Need a Print
This morning, at around 8 am, there was a frantic call from my cousin’s husband asking if I was home, so they could stop over for a print. My cousin and her family were on their way to the US Consulate for a Visa interview, and they needed this print desperately. At the time of call I was already on the train to my office. Anyways I did not have a printer at home. So could be of much help as such.
Since most places in Chennai open past 9 am, it was a tight situation. All I could do was to direct them to a popular hospital zone which might have a couple of internet parlours in it vicinity, and this hospital was very close to the Consulate too. I have not connected with them to find what happened, I hope they did get the much needed print.
Thinking #
While on the train I started thinking if this problem of desperate need of prints could be solved in an effective social manner. And in a city like Chennai you had people all around with printers, and some these people could in fact be willing to help. Then, there are always people irresponsible and desperately looking for a 11th hour print.
Problem #
The problem is to connect these two parties, and even worser problem is how do we get the print across.
The mechanism that I thought of is to bank on the desperation of the print seeker. And allow the engagement with the print provider to flow from that.
Solution #
To build this as a solution, we first need all the willing print providers, and what their cost of print is. That would form of our database of print providers by locality. Once we have the print providers database, the print seeker would connect to the solution machinery (not calling a system at this time) that allows him to seek print providers, and their pricing. The print seeker could make the choice from the list of print providers, and push the document across to be printed. Now the print seeker could approach the print providers for the printed document and collect it.
Open End #
But the concern here is more on the trust; which is the most important piece of the engagement. I would keep that open for now, and revisit upon thinking on it a bit(on my train ride home this evening).