Would you give a stranger a dollar if you didn’t know how it would be spent?
This is the question that Rosie Lee, a USF St. Petersburg digital journalism and design graduate student, is asking on her website, “Would you give a buck?” The website is an applied research project and social experiment in the graduate program.
On www.wouldyougiveabuck.com, you can answer Lee’s question; however, a “yes” vote costs $1 and is payable through PayPal on the website.
If you want, you can share your response via social media.
“The idea started as a conversation over dinner with friends,” said Lee. “The question of giving strangers money came up, and it then flourished into this project for my DJD graduate program. I decided to make a “yes” vote cost $1 because it is one thing to say that you would do something, but quite another to actually do it# I want to know what people will really do.”
What happens to the money Lee makes from the site? She won’t say. It’s all a part of the experiment.
When you check out the site, you are greeted by Louella, an orange piggy bank which Lee calls her “alter ego.”
She runs the Twitter page @wouldugiveabuck.
Lee’s project requires her to get traffic on the site and the Twitter page. This is her final project in the grad program before she graduates in May.
“The goals of the project are to get people to visit the site, submit a response, and follow the Twitter page,” said Lee. “My supervising professor is hopeful that all info from the survey and responses could lead to writing academic papers on social media. I am trying to find ways to attract and engage people via social media. On Twitter, I have started #WhereIsLouella, where followers can guess where Louella is in the Bay Area.”
Lee chose this as her final project to get more familiar with and skilled in social media and website applications.
“I developed the concept because social media was the only skill I was still unsure I had mastered after I completed the courses required for my degree,” said Lee. “And what better way to get better at something than immerse yourself in its use?”
Would you give stranger a dollar?
Visit www.wouldyougiveabuck.com and vote yes or no. Then, follow @Wouldugiveabuck on Twitter to see what Louella is up to!
