Skip to Content

Let’s ‘Help around’ and save our society with a cool app

Andre Helderman
March 11, 2015

2 thoughts on “Let’s ‘Help around’ and save our society with a cool app

  1. Great idea, but it would require some security thinking – inviting someone to change your light bulb might be inviting a burglar into your flat. And if you opened the door and let them in, I’m unsure if the insurance company would be of any help. So – the challenge would be to build #reputation into the system, but without requiring a large volume (like with Über). But perhaps a dose of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation would help, if you know someone who knos the potential helping person, you’d be safer. And being clear it’s a transparent and open system; anybody would see who was invited to the repair and thus the potential burglar cannot hide in obscurity.

    1. Thanks for your comment, Joakim. I fully agree that security is an attention point (as always).
      The basic thought behind this concept is that people learn to know the people who live on walking distance. That used to be normal in our villages but we lost that in our modern cities. So indeed, it is meant to be used by low volume communities, just people who live “around the corner”. That also gives the opportunity to socialize both in the digital as in the physical domain.
      I also agree that reputation is key and must be part of this solution. Ratings and “helper of the month-rankings” etc.
      In the end I am convinced that when people know their neighbors, it will not only increase their independency but also their (feeling of) safety.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *