Social Entrepreneur Search Engine and Widget
Peter Deitz
Here's the second thread in the lead up to the launch of the Social
Entrepreneur API on 8/31/2009.
Jill Finlayson of SocialEdge.org and Social Actions are looking for a
volunteer developer to build out a very simple search engine and widget
that connects to the Social Entrepreneur API dataset. Unlike the Social
Actions API, the Social Entrepreneur API already has very rich
information (including location, picture, organization name,
organization URL, etc).
Below is the description of the task at hand as Jill has described it,
along with some mock ups (attached). Please reply all to let us know if
you're interested.
All the best,
Peter
----
Project: Social Entrepreneur Search widget
Completion Date: Functional first pass by Aug 31, 2009. Additional
versions requested for during Mozilla Service Week (mozillaservice.org)
The Social Entrepreneur API is the first open source database of vetted
social entrepreneurs using real-time feeds of social entrepreneurs
awarded recognition from the leading funders in the field including
Skoll Foundations, Poptech, Civic Ventures, Draper Richards, and Schwab
Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. More info:
http://socialentrepreneurapi.org
This project is to create a search widget providing access to the data
in the social entrepreneur database via an open source api calls and
protocals based on the Social Actions API.
This widget will be showcased on Social Edge, the online community for
social entrepreneurs and a program of the Skoll Foundation, and on the
Social Entrepreneur API portal. It will also be available for anyone to
grab/add to their site. Additional widgets will be developed in the
future, but the intent is for this widget to be the primary general
purpose search tool for the dataset.
Attached are mock-ups of the desired widget showing the default
presentation and the presentation with advanced search options.
The default format has the following features and functions:
* Keyword search box
* Link to advanced search options
* View options - default - gallery view with pictures. List view would
omit or tiny thumbnail pictures and minimize text presented into 1-2
lines of text
* Sort by options - default - relevance (based on API identified results
for frequency of term in profile). Additional search options are Social
Entrepreneur (alpha sort on social entrepreneur last name, then first
name fields), Organization (alpha sort on organization name field), and
Funder (alpha sort by Funder name field)
* Individual profile boxes – social entrepreneur title field (bolded);
next line organization; next line intro-text field and then first 140
char of related text (based on key word) text. If no intro-text
available, slide up related text.; blank line; Awarded by line – this
includes funder and date funded – we may replace the funder name text
with thumbnail of funder logo
* Show 6 social entrepreneurs per page – preferably with option to show
more (pulldown menu – show 6, 24, 48 per page) and show how many pages
of results – with numbered next page links. Option to show list view
would include probably 20 per page – defer to web developer recommendation)
* Let’s add small text “Learn more.” near SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR SEARCH
with clickable link to http://socialentrepreneurapi.org
Note that to display images – the widget developer will have to resize
photos (from disparate funder sizes and resolutions) to standard pixel
size and resolution. Please maintain best quality resolution during
compression/scaling.
The advanced search format opens up a section above search results with
all fields checked by default (the user may uncheck those they do not
wish to include in their refined search). Sections for advanced search
include:
* Funded by –currently a list of 5 funders but this will likely scale to
a dozen or possibly more in the future. (For the immediate future, 3
funders are close to joining)
* By region –current list provided has 7 regions identified (may add 8th
– middle east) Note that this is based on a roll up from countries in
the api. Currently the plan is for country specific search to be handled
through the keyword search
* By issue – current list provided has 8 issue areas – also rolled up by
the api
Note that these searches currently refine or filter the keyword search
results. There is no “browse” by selected filters. If this is an easy
addition, please let us know.
Full description of API and field names/descriptions will be provided
upon request.
Future widget development includes:
* Development of different size versions of the search widget (standard
sizes for 1 column, etc)
* Development of versions with list view default
* Development of browse widgets with topic specific search results – to
provide contextual lists of social entrepreneurs (next to articles on
microfinance, health etc.)
* Customizable widgets
This volunteer project is managed by Peter Deitz/Christine Egger at
Social Actions and Jill Finlayson at Social Edge. To get started, please
reply all with an indication of whether you can have a first pass ready
by 8/31/2009.
All the best,
Peter
--
Peter Deitz
Social Actions
Founder / Executive Director
http://www.socialactions.com
USA: 415-425-7482 | Canada: 514-824-3270 | Skype: peterdeitz
http://twitter.com/peterdeitz
http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdeitz
http://my.socialactions.com/profile/PeterDeitz
Christine Egger
A reminder to ping the Group if you're thinking of supporting this
high-profile project.
Over a dozen organizations supporting social entrepreneurs are queued
up to make immediate use of this search engine and widget. Lots of
opportunity here for instant gratification for building a resource
that'll be used immediately and with broad benefit to the social
entrepreneur community, as well as promotion and visibility on the
sites of Social Edge, Social Actions, and others involved in the
project.
Peter, Jill, and I are ready to answer any questions, and if you're
planning to make a first pass at this in time for the 8/31 launch
please "reply all" to let us know.
Thanks!
Christine
Christine Egger
Social Actions
chri...@socialactions.com
> USA:415-425-7482| Canada:514-824-3270| Skype: peterdeitz
>
> http://twitter.com/peterdeitzhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdeitzhttp://my.socialactions.com/profile/PeterDeitz
>
> 425KViewDownload
>
> socentsearchmockup2-1.jpg
> 425KViewDownload
Christine Egger
How many hours would it take to create what's being described here, or
something similar? Just got that question from someone who has
developers available to work on something like this.
Thanks,
Christine
On Aug 21, 8:31 am, Christine Egger <christine.eg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi SA Dev,
>
> A reminder to ping the Group if you're thinking of supporting this
> high-profile project.
>
> Over a dozen organizations supporting social entrepreneurs are queued
> up to make immediate use of this search engine and widget. Lots of
> opportunity here for instant gratification for building a resource
> that'll be used immediately and with broad benefit to the social
> entrepreneur community, as well as promotion and visibility on the
> sites of Social Edge, Social Actions, and others involved in the
> project.
>
> Peter, Jill, and I are ready to answer any questions, and if you're
> planning to make a first pass at this in time for the 8/31 launch
> please "reply all" to let us know.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Christine
>
> Christine Egger
> Social Actions
>
> > socentsearchmockup2.jpg
> > 425KViewDownload
>
> > socentsearchmockup2-1.jpg
> > 425KViewDownload
Peter Deitz
Of course, it would depend on the developer and the final scope of the project... but I'd say 8 hours and up.
By the way, I ran into a developer at SoCap09 who may be interested in working on this project. He described it as 'something he could whip together in a weekend'
What do others think?
Al the best,
Peter
Ehren Foss
Entrepreneur API instead - for exposing the API on Facebook,
Wordpress, Android, etc - probably won't be too difficult for most of
them. I'd say probably 4-8 hours to retool Social Actions Tuner for
the Entrepreneur API, though I'm not sure how much utility the result
would have. :-)
Building feature-rich, interesting apps that haven't been done before
and that really use the unique features of the Social Entrepreneur API
will probably take longer - and a lot more planning and thinking than
actual programming.
Just my 2c,
Ehren
Jason Mott
dependent on API features that aren't quite hashed out yet.
If there were Rails developers in that bunch, however . . .
Peter Deitz wrote:
> Hi Christine,
>
> Of course, it would depend on the developer and the final scope of the
> project... but I'd say 8 hours and up.
>
> By the way, I ran into a developer at SoCap09 who may be interested in
> working on this project. He described it as 'something he could whip
> together in a weekend'
>
> What do others think?
>
> Al the best,
> Peter
>
> On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Christine Egger
> <chri...@socialactions.com <mailto:chri...@socialactions.com>> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> How many hours would it take to create what's being described here, or
> something similar? Just got that question from someone who has
> developers available to work on something like this.
>
> Thanks,
> Christine
>
> On Aug 21, 8:31 am, Christine Egger <christine.eg...@gmail.com
> > Hi SA Dev,
> >
> > A reminder to ping the Group if you're thinking of supporting this
> > high-profile project.
> >
> > Over a dozen organizations supporting social entrepreneurs are queued
> > up to make immediate use of this search engine and widget. Lots of
> > opportunity here for instant gratification for building a resource
> > that'll be used immediately and with broad benefit to the social
> > entrepreneur community, as well as promotion and visibility on the
> > sites of Social Edge, Social Actions, and others involved in the
> > project.
> >
> > Peter, Jill, and I are ready to answer any questions, and if you're
> > planning to make a first pass at this in time for the 8/31 launch
> > please "reply all" to let us know.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Christine
> >
> > Christine Egger
> > Social Actions
> >
> > > Hi SA Dev,
> >
> > > Here's the second thread in the lead up to the launch of the Social
> > > Entrepreneur API on 8/31/2009.
> >
> > > Jill Finlayson of SocialEdge.org and Social Actions are looking
> for a
> > > volunteer developer to build out a very simple search engine
> and widget
> > > that connects to the Social Entrepreneur API dataset. Unlike
> the Social
> > > Actions API, the Social Entrepreneur API already has very rich
> > > information (including location, picture, organization name,
> > > organization URL, etc).
> >
> > > Below is the description of the task at hand as Jill has
> described it,
> > > along with some mock ups (attached). Please reply all to let us
> know if
> > > you're interested.
> >
> > > All the best,
> > > Peter
> >
> > > ----
> > > Project: Social Entrepreneur Search widget
> > > Completion Date: Functional first pass by Aug 31, 2009. Additional
> > > versions requested for during Mozilla Service Week
Jason Mott
Worker-Owner
Software Engineer
Ronin Tech Collective, Inc.
167 Main St. Suite 103
Brattleboro, VT 05301
888.200.5074 x369
http://www.ronincollective.com
Peter Deitz
Great points. We'll have to use one of the upcoming SA Dev calls to
discuss use cases for the SEAPI.
I hope you're doing well.
All the best,
Peter
Peter Deitz
Social Actions
Founder / Executive Director
http://www.socialactions.com
USA: 415-425-7482 | Canada: 514-824-3270 | Skype: peterdeitz
http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdeitz
http://my.socialactions.com/profile/PeterDeitz
Peter Deitz
I've posted the Social Entrepreneur search engine / widget as a
Mozilla Service Week volunteer opportunity:
http://www.idealist.org/if/mozservice09/en/SiteIndex/AssetViewer/default?asset=VolunteerOpportunity&asset-id=180500-72
Please reply-all if you're tempted to work on this project.
All the best,
Peter
On Sep 9, 5:53 pm, Peter Deitz <peterde...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Ehren,
>
> Great points. We'll have to use one of the upcoming SA Dev calls to
> discuss use cases for the SEAPI.
>
> I hope you're doing well.
>
> All the best,
> Peter
>
> Peter Deitz
> Social Actions
>
> USA: 415-425-7482 | Canada: 514-824-3270 | Skype: peterdeitz
>
> Ehren Foss wrote:
> > I think that updating a Social Actions API-based app to use the Social
> > Entrepreneur API instead - for exposing the API on Facebook,
> > Wordpress, Android, etc - probably won't be too difficult for most of
> > them. I'd say probably 4-8 hours to retool Social Actions Tuner for
> > the Entrepreneur API, though I'm not sure how much utility the result
> > would have. :-)
>
> > Building feature-rich, interesting apps that haven't been done before
> > and that really use the unique features of the Social Entrepreneur API
> > will probably take longer - and a lot more planning and thinking than
> > actual programming.
>
> > Just my 2c,
>
> > Ehren
>
>
> read more »
Christine Egger
Jill Finlayson has let us know that funding is now available to
support development of the Social Edge/SE API search engine and widget
described below. Please reply all here to let us know if you're
interested in this project. Thanks in advance for the follow-up, and
we look forward to there being a fully functional search engine and
widget in the very near future ~
Christine
On Sep 13, 2:22 pm, Peter Deitz <peterde...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've posted the Social Entrepreneur search engine / widget as a
> Mozilla Service Week volunteer opportunity:
>
> Please reply-all if you're tempted to work on this project.
>
> All the best,
> Peter
>
> On Sep 9, 5:53 pm, Peter Deitz <peterde...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Ehren,
>
> > Great points. We'll have to use one of the upcoming SA Dev calls to
> > discuss use cases for the SEAPI.
>
> > I hope you're doing well.
>
> > All the best,
> > Peter
>
> > Peter Deitz
> > Social Actions
> > Founder / Executive Directorhttp://www.socialactions.com
>
> > USA: 415-425-7482 | Canada: 514-824-3270 | Skype: peterdeitz
>
>
> read more »
John Brennan
something to integrate SE API with MyActionMap in the coming months..
but potential funding for the action map could persuade me to re
prioritize =)
http://myactionmap.org
use code: "socialgood"
j
On Oct 12, 1:34 pm, Christine Egger <christ...@socialactions.com>
>
> read more »
Christine Egger
FYI we'll be scheduling Q&A calls with interested developers over the
next few days, and anticipate Skoll/Social Edge receiving proposals by
next Friday or so (10/23).
Looking forward to those next steps and sharing updates as the project
develops ~
Christine
Christine Egger
FYI we've scheduled a call for this Friday, 10/23, 12pmET/9amPT for
developers to hear more details and ask questions about the Social
Edge/SE API search engine and widget:
http://my.socialactions.com/events/social-edge-social
Thanks for participating and/or forwarding this to groups who might be
interested. Let me know if you have any questions, and we look forward
to the call!
Christine
On Oct 14, 5:03 pm, Christine Egger <christ...@socialactions.com>
>
> read more »
Christine Egger
Below are notes from Friday's conference call in which Jill, Peter,
and I fielded questions from Andrius Kulikauskas and John Brennan
about the Social Edge/SE API search interface and widget project. They
and Zach Berke will hopefully be following up with proposals for
Social Edge's considering by the end of this week or early next.
Don't hesitate to use this thread, or the one Andrius posted after
Friday's call, for questions-updates-suggestions on this project:
http://groups.google.com/group/social-actions-dev/browse_thread/thread/fd8f6653a2398e23
Thanks!
Christine
**************************************
Friday, October 23, 2009
**Participants**
Andrius Kulikauskas, Minciu Sodas
John Brennan, JanisB
Jill Finlayson, Social Edge
Peter Deitz, Social Actions
Christine Egger, Social Actions
**Agenda**
-- Project background
-- Open Q&A
**Notes**
Jill provided some background for this project, explaining Social
Edge’s commitment to social entrepreneurs looking to start and scale
their venture. Facilitating connections between social entrepreneurs
and those who support them is very important. Social entrepreneurs
want to see successful models, and to some extent see how they can
complement or contribute to efforts going on in their area. For this
to be valuable, the social entrepreneurs need to have proven their
credibility via funders’ due diligence. The more data fields, and
options to filter and sort, that people can search by the more
valuable this project will be.
Jill stressed that they don’t expect this search interface and widget
to be the only window into the Social Entrepreneur API, but that they
want to make several versions of this that others can use. For
example, their might be a photo gallery display, text display, and
other immediate applications: a widget that participating
organizations could drop onto their website, showing just their social
entrepreneurs with perhaps a link to broader search results; perhaps a
customizable widget for Dowser, where social entrepreneurs involved in
microfinance, for example, could be shown next to an article on that
subject.
Q: Are there any language requirements for the project i.e. Python,
Ruby on Rails, PHP? A: No, the back end is up to the developer. Social
Actions has added API keys for access to the SA API and the SE API, to
that’s something we’ll need to provide.
Q: Does the data include details about the social entrepreneur’s
projects? A: It focuses on the social entrepreneur as an individual,
although certain fields like location would refer to where their work
is based.
John explained that he’s working on a project called ActionMap, using
an open standard called Project RSS, that would support individual
feeds and visualize social entrepreneur activities on a map. Jill
responded that a map-based interface would be wonderful.
Also mentioned: the social entrepreneur will occur in the database
multiple times if they’ve been funded by multiple funders, and we’ll
have to talk about how we can consolidate, not first priority.
Q: Can social entrepreneurs directly edit their profile? A: No, but
that’s something that might be possible in the future, if the
participating organizations as a group want to make that happen.
Q: What action do you want someone to take as a result of their
search? A: The primary purpose of the search interface is to inform.
Funders (fellowship and award programs) will search this for areas of
interest to them or the philanthropists they work with. We’re hoping
social entrepreneurs will be discovered and funded, or discovered and
written about in the media. It’s a discovery tool that – especially
with additional mash-ups – will convert discovery to action.
Peter explained that Social Actions has two databases – the Social
Actions API and the Social Entrepreneur API. Applications and mash-ups
for both are encouraged. A list of applications that build off of the
Social Actions API can be found here:
http://www.socialactions.com/share-actions
Most of them are open source, and a developer can take their code and
tweak them for this purpose. The Social Entrepreneur API isn’t action
oriented at this point – it’s rich information about the social
entrepreneurs – although there’s nothing stopping a developer from
creating applications that build action infrastructure on top of that.
Peter and Christine provided a quick recap of the kinds of
organizations that have voiced an interest in using the Social
Entrepreneur API: foundation service organizations, researchers,
social entrepreneurs themselves, academics, platform designers, etc.
Q: If the purpose is to help people connect with the social
entrepreneur, it would be simple to make the social entrepreneur’s
email or telephone number available. Are there plans to do that? A:
We’re serving multiple constituencies. The participating funders
(award and fellowship programs) want to be acknowledged for the work
they’ve done in vetting and awarding these social entrepreneurs, and
they want this resource to drive traffic to their site. Some of them
are fine having that contact information right up front.
Q: What’s the advantage of finding a social entrepreneur via the
Social Entrepreneur API over, say, Google? A: Google wouldn’t provide
a list of vetted social entrepreneurs working in a particular region
or issue area, but the point that the contact information – which
would be more immediately available through a direct search for the
entrepreneur’s name – is valid. A version of the Social Entrepreneur
API search results that shares the entrepreneur’s contact information
makes sense.
A complete list of the data points is in “social_entrepreneur_zip”
posted here:
http://groups.google.com/group/social-entrepreneur-api/files
Q: Why are you reaching out to developers for this project rather than
building it in-house? A: Social Actions’ model is to build out
collaborative infrastructures and encourage third party developers to
build on them. In the past, we’ve done this through events like the
Change the Web Challenge. In this case, Social Edge has a budget and
it’s part of their model, to get independent developers involved, draw
attention to them, and showcase this as an example of how easy it is
to launch projects like this.
Q: There are challenges to building a good relationship with a
developer, and designing a useful project, off of a specification
(technical description). Would you be willing to find developers who
identify something of value to them in this project, and give them a
chance to propose what they could do with some funding? That would
encourage an ongoing relationship with your developer community, too.
A: Absolutely. The overall objective for this project is to provide
Social Edge with a search engine. The spec provides the minimum of
what could be accomplished, and the idea of mashing up the API with
(for example) self-identified entrepreneurs, maps, and other data is
fantastic. This is the first step, and integral to building the
ecosystem of resources we envision for social entrepreneurs: a funders
database, social entrepreneur database, etc.
Social Edge has between $2,000 and $5,000 for this project, and is
interested in seeing what could be built for anything up to those
amounts. The developers who’ve voiced an interest so far are
encouraged to put their heads together, talk about what they’d like to
do with the Social Entrepreneur API in light of Social Edge’s funding
for the search interface and widget they’ve described and their own
interests (collaborating where beneficial), and propose related
projects for Social Edge to green light within the next week or two if
possible. The goal would be for a Social Edge interface and widget, at
a minimum, to be built within a month or so.
Proposed:
• Submit proposals by this Friday, 10/30
• Social Edge would take a week to review and decide
• Projects would be functional by the second week of December
:cde
On Oct 20, 10:55 am, Christine Egger <christ...@socialactions.com>
>
> read more »