While I’m generally not fond of websites that function like a PowerPoint presentation, I am fond of the Knight News Challenge. I heard about it on the radio and thought I’d check it out. It’s a cash prize for ideas on using technology to further community interaction in specific geographic locations. The foundation behind this thinks that the Internet has created wonderful virtual communities, but it is under-utilized in strengthening existing physical communities.

So, I started thinking about what I would do. The first thought that popped in my head was: farmer’s markets. My wife gets a good chunk of our produce, meat and some other things at a local farmer’s market. We supplement that with cereal, pasta, diapers for the kids and other such consumables from the grocery store. Therefore, I have a decent view of the upsides and downsides to both services.

On the one hand, the grocery store (very much like fast food, in some ways) offers consistent availability of products, layout, easy navigation and also facilitates bulk shopping while being highly available. The farmer’s market excels at providing freshness, local connection, products whose organic or wholesome nature are easier to verify and understand, high quality seasonals and adding a little spontaneity to stocking up. I think the two complement each other well, as far as our routine goes.

A good farmer’s market, though, is more of a community event than a chain grocery store. That’s not a knock on the grocery store. McDonald’s doesn’t try to be a community social forum in the way that a local sandwich shop might book bands and other events. It’s a different model. But what I’m wondering is whether the farmer’s market can use technology to attract more people who have become somewhat reliant on the conveniences and predictability of the grocery store.

The infantile form of my plan involves developing a web service for facilitating pre-event interaction between farmer’s market organizers, vendors and shoppers. For example, if a vendor can indicate a day or two in advance what they intend to bring for sale at the market, consumers may be able to better plan their menus, shopping and other things. Provide a little bit, but not too much, predictability. They can also provide descriptions or information about their products which are too logistically complicated to display at the market. It might also be possible for vendors to lock in some revenue and for shoppers to lock in some reliability in advance by reserving up to a certain quantity of goods for pickup at the event.

For large events, a “floor plan” type display would also allow people to see what’s available, where it can be found in the market and also view things like hours, special parking (if applicable) and other things which are generally only learned by showing up the market a few times and figuring it out. The key would be to increase the convenience of the farmer’s market in a way that boosts attendance and creates more of an ongoing atmosphere beyond a single event. To get more of the community involved, but not to fundamentally change the market. Lower the barriers to entry and encourage the farmer’s market to be less of a vicarious thing–which works for some people, but probably keeps some people away. Securing advance sales and advertising products a little more would hopefully be enough incentive to get vendor participation and buy-in.

That’s not as fancy as the Google moon landing prize. But, there are clearly fewer barriers to entry. Now I start wrestling with myself over taking the time to enter. If you’re reading this and thinking it’s a secret GXS product initiative, it’s actually just a personal technology interest post. Since I should probably say something related to GXS, though, I’ll say that the Managed Services customer forum is going well. I always like a chance to suit-’n-tie up for a customer meeting and play “professional” briefly every quarter or so.