
Ask HN: Corporate sponsor for school library app experiment? - m52go
Note: I&#x27;m not necessarily looking for financial sponsorship.<p>I&#x27;ve created an app to help inject curiosity back into the education system, which I personally think is one of the most urgent problems with the system today.<p>The app lets kids flip through a wide assortment of literature, poetry, art, science, math, film, music, and more from around the world and across time.<p>It&#x27;s meant to live on a tablet placed in a central location in the library&#x2F;media center, so kids can walk up to it and casually explore whenever they have free time.<p>For students, it&#x27;s a refreshing change from typical school curricula, because they get to call the shots and explore what interests them.<p>For school libraries (average annual budget ~$8k!), a world of quality content is delivered to students in a fun way without costing anything or taking up shelf space.<p>We need a tablet, stand, and a couple of art supplies. <i></i>I&#x27;m not necessarily looking for financial sponsorship<i></i> (although that would be nice), but a loose partnership for branding purposes. Right now I&#x27;m just a random dude with an app.<p>You can see a demo here: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;canonofman.com.
======
jeffmould
Looks nice. A few things you may want to consider:

1\. Going to the demo site, it really doesn't tell me much about what the app
is, does, or what makes it special. Maybe I am missing something, but it's not
clear what it is all about.

2\. If I click on the "App" link in the top right, the page has three images
of phone screens that all they say is "Preview Coming Soon".

3\. Why only use this in a library? To me the app seems more appropriate to be
installed on an individual's tablet/mobile device and let them explore on
their own. Some schools are issuing tablets to students now, why not come up
with a partnership with the school to have the app pre-installed on the
tablet? That to me would seem the more logical approach. Maybe I am wrong, but
I just can't imagine a student standing there in the library spending more
than 30 seconds on the app.

~~~
m52go
Thanks for your feedback! Your considerations are all very appropriate.

1\. The demo site is very bare-bones right now. I had something more
informative when I was targeting consumers, but right now, I'm having 1-1
conversations to introduce folks to the idea so the extra context isn't
necessary.

3\. I agree. And people really liked the app itself in early tests. But they
were clear they wouldn't pay (and that they wanted a native app). So I'm
testing institutional appetite now, and libraries are best-aligned with its
mission.

Your idea about school-issued tablets is awesome! That didn't even occur to
me...I'll have to check that out.

~~~
jeffmould
No problem, hopefully it helps.

I think from an individual perspective, sales will be tough unless you can
address the issue with website not being informative enough. Is it a game or
is it just a graphical interface to Wikipedia? The way it is positioned on the
site I have no idea, so buying would not be an option for me.

Selling to libraries, again is going to be tough, especially with budget
constraints. I am much older than today's generation, but I can tell you this
much, unless that tablet played a game that I could play with my friends, the
chances of me running to the library just to browse around on it would have
been slim. I also think you may run into some of the same issues as with the
individual consumer in that it is not clear to me what it does.

Don't discount the power of a website to any market. Even if you are having
1-1 conversations, you still want them to leave the meeting and have a chance
to go look at something just as informative, or even more informative. It is
human nature to not always be paying 100% attention in meetings, so if they
get sidetracked for even a second you want a place they can go and see the
app. Maybe even have a demo of the app itself on the site.

My advice, instead of searching around for a sponsor for a tablet, stand, art
supplies, I would find a couple history teachers at schools that utilize
tablets. Give the teachers the app and get them to install it with their
students. Sell them on this being a pilot program and you are looking for
feedback. Teachers are going to be your best advocate. If the app is great,
they are going to tell other teachers, which is hopefully going to turn into
$$$ for you.

~~~
m52go
Great points. I'll add back some of my copy and content from the old site.

If libraries buy at all, it'd be sold as an antidote to shrinking budgets: the
app would be a way to virtually expand shelves without the expense of paper
books, ebooks or shelf space (every book has previews and full text links).

There's a lot of talk right now about libraries and their future in a digital
world. I really think libraries will need some kind of a digital interface to
browse collections in the future, as search boxes simply aren't enough--we
don't always know exactly what we're looking for. I'm not alone in thinking
this way. This particular app may not be the final solution to that problem,
of course, but it's an attempt.

I understand kids won't flock to libraries just to use this app, but I can see
it being a draw while they're already there, kind of like haphazardly browsing
bookshelves was for the last generation.

