Scaling API-first – The story of a global engineering organization
free.near.me Presentation
1. free.near.me
freecycling aggregator & mobile client
Alex Butcher, @alexbutcher
Nick Butcher, @crafty
Jason Cale, @mrjase
Seb Nash, @sebbo
+ Seb Nash from ‘Wizards of the Digital Frontier,’ introducing our entry: free.near.me.
2. freecycling ™
• giving away unwanted items to others (gift
economy)
• reducing consumerism, saving landfills
+ very quick introduction to ‘freecycling’ (the mechanism). define terms.
+ we feel that this is a problem that the Internet, in conjunction with location-aware mobile
devices, could solve much more effectively.
3. freecycle.org
+ originator, market leader. but there are problems with Freecycle. OpenFreecycle
(openhacklondon winner) addressed closed nature of Freecycle (based on Yahoo! Groups).
+ other wider concerns for Freecycle. community disputes, mutinies, etc. threaten this
valuable service.
4. reyooz.com
+ but this is the Internet, when users get frustrated or dissatisfied, other services emerge.
luckily, that’s happening.
+ Reyooz is an example of a new wave of freecycling site. well designed, generous API and
other features that we developers expect from modern web services.
6. • aggregate and search across sites
• saved searches with push notifications
• local searches (geo-location)
• other notifications (Twitter, SMS…)
free.near.me
+ aggregation saves you having to sign up for all sites, and keep on top of them.
+ push notifications — freecycling etiquette is “first come, first serve.” push notifications
direct to mobile device would be highly advantageous in competition for desirable items.
7. Demo
+ Jase presents service technology.
+ Nick presents mobile client.
+ Alex concludes: “we want to create a service that would be useful for individuals and
beneficial to the wider community. not bore/shame people with stats.”