December 2008 Finalist
PolicyPitch: facilitate action for local & community change
PolicyPitch.com is a crowd-powered platform for introducing new ideas & policies at the city & local level & serves as a utility to take action. Citizens "pitch" ideas for change, build support through collaboration, and transform that online communication into real world action.
Q1: What advice do you have to help me grow my idea?
Idea Description
PolicyPitch.com is a mix of neighborhood hangout, social network, and interactive index of community issues, campaigns, and causes. By helping folks make an impact with their ideas, we hope to challenge the current thinking on where ideas come from: ideas should come from the people.
By helping individual citizens gather & manage resources for community action & local policy change, we’re changing the game for the little guy. Encourage the establishment of a neighborhood coffee shop, increase civic participation in a vote for a new senate bill, endorse or oppose that new condo in your neighborhood.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
The PolicyPitch.com team will use the money primarily for website development and marketing.
1. Redesign layout to create a more user friendly interface
2. Implement geospatial mapping for all causes and pitches by zip code
3. Integrate customization features that allow users to customize their pitch pages
4. Implement both online and traditional media marketing plans to build user population
5. Finish developing premium suite of tools for user backend management of campaigns and pitches
6. Increase civic participation and citizen engagement through PolicyPitch.com
I hope you get in the showdown . you been trying for a long time , good luck !
Nice intent and initial execution. I'd say you need more focus on project cash flow. You write that you will use the $10,000 IdeaBlob award primarily for website development and marketing. Of the 6 things you say you will do it seems to me you can only accomplish 1 and 2, maybe 3 on $10,000. I don't think you can begin marketing if the focus is on technical website improvements. I would revisit the need to put the money into the website improvements and instead put $10,000 into PR and marketing. I'd just pull up your bootstraps a bit and make whatever website improvements are necessary to launch the thing and test the idea. Good luck. I've pasted your list here: 1. Redesign layout to create a more user friendly interface 2. Implement geo-web feature that maps all causes…more and pitches by zip code 3. Integrate customization features that allow users to customize their pitch pages 4. Implement both online and traditional media marketing plans to build user population 5. Finish developing premium suite of tools for user backend management of campaigns and pitches 6. Increase civic participation and citizen engagement through PolicyPitch.com
Agreed.
Like the idea. Hope you guys can win this round.
Brilliant. Well thought idea with great intentions. I can really see it making a difference.
great idea! love the website.
It is a good idea and everyone should be doing what they can to help their community. Most os the time commuties with low income families are in greater need for change and for help. You have to take into consideration that such communities might not have the ability to use a computer or have access to one since they are at the low income level. It would be a great idea to have a place where people can go personally and give ideas on not only how to change their community but also how can you make it happen.
With a site like this, it's important for the changes and movements set forth on policypitch to transfer over to other communication "hubs" on the internet. Facebook/Open Social Apps, group blogs supporting one cause, etc. Policypitch seems like an awesome tool that I can see making a difference to a lot of people and small groups.
That's great... and I figured you started in New Orleans... as most of your ideas are from there. The problem that I see is that people go and view a project, maybe vote for it... but nobody is donating any money to help any of these ideas move from "wish" to "project." I truly love your desire to improve your community and to help others do the same. I am just wondering how you spur people to ACTION.
The sites are indeed different. While people on ideablob hope to win money for a business concept, PolicyPitch users are seeking to make a difference in their community or region. Policypitch is a utility for members to promote change in their community, build support for their concept, and gather resources to take action. Accepting online payments is just one of the many tools the site provides (others being petitions, endorsements, online media, etc.). We have many other features under development that will add value for users on the site. In addition, the overall mission of Policypitch is to bring the power and ability to make a difference in politics and local communities to the individual citizen. We provide the tools to make that happen. Good question on how it serves your l…moreocal community if you are the only one using it. The answer is it doesn't. While PolicyPitch.com is national in scope (covers every zip code in America), it was launched with an initial focus on New Orleans and Louisiana. The idea being that it takes time to build a critical density of users in a locale to make a difference. Once New Orleans/LA reaches that point of success, we will begin marketing in other locations. In the meantime, any town in the nation can grow organically --like Craigslist did. We have already gotten requests to market cities in Texas, Missouri, California, and DC. Feel free to email me if you have any more questions. zach@policypitch.com
Your site looks good... But, isn't it just a rehash of this site? The difference being that people post their ideas and hope that someone will stumble across it and donate money? How does it serve my local community if I'm the only person in my community that uses it? And, if that happens how long would someone keep checking back?
I just checked out your site from your profile. You should also list the address in your description here. It looks awesome.