Overview of Project

[laryn]

The top-level summary is that we want to create a directory of black-owned businesses in Memphis. This should end up being a kind of Yelp-lite, where the community can add, edit, and rate businesses. It seems like a Backdrop/CiviCRM solution could be appropriate.

• The main goal is to help promote black businesses in Memphis by creating a searchable database of black-owned businesses. There have been other attempts to create such a database but they have not been successful for one reason or another – this site will start local (although the model could be used elsewhere if successful in Memphis) and will try to run as much as possible by the inputs of community members at large (e.g. users create account which allows them to add, rate, claim, edit, vet entries, much like Yelp) so the entire administrative burden doesn’t fall to a single admin from BLM Memphis.
• That said, we need to build this with ease of use for BLM Memphis admins in mind.
• BLM Memphis is going to discuss which fields to ask for (on user profile and on business submission), which will be mandatory; big question is what the list of industry/category will look like. They are going to discuss at their next meeting.

For people who want to learn about some of the ideas behind this, here is info on an interesting study on how buying habits can help counter inequality and here is an interview that lays out some of the background principles, and here is an economic snapshot of black Memphis.

Issues:

• Site Design BLM 2020 site design. #4
• Hosting hosting; when, where and how? #2
• Functionality: Submitting/editing/claiming businesses Submitting/editing/claiming businesses #7
• Map: Searchable/filterable Map: Searchable/filterable #8
• Contact form functionality Contact form functionality #9
• Rating/review functionality TBD Rating/review functionality TBD #10