It has been about a month since the site went live and the first priority has been (and still is) to build up momentum with volunteers. Nonetheless I am actively seeking charities who could benefit from these kinds of projects but so far - to my frustration - I have lots of encouragement and interest but no projects started. It actually hurts to admit that in a public forum, but I can't see the point in pretending otherwise. I have met up with local charity reps who love the idea, but I guess it takes time for something like this to gain traction when charities are already invested financially and emotionally in existing programmes of work, plus funding bids, plus tenders for service provision, not to mention the ongoing stress of keeping organisations afloat in the midst of global financial problems. I've heard some awful stories about how hard it is to keep a charity or NPO afloat right now.
But that makes me even more determined. Charities and NPOs should not be (but are) the ones to suffer most when times are hard.
Regarding specific technologies; it all depends on projects and is somewhat volunteer driven. An organisation might want (just for example) to make a campaign for mobile devices but will not care about which platform (or they might care but not enough to say no to an available Android developer).
I'm also very conscious of how these projects are supported after delivery (when the volunteer finishes). It won't be good if the net result is an unsustainable support and maintenance burden, so up-front planning is needed to a) avoid that or b) plan for it if necessary.
So far all the costs have been covered out of my pocket, and when I have good month (I'm a freelancer) I will sink some more into a marketing campaign. I'm not a marketer, no sir, its a shame I'm not asking for volunteer marketers else I could tap one of them.
But that makes me even more determined. Charities and NPOs should not be (but are) the ones to suffer most when times are hard.
Regarding specific technologies; it all depends on projects and is somewhat volunteer driven. An organisation might want (just for example) to make a campaign for mobile devices but will not care about which platform (or they might care but not enough to say no to an available Android developer).
I'm also very conscious of how these projects are supported after delivery (when the volunteer finishes). It won't be good if the net result is an unsustainable support and maintenance burden, so up-front planning is needed to a) avoid that or b) plan for it if necessary.
So far all the costs have been covered out of my pocket, and when I have good month (I'm a freelancer) I will sink some more into a marketing campaign. I'm not a marketer, no sir, its a shame I'm not asking for volunteer marketers else I could tap one of them.