Neev built a cloud-based web application that has emerged as one of the world’s largest social networking platforms for social entrepreneurs to connect, discuss, share, innovate and help each other. Catering to a global audience, the application supports 12 languages. The social platform has an in-built search feature that allows any profile or discussion to be searched based on tags, relevance, type of activity, etc.

The Client

Ashoka, one of the world’s largest networks of social entrepreneurs, has 3000 Ashoka fellows present across 70 countries. Ashoka was started in the year 1980 by Bill Drayton. It provides start-up financing, professional support services and also connects social entrepreneurs to a global pool across various businesses and social sectors. Ashoka provides a platform to enable people to change the world. It works in partnership with players in the private, philanthropic and citizen sectors to drive large-scale innovation.

Business Need

Even though Ashoka had over 3000 social entrepreneurs as fellows across the globe, it was observed that these social entrepreneurs were often functioning individually and much below their highest potential. There was a need to connect all these entrepreneurs and enable them to help each other rather than Ashoka being the sole source of help for them. Thus emerged the requirement for a platform that enables social entrepreneurs to get on board, connect, interact, share and discuss their ideas, innovations, news, ask doubts, provide solutions and help each other.

Neev Solution

Neev developed a RoR based application, which is hosted on Heroku platform available for all social entrepreneurs. The whole application was built in less than 4 months using an Agile methodology. As the social entrepreneurs are from across the world the application is multilingual and supports 12 languages to start with.
To cater to the client’s requirements, Neev created a cloud-based social networking web application that acts as a hub for social entrepreneurs to interact and benefit mutually. Using Google Translate plugins, the social platform was made multi-lingual supporting 12 languages to cater to social entrepreneurs of Ashoka all across the globe. A search feature was also built into the application using Solr search engine to enable user profiles and discussions to be searched and filtered based on tags, relevance, recent activity, etc.

Technology footprint

• Ruby on Rails (RoR)
• MySQL database (DB)
• Solr search engine
• Google Translate plugins
• GIT source repository
• Heroku deployment environment
• Pivotal tracker for project management
• Integration with Google Analytics

Top features

• Any user can initiate a discussion.
• Users can follow other users or discussions.
• All discussions/profiles can be searched using tags.
• Filters can be used to search the results based on relevance, recent activity, type of activity or pre-defined categories.
• Supports 12 languages.

Top Challenges