DonorsChoose announced the winners for their Hacking Education contest today and unfortunately Print & Share, the app I developed with my coworker Billy, didn't win. The consolation prize is all of the positive feedback I've received from teachers who are using Print & Share:

Now this is probably just sour-grapes writing, but I am disappointed by the nature of the applications that won: most of them are based around automated referrals:

• a WordPress plugin, and TwitterAPI app that use geographic location to suggest DonorsChoose projects,
• an email signature generator that suggests projects based on the projects' funding needs
• a browser extension that suggests DonorsChoose projects when you search Amazon.com

The one winner I do like sends automated press-releases to local news outlets. The content of the release isn't much to work with (though Print & Share shares that problem), but it could be an effective news peg for general school issues (not that "Local schools must turn to the internet because of waste/fraud/abuse" is the story I'd want to see run).

My criticism of those automated referral tools is that they all require an advocate to install the tool---but that advocate has little control over the projects they refer people to. In other words, these winners require someone to really care about DonorsChoose as a whole, not necessarily any specific project. Do those individuals exist, en masse? I've learned there is a big network of teachers who promote eachother's DonorsChoose projects, but since they can't specifically suggest a friend or colleague's project, will they adopt the winning tools? It's the sizzle of social networking without the (tofu-) steak .

The fact that these tools seem in search of an audience is what disappoints me most. As attributed to thinker Seth Godin by Richard Millington: "Find products for your audience, not audiences for your products." We built Print & Share as a tool for teachers to better promote their own projects---because teachers are the audience that cares most about their projects' success-- which is why the tweet I just received while writing this post cracks me up:

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