Background and Project Scope
We aims to develop a technology platform that enables a community of practice (COP) concept for the gig / sharing economy. This concept has been around in the high-tech industry (i.e. open source voluntary development community, i.e. Wikipedia, Git Hub, or open source marketplace community, i.e. Wordpress, SLACK) but the concept has not really been taking off in labour-intensive industry such as logistics, private health care, environmental management, hygiene management, etc. More importantly, these industries workforce are dominated by gig or flexible workers(零散工), to whom the COP can generate great value.
Traditional large profit-driven platforms make profit by commoditizing individual tasks, effectively driving workers into subservient workforce with little or no bargaining power. Even at the face of prospering economy, these workers may enjoy little fruit the rest of the society enjoys.
This platform could provide an alternative choice for workers in the face of prospering economy. In our platform COP concept, workers will organize themselves into groups with group leaders and workers can join many different groups simultaneously (See Figure 1). Group leaders will be responsible for finding work for his/her group members and ensure members can deliver of services to customers.
Our platform focus on the development of tools necessary for group leaders to manage and execute their group tasks smoothly. At the back end of the platform intelligent algorithm will assists group leaders to make decisions according to ensure a competence team can be maintained. Our research and development (R&D) effort focuses on two distinct facet of the platform. First is the development of Tools that group leaders can use. Secondly, is the proprietary algorithmic based engine that supports the tools. Both will be encompassed in a mesh apps architecture using application program interface (API) as the key linkages.
Challenge
A key challenge of this project is that of social-technological one. The society always treats flexible worker synonymous as low-wage low-quality worker. This may be a cultural belief, but our experiences with managing flexible workers prove otherwise. Tough it may be changing globally, but the on-digital demand platform speed up the traditional belief. This may be the social pain point that needs to be addressed through technology.
Financial Support and source of funding
Recently, we received a research grant of up to HKD 1.3 million from the HKSAR Innovation and Technology Commission. Additionally, five members of our team agreed to contribute seed funding for the technology development and commercialization process. In the coming months, we are examining opportunities to apply for cyberport incubation program and RTC scheme from HKSAR ITC. And further research funding can be applied as a technology company includes enterprise support scheme, technology voucher scheme and BUD scheme.
Development Time Line
We plan to develop the minimal viable product of the platform in the first quarter of 2022. We are looking for collaboration from COOPs or alliance that could use as a testing bed for our platform to achieve reciprocity between the workers and the platform. This would be the beta version.
Critical Success Factor
The COP platform is a relative new concept in Hong Kong and maybe globally. It is an uncharted territory which requires substantial research and experiment work. Previous research suggests that the success of such platform is based on the following.
1. Market maker – The platform must cultivate market maker, they are the leader of the group between employer and flexible workers. They can smooth out contingency events. The role of this market make is to ensure labour liquidity, mobility and availability.
2. Digital commune – It refers to a group of people that from an economic unit. This unit enable high level of loyalties, high trustworthiness to employer, better brand imaging, and more importantly a sense of belonging.
3. Power base Regulation – It refers to how the platform embraces transparency to regulate power dynamics between employer and flexible workforce. This is another important dimension of success of such platform as it can transfer bargaining power between opposing sides.
See Figure 1.