Democratizing Opinions with Qvey
Qvey just launched a few days ago, and provides a new way for people and organizations to get feedback. Joe Marrow, the single-man team behind Qvey, hopes to empower the little guy to get quality feedback without expending too much money.
The feedback structure of Qvey is based on micropayments. Every user who answers a priced survey question will be compensated by the price. This is in stark contrast to typical surveys which give out an iPod, or something similar, for every millionth customer. The question is: would you be willing to give up the chance for an iPod for say, 50 cents now? In most cases, the answer probably is: Heck yeah.
After accumulating a dollar’s worth of payments, you can have the option to cash out, or create a survey of your own using the proceeds from your payments. Asking questions is easy, all you need to do is to specify the question format (1-10 rating, yes/no, multiple choice, or short answer), and the compensation each user receives for their input.
When the results are in, some nice flash based results graphs are provided. The cool part is that if a certain question that you didn’t write interests you, you can also take a look at the results after filling out the survey.
Some of the examples of potential uses of Qvey include:
- A band releases a single, and puts it on Qvey. They’ve gotten
valuable feedback, and gained a lot of exposure. - A small company is in early development of a product, and needs
immediate feedback on a concept. - A recently graduated photographer is readying for their first
gallery show, and unsure which shots to include. - A company is having a hard time choosing between two finalists for
a new product logo. Qvey could allow the community to decide the winner.
The inspiration for Qvey stems from the fact that most participants of online communities are in it for themselves. A micropayment scheme is great for motivating the masses to provide feedback. Joe, who is a partner in a small design firm and has over 10 years experience in web design and development, was also inspired by the Digg community, and the amount of influence they can have on the end product. Qvey hopes to see this happen for opinions and feedback.
Some of the new features that Qvey might implement in the future are blog integration, private invitation surveys, more robust charting and reporting, and more community oriented features like ranking and karma.
