Designing an Asperger's Social Networking Site

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A few friends of mine and I have been tossing around the idea of a social networking site for people with Asperger's Syndrome and those who live and work closely with them. The general idea we have is to connect people with resources such as support groups, classes, professionals or agencies dealing with Asperger's Syndrome.

Unfortunately, most people who discover they or a loved one has Aspeger's Syndrome are not sure what contacts or services are out there to give them support. We believe strongly that the ability to pop their zip code into a web site and see a list of people willing to share the same experiences with them would be a great relief to the many disconnected people out there.

Does this sound like an idea that would fly? I'm curious as to what people think, especially about the concerns that would face a social site for those who by their very nature have difficulty with social situations. We're concerned about issues of privacy and the like for those who decide to put themselves out there.

Thank you so much!

I wouldn't limit it to just Asperger's Syndrome. What about classic and PDD-NOS and such?

I think we're too geographically dispersed for it to be feasible, but you could try.

I think it would be a great idea! Especially if you get people from all over posting about what THEY have found in their area!

Merle

another argument for maybe having to do something about the WP structure

i am sure the membership will provide enough volunteers for running a private sub-forum for precisely such an ASD-service run by WP

i have been toying with similar ideas from the moment i got diagnosed; i aim to become an autism specialist, with really only one agenda: seek out more late lifies who dont know and are in trouble

WE ARE NOT GOING TO GET IT

WE WILL HAVE TO DO IT OURSELVES

it does need to be well 'liased' with other autism resources on and off line, but it suits my feeling that WP could AND SHOULD become much more of an 'official' entity in the entire debate, people are aware of WP, and that includes the professional world: we have influence, i know for a fact

worth a shot!

It'd be hard to code it and it would take a lonnnnnnng time to develop a decent system.

oh, they have software for that sort of thing, DLD, so that would be the least of it's issues

Merle

How many man hours? it wouldn't take long with a good team, I would love to see the idea run, and given the opportunity, I would run it as a business, make a small profit off of the idea, make the service free to use, offer people advertising space for a fee, and open it up to all disabilities, ASD or not, temporary or permenant, and have it designed to be for not only people with the conditions, but also relatives. Finally, I would allow people to make individual profiles almost like facebook. Given the number of people afflicted in some way (note that I do not consider people to be afflicted by these conditions, and I am just using the word for how most people feel about abnormalities), it could be a decent money maker. If the OP doesn't mind, I wouldn't mind pursuing this as a business of mine.

Well if you open it as a proper business and have a whole team of developers then it won't take long in theory, but look at how long Bebo has been around and it's still crap.

What is Bebo, I've never heard of it?

MySpace with a different name.

As an adjunct to the previously stated functionality it would also help to have resources for creating additional resources in areas where none (or few) exist.
As I mentioned in another thread, the resources available are not always comparable to the size of location. I live in the 58th largest city in the country and there is precious few resources: Only two monthly meetings (geared towards LFA and the parents of teens with scial cgnitive/cmmunication needs. Apparently AS and other HF types of autism haven't come to Kern county yet.

[quote Kevin Ayers]:sort off, to ALL@WP.topic

[edit: i did NOT underscore that one!]

If you want to be a star..., Start shining..., Shine on
If you're happy where you are, Stop whining, Move on

And, thinking from the basic assumption that, anyway, in the end, we will find that we are going to have to create our own world as no-one is ever going to be reponsible for handing it us on a plaid, and we should not be simply taking away:

so, we might just as well right now start making, creating our world and our selves in the process

that i would call the underlying philosophy in the museum-suggestion i posted in Greentea's interview-Poll-thread: we will have to do it ourselves; so why not go semi-commercial, and create goodwill

semi-commercial: linked to WP, always linked to WP, and that would entail giving up (writing off) a substantial part of the gross turnover to WP; the company itself providing longterm stable source of income for as many auti-parttime staff as possible [&c,&c]


i do not think, btw, that any voice in such matters can be yielded to any OP, as it would all primarily rest upon Alex's agreement [in the wider perspective, all such is only possible in practical basis on the WP fundament];
i do believe, however, Alex might prove to be a gentle man (and giant at that) - just maybe he be as gregarious as suggest his gentle giantocity, or proven business acumen ...

the legal complications would be quite intricate and not easily established, there might have to be incorporation in terms of foundations and what have you, depending on various legal systems

but hey, where there is a good will....

"Proletarians of all countries....." oops, WrongParlance, WrongPlacetime, WrongPreach


these things are possible!! ! [/ALLCOPS][/baldly]yes we can![//]


there are so many 'products' we could come up with, there is so much creativity
to be paired with so much lethally sharp criticism ... that, less the effort defines quality,

this need not merely be about rendering assistance for those in need
this could be about providing moral support preventing true assistance to be required
not by complaint, or protest, or any form of public address with the need to be heared
but by simply making, creating and setting a lighthouse example

so many many options, so many ideas so

infinitesimally

little

to

lose


but our chains, but our lives

gosh.DasKapitalNext/toxic@RobertO.iii

Last edited by oblio on 02 Feb 2009, 4:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Lets end this thread before someone else takes the idea, as I have a very good idea already forged around this in my head, and it seems to be the perfect system, as both my parents think it is a good idea, and they have told me start doing research so I can start this up, and my NT roommate has told me if such a thing existed he would definitly be a registered user.

I like it, , it's worth a try.