The Vottle Project is a free Internet service that allows people to interact via a virtual marketplace - it allows the public to buy and sell goods and services, to engage on a social level, to promote local arts and culture, and most importantly, it encourages people to take more responsibility for the well-being of their community. Ronnie Apteker, founder and director at Internet Solutions, is involved in Vottle in several ways.
"Crime is the number one issue in our country and we need to do something about it. It is our aim to build a database of crime statistics that we can feedback to the online marketplace in an effort to create greater trust in a particular community. Knowledge can be a very powerful tool, and it is our vision to utilise the best online technologies in an effort to inform the public about the nature of crime in our various communities, and, to provide insight that will help create a stable online social hub and marketplace," says Apteker.
"The Vottle project is about the creation and establishment of a free online classifieds service that brings people together and empowers the public to report on crime. Both of these are necessary for a country`s development and in South Africa there is a gap open and a bunch of us at IS are keen to try take the lead."
Some background information will help understand Vottle: Craigslist (www.craigslist.com) is the definitive online classifieds in the world today and the seventh busiest site on the Web. Then, there is Microsoft`s Expo Live and there is Google Base - the online classifieds space is about to heat up. The Vottle project is about South Africa striving for pole position.
Apteker continues: "Our goal is to build critical mass over time and then roll-out further enhancements and value added services. Furthermore, we plan to offer cutting edge cultural services as well, like a podcast directory, and a place to publish music by garage bands, etc. A music portal will be one component of the Vottle experience. We will encourage users to register (registered users will have more value added services available to them) and will provide these members with value-added services, like the ability to buy and sell goods and services with eBucks, which will be rolled out later this year. eBucks, as in www.ebucks.com, is South Africa`s leading and most innovative rewards programme, and it is now breaking ground in the loyalty industry and taking rewards programmes into a whole new space - micropayments. Micropayments are a huge trend internationally and the team on this project is thrilled to be part of `showing South Africa the way`. There are nearly a million eBucks users who spend on average R12 million worth of eBucks every month. This will be yet another innovative and exciting way that eBucks members can spend their eBucks."
"One of the key things will be to keep Vottle simple," he says. "We must not confuse the public, who will look at an online service and be turned off if it is not user-friendly. As China, India and the rest of the world continues to do more and more online it makes sense that there will be more services competing with the likes of eBay and Craigslist. A simple, aesthetically pleasing, easy to use online classifieds service can be built and marketed and it will have the potential to build up some mass over a period of say one to two years."
"We have some fantastic technical expertise at our disposal and the most significant infrastructure at IS. This challenge represents a fantastic collaborative opportunity to build one of the leading online services in South Africa, and to provide something to the community that allows for social interaction. Knowledge to be gathered and shared will empower the public at large, and provide a level of comfort with respect to the various SA communities. Crime is no a laughing matter, and we propose to build a system whereby crime can be reported, statistics gathered, and knowledge fed back to the consumers out there in an effort to gain peace of mind.
"`Vottle anything` is our mantra, so check it out at www.vottle.com," Apteker concludes.
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