Loomio
Sat 27 Feb 2016 6:44PM

OuiShare Talents - mapping the skills and interests of the OuiShare community

JM Juho Makkonen Public Seen by 114

Dear OuiSharers,

On our monday open sessions (summit #8), we talked about OuiShare Talents, ie. how can we easily find someone from our community to do a specific job, join a project or learn something from them.
* “We” could be someone from OuiShare
* Or (later) also a potential “customer” having an opportunity to offer (--> helping to decentralize distribution of opportunities)

The main needs :
* Having a database of OuiShare Talents, where people skills and topics of expertise are listed, and where we can see which OuiShare projects (internal & external) people have been working in
* Ability to easily search and filter this database with specific criterias
* Ability to see the talents on a map (what are the talents close to me?)

We identified some initial search criterias, the first draft is in this spreadsheet; don’t hesitate to comment on it.

To implement that, we identified so far 2 options :

1) We add some more functionality to the OuiShare main website
* On the profile pages : create a specific taxonomy (so far an open one); add the new variables there ; add the links with the OuiShare projects
* The current search doesn't allow easy filtering based on multiple search criterias (for example, someone in Paris doing Facilitation, working with non profits and having expertise on collaborative finance). We should add this type of search.
on the search tool : so far, when we have 2 criteria in the search tools, it makes “or” not “and”, so it doesn’t allow to filter people
* Pros:
We can use existing profile data and user accounts
It's possible to add any new functionality by custom development
* Cons:
This project might take a while and cost quite a lot.

2) We create a new site for this purpose using a third party tool
* Here is a prototype created quickly with Sharetribe: https://ouishare-talent.sharetribe.com/
* It would mean that people need to create a new profile on the talent database (we could limit it to connectors to start, and then open to members) because it's not possible to pull the information from the OuiShare main website.
* we would need to add a page on the website to make the link with OuiShare Talents.
* Pros:
Quicker to create the site (basic prototype was created in one hour)
No development costs
A site made only for this purpose can be easier to use than a site that has lots of different functionality (especially for third parties)
* Cons:
There's no integration with the existing OuiShare website, so everyone who adds their skills would have to create a new user account, and there's one more online tool for everyone to learn.
(If using Sharetribe specifically): If custom features (beyond what Sharetribe offers out of the box) are needed at some point, we might need to install Sharetribe on our servers, which requires extra work.

What do you think ?

JI

Jocelyn Ibarra Sat 27 Feb 2016 7:43PM

Hey Juho, thank you for studying, then posting this.

I'm in to work on the idea. Fran and I have talked about this since we met :/

This also could be a great opportunity for our members to find each other, engage, whatever.
There are a quite few third party possibilities to test, I agree... and whoever wants to work on it will give the project its shape, I think.

Did you also discuss how you planned to finance this work? (I am sorry, I am not up to date with the budget discussions you had.)

Thank you again.
xx

DU

Sat 27 Feb 2016 11:56PM

Hey Juho,

Nice work, good ideas ! I prefer the 2nd option to create a new site, even if we have to create a new account. I guess the website is not adapted so well to that kind of search, especially if we decide to add details on our projects.
I agree to open it to connectors first and I guess it's really important to open it to the community in a second step (maybe with less access) to create more links and consolidate the community.

For the details and criteria, I would add the sectors (mobility, insurance, etc) and for the projects, the team we worked with and the links to our works. It could be a way to make our work accessible to the community.

Thank you for this great proposition :)
Cheers
Johanna

JM

Juho Makkonen Sun 28 Feb 2016 7:52AM

@jocelynibarra if it's done with Sharetribe, then it's free, so no need for budget. :) And since it's so quick to set it up (well, it's pretty much done already, it's just the matter of refining the taxonomy), this doesn't really need to be a big project - it can simply just be launched.

If it's not done with Sharetribe, then the cost depends on the tool / method used, since the pricing of the different tools varies a lot. Since this site is not really a "marketplace" but a "directory", googling with "create a directory website" could reveal some alternative tools. Here's one example I found: http://www.brilliantdirectories.com . It would cost minimum $97 per month. OuiShare Academy has some budget left (€1500 I think), and this mapping part was initially part of the Academy discussion, but I'm not sure if that money should be spent on this project. We didn't really yet go deep into discussion on how to fund it. In any case, if there's money involved, then to me it sounds like this money should come from the same budget than the money for tools like Loomio and the main website, since this has global impact.

@johanna4 thanks for the suggestions!

Also, everyone, feel free to sign up for the prototype we made and add your own profile. It takes only a few minutes, and it's a good way to figure out whether this solution actually makes sense.

BJM

Bernie J Mitchell Tue 1 Mar 2016 11:01AM

How can I say this nicely?
We should just GO WITH THE SHARETRIBE thing - it works, is slick, sexy and really does work on a mobile device.

Then we will be doing something! With this 'user friendly' thing in the community we will be able to start taking action and connecting the community.

Also the strong connection to Sharetribe is way easier than spending another year walking around the planet talking endlessly about solutions and platforms.

I have LOADS more to say on this but I have a plane to catch xxxx

ET

Esra Tat Tue 1 Mar 2016 3:32PM

Hey Juho!
Thanks for the prototype and making all that happen!
At the London summit, we had a discussion about "OuiShare Entrepreneurs" which basic idea was to map our talents and create the opportunity to carry out projects under the name OuiShare. It was more or less linked to the OuiShare Accelerator, and was given up in the end. So very glad to see it!

Well, it would have been great to have it included in the current website. But for now the "member" page is not easy to use, and as you highlight it we have the choice between an external, free, almost-done solution, and another one, internal that might take a lot of time and consume budget. That being said... I was a bit sceptical with creating another profile. I gave it a try, and it does take only a couple of minutes.

So I would say option #2 - with the finalization of the taxonomy.
Do you imagine to add something about the current projects people work on? Or just a talents listing page?

JM

Juho Makkonen Tue 1 Mar 2016 6:35PM

@berniejmitchell thanks for the kind words :)

@esratat yeah I think this project has been bubbling under for a while, but has never materialized, perhaps because it has seemed too daunting to move forward with it. That's the benefit of option 2 - we would be able to launch something right away.

We could add stuff about projects too - there could be two categories of listings, one for members and other for projects. Both could then have their own taxonomy. But I'm a bit afraid that doing that would make the site a bit more confusing and difficult to use for newcomers. I'd probably start only with the talent part at first and see how that starts working, and then add projects later.

Based on this initial discussion it sounds people favor option 2 a bit more. Should I make a proposal on going forward with it? Also, do you have thoughts on what steps it would mean to make this site "official"? More work on the taxonomy should happen first I guess - are there people interested in working on that? How is this "launched"? An email to all members? A link from the main website? Something else?

@jocelynibarra do you have some more input on this - other third party solutions to test, etc? I'd really love to have thoughts from you and Fran since you've worked on this for so long.

CG

Cristóbal Gracia Thu 3 Mar 2016 5:04PM

Thanks @juhomakkonen for launching the MVP so fast ; )

In the same direction as @johanna4 if we could have the filter "OuiShare Projects involved in" up to date with the real projects going on we could visualize better who to talk with when we want to join a specific project.

My only concern is how to encourage everyone to use the tool and keeping our profiles up to date.

My only concern is about how to encourage everybody to keep the profiles

JI

Jocelyn Ibarra Thu 3 Mar 2016 7:47PM

Hello!

I'm all in for Sharetribe's option. If this was to become a project to work on, I would've joined the research part, but my support is for the quickest, fastest and most doable option. Let's do it!

After it's set up, perhaps the remaining question will just be: "How to communicate the benefits we see in using this service?" but we won't know until we're in it?

Thank you very much for everything, Juho!

M

Maud Fri 4 Mar 2016 9:43AM

Great to read all these comments!
concerning the link to the projects, we spoke about it during the summit but it was clearly not easy to have a fresh updated database on that, and we thought we could use broad categories of OuiShare projects to filter, and that then people could be more specific on their profiles, detailing what they did within Ouishare.
For communication, we have to make the link with the website.
For next steps, I think yes it's time to put forward option 2 as a proposal @juhomakkonen ; and then we can start a slack channel to continue conversation with people interested to give a hand; I'll be happy to help make this happen :-)

DU

Sara Rodriguez Fri 4 Mar 2016 9:58AM

+1 for the Sharetribe option! I really like it :-)

Load More