Locally-developed Evly.com, to be unveiled in the next eight to twelve weeks, will combine social networking and the concept of crowdsourcing, to present a platform where people can work together to solve problems, raise funds or complete projects, says co-creator Eran Eyal.
Crowdsourcing is based on the premise that two - or many - heads are better than one. The idea is that a problem can be posed online by any person with access to the Internet, and solved by the combined efforts of people all over the world.
He explains that there are different kinds of crowdsourcing. Sometimes the problem is a financial one - the funding for a creative project or the raising of someone's university fees. Sometimes the problem is more cerebral, like how to fill toothpaste tubes faster or the answer to a complex mathematical challenge. Sometimes it's as simple as wanting to know how to complete a particular task, learn a sought-after skill or find the best design for a t-shirt.
It is, in fact, with t-shirt designs that the idea for Evly started. Eyal and his partner, Eric Edelstein, started a crowdsourcing site called Springleap.com, which runs t-shirt design competitions. The site won an SA commerce award last year, and an innovation award in California the year before.
It now has over 10 000 artists, who make commission off the sale of their designs. He believes that this experience, learning how to make crowdsourcing work and become profitable, will enable the team to make a success of Evly - which gives others an easy way of starting their own projects, such as Springleap.
The Evly platform, he adds, is simple to use, offering templates suited to any kind of project a user wants to start. However, one doesn't have to start a project in order to become a part of the site's community. Once a user is registered, he or she will be able to interact with other users, peruse the site and join as many projects as he or she wants.
“This is the future. People are tired of social media, of asking: 'where's the return on investment?' They are beginning to realise that social media produces lots of chatter, but no returns,” he says.
Crowdsourcing uses social media, Eyal explains, but where social media is reactive, crowdsourcing is pro-active.
“Users become very involved in the process and there's a clear goal and end in sight, which keeps users coming back to the site and makes them want to bring friends.”
The finances
Initially, the platform will not provide e-commerce functionality, however, this is under development and can be expected within a year of the site's unveiling. Eyal says that eventually the aim is to have a thriving internal economy consisting of an application market place (where users can design and sell their own widgets, written in any language), donation facilities and marketing and promotions of groups similar to that seen on Facebook.
Proudly South African
While Evly's release will be a global one, and business offices will be set up in the US, he says that core development will remain in Cape Town where he hopes to create job opportunities.
“The SA market is too small to focus here entirely,” he says, citing funding as a key issue. However, if the site takes off, it would shine a spotlight on SA.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck is positive about the site's potential.
“Social networking enables people to tap into not only their own personal networks, but go beyond that to be part of a wider conversation, as Twitter has demonstrated,” he says. “The promise of social networking has always been to leverage that community.
“If Evly fulfils its promise, and I stress that, it will be a tool that gives people the ability to do that.”
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