Ask HN: what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression

10 pointsnewstartup21 comments

Assuming we are in a great depression, what kind of websites can we expect people to really need to use during this time? I can only think of grocery websites that people can use to find the cheapest food.

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Make Me Dinner - a match making service that would connect people who need meals with people who can make them, presumably in their neighborhood.

So a single working person indicates what kind of food they like, and mom who cooks for a family of 6 adds a couple extra portions to what she makes that night and delivers it to a couple neighbors. That pays for her whole family. Chefs could post updates of what they're cooking that night, and people could "follow" their favorite chefs and pick from the meals available. Chefs build reputations, etc. It's like the ebay for food service.

It builds local community, creates opportunity for people to start their own micro-business, and it works really well in a recession -- people spend less eating out, and people who need money can make some.

The potential challenges are city/state laws around food inspection, that would all have to be investigated and figured out. There are lots of caterers and personal chefs, so I assume there's a way to navigate all of that.

My friend Chris at MIT wanted me to make something like this for him and a dozen of his classmates thinking it would be simple. When we specked it out, it turns out it is not simple because you need to account for several circumstances like schedule changes and whether someone is vegetarian. I decided to build it into part of a larger project I'm working on. I think it is a great idea. Just cook one meal every week or two and go over a neighbor's house to enjoy a meal the other days of the week.

That's actually a very good idea! I swear I could save a lot of time by not having to cook and would love to have some homemade cooking for a change (rather than TV/Microwave dinners)

(Theres a story about this being suggested as a hoax business idea somewhere...)

Wasn't there a post on here a few months ago about someone who put an ad on Craigslist for this and ended up with a really good deal? A housewife who liked to cook responded and he gets a weeks worth of meals at a time that he freezes until he can eat them.

lootr - CRM software for thieves and scrappers.

Do you have any idea what a depression is like?

In a depression, the game is changed to such an extent that you'd be hard pressed to predict what people would need. Instead, go outside and ask them. They'll be easy to spot: lying in the gutters, begging for change, an in line at the soup kitchens.

So we'll need software to manage food usage at those soup kitchens, track incoming supplies to the homeless shelters, and good disease management tools. In short, pretty similar to disaster management software!

Good enough answer? Yeah, I know I'm getting snarky in my old age :-)

What about ad-hoc collaborative gardening/crop sharing? Skill sharing, car pooling and generally anything that fosters real community would do well I should imagine.

i think there are many car pooling websites out there already. But skill sharing would be cool; post/barter your skills. I can only think of craigslist as a good place to barter your skills

http://www.timebanks.org/

My wife has been trying to get something going in our neck of the woods: [foodmake.org](http://www.foodmake.org/), and it seems to be going pretty well. The goal is to get people talking and then get them off the web and connecting in the real world as soon as possible.

It's a great question that we should all be thinking about, especially the entrepreneurial among us. But -- even given my short time here -- I'm surprised it didn't get killed due to the liberally editorial headline.

As for "Make Me Dinner" I read recently about doing on one of the "frugal" blogs that Lifehacker quotes from a lot about doing something like that. I can't recall if there was a website for it.

When looking for the actual post, I didn't find it, but I did find another one that I thought might make a nice website, (and which I was going to look for next), along the same lines of your question: the Swapluck (instead of pot-luck) http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/04/04/start-a-swapluc...

This is not a depression, but an idea that would work is the house listing idea. Prices are going down, so speculators are going to rush to purchase.

A site listing foreclosed and abandoned homes for squatting?

Or perhaps the same for gardening?

A house trading site so that you can trade houses with someone where your and their job prospects are better?

A better roommate matching site than any one I've seen so far?

A kid-sitting exchange site?

A more-local Ebay (not like Craig's List), more like the Ebay of old?

Apprenticeships?

an iphone app that tells you where the soup kitchen is

i couldn't help but laugh at this, but actually, mobile apps that can deliver up-to-date information on where things are, might be really useful. Since a large part of the great depression is a lack of "things you need"...

How about an iPhone app for when the oil runs out, that shows you which fuel stations still have fuel? ;o)

Fuel is abundant right now, that's a symptom of this crisis.

Common Sense Software, many people who created this mess could use it

lol i hope electroshock interface is mandatory

Well, if Google trends is any indicator of interest: http://google.com/trends?q=porn

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