tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37158966055210835322023-11-15T10:21:31.784-06:00Eric Smith - My Random ThoughtsMy personal philosophy is to consider different perspectives of various problems and then work to create a solution that benefits the majority.
This is a random selection of my thoughts. Hopefully someone finds them helpful and uses them to make the world a better place.Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-73824405143296572292016-02-06T00:30:00.000-06:002016-02-15T02:20:22.735-06:00Codes for Change - The Future of Fundraising<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody";"><i>I want every business to have the ability to easily do what TOMS does, but on more of a local and a personal level. Fundraising for those in need by selling a product or a service is a relatively simple process, but I want to take it a step further and allow the consumer to choose exactly where their money goes. On the other end, I also think it should be easier for everyone to raise $500 or less. </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">There should be a nonprofit that focuses on helping those in need by allowing people to create brief profiles explaining why they or someone they know needs financial assistance. Their profile would include either a photo or a video, a brief bio, and what they would do with the money. The profiles would also feature a section that shows how many hearts or votes they've received. All votes are anonymous.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">The money would be raised by selling a locally designed and printed T-shirt for $35. Each city's chapter would have only one T-shirt and the design would express love within the community. Every $35 donation qualifies the T-shirt recipient for one vote within the chapter the shirt was purchased in. (Each shirt would come with a secret code that is good for one vote.) The individual votes are anonymous. However, everyone who has had the ability to vote will also have a branded T-shirt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">Each chapter could team up with a new designer and print shop once a year. This would keep everything fresh and get more people talking about it. It'd be a tax write-off for them as well as a promotion. And for $10-15 a shirt it's not like they'd be losing much money if they chose to get paid. ($10 per shirt produced if the designer isn't a member of the print shop team and $15 per shirt if the print shop designs and prints them.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">Every profile that receives five votes or more would receive at least a $100 contribution. Profiles would only receive contributions in $100 increments, so a profile that receives seven votes would still receive $100 while a profile that receives 10 votes would receive $200. The most a profile could receive is $500 or 25 votes within a 30 day period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">If an applicant's profile doesn't get five votes within 30 days of applying it is deleted from the system and the votes are put back into the contributor's accounts, so they can find someone else to assist. They would receive an email notifying them of this change. Votes that go unused for 180 days would be transferred to a special committee of local volunteers. The committee would have the ability to apply the unused votes to any profiles of their choosing. This would make sure no money is wasted and that every penny goes toward helping those who need it most. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">Applicants would only be allowed to request a donation once every 12 months in order to reduce the amount of people who are just trying to make a quick buck. Each applicant would have to confirm an email address and a phone number in order to create an account. In addition, they'd be encouraged to provide links to their various social media profiles. This would prevent people from making multiple profiles in an attempt to scam contributors out of money. Access to the social profiles would also give the contributors a better understanding of who is asking for financial assistance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">The staff would primarily be made up of volunteers and student interns, but may include some paid positions for day-to-day duties (website maintenance, communications, etc.). Eventually I would like to see major brands and retailers selling products that include codes for votes and then donating a portion of their profits to this cause. If that were to happen we'd obviously need more than just a street team running this organization.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">TL;DR A $35 contribution gets you a T-shirt and a potentially life-changing vote. Anyone can create a profile to explain why they need some extra cash. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;"><a href="mailto:the_ericsmith@outlook.com" target="_blank">Let me know</a> if there's anything you would like to add to this or if you would like to help turn it into a reality. </span>Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-7361587839646522022015-11-22T16:25:00.000-06:002015-11-22T17:20:18.346-06:00The Future of Ambulances - Concierge Mechanic<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">Imagine never having to worry about your car's tire pressure, oil changes and other various fluids ever again. Imagine being able to simply open an app when you need </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">a locksmith, roadside assistance (emergency gasoline, </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">a tire changed,</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;"> a tow truck*, etc.), and other non-evasive things.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">We the people should be able to have our oil changed and tires aired up at our homes and/or workplaces at scheduled times. We should be able to receive roadside assistance by simply opening an app on our phones. </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">I'd totally pay $30 a month to not have to think about changing my oil or filling my tires up with air. The safety net would be complimentary peace of mind</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;"> that I'd likely never take advantage of. L</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">imiting the safety net to 2-3 times a year would be completely understandable.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">The coolest part would be getting my car serviced without stress. I should be able to subscribe to this service, receive a</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;"> quick inspection within a week of signing up, and then receive a complimentary checkup (oil change, fluid and tire check, etc.) every three months.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody";"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px;">Food for thought: the parts trucks could be refurbished ambulances painted in such a way that they look as if they're traveling doctors for your car.</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">*In order to reduce startup costs, a tow truck could be achieved by having a contract with a local tow service.</span>Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-37927215571119104672015-09-16T09:49:00.001-05:002015-09-16T09:54:18.395-05:00Future of Packaging<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Imagine an item like a pre-boxed bottle of cologne. Now imagine a machine pushing the cologne into a thin plastic tube, removing the air from inside of the tube, and then sealing both ends. The cologne is now in an airtight seal. Now the same plastic tube, which is still attached to the package,</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"> will return to its origin</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">. You now have a sealed package in a bag. Blow some air into the bag and seal the opening (to the first end of the package). You now have a sealed package 'floating' in the center of an air-filled tube/pillow. The exterior of the plastic tube (interior of bag) could be bubble wrap so it still protects the product if the air-filled tube breaks open during shipment. Depending on the strength of the plastic.. You may be able to ship it in this without the use of a box. This could save millions in unneeded shipping costs (boxes, packing peanuts, etc.) and it's simple enough that every post office could have one behind the counter. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><i>I put this in my "shipping suggestions" in a survey that Amazon emailed me.</i></span>Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-31025052260533402772015-09-16T01:36:00.001-05:002015-09-16T01:43:11.200-05:00Employ the Unemployed, House the Homeless<div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">I've been trying to <a href="http://e3s4.blogspot.com/2015/09/end-world-hunger.html" target="_blank">end hunger</a>, homelessness, and joblessness for the past year or two. Unfortunately, I've been unable to get it off the ground due to a lack of time and money. My unofficial name for the project is QuickHire. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom." -Nelson Mandela</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">New technology is created every day to bring the world closer together through better, broader communication. But I want to use that technology to go beyond snapchats and selfies. I want the combination of 1) the accessibility and availability of wireless devices; 2) the popularity and immediacy of social media; and 3) the nature of good will to make conquering poverty easier.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, current unemployment in the United States is just above 6%--around 10 million people. In November 2012 the U.S. Census Bureau reported more than 16% of the population lived in poverty, including almost 20% of American children, placing American child poverty at its highest level since 1993. Unfortunately for too many people living in poverty, their condition means living in hunger. Charitable monetary and food donations while well-intended do not go far enough to solve the problems of poverty and hunger. We must harness the resources we have to not only treat but also cure the epidemic.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Put yourself in the shoes of the average poverty stricken parent. Do you have a home computer that allows you to efficiently job search while you're making ends meet in the stressful time between jobs? Probably not. But you probably have a cell phone, and more and more of these are smartphones. Smartphones are quickly becoming less of a status symbol and more of what is available (you can easily find a used iPhone for less than $100.) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What makes QuickHire extremely unique is that a portion of our revenue will go towards non-profits that focus on improving the housing conditions of people who really need help. Freelancers are not only benefitting themselves and whoever they're working for, they're also benefitting people in their community. A portion of our revenue will go toward paying employees and the rest will go toward promotions and other various things (servers, electric bills, etc.) needed to keep the app up and running smoothly. We're building QuickHire to address social ills such as poverty, hunger and unemployment by harnessing the power of mobile technology. We hope to channel people from their rock-bottom situation to a much less stressful and more productive point in their life. A productive society is much more likely to be a positive society and vice versa. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our goal is to employ the unemployed, house the homeless, and feed the hungry.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">a description of the organization </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A location-based marketplace application for freelancers. We will provide the opportunity to safely and securely make money by simply living life while doing what you love. I want both people and businesses to have the ability to post a problem and have it solved quickly, professionally, and expertly. To best protect everyone, the app would feature an escrow-based payment system. Everyone will also be required to have their personal information (phone, email, home address, social security number, etc.) in our system before a job can be started.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Making the marketplace location-based is extremely important. Both the freelancers and the people they are working for will have to use their location, so everyone will only see the people who are close enough to help. (You don't want someone in Bangladesh trying to convince you that he's the best guy to unclog your drain in the USA.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The distance a freelancer can travel from their base location will be based on their mode of transportation (feet, bike, car, hyper-loop). A mode of transportation would obviously increase how far/fast a freelancer could travel from their base location, but they wouldn't be required. (Some jobs can be completed online.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Freelancers bid on jobs they are qualified for. After a task has been approved as complete, both the freelancer and the client will receive a notification letting them know the transaction is complete. QuickHire will receive 5% of the total bill.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our main competition is TaskRabbit. They only operate in select cities and they only let a number of people do jobs in each metro area. Our biggest difference from TaskRabbit is that we would be open to everyone who is professional and knowledgeable. "Need a job? Got a smartphone?" Everyone with a smartphone will be able to make some extra cash. "Need some help? Got a smartphone?" Everyone with a smartphone and some extra cash will be able to hire some help.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">problem we're solving and how we're doing it</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There are plenty of jobs for all of the unemployed. We're simply matching people with jobs. All of the current and popular freelancing marketplaces are through websites. There are almost no easy-to-use apps (or websites) for this. Bringing freelancing to its roots is important, because we live in a time where significantly more people have mobile devices than jobs. This is a problem that could easily be solved and that's what QuickHire is here to accomplish.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">market competition, size, & potential</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">TaskRabbit would be our main competition, but there are no known marketplaces for freelancers to find jobs on a local level. You would think that would have happened first, but it never grew past Craigslist. Unless you consider a junk collector a freelancer, Craigslist isn't a website that helps freelancers find work. It's time for an app that makes it easy to quickly hire someone or be hired by someone. The jobs are out there and the people to fill those positions are closer than you might think. We're simply bringing people together.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our market size is very large, because we're able to benefit close to 100% of the people with a mobile device and/or access to the internet. (Whether these are people who are looking for a job or they are people who need to hire someone.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our potential is truly amazing. Consider the numbers from the largest online marketplace for freelancers, Elance. After their merger, they now have more than 10 Million monthly users. That's through a website. The impact we could make by bringing an app (that works more efficiently than Elance) to the market is amazing. Applications are much more popular than websites. The majority of people with mobile devices check their email, read the news, listen to music, and share photos through apps. I'd like to allow them to make some money too! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We focus on communities and our competition does not. We make an effort to match freelancers with the best opportunities and our competition does not. Our competition isn't focused on a mobile marketplace. I think it would be foolish to not go after the mobile market. Marc Andreessen once said, "The smartphone revolution is under-hyped, more people have access to phones than access to running water. We've never had anything like this before since the beginning of the planet." I can't speak for our competition, but we truly care about our users. We are passionate about our work, because we understand the struggle (life) and we want to make it as easy for everyone as possible.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If I need my gutters cleaned in Nebraska, it serves me no good to have people from all over the world saying they can help. QuickHire will help find local people to help with everything from mowing your lawn and fixing your car to developing an app and helping you turn your business idea into a reality. If you're too far from food and hungry, it shouldn't be a struggle to find someone local to bring you something to eat. It's 2015 and I think we should start acting like it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">a plan to generate revenue</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's actually a very simple approach. We will receive 5% of every transaction. (Our competition charges 8-10%.) We will be tapping a larger market and charging less than our competition.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">non-profit partnership </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A portion of the QuickHire's revenue will go to non-profits which </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">focus on improving the housing conditions of people who need the most help. Freelancers are not only benefitting themselves and whoever they're working for, they're also benefitting their community. In addition to benefitting people in need, this will give QuickHire a nice edge on marketing and public relations.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">a summarization</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">QuickHire and its non-profit partnerships will essentially create a funnel that will channel people from their rock-bottom situation to a much less stressful and more productive point in their life. It will provide some stable ground that will actually help everyone, because a productive society is much more likely to be a positive society and vice versa. Peace and prosperity is all around us. We just need to reach out and grab it. QuickHire is for everyone (businesses and average joes; employed and unemployed) with a mobile device. This is a business that would truly help everyone and be quite profitable at the same time. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Consider the rising minimum wage requirements that are appearing across the United States ($15/hour in Seattle). These hikes are hurting small businesses all over the country, because they can't afford to pay their employees so much money. We would be providing small business owners with an opportunity to hire part-time help without forcing them to pay such high hourly rates. $9 an hour is still great pay for a 17 year old who needs a part time job.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Evan Williams (Cofounder of Blogger, Twitter, Medium) said, "QuickHire is ambitious and would be very hard to pull off but definitely valuable if you did." </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Add in Facebook and Twitter login and you've got a platform where anyone can hire someone or be hired by someone relatively quickly. Eventually I would like to expand our operations to ending world hunger via a non-profit subsidiary. Essentially, we'd be a conglomerate that provides people with the ability to connect with others on a local level, find a job, find a place to live, and earn a meal to eat.</span></div>
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Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-59137860256690096252015-09-16T01:23:00.003-05:002016-02-08T01:47:43.327-06:00End World Hunger<div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Would you mind paying a few extra cents for everything you order at a restaurant if you knew those pennies were going towards feeding the hungry? My guess is that you wouldn't mind. In fact, you likely wouldn't even notice the increase in price and you'd appreciate every bite of your meal even more if you knew you were helping end world hunger. I want to create an initiative that encourages restaurants and grocery stores (big chains and small family businesses alike) to give a small percentage of the profits from each sale to combatting world hunger. Some businesses wouldn't even increase their prices, but most probably would. Either way, this is an effort that would help everyone and bring the world together for something great. We could even develop an app that maps out every restaurant that has joined our initiative and taken the pledge to end world hunger to make it easier for average people to support the cause.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The restaurants would gain customers, because everyone loves buying things when they know the money is going towards something beneficial. We could provide window decals and signage to every restaurant that commits to our initiative for a minimum of five years. They could be as simple as their logo next to ours with "eat here to feed the world" below them along with our website. The app would be huge on a marketing level for both the restaurants and our non-profit's fundraising. Another potential marketing benefit for the businesses would be the ability to inform each customer how much they've helped the world by eating at that restaurant or shopping at that grocery store. Each restaurant's partnership with us would also allow them to receive some tax benefits. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Everyone would benefit from doing something good with their hard earned money without changing a single thing in their lives. That alone is huge, because people want to help others even though their money is meticulously budgeted out. The app would allow people to quickly find restaurants near them that use their profits for good and not greed. Everyone would have the ability to receive a good meal and feed the hungry all for one price. This will put an end to those annoying cashier phrases like, "Would you like to donate $5 to ______ organization/fund?" I know they mean well, but they really are annoying. Plus, I'm confident that more money would be raised if everyone was donating 25 cents here and $1.25 there as opposed to a significantly lower amount of people donating $1 here and $5 there. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The obvious benefit would be the money raised to feed the hungry both domestically and internationally. The awesome part is that we could use the donations to provide healthy food to the hungry by investing in gardens and educating people in agriculture and healthy forms of culinary arts. This would allow people to not only receive nourishment, but potentially get a job as well.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="mailto:The_EricSmith@outlook.com" target="_blank">Let me know</a> if you have anything to add to this or if you feel you may be able to help!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Edit 02/07/16 - <i>I'm feeling pretty grateful right now. I just received a grant from the Yum! Brands Foundation. 100% of the grant will be applied to this project, but we still have a long way to go! Please let me know if you would like to help.</i></span></div>
Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-48706900926415425892014-07-07T22:17:00.002-05:002014-07-07T22:51:39.562-05:00A Step In The Right Direction<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I read <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/immigrants-from-latin-america-and-africa-squeezed-as-banks-curtail-international-money-transfers/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=DB_IFL_20140707&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=3&" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: black;">this article</span></i></a> earlier today and started thinking about the best ways to allow people to send money to family and friends (outside of the US) without having to worry about the regulators trying to shut the service provider down for unknowingly supporting terrorist activity. It's a bit ironic that I found this article, because I just watched Inside Job (a documentary about the 2008 financial collapse) last night. It was a bit creepy seeing the same banks that caused the 2008 financial collapse trying to convince everyone that the tens of billions of dollars in annual transactions (that send US$ to other countries) are great for the American economy. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We need to build a website/app + debit card. People could deposit their cash by mailing it in a provided envelope or taking a photo of their check using the app. We could allow people to easily monitor their account, charge 4% for every transaction or $40 a month, and give account holders the option of ordering extra car<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">ds for $14 a card. No longer are people secretly transferring money to terrorists and drug lords. We would be allowing people to place money in accounts and share access with their family and friends. If it is thought that people are doing bad things with their money.. Regulators could easily verify, monitor, or even cancel accounts. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">This would be cool as a business, but it would be even cooler if a congressman/ congresswoman/ senator stood up and presented this as a solution to our current scenario. There's obviously a lot missing from this to make it a perfect plan, but it's more of a solution than anyone in D.C. has provided. There would need to be security on every end (photos, addresses, phone numbers, et cetera). The debit cards would each need unique codes attached to them to make monitoring specific cards much more simple. This would quickly separate the bad people from the good people, because there wouldn't be a need to monitor accounts with several people attached to them. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">This isn't a complete solution, but it would be a step in the right direction. </span></span>Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-58041814031447986292014-06-21T22:55:00.000-05:002015-09-16T01:25:18.466-05:00Crowd-Feeding<br />
What if everyone could easily help everyone? Crowd-funding? More like crowd-feeding. <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-align: center;">A business that makes its money off of sponsorships and transactions by helping those in need would be a pretty awesome business. It would be like getting paid to put smiles on faces. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-align: center;">There's something magical about strangers helping strangers. </span><div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Those in need could have profiles that they make or are made for them. Their profiles would be simple. A short video, their condition, their story, their location, their dream, their skills, their passion, and your ROI. </span></div>
Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-85074263313460751242014-06-21T15:30:00.000-05:002014-06-22T13:05:29.317-05:00A Social PlatformI kind of wish there was a photo/video sharing social platform that isn't like all the others. Think Instagram + Snapchat. Now add in having everyone else as your <b>personal photographer</b>/videographer. This would put the 'social' back in social media and completely flip current forms of social media on its head.<br />
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People (friends/family/followers) would take a photo or a short video clip of you or something that applies to you and then send it to you. You would then view it and have about 10 seconds to decide if you want to post it or decline it and have it be gone forever. (This is possible, because everything is done through the app.)<br />
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<i>Your profile would consist of content that other people captured and 100% of it would be approved by you. </i>The benefit is always having your own personal photographers. It's the <b>future of selfies</b>. Or whatever a non-selfie is. Photographs.<br />
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Add in location (geo-tagging and GPS). Geo-tagging isn't huge, but verified users could have a ping go out every 45 minutes (or whenever they want it to) that lets their followers know they were "within 3 miles of Hollywood." It would just tell people they're within a certain distance from the largest local city.<br />
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You would have <b>people feeling more connected</b> with the people they follow. All of the content on everyone's profiles would feature the username of the person who captured it, so it pushes more people to try to get shots as well as the best shots.<br />
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I think stamps/badges/whatever you want to call them would be a cool feature too. There could be one for having a verified user use your content on their profile, one for using the app at the Super Bowl, and others for all kinds of cool stuff.<br />
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People could have public and private accounts. Public accounts would allow anyone to see your content and private accounts would be for people who only want their friends/family to see their content. These settings wouldn't have to apply to who can send a person a photo/video, but likely would.<br />
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Shares and reTweets are cool, but I prefer colors. Content could be separated with patterned colorful borders. Content that you share could have a thin light blue line around it that features tiny dark blue dots. Reposted content (other people’s content) could have a thin light red line around it with tiny dark red zigzags. Content that you want to highlight or stand out on your profile could have a thin yellow line around it with tiny orange swirls.<br />
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If I wasn't so bad with languages.. I would have started working on this thing a long time ago. I'm not sure it's valuable (as far as money goes). I think it would be a cool addition to the Twitter umbrella, but it's probably pretty weak by itself. Ev Williams once told me<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> that this is "of questionable value (by that, I mean, it might or might not be)" and I think he's correct. </span>Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-67919773085938123582014-06-21T02:42:00.001-05:002014-06-21T02:42:30.510-05:00North American Bird Calls<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Someone needs to interview the guy who sits in the library making weird noises whilst wearing headphones. The funny part is that he's listening to Rosetta Stone's "North American Bird Calls" lesson.<br /><br />It would be fun to teach a parrot how to sound like different birds. Maybe thats what he's doing. That would really freak people out. "That's not a robin you hear. That's a parrot in your front yard."</span>Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3715896605521083532.post-33405524790541430202014-06-20T23:33:00.000-05:002014-06-20T23:36:20.976-05:00Smart-Photos<div>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The world needs a mobile application that applies face-scanning technology to objects and allows everyone (with a mobile device) to take a photo of something and immediately <b>know everything</b> about the object as well as where they can possibly purchase one. If you see something that you want as a gift, all you should have to do is take a photo of it and send it to your friend or family member. People should be able to see the object along with a brief description and a link to where they can purchase it (Amazon) or learn more about it (Wikipedia). There could also be a social network comprised of the <b>smart-photos</b> of things people want/like. A photo is worth 1,000 words and soon you'll [hopefully] be able to read them. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Google has a photo search feature, but they don't take advantage of its potential. This would be fun and useful. Who knows? It could save lives. </span></div>
Eric Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00134572338929268487noreply@blogger.com