Maybe you want to help some folks, but you’re not sure how much of the money will get to them if you donate to a program or non-profit. Every agency has administrative overhead, and they also usually have an agenda. What if you think that the people who need the money would actually make the best decisions about how to spend the money? What if you want to decide each month who exactly gets the money, based on their actions and attitudes? You can’t do that through an agency that you don’t control.
With a Propits account, you can decide. You know that 90% of your money goes right to the people to whom you Give Props. You Give Props to the people you think deserve it. If more people deserve it, you Give Props to them too. If some people don’t need the help anymore, you can remove them from your Props list. Regardless, you know that the money is going right to the end-user, the person in need. They’ll decide how it will help best, and you’ll decide whether to keep helping. Now you have a direct relationship with those you are helping, without having to actually show up in person or deal with complex or even dangerous logistics.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
New skin
In case you didn't notice (and I'm not sure how you couldn't), we have a new look! We're pretty excited about it! This new look should help facilitate new upcoming features sliding into place a bit better. It's not completely done, so we'll call it "Propits 1.9".
In the mean while, let us know what you think by dropping us a line!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Ninja economics
So they say the economy is bad. All the relevant measurements are down, and it seems like even the die-hards that resist labeling a recession have been forced to agree.
But what does that actually mean, a bad economy? I know it means less new jobs, lower tax revenues for government, lower sales for retailers, and a harder time borrowing money for consumers.
But why does it happen? I know it happened because of securitizing bad mortgage debt, and everyone on the stock market overleveraging their assets, and commoditizing goods like oil that we need for national infrastructure. And then politically, we could blame the President, or Congress, or rich people, or white people, or whatever.
But what does it mean if one person can't get work, and so they don't have money to buy things, so their neighbor loses his job too? Isn't that just two guys who both want to work, and want work from the other, staring at each other complaining about the economy?
The complexity of the system is what gets us stuck. The money comes from the Department of the Treasury, ultimately, and they don't hand it out on street corners, so the regular guy has to go work for somebody. That person has to get their money from a ton of consumers, who in turn get their money in return for providing a variety of specialized services. So I can't work for my neighbor and have my neighbor work for me, because my neighbor doesn't know how to make snowboarding goggles (which is what I want), and I don't need any spreadsheets managed (which is what he does), and he doesn't want martial arts training (which is what I do), and I don't know how to make lawn fertilizer (which is what we wants). So, the whole complex economy and money was created to make all that easier.
But still... if we're both bright capable guys, and we're both willing to do more, and we want more... then the "bad economy" is just a matter of poor organization, not an actual lack of labor, willingness, or even goods. America (and Earth in general) already has all the factories, people, education, and energy needed... it's just poorly organized and the complexity of the system creates times of irrational exuberance (1999-2004) and times of irrational depression (now).
Get off the bipolar train! The bad economy is a purely mental construct! It's real because we say it is, and we act like it is, but it has no basis in physical circumstance.
So how do we fix it? We find motivation to provide goods and services outside the paradigm of the given system. We help our neighbors, as one example, or volunteer with our excessive free time after being laid off.
But how does that pay the bills? That's where Propits comes in. Without Propits, good feelings from your neighbors are nice, but they don't mean anything that can buy you food, so instead of volunteering, we sit on the porch and complain. With Propits, those neighbors give you Props, and real money comes to you. That real money comes the usual places - the credit cards of those for whom the current economy is still working. And in return, those who receive it happily spend it back into the real economy... but the point is, when the economy partially paralyzes itself due to mass organizational stupidity, Propits can keep things moving, can keep people doing good work in the world and being rewarded for it. It is the cure for that which ails us.
But what does that actually mean, a bad economy? I know it means less new jobs, lower tax revenues for government, lower sales for retailers, and a harder time borrowing money for consumers.
But why does it happen? I know it happened because of securitizing bad mortgage debt, and everyone on the stock market overleveraging their assets, and commoditizing goods like oil that we need for national infrastructure. And then politically, we could blame the President, or Congress, or rich people, or white people, or whatever.
But what does it mean if one person can't get work, and so they don't have money to buy things, so their neighbor loses his job too? Isn't that just two guys who both want to work, and want work from the other, staring at each other complaining about the economy?
The complexity of the system is what gets us stuck. The money comes from the Department of the Treasury, ultimately, and they don't hand it out on street corners, so the regular guy has to go work for somebody. That person has to get their money from a ton of consumers, who in turn get their money in return for providing a variety of specialized services. So I can't work for my neighbor and have my neighbor work for me, because my neighbor doesn't know how to make snowboarding goggles (which is what I want), and I don't need any spreadsheets managed (which is what he does), and he doesn't want martial arts training (which is what I do), and I don't know how to make lawn fertilizer (which is what we wants). So, the whole complex economy and money was created to make all that easier.
But still... if we're both bright capable guys, and we're both willing to do more, and we want more... then the "bad economy" is just a matter of poor organization, not an actual lack of labor, willingness, or even goods. America (and Earth in general) already has all the factories, people, education, and energy needed... it's just poorly organized and the complexity of the system creates times of irrational exuberance (1999-2004) and times of irrational depression (now).
Get off the bipolar train! The bad economy is a purely mental construct! It's real because we say it is, and we act like it is, but it has no basis in physical circumstance.
So how do we fix it? We find motivation to provide goods and services outside the paradigm of the given system. We help our neighbors, as one example, or volunteer with our excessive free time after being laid off.
But how does that pay the bills? That's where Propits comes in. Without Propits, good feelings from your neighbors are nice, but they don't mean anything that can buy you food, so instead of volunteering, we sit on the porch and complain. With Propits, those neighbors give you Props, and real money comes to you. That real money comes the usual places - the credit cards of those for whom the current economy is still working. And in return, those who receive it happily spend it back into the real economy... but the point is, when the economy partially paralyzes itself due to mass organizational stupidity, Propits can keep things moving, can keep people doing good work in the world and being rewarded for it. It is the cure for that which ails us.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Multiplexed Microdonations
The Convenience of Multiplexed Microdonations (How to give a little something to everyone)
Let’s say you really like to help. You encounter dozens, or even hundreds, of people, causes, charities, and even for-profit companies that you would like to support. Unfortunately, you’re not yet a billionaire philanthropist, so your budget is limited. Maybe you can afford a couple of hundred dollars a month – maybe just a couple of tens of dollars per month.
You could agonize over your list, decide who is most worthy, and send one of these people a check each month. Over time, you would touch a few, but many more would go unrewarded. Meanwhile, you have to research each time where to send the money and who to make the check to. You have to get around to the post office, buy stamps, and get the envelope in the mail. It shouldn’t be all that complicated, but in your busy life, it never seems to get done. All this effort and to-do items just to send a worthy cause a few dollars.
Or you could just establish a Propits account and Give Props to all the worthy causes. Your money gets divided up into small amounts, maybe even a dollar or less, but it combines with thousands of others who also give these small amounts. It makes a difference. It’s easy, and you never have to worry about the “how” – you just have a good feeling, see the Give Props button, and click it. You know that those folks get a little something for making the world a better place. And, if you want, you can set your Propits account up so that a certain group is always on your list. It’s like having your own private foundation or annuity, giving a little bit every month to keep the cash flowing to groups that need it.
Let’s say you really like to help. You encounter dozens, or even hundreds, of people, causes, charities, and even for-profit companies that you would like to support. Unfortunately, you’re not yet a billionaire philanthropist, so your budget is limited. Maybe you can afford a couple of hundred dollars a month – maybe just a couple of tens of dollars per month.
You could agonize over your list, decide who is most worthy, and send one of these people a check each month. Over time, you would touch a few, but many more would go unrewarded. Meanwhile, you have to research each time where to send the money and who to make the check to. You have to get around to the post office, buy stamps, and get the envelope in the mail. It shouldn’t be all that complicated, but in your busy life, it never seems to get done. All this effort and to-do items just to send a worthy cause a few dollars.
Or you could just establish a Propits account and Give Props to all the worthy causes. Your money gets divided up into small amounts, maybe even a dollar or less, but it combines with thousands of others who also give these small amounts. It makes a difference. It’s easy, and you never have to worry about the “how” – you just have a good feeling, see the Give Props button, and click it. You know that those folks get a little something for making the world a better place. And, if you want, you can set your Propits account up so that a certain group is always on your list. It’s like having your own private foundation or annuity, giving a little bit every month to keep the cash flowing to groups that need it.
Friday, December 5, 2008
On purpose and use
It's always interesting to make a thing that other people use. Inevitably it will be used in ways that you never thought it would. People will do things with it that you did not anticipate, and not do things with it that you feel are critical. At every turn it is constantly both surprising and refreshing to get feedback from the people who use a thing that you make.
I imagine it would be the same regardless of the medium. In my case, of course, I'm talking about code, but I remember my grandfather as a professional photographer when I was a child. He was the photographer for the Phillies and the Blue Jays. Both teams had spring training in my old home town, and so while my grandpa was taking their pictures for baseball cards, flyers, all sorts of promotions, and god-knows what else, I would sit in the dug-outs with the players and just be having the greatest time in my life. To me, the reason he took pictures was so that I could hang out with major league baseball players. I imagine that that wasn't really his intention when he started in his craft four decades before my birth.
My grandfather died several years ago, and the only thing of his that I own are some pictures of the Grand Canyon that he took. They are stunningly beautiful, and remind me baseball...
At this early stage of Propits, it's fun to see new people sign up, and with the relatively low number of users we can take the time to check out people's web sites (a lot of cool stuff, actually) and watch people's habits and figure out what we need to do to accommodate how people are actually using the system instead of how we imagined that people should or would. Most of the feedback that we get from people is not in the form of actual emails or phone calls, but rather in habits and patterns that we have to use to try to get our heads wrapped around what people are thinking as they use the system. We are standing behind the plate with a camera watching an intricate dance, all the while trying to figure out what a five year old is doing in the dug-out with a bunch of foul-mouthed roid'ed-up adults. There's a joke about the internet in there somewhere, but I'll let someone else make it.
The real trick is that the child in the dug-out is the most important person on the field. If something were to have happened to me on those outings with my grandfather, he would have never have forgiven himself. But at the same time we all have our normal jobs to do, our lives to attend to; an endless array of distractions all clawing for our attention. And, those are partially the things that we are trying to uplift with the Propits ideal of supporting the people and things that we love.
So this blog update is all about those things. There are things in our lives that take all our attention. There are things that are temporary distractions. There are an endless array of everything in between. The goal is to have all of that simplified by allowing the things that are really important rise to the top. Make sure that the child is having a good time, and then worry about taking the picture that actually pays the bills. An economist would tell me I was insane, but as normal people moving through our lives, we can all see the value in a trust-based network of friends that all work to uplift each other.
When you get your Propits account, put your button on those pages that you own. Pass the word along to the people that make you happy. The player will swing the bat plenty of times. In these confusing and tense times we need to make sure that we get support for the things that really matter. It takes just a few moments to copy and paste a bit of text onto a website, and in the end it makes the whole field and everything on it exist just for you.
I've run the baseball metaphor into the ground about as far as it will go, so before I start rambling, I'll just say this: The real power of Propits comes from people being able to tell you you are cool in a real way. For them to do that, they need a button (at least until we can make computers read your mind... That's version 2.0). Log into Propits, and on your home page on the left, you will see options for your button, and some text to copy and paste onto your websites. Without it, it strikes out.... Sorry. I had to throw another one out there.
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