On Monday night, the MIT contingent of our team had a great meeting with five spectacular members of the Vida Verde cooperative, Silvia, Leidiane, Valeria, Lucimara, and our primary contact Tais. We spent approximately three hours together learning about the Vida Verde members’ backgrounds, the history of the co-op, strengths and weaknesses of current processes, etc. We discussed some of the pitfalls of the current model, and talked about ideas that the VV ladies have for potential projects.
Based on our conversation, we were able to come up with a few possible project ideas, as well as leads on a couple of other areas for exploration. Current proposals include: 1. an automated cleaning estimate widget for the VV website, 2. a web- or SMS-based shift scheduling system, 3. an app-based product to link clients, workers, and the co-op in order to ensure that all parties are productively involved and aligned on every transaction. We agreed to have weekly meetings with all team members on Fridays at 6pm for the duration of the project so that we can keep everyone in the loop. Additionally, we plan to communicate with each other outside of the meetings via email and WhatsApp. We’re excited to start the product development phase!
Sounds like a great first meeting! I think for your 3rd possible idea, it will be really crucial to get in touch with groups that are working on something similar (coordination app for home cleaning coops). Specifically, it’s worth writing and calling the folks from Si Se Puede, the Center for Family Life, and Coopify. Try to track down Emma Yorra (http://east.usworker.coop/users/emma-yorra), Si Se Puede Coop (http://www.wecandoit.coop), the team from Cornell Tech, and others who say they are in the testing stages of their app (http://community-wealth.org/content/coopify-new-platform-bringing-broad-based-ownership-your-smartphone). Ideally, they will either be open to Vida Verde beta testing, or will share their code!