Dojo Hackathon Solutions

To read the full article about our sustainable impact Dojo Hackathon, click here.

1. Nomad Pool

Problem:

Multi-person projects are very difficult to schedule or impossible to launch, because it’s too hard to find a group of people matching the required skill set in a time interval where all of these people are available and willing to volunteer

Solution:

Cross-coworking-space nomad skill pool with timeslot matching

• Co-working-spaces should improve skill profiling of new members
• Profile should be extended to include available time slots with constraints (think +/- x days like in flight search)
• They should collaborate in sharing these skill and time data
• Needs common data model on how to categorize a member’s skill set
• A query system could help proposing launch dates or extending reach, softening constraints
• Members could be engaged proactively with projects similar to their skill set and availability
• Members who know beforehand that they won’t be available full-time should be able to commit to find a replacement and do a proper handover
• A “karma point” system or other gamification/reward mechanic could be used to incentivise members to fulfil their commitment

Long-term Benefit:

Aggregate data could be used to seed HR mgt. of local ad-hoc high-caliber teams of remote workers. This service could be sold to big corps who are open to remote creative think-tank-like project workers. A part of those projects funding could be delegated to support local projects, enabling digital nomads to give support indirectly even when they can’t volunteer. Given that only about 40% of all co-working spaces are profitable, this might also insure financial stability for co-working spaces and hence ensure sustained support of local projects.

What’s the bigger implications from the hackathon (what do we do with what we built?):

We are still working through our options on this and invite anyone who wants to help or take this and build on it to reach out.

• Sponsoring the participants to build out the solutions.
• Taking the solutions we came up with and organize another hackathon to build off what we started.
• Partnering with a larger organization who can take what we learned and make impact through greater source resources/connections.
• Sharing what we learned with coworking spaces and having them build out the solutions.

2. Project Makasih

Problem: Lack of centralized communication between members, social projects and coworking spaces.

Solution: Online platform that connects all three of them.

• Profile Creation for members & social projects
• Social projects can post what they are looking for
• Members can get in touch with the social projects

3. Proji

Problem: Communication issues and misunderstandings between people in projects (results in time wasted.)

Solution: Proji- The Virtual Project Manager. It’s a chatbot plug-in to Facebook messenger that helps people pick projects to work on, connects them to their volunteer teammates, and reminds them of their responsibilities. It ensures the project gets finished in an organized and timely fashion. (The demo video is amazing!)

Features include:

For volunteers:

• Saves time searching for information on projects
• Way to sign up for projects
• Task tracking; assists them in getting the job done
• Uploading deliverables
• Basic progress reporting

For coworking spaces:

• Skill pool
• Saves time matching members to projects
• Recruitment
• Automated communication

Increased accountability for all stakeholders.

4. Magic Wall

Problem: Facilitation fatigue between all stakeholders when advertizing, signing up and onboarding volunteers for community projects.

Solution: Physical wall within a coworking space that is interactive and attractive; that makes people stop and look at it. It will have the volunteer options listed and members can sign up for specific “missions.”

• Coworking space interviews community projects and helps them prepare their pitch
• Community project is motivated to break their biggest need down to one sentence
• Coworking space members think about the problem and help drive solutions
• Coworking space doesn’t have to answer questions about how/where to volunteer
• Organizations have visibility and potential help
• Volunteers can self-select to see if they want to help

5. Karma Market

Problem: Find a way to remove the monetary side of donating in order for a much more fulfilling and personal style of giving.

Solution: Gamification system where volunteers and coworking spaces earn points with finished community projects (and doing good quality work), and earn rewards through corporate sponsors.

Where do you hope this goes/how do you hope this project gets applied?

• Test the concept with the Ask/Bid Board in Dojo Bali
• Use our own model with Dojo talent to build the online platform
• Utilise the Coworking Alliance of Asia-Pacific to invite its members to join the platform

6. The Sustainables:

Problem: The effectiveness of community organisations to achieve long term change is not easily supported by coworking space members.

Solution: A framework for long term partnership between co-working space and community organisation that provides a structure for member engagement.

Guiding principles:

• Partnership first, projects second
• Long-term relationships are key
• Co-creation, shared vision
• Learning is iterative and two-way
• Members move; impact ripples through the ecosystem
• Building collective intelligence

*Sustainables member, Theresa Wong, has written this amazing article covering their solution in depth while answering the question: “Can digital nomads make meaningful contributions to local communities?”

7. Covolunteer.org:

Problem: Connecting digital nomads from coworking spaces with community projects is challenging. Current problems include a lack of structure, freelancers with limited time, onboarding freelancers, accountability, no way to track project progress and a lack of documentation of community needs.

Solution: Framework that includes onboarding, project management, and transitioning. Utilizing the community manager of the coworking space to facilitate the process. Basic online project management tool (Trello style) utilized by the community manager. They already have a live website! (http://covolunteer.org/)

Want to sponsor a solution to be built out? Have any questions? Want me to facilitate your event? Email me at brittneebond@gmail.com.