
Panic Button: Lessons for the Tech-for-Good Sector - jacobr
https://www.theengineroom.org/panic-button-lessons-learned/
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ballenf
This was a design-by-committee project that didn't have a clear singular
problem it was trying to solve. Reading their goals they intentionally mixed
the simple aspect of a "911" for human rights workers with a mishmash
engagement-type soft goals.

Just looks like a recipe for failure regardless of funding.

Another way to look at it, it was a success if measured in terms of raising
awareness of the problem.

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melloclello
It also seems like they were trying to abuse/repurpose OS level functionality
(the power button). I imagine that was difficult on Android, and the article
completely fails to acknowledge that this is actually impossible on iOS.

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mcguire
" _Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to secure any substantial
external funding for the project since being awarded £100,000 as runners-up in
the Google Global Impact Award in June 2013. In part, this is due to what in
hindsight was a short-lived boom in funding and excitement around “tech 4
good.”_ "

There's a lesson here somewhere for those who are optimistic about changing
the world.

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rocky1138
Yup. Make money first. Once you have stable income, you can use the excess to
effect as much change as you want.

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zython
When has that worked out for the greater good ?

Not trying to sound snarky but I'm really trying to think of an example but
can't find one.

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ivanhoe
or Andrew Carnegie, long before Gates or Musk... he gave away more than 70
billions in today's dollars...

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kerkeslager
...and kept thousands of workers in poverty despite the massive success of his
company through monopolistic business practices, killed a few workers putting
down a strike, and built a country club that damaged a dam, causing a flood
that killed upward of 2000 people.

Donations are nice, but it's not obvious to me that Carnegie was a net
positive (or Gates or Musk, for that matter).

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wpietri
I really appreciate it when people produce thoughtful looks at project failure
like this. If I had Too Much Money, I'd definitely fund an annual prize for
the best startup-ish project failure reports. There's no better source for
information on advancing the state of the field, but so much is lost when
companies just quietly shut down.

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sametmax
Open source :
[https://github.com/PanicInitiative/PanicButton](https://github.com/PanicInitiative/PanicButton)

Donc si c'est vraiment utile, ca ne disparaitra peut etre pas

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5_minutes
Also to note is that organisations like Amnesty are incredibly inefficient and
big money wasters. Paying mid level employees 5000k net + 2000 for rent is not
exceptional. So I'm skeptic when they need "more money".

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QAPereo
Sources on those figures?

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5_minutes
A friend who works there. But it's quite commonly known.

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7ewis
When it said:

> help us use technology to prevent unlawful detentions

I thought they were talking about the Firefox Extension called Panic Button
from ~10 years ago that we used in school to hide games and show an education
site 'Preventing detentions'!

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TekMol
I don't get it. The reasons they give are:

1) Only had £100,000

2) Would need more money to make the app deal with false alerts.

3) Would need more money to "keep up [...] our engagement with users."

What does this mean?

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amptorn
It means they need more money

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wpietri
The followup article has much more useful detail:
[https://www.theengineroom.org/panic-button-lessons-
learned/](https://www.theengineroom.org/panic-button-lessons-learned/)

~~~
dang
Changed to that from [https://www.theengineroom.org/panic-button-retiring-the-
app/](https://www.theengineroom.org/panic-button-retiring-the-app/). Thanks!

