2 Bob's Worth

andrewperry's picture
Submitted by andrewperry on 3 December 2009 - 1:33pm
What's this idea about?
In less than 100 words, what is your idea?: 
2 Bob’s Worth will be a website where people and community organisations/NGOs can register small needs they have (or big projects that can be broken down into small tasks) and volunteers can then subscribe/search for small tasks near them that they can devote a small amount of time/money to, and still make a real difference. Two cents’ worth is a colloquial expression for an individual’s opinion, usually in summary form. In Australia/UK, we'd say 2 bob's worth (a bob being colloquial for an old Oz/UK unit of currency - a shilling). It also has connotation's of a small financial contribution.
What is the social need or challenge your idea could address?: 
Lots of people would like to make a contribution to their local community but don't know where to start or are worried they'll be obliged to keep coming back week after week. Some people who start volunteering burn out quickly and therefore won't start again for fear of "letting people down" if they don't keep it up. Similarly, it is challenging for community organisations/NGOs to work out how to harness the skills of large numbers of people who are only able to contribute a small amount of time in a way that generates more benefit than the work that such engagement creates.
What’s really new about your idea?: 
2 Bob's Worth encourages people and community organisations/NGOs to think about the small ways we can help each other, and provides a mechanism to reach out to each other in our local communities in an organic way. It will provide resources to people and community organisations/NGOs to help us think about how big projects can be broken down into small tasks that can be accomplished by a crowd willing to do their two bob's worth, as well as those little things that just need doing to help each other succeed day to day. Corporate donors could agree to give money to worthy causes based on the number of volunteer hours donated to them, or to send people to do tasks that are listed but haven't been volunteered for in a particular period of time (which the organisation might contract to do the task).
Stage of development
What inspired you to come up with your idea in the first place?: 
Attending the Parramatta SI Camp, we were challenged to come up with ideas to use technology to fix a social problem. I was wondering what little thing we could do to help people that wouldn't create a huge ongoing commitment on top of my organisation's other work/philanthropic commitments. I then thought about the fact that other people also would be looking for small ways they can help out and that most people are happy to give their "2 Bob's Worth" (which also has connotations for a $2 tax deductible donation).
From 1-5, what stage of development would you say your idea is in? - Explain further: 
3 - After discussing Two Bob's Worth at the SI Camp meetup, we looked at other existing facilities. One example, www.givenow.com.au, provides an ability to donate online to specific organisations and suggests other ways to give, but is not focused on volunteering, or micro-volunteering in particular, in the same way Two Bob's Worth will offer. It also doesn't provide the organic framework to request help. We then consulted with a wide range of community organisations to determine their support for the platform and received a very supportive response, subject to ensuring that there is a framework for minimising risk for participants. We have founded Two Bob's Worth Ltd as a non-profit organisation and have submitted a grant application so that the micro-volunteering platform can be supported by appropriate organisational support, community consultation/promotion and that an appropriate trust/security/risk assessment and framework is put in place. Alastair MacGibbon, Director at Surete Group and former head of Trust & Safety at eBay Australia & New Zealand and the Australian High Tech Crime Commission, has come on board to assist in the development of an appropriate Trust & Safety framework. We are looking for designers/developers with experience in modern development languages and techniques to work with us on the project. It is proposed to release the code of the Two Bob's Worth platform for the public benefit under an Open Source licence.
What can we do for you?
Tell us what we can do for you: 
The whole concept behind Two Bob's Worth is to harness the energy and enthusiasm of large numbers of people, to do a little to help out. We would like the project itself to develop in the same way - so that members of the community take responsibility for each doing our 2 Bob's Worth to make it happen. We have some supporters who can provide hosting and some development and administrative resources, but it needs a community of volunteers to realise the vision for 2 Bob's Worth. Depending on how the grant application goes, we may also be looking for funding.
Select which are the one or two most important things that you need to help the development of your idea: 
Developer - to help you create your software
Funder - to give you some initial cash
If Social Innovation Camp is able to help push your idea forward, do you have the time or desire to take ownership of it?: 
Yes
Anything else you want to tell us?: 
I am a lawyer, technologist, husband and father of 2. I believe that the Internet is an amazing enabler and that the digital divide must be broken down so that people can obtain the benefits of self-education opportunities. The Internet should be used to empower people to be active in their local communities, as well as global ones, creating and sharing their own news rather than become isolated consumers of mass media.
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James Fehon
chieftech
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chieftech's picture

Re: 2 Bob's Worth

by chieftech - 12 Feb 2010 - 2:41pm
Andrew - I like this idea a lot and I'm confident you are addressing some of the legal and practical hurdles that might get in the way of this actually working in practice. Do you think there is potential for this be an application that different communities or community groups use, rather than a single site serving a particular geographic region? I was thinking for example like the way some of the idea generation sites work (e.g. Idea Scale). This might perhaps get around some of the issues of different volunteer activities requiring particular hoops to jump through before people can volunteer by handing this responsibility back to them. It might even provide the basis for a sustainable business model of free and premium sites (for the larger users that get most value from it).
andrewperry's picture

Re: 2 Bob's Worth

by andrewperry - 17 Feb 2010 - 6:22am
Hi James - Thanks for your interest and support! There is definitely potential for the application/s underlying Two Bob's Worth to be used by different communities or community groups rather than being a single site serving a particular geographic region, and that is the intention. We are committed to an Open Source development and licensing model for the platform, to facilitate that sort of distributed use, and have registered twobobsworth domain names in the UK and NZ and twobitsworth and 2centsworth domains for the US, which could be used to setup localised versions for these different regional areas down the track. There are, however, lots of reasons why within a community like Australia, with a relatively common regulatory environment, it may be preferable to have one platform operate nationally and be flexible enough to support lots of local help requesters and organic community volunteering groups and individual volunteers. Some benefits I see for one platform are: 1. The network effect requires critical mass and therefore the quicker that lots of volunteering opportunities and volunteers are on the platform, the quicker it will grow and the better chance you will have of finding an opportunity that meets your volunteering criteria, or a volunteer with the skills you need. By flexibly "tagging" volunteering opportunities with particular geo, skills and issues related tags, a single platform can create an ecosystem within which a whole range of communities can participate - so if I have an interest in helping refugees and skills in IT, I can go to one place and if I don't initially find a refugee project requiring IT help in my local area I may find a non-IT refugee related opportunity or a non-refugee related IT opportunity. 2. Implementing the governance and community development/support systems around the platform may require as much or more effort as developing the software itself. While it is envisaged that some of the tools built into the software will help hosts of the software to address these issues, just downloading and unpacking a tarball is unlikely to be enough to get a local micro-volunteering project happening effectively. By having communities that share a "similar enough" regulatory and cultural environment participating together, they are likely to get ideas from each other and be able to make serendipitous connections. 3. As much energy as possible should be focused on doing the volunteer work and improving the platform, rather than the installation and maintenance of the platform itself. In the initial years in particular, it is intended that the focus be on getting the fundamentals of the platform and the broader governance and community development/support systems right for selected disadvantaged regions of NSW, for which we have applied for grant funding, rather than on helping people around the world to setup their own platforms using the software (although an Open Source development method and licensing model will enable people to do that and the system should be designed for ease of installation and management). 4. By its nature the platform is intended to support organic growth, which happens most effectively when there is a critical mass of organic material (or volunteers/tasks)! Therefore while we hope to be actively working to get volunteers and recipients using the platform in targeted areas of NSW through government grant, the use of the platform generally will be open and encouraged so that hopefully we'll see its use take off organically across a wide range of communities, from those initial seeds of experience gained in specific regions and shared with others. 5. Good reporting requires good information and it will be easier to generate good reports if the relevant information is in one place. For example, people requesting help will want to check the volunteering "CV" of the person offering to help, to determine if they trust them. This "CV" can be built dynamically from tasks completed through the platform and feedback the volunteer has received. Individuals may want to set volunteering targets against which they can measure their volunteering work across different projects/issues throughout each year. Many organisations set CSR volunteering goals and may wish to promote their staff's achievement of or work towards those targets which the system can generate (with the employee's agreement). Agencies also need to have good statistics about the volunteer work they facilitate for fundraising purposes and it will be easier to generate these reports and maintain the relationship with volunteers across lots of different projects through one system. So in summary, while it is intended that the application be developed in such a way that it can be shared, used and developed by anyone with the appropriate skills - the focus should be on building a platform that will support increased sustainable micro-volunteering in our local NSW communities first, with the aim that from the experiences we all gain and share through that activity that numerous communities will join in using the existing platform where appropriate, or take the application/s and establish new volunteering platforms in their region.
andrewperry's picture

Re: 2 Bob's Worth

by andrewperry - 3 Feb 2010 - 12:03pm
Thanks for the great feedback on this project! The thing that will help set Two Bob's Worth apart as an empowering platform, is having a really user friendly simple interface to do the two fundamental things needed for it to be a success - help people with needs submit their tasks and help people with means to find those tasks and volunteer for them. Another fundamental differentiator for this project is that it will enable people to develop a volunteer profile that helps them track the community projects that they are involved in during the year/lifetime and help them set and achieve volunteering goals. This means that they will be able to see how their small bit of help has contributed to the achievement of great things (as well as helping out one-off individuals in meaningful ways). Many organisations are setting goals for their employees to participate in community service projects and this would be a really great way to empower those employees to find projects that they care about (rather than just go along to a corporate event that they may not feel a connection with) and to then be able to record their involvement in a way that enables an organisation to provide a report on their corporate social responsibility targets. We have spoken with lawyers involved in public interest law pro bono projects and they are really interested. The legal profession across the country is starting to set a goal of 35 hours of pro bono work per lawyer per year and Two Bob's Worth would provide a really great method for lawyers to be able to find pro bono projects and then track their work on them. Behind the scenes the software will provide a powerful project management system so that when a person submits a really big need, like "I need help to setup a charity to build an orphanage in Africa", a volunteer who has experience in that area is able to then connect and suggest a bunch of smaller tasks that this big idea can be broken down into. A lawyer could then grab the incorporation issue and break that down into a bunch of tasks that they and other lawyers can work together on, a builder may grab the building task and break that into a bunch of smaller tasks that they and other builders can contribute to, an educator may grab some of the education tasks and a retired diplomat may grab some of the government liaison tasks and help with those. As each little task is done, it can be ticked off and progress towards the greater goal displayed in a chart/graph eg 100% of the way to founding the organisation, 50% of the way toward building the school and 25% of the way to getting licensed and teachers employed. The Two Bob's Worth platform seeks to bring to volunteering, some of the techniques and tools that have proven so effective in distributed open source software development - but do it in a way that it is easy and appropriate for the size of a task - so that a widow can submit the few hours help she needs around the house as a simple task as well as a non-profit group submit a larger project that people can then help break down into smaller achievable volunteering projects. The software at the heart of the system is to be released under an open source licence so that it can be used to set up similar volunteering/project management systems around the world - some of which may be run privately within aid organisations to help them successfully manage relief programs - others run publicly to help people in need submit their small needs that can easily be met by the volunteer community. The fine line the project needs to walk is to ensure that people in need can submit the task they need help with, without feeling it is too big or too small - and to also help people in need to find tasks that they might be able to help with so that they can contribute back to their community (ie break the "welfare recipient" cycle/stigma by people recognising that we all need help sometimes and can almost all provide help sometimes too). We have sought a government grant so that we can employ a person who has run volunteering programs for big non-proft organisations/aid agencies for 3 years, to help develop resources around the system that will make it easier for volunteers to participate individually as well as form local action groups to help build a strong community. He will also work with existing non-profits to help them see how they can use the system to manage their projects and get make micro-volunteering work for them. The Two Bob's Worth platform has the potential to really empower people to see that there is always a little thing they can do, or a little bit of help they can get, in the community around them (or from unexpected sources across the world). We'd love to do our Two Bob's Worth to make this happen and love it if others are willing to do the same!
andrewperry's picture

Re: 2 Bob's Worth

by andrewperry - 3 Feb 2010 - 12:05pm
PS - the above comment was submitted before the deadline for projects to be submitted (I just made a minor edit afterwards which then changed the time on it). In any case, as the project was submitted before the deadline I hope that you will consider the above in assessing the appropriateness of the project for ASiX's support!
donmacca's picture

Re: 2 Bob's Worth

by donmacca - 31 Jan 2010 - 12:10pm
Probably worth looking at the work of: www.theextraordinaries.org and www.flocklocal.net. I imaging Cary Pedicini from Volunteering Australia might also be interested in connecting on this idea. Donnie
andrewperry's picture

Re: 2 Bob's Worth

by andrewperry - 17 Feb 2010 - 6:28am
Thanks Donnie - great projects that are very relevant. Michelle Williams also pointed out this site which provides an interesting connection between volunteering and bartering: Gov 2.0 website seeks to spur volunteering, New York-style.
Humanise's picture

Implementation methods for: 2 Bob's Worth

by Humanise - 30 Jan 2010 - 3:46am
I have created a blog detailing some methods that allow the Internet Implementation of this idea. The blog is called 'Implementation Options for some Social Innovation Camp Ideas'. It is available at the following address: http://asix.org.au/content/implementation-options-some-social-innovation... It should be noted that all the following ideas have some similarity in the required Internet implementation task: 2 Bob's Worth Fancy a match? Can I borrow a.... Develop a car pooling database package for local councils Work experience for the disadvantaged Work Placements Directory Community toolshed online Digs for the disadvantaged My blog starts with implementation ideas that are very specific to the task, allowing the task to be easily implemented without needing specialist skills or programmers, and then progresses to those that give a lot more flexibility but need more skills to implement. If anyone wants to try out the first and easiest option then they can contact me and I will setup an installation where you can try it out.
ChrisB's picture

Re: Implementation methods for: 2 Bob's Worth

by ChrisB - 5 May 2010 - 3:05pm
Hi 'Humanise', As a new Changemaker who lives in a very needy and disempowered community, my priority is for my neighbours to be better connected to each other, and to have easy access to a simple process for collaboration, decision making and cooperative action. I think this could be done now through the internet – perhaps through Googlegroups because it is universal, free and requires nothing more than for them to sign up. In a Googlegroup called ‘Village’, local activities can be listed and local discussions simply occur in the online discussion forum. Chatting and sharing events in a forum like this can help build community tremendously. (Neighbours come to the ‘Village’ site for information about discussions and activities promoted on a local community notice board, the local newspaper or our neighbourhood centre.) Village has also developed a non functioning mock-up of a simple organisational process that I suspect could be easily made interactive, but I can’t understand the technical language being used in the Googlegroup developers’ forums. I don't have a clue what is available there. If you think that what you have been working on might help I could send you a pdf file of what we need and our mock up. Regards Chris Baulman www.ntw.110mb.com
glenm's picture

Re: 2 Bob's Worth

by glenm - 20 Jan 2010 - 3:19pm
This appears to be a practical and sensible solution to connect volunteers with community organizations. Since it encompasses a fairly general social need, this program has the potential to grow in scale and be implemented in various communities. One question is whether there are other substitutes to this program. To play the devil’s advocate, couldn’t a job posting website such as Gumtree produce similar results? Exactly what is it about 2 Bob’s Worth that makes it unique? The author states that the portal would “encourage people and community organizations/NGOs to think about the small ways we can help each other.” Changing people’s perceptions through this website is a delicate task, which would require communicating in such a way to convince the community that their volunteer work is greater utilized by using this site. Community organizations and NGOs would also have to be convinced that their productivity and efficiency would increase by using this portal. The main question is whether this website provides a unique form of collaboration between volunteers and organizations/NGOs? Does this site maximize the effectiveness of volunteer labor, or exploit the unique skills these volunteers may possess?

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