2017-06-04 Conference call

Ideas and notes for a multisharing platform

Questions:
    (Laurina)
    what needs to be in the concept?
    what is the difference to existing platforms? maybe: usability, only sharing, open source
    Why?
    Who would actually use it? Right now?
    What are the next steps?

Some ideas/answers:
(Bruno)
It's sharing AND social. Global in design, local in use.

basic features of sharing include a map to visualize offers and classified ads

basic features of social includes messaging, forums and creating groups for sharing

It's also a toolbox for sharing and collaborative work, including things like the foodsaving tool, which in essence is a tool to organize when, where and who in a team is picking up what (applies to more stuff than food). Another tool that can be developed is that of borrowing and lending, setting time-limits, what's available and to whom, etc. Some kind of rating/reference system for building trust and moderating behavior is essential

Nobody will use it if it's not locally anchored. It requires a strong local marketing, with people and local sharing initiatives involved and above all a sense of citizen ownership. Progressive cities are the perfect testbed and presenting the concept will help us getting the most scarce resources right now (skilled developers). I'm working with this on my end here in Gothenburg. There's an interest and funding. I've been thinking about contacting people in Barcelona.

The difference from the original yunity idea is that it's about providing the software in a global community of developers and not the platform itself, which will be left for cities/communities to appropriate and run their own instances of it, just like servers running Apache/Linux and people designing their websites on Wordpress.

nick: we did discuss this approach for yunity previously, but there are many communities that do not have the skills to run their own servers (even foodsharing which has a lot of users is relying solely on Matthias's goodwill). running a server properly and keeping up with updates is easy enough if you know how (although still a responsiblity), impossible if you don't, and hard to learn if you have not already done it, there are many pitfalls.

on the other hand, the foodsharing movement in France that Clement is building has a desire for a "brandable" site and hence foodsaving tool was not enough, so a self hosting solution could be good, or plugin to existing CMS (see https://github.com/yunity/foodsaving-frontend/issues/431)

Next steps: basic research on existing platforms (what features do they have or miss? Open-source? Pros and cons. Could we build upon any of them instead of starting from scratch?). Refining the concept and presenting it in a way that is easy to grasp, set up a page, come up with a catchy name and visual identity. Prepare a document (white paper) for those interested in knowing more, joining. I'm planning to write an article to ouishare magazine with this proposal (that I'll share on slack before I send in), which is part of another important step we all take part in: network and spread/develop the idea with likeminded communities and networks (Ouishare, p2p foundation, shareable, platform coop, and social media, reddit, etc)

Robert:
Descisions to make:

Only gifting or also lending

What about swapping?

Only items or also skills?

Include saving features?

Own platform or support an existing one?

If own platform, centralized (like Couchsurfing) or dezentralized?

Focus of the platform (environment, unconditional sharing/altruism, helping people in need, or minimalism/getting rid of unused stuff)

Regarding next steps:

Don't we have a catchy name and visual identity already? I like the yunity "brand" a lot and it's already somewhat established

I got a list of existing platforms that can be used as a starting point for the research

Tilmann:
    Build or find websites/apps for different concepts:
        event management (e.g. foodsaving tool)
        sharing (e.g. classified ads)
        item pooling (e.g. cargo bike sharing systems)
        map of sharing-related locations (e.g. transformap)
        forum (e.g discourse)
        chat (e.g. rocket chat...)
        knowledge base (e.g. wiki)
        public presentation of groups (e.g. public wordpress page)
        teaching materials (e.g. Serlo)
        ...

They should be connected (e.g. common user accounts, user profiles) and encourage building local communities
Do not try to develop everything on your own, it will take ages and discourage volunteer devs. Rather develop a system or a protocol how to connect existing websites/tools. Go for integrations and plugins instead of stand-alone websites.

    Call 4.6.2017
    present: Bruno, Nick, Laurina, Naomi, Tomasz (not all the time), (in Sweden, Germany and France)

   Abstract: research on opensource platforms that could be used for sharing is going to be made, pages where information is collected will be there soon

   Minutes:
    Bruno tells about how the idea of a multisharing platform came to him. Götheburg people started using foodsaving tool and saw the yunity idea, got motivated
        introduction round
        Nick tells the story of yunity and the multisharing platform, originally related to foodsharing.de, then decided to do a platform from scratch, but turned out to be too difficult never managed to release anything not much experience in managing products or platforms not enough time, yunity culture has its own story, foodsaving tool as a small project has a constant stream of beginner developers coming who don't do much, not enough experienced developers
      loomio with enspiral as a possible role model, maybe the sharetribe platform, moving sharing away from facebook
        Tomasz started a bike project (bike kitchen) and they are looking for a tool


       Bruno - talking about Göteborg financing and possibly Swedish government funding.
       Laurina - What would be needed to use Sharetribe for the GTB bike kitchen?
       B: The city of GTB is investing a lot in circular economy.
       todo: finding opensource platforms that already are there
       sharetribe, --> try out the 30day free trial of it!

       NE: One research topic could be finding out what open source websites exist for sharing.
    Moving from the general idea of let's share everything to having something that a community is actually using is a difficult step.
    It takes time and determination to make that work. It can be useful for one group and not another.
    If someone has 30,000 ppl in their foodsharing group on FB then they won't switch.
    Clement in France plans to make his own platform so it works there.

    setting up local communities
    sharing the information about how that works

   Br: The other side of the coin - making the software and building the community.
        Laurina asks: What needs to be in the concept?
        Bruno: we haven't talked so much about what is in the concept itself. The platform would be about sharing. The concept is about the product? Or about how to get it done? Are you asking (Laurina) the product itself?
        Maybe we should start with the Bike Kitchen in GTB and whether ShareTribe is appropriate for them?
        Bruno: One approach is to move away from thinking about the software and thinking more about the community. The idea of the Foodsaving Today blog is to share stories. Another way is to start

    (connection problems) nick: hey laurina, whatsup? heya :-)

an idea was to stop thinking about this as a software platform, so maybe it's about...

Next steps?

Bruno: people who share on FB see the point of giving away but are not particularly engaged in sharing communities. Get people involved slowly via existing platforms. Was it the case that when the website came out, it made it much easier for people to start sharing food? Was it defining?

NE: I see that the structure of foodsharing mirrors the structure of the website. Each region wants to be their own legal entity. Because the website doesn't have these concepts, it is difficult to implement.

Bruno: Do you get the impression that the website significantly increased volunteers?

Laurina: I do pickups once or twice a week. It is the place that I go to, because there is no other place to go.

Bruno: There was an enabler, the website the platform.

NE: After working on the Foodsaving system, I realize how important the community aspect for these communities.

Bruno: From my research, I understand that there is no open source tool for this. I am talking to the people who developed Freeshop.se tomorrow. Develop basic tools to get a community sharing project going. What about Tilmann's suggestions where he suggested a smörgåbord of platforms with a single login.

NE: I like the idea of building a website where the open source resources for sharing are listed, as a start. I have tried out Sandstorm, but I don't think it is easy to use. It is a nice vision where you have one log-in for everything and it works cross-platform, but it is really difficult to do.

Laurina: What about Disroot?

NE: I don't like Diaspora. I think it is a pile of shit. We were looking at the code one time.

Laurina: Asked a question..would it be a website like facebook where people then can choose a specific sharing tool - without having to sign in to a new thing-

Bruno: Yes, the bike kitchen, the solidarity fridge, another shop for shared items, yes, if there was one platform, then it would be easier to engage people.

NE: I need to go, but I plan to keep working on these types of projects.

Arno: As an idea: use create something like skyscanner.com (search engine for flights) just for sharing. So you can search different plattforms?

Bruno: My takeway of the discussion we had: developing a new platform/app is too big of a task for the few resources and skilled people we have in this network, which is kind of the original (de)motivation problem with yunity. What we do have, however, which is of great value, is a wide range of people with experience in sharing and using digital tools, and some people also with technical skills, and all of us (or most of us, at least) express a demand or desire to have a more appropriate tool for sharing. The existing options are lacking in one way or another. One of my suggestions then was to do some mapping of existing tools and name the pros and cons so we can have later a more solid concept of the basic and really important features that should be included in such a platform (not down to the minimum detail though). WHY, if we can't actually do this? This would be an exercise in participatory design and an important source of information for when we do get resources to develop this - I'm thinking from my perspective here in Gothenburg, the city is interested and there is a good chance they get a budget to develop some kind of platform next year, and I'd like to have this idea/concept to present so that public money won't be wasted, or that it won't be channelled into private interests. Many people making this kind of important decisions do not know about basic stuff, like the importance and advantages of open-source, but many of them are open and progressive in their political leanings, so it's very much a matter of learning and communication.
Another thing from the discussion we had and that is a constant when talking about technology in general is that IT IS NOT (only) ABOUT A SOFTWARE. It is a lot about COMMUNITY-BUILDING, which is why we should focus on the local (the prominent unity being a city) whenever developing or suggesting the use of new digital tools for sharing. How are people sharing, what are the existing local initiatives and how could that be improved by any platform? I believe there is a global common denominator (hence global in design) but you can only build a solid user-base and get people engaged in sharing communities if you promote it locally, perhaps with a local identity as well.
That being said, my suggestion is to start exploring the basic question "What kind of digital tool do we need and that would promote more sharing on a local basis?". I'm going to start by setting up one wiki page later with the basic research on tools like I wrote before and I encourage people to participate with their inputs there. With this we can start a "Local Share Lab" / "Gifting Tools Lab" or whatever we choose to call it, expand the wiki, eventually set up a webpage and propose some minimal concepts or designs for a sharing tool that is anchored in our experience. This will be useful as a valuable source of inspiration and knowledge for whenever and wherever we reach out to people with the skills and/or resources to actually start building (and sharing) this digital tool.