Activate!

Inspiration

Has there ever been a time when you had an idea on a social issue and wanted someone to bounce ideas off? Maybe you want to hear other people's solutions and takes on the topics you care about? We are four students who are passionate about social change and civil responsibility, and we created Activate!, a platform that is easily accessible for those interested in social good, from a curious vegetarian to a grassroots organizer, and helps them meet and converse with others. A Silicon Valley techie who's worried about the role of tech in class divides. A philosophy professor who is curious about the trouble of humanitarianism. A couple running a pay-it-forward resturant. We want to help bring together the minds and hearts of social activists and facilitate fresh brainstorming and deep dialogue where one can hear different stories and gain new perspective and understanding. With Activate!, people who are looking for someone to run ideas, concerns, or plans with can meet up for productive one-on-one conversations. As our userbase grows, the people coming from such different experiences and areas of work or study can hear insight that they may not have been able to find within their own circles. We want to create connections that can lead to a greater understanding of our diverse society or potential partners in activism in local communities.

What it does

We connect fellow activists by offering predictive suggestions for intellectual conversation and meaningful organization. We give people a platform to have real life conversations about the things they're passionate about, brainstorm solutions, and contribute to the causes they care about.

How we built it

We started with a boilerplate and started cookin'. We added some javascript, mongodb, jade, and of course, our love of being part of a civically engaged community.

Challenges we ran into

Setup, dealing with Windows and figuring out javascript!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to write an algorithm to produce recommendations based on jaccard similarity to offer the user the most meaningful connections and dialogue

What we learned

We learned the magic of online databases and also the frustration of javascript. We also got to practice our skills in persevering despite numerous setbacks

What's next for Activate!

We want to improve design and focus on security for our users. In this modern age, we must protect our activist who fight for us. We also want to make the application location based so users can find people near them. Additionally, we could integrate cross-platform services and action buttons to assist in making meetings happen