Toby Kurien - Projects, Web startuphttp://tobykurien.com/2016-04-21T15:06:00+02:00<br/>Engineer, Maker, Heavy-metal loving GeekPledger2016-04-21T15:06:00+02:002016-04-21T15:06:00+02:00Toby Kurientag:tobykurien.com,2016-04-21:/pledger/<p>Pledger is a startup that aims to put NGO's in touch with micro-volunteers</p><p>Pledger is an app aimed at enabling <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-volunteering">micro-volunteering</a> by listing NGO's or NPO's with causes ("deeds" in Pledger parlance) by location. The user of the app can simply browse a list or map of deeds in his/her area, and volunteer for a deed. Pledger is still in the development phase and has not launched yet, but you can find out more at the <a href="http://pledger.org.za">official website</a>.</p>
<p>The Pledger mascot is (currently) the "Pledger Pig". Keep an eye out for #PledgerHeroes as they volunteer for events when Pledger is launched.</p>African School For Excellence2014-09-29T15:06:00+02:002014-09-29T15:06:00+02:00Toby Kurientag:tobykurien.com,2014-09-29:/african-school-for-excellence/<p>I've been contributing to African School For Excellence, a school that is re-defining education</p><p>I met Jay Kloppenberg back in 2012. From the first meeting, I knew that Jay was onto something. He had an
idea for a way to run school classrooms that was so radical, it could not be retro-fitted into existing
schools. It required building a school from scratch. To test the idea, he ran a few holiday programmes at
various schools. The <a href="http://ase.org.za/accelerate/">results</a> were beyond expectations! Thus, <a href="http://ase.org.za">African School For Excellence</a> was born.</p>
<p>I've been involved in the technical aspects of the school on-and-off since that first meeting. I helped set up
the school network, created some software to run <a href="http://github.com/tobykurien/ase">Khan Academy offline</a>, managed and configured the installation of
the Moodle learning management system, helped build <a href="https://github.com/tobykurien/peer_marker">peer marking software</a> at the <a href="http://www.rhok.org">Random Hacks of Kindness</a> hackathon,
and am continuing to build <a href="http://github.com/tobykurien/ase_quiz">custom software</a> to leverage the classroom model as much as possible. In late 2014, I
organised a <a href="http://aseroadshow.house4hack.co.za/">"technology roadshow"</a> to the school by House4Hack. The event was covered in an article on <a href="http://www.htxt.co.za/2014/09/29/the-most-excellent-school-for-africa-how-tech-is-transforming-teaching-in-a-township/">htxt</a>.</p>
<p>The school has featured in the media. One of the first media mentions was in an article by <a href="http://www.itwebafrica.com/ict-and-governance/267-south-africa/230594-tablets-help-boost-joburg-township-students-school-marks">IT Web Africa</a>, but
since then it's been getting much more <a href="http://ase.org.za/what-others-are-saying/">media coverage</a>. This is really driven by the <a href="http://ase.org.za/academic-results/">outstanding results</a> that the
school has achieved so far.</p>YourCred.com2010-12-14T19:23:00+02:002010-12-14T19:23:00+02:00Toby Kurientag:tobykurien.com,2010-12-14:/yourcred-com/<p>Cred is a mico-payment gateway built in Ruby on Rails, with a fully-documented REST API and Wordpress plugin, to allow content publishers to charge small amounts for their content.</p><p>I built the micro-payment web startup called <a href="http://yourcred.com/">Cred</a> using Ruby on
Rails, and PHP for the Wordpress plugin. It features a documented REST
API for integration.</p>
<p>Cred allows any content producer/publisher to upload their content into
a content management system (like Wordpress), and then paywall that
content by installing the Cred plugin. For the readers, they simply sign
into YourCred.com, then browse any affiliated site, and click to redeem
cred from their account in one click. It's a very simple, highly
cost-effective system for managing micro-payments.</p>
<p>This was the most complete web startup I'd ever built, which included
video demos, demo sites, and fully working transactional system. Sadly,
I had to retire this project in 2012 due to lack of resources, so the domain no longer works.</p>