Content + Design = ?
As we continue tweaking the site design, the deadline is looming for unveiling hungermaps.org to a national audience. Since we'll be officially going public 2/25 in DC, we're now starting to organize our thoughts around the presentation of content, i.e. What is this thing, and Why should you (the non-"techie") care?
Hungermaps.org is meant to address two major challenges in the non-profit industry broadly, and a bunch of smaller hurdles local to the anti-hunger community. The two big challenges facing non-profits that we hope to address are innovation and communication:
Innovation Like for-profits, non-profits need to stick to the bottom line. But with an even more limited pool of funders than even a typical business start-up, there is little incentive for non-profits to take risks, especially with technological solutions that have been built for the for-profit world. Most non-profits find it easiest to ride about five years behind the technology curve - GIS mapping offers one opportunity to bring non-profits up to speed with the best of current technology.
Communication You might assume that we non-profiteers communicate better than for-profits, since all of us are theoretically pushing for the same mission-driven goals, and there's no "market share" in poverty. In fact, non-profits encounter as much duplication, turf issues and communication problems as businesses, perhaps because everyone wants to save the world (in their own way). Clever technology can promote communication and strip away redundancy - we hope this site will eventually grow to serve this function for some small piece of the anti-hunger movement.
More locally, we believe GIS mapping is one great new way to visualize social problems (and solutions). There are a lot of unanswered questions necessary to "solving" hunger in America, from where the problem exists, to who is hungry, how we can reach them, and so on. There's also a universe of people out there beyond the anti-hunger community with ideas and imagination to share, and very few places for them to meet online.
To be honest, we're looking to shake things up a bit, and offer a new take on how the problem of hunger in America can be solved - not just served - by our generation.
Hungermaps.org is meant to address two major challenges in the non-profit industry broadly, and a bunch of smaller hurdles local to the anti-hunger community. The two big challenges facing non-profits that we hope to address are innovation and communication:
Innovation Like for-profits, non-profits need to stick to the bottom line. But with an even more limited pool of funders than even a typical business start-up, there is little incentive for non-profits to take risks, especially with technological solutions that have been built for the for-profit world. Most non-profits find it easiest to ride about five years behind the technology curve - GIS mapping offers one opportunity to bring non-profits up to speed with the best of current technology.
Communication You might assume that we non-profiteers communicate better than for-profits, since all of us are theoretically pushing for the same mission-driven goals, and there's no "market share" in poverty. In fact, non-profits encounter as much duplication, turf issues and communication problems as businesses, perhaps because everyone wants to save the world (in their own way). Clever technology can promote communication and strip away redundancy - we hope this site will eventually grow to serve this function for some small piece of the anti-hunger movement.
More locally, we believe GIS mapping is one great new way to visualize social problems (and solutions). There are a lot of unanswered questions necessary to "solving" hunger in America, from where the problem exists, to who is hungry, how we can reach them, and so on. There's also a universe of people out there beyond the anti-hunger community with ideas and imagination to share, and very few places for them to meet online.
To be honest, we're looking to shake things up a bit, and offer a new take on how the problem of hunger in America can be solved - not just served - by our generation.
Labels: communication, content, hunger, innovation, non-profit, poverty, technology
posted by jc at
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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