometimes wind up in a different box.  Now the discussion about a website is putting it in it’s proper perspective, as a minor part of what has to be accomplished, but a bit out of reach even if that were all we were doing, with the original 5 or so, in this group.

 

Sorry, but I don’t have the time to go there.

 

Warren Vail

Vail Systems Technology

war...@vailtech.net

(510) 444-5380

---

From: collabora...@googlegroups.com [mailto:collabora...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of WJho...@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 10:20 AM
To: collabora...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Business Use Case: Public Freelancer Trade Show

 

I find it very difficult to maintain the entire conceptual framework in my mind, through email.  That's why I suggested we have a site where we can mock-up how we want something to look.