Shuttleworth Fellowship Application
$1M fellowship application for Dignity Platform.
Tell us about the world as you see it.
I see a World held back by fear, disconnection, commercialisation & destruction. A global society so intimately interconnected in the digital, yet hopelessly distanced face to face. I see an Earth full of distraction, miseducation, corruption & misguidance. I see so many opinions & beliefs being shared that don’t serve us. I see people self injecting fear; immobilised through normalisation. Nations led by money, greed, out of date values & morals; people so distanced from nature they have forgotten their roots. I see organisations creating solutions struggle, as they find themselves in the same rat race that created the problems they try to solve. I see charity fatigue, supporters fed up of the hassle of obligation. I see governments forming cracks, from the shaking pyramid beneath them. I see hope. I see everyday people craving change, fairness & common sense, but not knowing how to break the entrenched status quo. I see people waking up to the reality & taking action to disrupt the system they know is broken, biased & unjust. I see idling social capacity of many who just need an excuse to connect with other. I see the need for a sense of belonging in society, through meaningful contribution. I see communities coming together to manifest the shared values of peace, love, play, nature & sharing. I see untapped wealth in new forms of the time rich & the ideas rich. I see a World ready to move away from a money based economy. The niche we’ve found: (tiny.cc/spaceanalysis2)
What change do you want to make in the world?
I intend to help people see past the shadow & veil of fear, to recognize themselves in each other; the infinite reflection of their own eyes. To change the perception of, & separation between, organisations that create problems, & those that solve the problems the others create. To help children realise they don’t have to step into a job that exists, & see the World’s challenges as exciting opportunities, to problem solve. I intend to change the guilt, obligation & moral superiority of charitable giving, to something based on connection, free will, real altruism & participation.
I intend to enable society to be led by the many, to empower each individual to be a part of the whole. To change this nonsense economy. To create an economic pathway for communities to choose how they create their contribution & where it goes. I intend to help alleviate the largest amount of human & environmental suffering, through a catalytic innovation, in the approach of supporting our most effective nonprofits. I intend to help enable idling fundraising & social capacity through an online tool that facilitates skill gifting, while raising significant donations. Thus transforming the revenue model of social change beyond selling & begging. I intend to foster social cohesion & diverse socialisation through the same tool; creating excuses for people to meet their unknown neighbours. To create a World where there is no fear to share openly, of radical honesty. To change the currency of giving.
What do you believe has prevented this change to date?
The education system slows positive change. The domestication of children & the regimented monotony most directive systems school, doesn’t give birth to young adults able to see beyond the ‘same old’ narrative. Cuts to creativity only incapacities our potential to solve problems. Moving towards peace doesn’t come through grades, obeying rules, or facts & figures; it takes creativity, freedom, risk & failure. We forget in this dream of life we have the ability to conjure new things. For this we need our childlike imagination to transform the box we find ourselves in, & the knowledge that the impossible becomes possible through belief. Most of our schools only teach us what has been done, not what can be.
How we currently use technology is limiting our progression. We are naive to a new toy. We become distracted by short term thrills & forget the long term pleasures of sustained joy. I intend to discover how technology can facilitate less on screen disconnection & more eye to eye reconnection.
I believe our behaviour is only limited by our belief of the outcomes. I intend to make it easier for people to find meaning & contribution with whatever their gifts. Labels, stigma & false perceptions give root to limitations on self belief & ability, particularly with ‘disability’. I intend to help recognise the different abilities people have, find belonging & value in them. I believe all anyone needs to be satisfied & content with life, is appreciation for their time to others.
What are you going to do to get there?
Develop Dignityplatform.org into version 2. Creating an easy to use, reliable & scalable platform, that can better catalyze this new way of inclusive social giving. We are exploring existing open source software to build upon, in an open collaboration; facilitated through contributions on an open Github repository.
Test the platform with our own Brighton community first & dive deep into discovering what the UK society truly needs & be adaptive to that. We will continue to work intimately with existing charities who have far greater expertise on how best to reach the digitally excluded, socially isolated & the ‘differently-abled’. Through these mutual beneficial relationships, causes will continue to help us invite users through their strong existing networks.
Test & launch the ‘Supporter Voice’ feature, to enable progressive conversations between causes & their supporters; facilitating discussions & enabling users to propose ideas; diversifying the value model of their supporters. Our partnership with vocaleyes.org enables this.
Join the few nonprofits in the ‘fundraising for good’ sphere, & endeavour to get the maximum amount of donation to causes; through partnership with the world’s only fee-free donation processor wonderful.org.
Pioneer our daring but integral PayAsYouFeel revenue model; proving that people, given transparency & guidance, can sustain an organisation’s service through gifts, not fees. (tiny.cc/selfsustaining)
What challenges or uncertainties do you expect to face?
Initial off the ground funding is a constant uncertainty. The competition of grant funding is tiring & continual. Our next move is to create a social investment CSR deck. The whole team craves to spend more time on the project, but we all have to eat & pay rent.
Convincing charities to invest time in Supporter Voice. The majority of nonprofits are overstretched as they are, they are underfunded, equating to small teams. However we can make a strong case for the long term ROI and increased engagement (including monetary) from supporters, by responding to and implementing their most insightful strategic ideas.
People knowing their own needs. Creating requests for help on Dignity Platform requires someone to express a need for someone’s skills. Through research on Timebanks & other neighbour schemes, we’ve found people find it much easier to offer help than ask for it. We’re learning from projects like Helpfulpeeps how to encourage requests.
Getting the retired & elderly community using Dignity. This will require guidance from someone more tech savvy, and through exploring offline ways to participate. There is huge potential for untapped skills, tasks, funds & ideas from the retired generation, including them is going to be hard, but vital.
Challenging our assumptions. Through growth we must continually remember to notice our assumptions. Being adaptive with the platform will be our greatest strength.
What part does openness play in your idea?
We collaborate with radical transparency. Meaning everyone can learn & participate in our journey. ( tiny.cc/workopen ) Anyone can view what we’ve done every hour since idea conception, watch our meetings & explore our workspaces; we are 100% open & accountable.
We work as a self-managed team, with a flat hierarchical structure. This means we have the freedom & empowerment to do what we feel inspired to, when they feel like doing it. We intend to become a cooperative at the right time.
Open sourcing all our code is obvious, we want everyone to benefit from the repurposing of it.
Radical inclusion is one of our core values. Our main intention is to make giving more accessible for a diversity of people. We also see the huge value of redefining disabilities to different abilities, & enable stereotyped victims to change perceptions & be empowered to contribute in society.
To include the digitally excluded. We are in development of a tablet ‘Kiosk’ version of the platform, for the tills of high street charity shops. People offline can use the platform facilitated by the shop volunteer.
We operate on an open first policy, allowing any organisation or individual that proves themselves to be People & Planet before profit, to fundraise.
We intend to incentivise volunteering for low income individuals; by enabling people to earn a ‘Dignity Coin’ that can be spent internally on offers they need. Part of the pathway to a cryptocurrency, then circular gift economy.
