How it works 1. Submit your requests, offers, visual description and current coordinates (e.g. grab it from Google Maps). They all stay local to you. 2. You can choose to post everything in our database so others can find you. (All posted data is automatically deleted at midnight Pacific Standard Time every day.) 3. Select other users in the Map section to see how well your requests and offers match. 4. If you choose to approach them, you can see their visual description so you know how they look, and their distance and direction from your location so you know where to go.
19 out of 22 data points are input through checkboxes so it's very quick.
Feel free to use it as an icebreaker, to improve relationships, or to grow your network in a targeted manner!
Why did I do this? I traveled by bus many times during my Masters degree and was surprised at how little people chatted in the bus. I've always felt particularly hopeful and energetic about us humans. I keeps me going joyfully and smoothly. I though aboout how people naturally had many needs and many skills or resources that they would love to share. I also noticed that many people near me spend too long pursuing some of those needs unnecesarily. So this was my effort in making other needs more explicit and to facilitate deeper conversations with people nearby. If those other people were strangers, and also in order to deliberately not store some types of sensitive information, I designed a manner to visually identify yourself with a few visual characteristics you are anyways broadcasting when you're present anywhere.
The first really valuable uses of this kind of app may be in circumstances where people already feel some trust with those around them (retreats, company, family, friends, etc.). Eventually, strangers!