[portland] Open Source Project (CSN 2012)

[kirby urner]

Just posting a quick update re the paragraph below, where I say it's
all about HR, not so much about coding.

I think we're on the verge of thinking more about coding, as the
voluntary association Coffee Shops Network (CSN) is starting to take
form, with positions CTO (csn.cto) and CFO (csn.cfo) likely already
filled (offers made to top candidates).

I'm thinking the best way to control the ordering screens might be
with JQuery and Django, possibly touch sensitive.

The idea is you order from your table or back office (like Cubespace)
and make charitable giving decisions as a part of your ordering --
which get recorded and served with identity info i.e. it's like a
"rewards card" in the sense that market researchers have access to
your demographics, if not your street address (might stop at zipcode,
a few other data points -- you'll see what gets sent (transaction
packets open to scrutiny by the customer in question)).

If you want more of your identity revealed to the public, that'll be
up to you, some are proud of their track records, want to flaunt 'em,
plus helps with recruiting (head hunting), know what you've been up to
as a "coffee shop investor" ...

"Charitable giving" really just means "desgressionary donating" i.e. a
shop owner might configure a menu with pre-selected options, part of
that shop's look and feel (Laughing Horse, Fine Grind, Urban
Legend...).

We'll have to check the law books re donating to political campaigns,
but I see no obvious reason we can't do that as well.  Basically you
get so many "tokens" in exchange for purchases of goods and services
through the shop, to be used in the games of your choice, including
simple gambling if that's what your into (same as today, minus
tokenage).

When not ordering, the same screen has a "juke box" front end, meaning
access to programming, some of it special to CSN, i.e. you won't see
this stuff anywhere else.

There's a lot more to it, obviously not appropriate to blather on
about here on PPUG, but I would like to think in terms of giving a
presentation pretty soon.

I'll hold off until I have a working demo of a point of sale device,
so we have something to play with.  Feel free to contact me off list
with any queries or comments.

Stay tuned,

Kirby


> Also, I've been pushing ahead with a project I announced at PPUG a few
> back, a transparent bookkeeping system for coffee shops, by which I
> mean you see a lot of the charitable giving right on the LCD screen,
> fundraising thermometers and so on (lots of coffee shops have LCDs
> these days).  Customers steer with their ethics (and their bellies),
> one might say, in choosing Red Bull (for example) because .30 goes to
> Greenpeace (say), or however the managers wire it (lots of consulting
> action, lots of NGOs coming around with ideas, adding to the buzz
> (what you want in a coffee shop:  buzz)).
>
> More here:
>
> http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2008/11/wanderers-20081119.html
>
> Not saying there's a lot of source code on tap.  These days it's all
> about HR (human resources).  We'll get to coding when we've got the
> right team.
>
> Ya'll have a great party now!
>
> Kirby