Trying to run a pilot program in the community

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

Hi all. My name is Marc.

For a final project for my MBA, I'm working with a team of people to try and test out an opportunity related to personal outsourcing. The concept is basically to outsource mundane tasks (cooking, cleaning, shopping, whatever you can think of) to college students to free up your time for the more important things in life.

In order to test this opportunity, I'm trying to setup a pilot program in the Tufts/Davis Square area where community members would act as the consumers who are dictating what services they need done, and the Tufts students would act as the service providers. This seems to make the most sense since college students typically have more flexible schedules than local working professionals (a ha! assumption #1) and usually are in need of money (okay, who isn't?). In the end, I guess it doesn't really matter who provides the services, and who requests them. I'd simply like to see if a system that could facilitate transactions for such short-duration tasks would be feasible.

Of course, I hit the streets and tried the basic marketing tasks of passing out postcards in the area, but that proved highly inefficient. So I'm turning my attention back to the online community to see if anyone is interested in participating.

I guess, in a nutshell, if you're interested in participating in a 1- or 2-week study that would require only a few hours of your time, and you'd be willing to help out a local neighbor, drop me a line.

mhofner@kudju.com or 617.529.7288

Comments

[kpht.livejournal.com]

I would love to be on the receiving end of such tasks, unfortunately I live all the way up in Gloucester, which is pretty impossibly long for a student to drive to.

No worries

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

No worries about your location, I'd love for you to sign up anyway. Good way to test the system to see its flexibility. Besides, there is no harm in asking: if no one decides to fulfill your service request, you lose nothing.

If you're interested, send me your contact details to mhofner@kudju.com, and I'll fill you in with more info.

one way to look at it...

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

nice. yeah, i guess there are a few ways to describe this to your friends :-)

what you'd get is the ability to post precisely what type of job, when, and the max price you'd be willing to pay someone to do that. For example, you're looking for someone to come to your house, pick up your laundry, get it cleaned, folded, and dropped back off to your house. Say you're willing to pay up to $30 to have this done. You'd post this on the pilot site, and a short-run reverse bidding process would occur where service providers would compete to fulfill that request. Let's just say in the end the winning bid is $25. You end up paying less than you were willing, which is a win.

anyways, enough rambling. Think you'd be interested in helping me out for a 1- or 2-week period?

Re: one way to look at it...

[ifotismeni]

cool, reverse e-auctions for consumer services. about time someone gave this a shot! :)

Re: one way to look at it...

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear someone else is frustrated this doesn't exist either as well. As I continue to mention, I'd really appreciate anyone who would spare a few hours to help test this out. So if you are, get ahold of me at mhofner@kudju.com

Re: one way to look at it...

[ifotismeni]

i think it would raise a serious conflict of interest if i participated (i'm a journalist that works in the business sector and specifically have a software beat), but i'm really curious to hear how this turns out. best of luck to you!

Re: one way to look at it...

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

I think this already exists....of course, the website name is failing me right now. I saw a commercial for it on TV a week or three ago, and checked it out.

Ah, here it is: Do My Stuff (http://www.domystuff.com/home).

Re: one way to look at it...

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

yep, well aware of these guys. very similar to what we're proposing. but there are a few bits of differentiation...too MBA-ish for a midnight conversation though. The nice thing about "DoMyStuff" is that it proves there are people out there that feel there is value in this. That is what we're trying to explore with the pilot program.

Re: one way to look at it...

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

ok, just wanted you to know they existed. :-)

good luck with your program!

Re: one way to look at it...

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

I recently read an article (in Wired?) about hiring part time and short term personal assistants that sounded similar as well. Not just for one task, but e.g. the guy was trying to sell/rent his place, so he had an assistant take care of calling all the realtors, setting up appointments, and being home to show people around. One of them was actually in India so he could only do tasks that were practical over the phone or online. It was an interesting read.

Local Cabbage

[turil.livejournal.com]

I haven't done any beta testing yet on my own version of this, but if you'd like to check out my idea (like yours but even more flexible and aimed at making the community and world a healthier place) take a look at Local Cabbage (http://www.localcabbage.com).

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if there's any system in place to vet people before they join the system; I'd be uncomfortable having someone do stuff around my home when I'm not there without something like that.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I find this interesting but how can you trust the people? How would I know the person being hired isnt going to run off with my laundry, or my money that was supposed to be for groceries?

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

magid, you raise excellent points regarding security, privacy, etc. We've thought of each of these issues in turn, and are proposing ways of dealing with them. For one, we're looking to leverage social networking in order to exploit the social stigmas that come along with it to impose proper behavior. This is done via means of identify verification (i.e. real name), reputation mgmt, and others. The nice thing about a system like this is that you define the type of job you want done--so there is no need to go beyond what you're comfortable having someone else do. This may change over time as users grow more accustom to the system, or the service providers end up being within "n" degrees of separation of their immediate social network.

your concerns are exactly the reason why we'd like to run this pilot program, so I'm glad to see you're someone that is willing to critique the concept...this is very helpful. It would be great if you could participate in the pilot program to help refine this. Again, it wouldn't require more than a few hours of your time, and based on your concerns, I think you might find it very interesting.

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

jamiesquared, please see my earlier comments to magid. the both of you raise similar concerns, which is exactly why we're trying out the pilot program. who knows, you might find it to be a fun experience :-)

Re: Local Cabbage

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

turil, sounds like we may be working towards the same goals. i'd be more than happy to chat further with you about the pilot we're running. the vision that i've pitched in this thread is extremely limited, and it may be that some of our efforts could be overlapping.

my ultimate goal (idealistic for sure) is really to empower individuals to control their lives, and not let the "daily grind" force them into the rat race of life. like most people, i've been going through this "rat race" for quite a while (even more so now while I both work and go to school), and I can tell you that I'm certainly missing out on many things I'd love to be a part of here in the Boston area. with a system like this, individuals would have tangible options to help them control the overbearing nature of our "live-to-work" society.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

mhofner, i filled out a survey supporting this project at the honk festival and i'm glad to see that this great idea is moving forward. if i suddenly find that i have more money that time, you can expect to hear from me.

to those who have concerns about trusting their minions: there are two ways to deal with this that are fairly easy with slightly more accountability than word of mouth networking. Both involve the program being centered around but not limited to a college or similar institution. One, by making this program unofficially, officially, or at least endorsed by/advertised by a college or institution, there could be a system of checks and balances if desired in that a) you know where you service provider is and most likely will be for a few years so they can't just vanish (at least it is less likely) and b) authorities at the institution may be willing to be the "police" in that if you are ripped off, they may be willing to mediate your complaint and ensure that their student is not giving their institution a bad name. Secondly, by using a pool of workers that are mostly affiliated with higher learning, you are able to know something about this person (that they were able to get into college, for one) and if need be, the "buyer" in this arrangement could require a letter of recommendation from a institutional source or even to know the service provider's grades, if so desired. it sounds rather 1950s on the surface, but i know that i for one would be much more comfortable with a college student in good standing than with a random person who answered a craigslist ad.

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

Jodi, thanks for the reinforcing points. As a matter of fact, I was probably the person who interviewed you at the Honk festival...as myself and another colleague were there asking people to fill out surveys.

what people say they do, and what they actually do, are two very different things. That is why we're now taking this to the next level and trying to run an online pilot program.

lastly, whether you more/less money or more/less time, your insights into this project would be hugely beneficial, so please consider joining us for the study.

thanks,
marc

timetradecircle.org

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

There's another local website where folks can help each other out with everyday tasks. It's called timetradecircle.org. I haven't signed up, so I can't say how well it works, but from my understanding, people barter their services rather than paying outright. Maybe you already know about it, but if not, I thought you might be interested.

A call for help

[mhofner.livejournal.com]

All,

I want to thank everyone for the great conversation. This is definitely along the lines of the feedback I'm looking to get from users of such a system. But as I mentioned earlier, what people say and what they actually do are often quite different things, and that is why we're trying to setup this pilot program to get people actually trying such an idea out, seeing what the actual process would be like, what the kinks are, what's good, what's bad, etc. Going through the actual process would provide much more to this conversation than just theorizing about it.

So what's it gonna take to get each of you to sign up? You may think you don't fit the mold, or your views would be slanted, or you just don't have the money. Well, you represent the very people that may eventually use a system like this, and your opinions matter to me. I still need to get several people signed up, and this has been the most lively discussion thus far, so I would love it if you'd consider sparing a few hours over the coming weeks to help me finish out this school project (less than 5 weeks to go!).

Thank you. Marc.
mhofner@kudju.com
617.529.7288

[elements.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'll bite. I'm insanely busy, and there are definitely weeks when I would love for it to be someone else who lugs the groceries up the street for me, etc. I'm not 100% sure yet exactly what tasks I'd put out there in the next few weeks (ie, I might be more likely simply to pay for grocery delivery than to want a personal shopper), but this is a neat enough idea that I'd be interested in helping out.

Do you have a starter list of the kinds of things people might ask for, to help get things going?

Hmm, I have one thing I can think of actually - someone to drive to Target and try to exchange something I bought there.