Pets in Pictures, PIP!

Submitted to the Palo Alto Hackathon before 2/28/14 5pm PST by @PAHomelessDogs In green is from the Hackathon submission page. In black is what we wrote.
Now, tell us about your awesome app idea... Provide a short and snappy idea name. *
For example: "Click and Fix" or "City Voice"

Pets in Pictures, PIP!

Describe your idea here *
Tell us specifically what it will do and what problem it will solve. This is the most important area. Be sure to be clear and detailed. Pets in Pictures, (PIP), allows users to scale and composite images of Palo Alto Animal Services shelter adoptable pets onto images of their choice., They may be pictures downloaded from media sharing sites to their mobile device, or their own stored on or taken by that device. The combined image plus a message is then shared through various social media and other channels. PIP allows images and descriptions to assist the community in communicating to friends and followers information on pets waiting to be adopted and loved at the Palo Alto Animal Services shelter. The pets human reward: unconditional love and companionship.

Tell us why you think this is an original idea. *

For example: Describe why you believe you are solving a problem in a unique manner. By allowing animal lovers to engage, emotionally invest, and contribute to the well-being of animals and the happiness of their friends by selecting images, working to put them together, then sharing with their friends, we solve the problem of getting the word (and image), out about adoptable animals in a compelling visual, textual, social, and fun manner.

Sociable photosharing, and concern for animals, are not unique by any means, but this app cleverly weaves the two threads together into the social media fabric our residents are continuously creating and sharing. Muttbombing has been an inspiration for our app because of its proven success rate and outreach. Muttbombing increased adoptable animal page views by 700% for a dog rescue organization in Dallas. One of our team members takes outstanding pictures with a quick turnaround. A picture is worth a thousand words but it has to be the right picture, one that inspires and excites the viewer into action. That picture can save a sheltered pets life and give it the second chance it deserves.
Contact email: paloaltohomelessdogs@gmail.com | phone: 650 215-8406

Pets in Pictures, PIP!

Submitted to the Palo Alto Hackathon before 2/28/14 5pm PST by @PAHomelessDogs
Notes:

How Single Photographs Are Saving The Lives Of Shelter Animals Across The Country http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/21/one-picture-saves-a-life_n_4810738.html Muttbombing: o This Animal Rescue Program Drops An Adoptable Dog In Your Selfie http://t.co/lk3XZTaTY1 o Muttbombing http://muttbombing.com o We have a meeting scheduled first week of March with the advertising team at Dieste dieste.com in

Dallas that created and run the Muttbombing site for Dallas Pets Alive http://dieste.com/Content.aspx?Id=1092

If your idea will require data, tell us what type of data.

For example: City demographics, permit information, event listings etc. Leave this item blank if you don't know or it's not relevant to your idea. We need to have physical access to the animals so that we can take compelling photos. The photos that the shelter currently displays are not high enough quality. One of our team members is an outstanding pet photographer. We can also line up additional pet photographers to work on a rotating basis. NOTE: We will need the shelter to be cooperative in allowing our photographers access to the animals. When our photographer applied to become a volunteer photographer she was told it would be 1-2 years before she could be considered. We can pull the rest of the adoptable pets information from the shelter database (in Chameleon Beach), so we will need access to that dataset.

Finally, some important miscellaneous items...

If you are selected as a finalist, tell us how you will go about creating a prototype * For example: Will you write the code yourself? Do you have access to developers? We are a team of people with a variety of skills including project management, cloud/web product management, business analysis, photography, design, social media, animal welfare, and marketing. One is a very experienced developer currently focused on Android apps, another currently works as a software engineering manager (but not as a developer) in a startup. As finalists we may reach out to other developers through the open source community for additional programming support as appropriate.
Contact email: paloaltohomelessdogs@gmail.com | phone: 650 215-8406

Pets in Pictures, PIP!

Submitted to the Palo Alto Hackathon before 2/28/14 5pm PST by @PAHomelessDogs
We know many techies (including ourselves of course!) are animal lovers. We can bring in a few more people if needed.

Anything else?
Use this space to include anything additional that you would like to share with the judges or competition administrators We are continuing to gather information about the shelter operations and use it to refine our thinking and app proposal(s). We appreciate OpenGov/OpenData means we have access to important documents/data about the shelter such as license compliance, revenue sources and amounts, euthanasia rates and reasons, etc. This link is to a document folder on Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wcfxdydvnflqqh6/cPFq9APuc2

where we have placed the information that we have. We are eager to increase our knowledge of PAAS operations, financials, etc. so that we can work together to have better successful outcomes for our homeless companion animals.

Contact email: paloaltohomelessdogs@gmail.com | phone: 650 215-8406