This an update on Project: Homeless Smartphone
Saturday, while at the Denny's, I ran into a woman I have spoken with a few times. She recognized me and greeted me enthusiastically, indicating she intended to eventually reply to my email when she can manage it. She's just been busy. I told her "no worries."
The email in question is regarding this project. It now has a website of its own to provide the informational piece. That domain name is https://www.pocketputer.com/
At the time that I ran into her, there wasn't much on the site. With talking to her, I felt compelled to try to get more content onto the site. So that same day, I began researching stuff.
After getting up some new content, I posted the project to Hacker News as Show HN: Pocket Puter. It spent some time on the front page.
I got substantial useful feedback. One outcome: I opted to make the dot com name the site domain today rather than just a redirect. It seems Google has worked out a few issues and I am a little more knowledgeable these days as well.
Today, I finally emailed the director of a local non profit with whom I am acquainted. He was expecting the email. We had previously discussed it and I said I would use the project to help him beta test a detail of a thing he is doing and that it is a real project and I hope for feedback. He likes it and offered to introduce me to the director of a different local non profit where the project might be a better fit.
What I am specifically looking for at this point is a place that will allow me to solicit donations of phones and tablets in their name and give me some space to store them and to work on them. That will be the next step in this pilot program that I hope will serve as a template for other communities who are free to place the PocketPuter.com domain name on used tech and pass it out locally to try to help them address their homeless issues.
Currently, the Pocket Puter site is very small, just a few pages. However, I consider it functional and I feel ready to pursue the next step in this program, which is getting with my contacts on the ground and trying to collect tech and do a giveaway.
I guess you could say Pocket Puter is currently an MVP (minimum viable product). It has the compendium of links on one page that is the heart of this idea, plus has some useful info in its own right regarding things like conserving battery power during offline usage when no means to plug in is available. This makes it the information piece of this idea of helping homeless individuals use the tech available to them to begin trying to get their lives back, as I did.
Saturday, while at the Denny's, I ran into a woman I have spoken with a few times. She recognized me and greeted me enthusiastically, indicating she intended to eventually reply to my email when she can manage it. She's just been busy. I told her "no worries."
The email in question is regarding this project. It now has a website of its own to provide the informational piece. That domain name is https://www.pocketputer.com/
At the time that I ran into her, there wasn't much on the site. With talking to her, I felt compelled to try to get more content onto the site. So that same day, I began researching stuff.
After getting up some new content, I posted the project to Hacker News as Show HN: Pocket Puter. It spent some time on the front page.
I got substantial useful feedback. One outcome: I opted to make the dot com name the site domain today rather than just a redirect. It seems Google has worked out a few issues and I am a little more knowledgeable these days as well.
Today, I finally emailed the director of a local non profit with whom I am acquainted. He was expecting the email. We had previously discussed it and I said I would use the project to help him beta test a detail of a thing he is doing and that it is a real project and I hope for feedback. He likes it and offered to introduce me to the director of a different local non profit where the project might be a better fit.
What I am specifically looking for at this point is a place that will allow me to solicit donations of phones and tablets in their name and give me some space to store them and to work on them. That will be the next step in this pilot program that I hope will serve as a template for other communities who are free to place the PocketPuter.com domain name on used tech and pass it out locally to try to help them address their homeless issues.
Currently, the Pocket Puter site is very small, just a few pages. However, I consider it functional and I feel ready to pursue the next step in this program, which is getting with my contacts on the ground and trying to collect tech and do a giveaway.
I guess you could say Pocket Puter is currently an MVP (minimum viable product). It has the compendium of links on one page that is the heart of this idea, plus has some useful info in its own right regarding things like conserving battery power during offline usage when no means to plug in is available. This makes it the information piece of this idea of helping homeless individuals use the tech available to them to begin trying to get their lives back, as I did.