Delicious Caribbean Dishes, As Seen Online!
On Sunday an authentic Caribbean eatery in Manhattan serves up Bintou’s Famous Pepper Soup and on Monday, try Sauce Arachide (Peanut Butter Stew w/ Beef), each for just ten dollars. Unless you lived near or strolled by ‘New Ivoire Restaurante’, you probably wouldn’t have ever visited the delicious spot… until now! With the help of a volunteer and Yola.com, restaurant owner and ACCION USA client Cheick Cisse has a website that he hopes will bring in some extra business.
ACCION USA has a diverse base of clients ranging from small local restaurants like Cheik’s to small, tech saavy media companies like Maureen’s, Moped Productions. But for many microloan clients at ACCION USA, a business website has often seemed too advanced, too expensive, or even unnecessary. Busy restaurant owners like Cheick simply don’t have time or the extra money to invest in web development.
ACCION USA struck an immediate partnership with Yola when we learned about the free web building tools that they were offering. And we began to think of simple and creative ways to introduce this service to our clients.
Lauren, an ACCION USA volunteer met with Cheick at his restaurant and was able to put together a simple and useful website. “I’m delighted I’ve been able to spend my free time volunteering at ACCION USA. It’s very rewarding to help clients at an organization that works so hard to empower people financially,” she says of the experience.
Now Cheick just needs a lesson on optimizing the searchability of his website on search engines like Google. Have SEO experience and interested in volunteering? Contact Erica Dorn edorn@accionusa.org, but first check out ‘ New Ivoire Restaurant‘ for a true taste of the Caribbean.
Is ACCION USA in the Era of Web 3.0?
Staff member Erika Eurkus assists an ACCION USA client in building a website for free using Yola.com
I first heard the term Web 3.0 last week at the SOCAP conference in San Francisco. To be honest, I am still trying to understand Web 2.0, but leave it to the technologically savvy San Franciscans to bring me up to speed on online social innovations.
If you’ve joined ACCION USA’s Facebook Page or if you have lent money via our Kiva.org lending team, then you have entered the age of Web 2.0. Web 3.0 is stepping from that online social space back into the offline community. This definition is still up for debate, but using the context of online-to-offline social good I will make an attempt to draw ACCION USA’s path to Web 3.0.
ACCION USA has been working offline in communities throughout the U.S. since 1991. I recently observed one of our New York-based loan consultants as she worked late every day for an entire week, doing everything she could to help her client get the capital he needed for his business. Next, by directing her client to Yola.com to build a website for free, she helped to bring her offline work with this client into the online space.
ACCION USA has recently partnered with Yola.com, which deserves a big round of applause for the great service that it is providing to our clients. The partnership offers clients that create websites through Yola.com the chance to be featured on the Yola.com website — a great marketing opportunity! ACCION USA’s longtime goal of helping our clients create a web presence is now becoming a reality. Yola.com provides a simple drag-and-drop application that makes it easy for anyone to build a website. And in our New York office, Yola.com has sponsored a workstation where volunteers can provide one-on-one assistance to help a microentrepreneur build a website for free! Could this be Web 3.0?
So as you engage in Web 2.0 by reading this blog and commenting on it, consider volunteering with ACCION USA. Empower a business owner by helping them create a website through Yola.com. You could even help them start their own blog! This is my take on Web 3.0 and ACCION USA’s role in it. What are some ways that you’re engaging in Web 3.0?
Tags: accion usa, us microfinance, web 3.0, yola.com