Luke in Glasgow is the winner so far ... looks like my post is going to spark other sub-regional groups. Sounds like the makings of a annual UK CakeFest type get together!!!
As for the business idea, there is nothing tangible as yet to show. The company name is LocalCause and it's aim is to make it easier and affordable for not-for-profit organisations to communicate with existing and potential fundraisers using their most cost effective tool - the Internet. In essence we are going to create a one-stop information portal and social network for not-for-profit organisations to interact with anyone who is interested in their activities. I'm sure you'll be aware of sites like JustGiving and ByMyCharity etc. Well I want to create a site which combines what they do with something as informative as the BBC website and interactive as Facebook or BeBo (that's the ultimate goal which will take a good few years to get anywhere near achieving). We don't plan to compete with the likes of JustGiving (over £5million turnover a year) and other existing sites so will be looking to compliment existing service offerings where we believe they are professional enough and of the right ethos to align our brand with. For a cost of under £100 a year a not-for-profit will be able to subscribe to LocalCause and create themselves a virtual website which will appear in the directory of LocalCause. Within their virtual website they can add News, Events, Jobs, Blogs and Manage Mailing Lists to which they can send professional Newsletters. As well as their content being available within their virtual site, all content is then pooled and displayed in the LocalCause portal where socially aware users will come to read about the activities of the UK's not-for-profit organisations, find out when events are on in their area and interact via blog comments and newsletter subscriptions. We will invest heavily in continual development of the site with the wim to constantly add new features without increasing subscription costs. When a user is reading an article submitted by a Cancer Charity in Newcastle upon Tyne they will be served related information from other Cancer Charities and/or North East Charities. Other facilities will allow people who want to run in the Flora London Marathon or Great North Run to search for charities with spare places or to express an interest in other activities such as Coast to Coast bike rides or Adventure Treks. I have excellent access to markets from the work I have done over the past 5 years with organisations such as www.fundraising.co.uk and I have recently won a contract with one of the North East's largest Council for Voluntary Services who exist to support the development of not-for-profit organisations. Development has twice been started and shelved due to having to get back on with client projects (I'm only a one man development team). I'm confident Cake will not only cut down on the project's overall development time, but will also produce a more maintainable and secure application. I'm cutting my teeth by redeveloping one of my client's large apps which is taking longer than expected, but only cos I have been lacking motivation over the festive period (too many distractions, especially the excesses of alcohol and chocolate). I believe I'm beginning to make good progress, but would be good if I could get together with someone who can look at my attempts and confirm if I'm using Cake to it's fullest potential. It's an extremely exciting project which has been met with approval by various business development/management consultants I have ran it past. I even got into the finals of a Dragon's Den style entrepeneur competition with it, but failed to communicate the concept in the miserly 3 minutes I was given. I desperately want to bring this to life so will consider bringing in whoever I need to get the ball rolling, but the barrier is the fact we have no money to hire people and have very little chance of attracting investment in the current climate. So the current plan is to plough on alone and create a beta version of the site (it will actually be a number of sites) using Cake and maybe then I can go looking for investment etc. Paul. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CakePHP" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
