all posts tagged “robotcoop”
I'll be talking a lot more about this soon, but I wanted to post a quick link to 43 Places, the latest from my homies here in Seattle, the Robot Coop, of 43 Things fame.
Update: At the time of this writing (6/26/05), 43 Places is not yet public, but should be soon.
It's all about where you've been and where you want to go. I'm digging the cool mapping features and the other 43 things-style goodness. Like 43 Things, it's a blog for people who aren't necessarily "bloggers".
Instead of the "Zeitgeist" for 43 Things, they are using "Wanderlust" (to be pronounced with your best German accent) for the same thing on 43 Places.
Big ups to the Robots for getting more of their master plan out into the world.
Tags: 43places, robotcoop, travel, travelblog
I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but there are some shameless 43 Things copy-cat sites popping up internationally.
Check out Aimido, which is not bashful about adopting almost the exact same look and functionality as 43 Things. Wow, they even have management and advisors. To me, this says: “Here are the people who couldn’t find anything better to do than rip off an existing site�?. They look so respectable too, except maybe Harald. I’d like to know exactly what kind of advice the advisors are giving?
“We think you should look for an existing site and then basically copy it exactly. Oh, and make sure it’s in German.�?
Also, check out Aimi.cn (in Chinese)
Related: Have I told you I love the Babel Fish Translation Tool?
This is a great big shout out to the Robot Co-op for their Webby in the Social Networking category. The great guys/robots with big brains who created 43 Things deserve it and and I say more power to 'em. It blows my mind to think that just 4.5 months ago there were 139 people doing 411 things. Now, it's 21,500 doing nearly 83,000 things. Go Robots Go!
Eating Their Dog Food
Posted by: leelefever on April 17, 2005- 5:00pm
Categories: customer service, features, robotcoop, seattle
That phrase always makes me laugh, but I think it's accurate. If you're not familiar, it means that a company that produces a product should use the product themselves.
In the online community world, I've been suspicious of companies that purport to understand all things "community" but don't have a community that supports their customers using their platform. It's one of the things I do like about Web Crossing, they have WebXHarbor.
I haven't seen a more productive example of eating their dogfood than how the Robot Co-op is using with their new site at ideas.43things.com.
The site is using the 43 Things format to collect ideas from users about what they should develop next. From talking to the guys, it's working -- the users have come up with ideas that had never occurred to them.
The Seattle Times had an article today about 43 Things. Unlike the conspiracy theories started from the Salon article, this one is a bit more balanced and talks about it as an example of Social Networking sites.
Some people have asked why I'm always talking about the Robot Coop and 43 Things. For one, I think it's a fascinating experiment. In my mind they are doing something that is a new form of online community, melding blogs, social networking and folksonomies together around the accomplishment of goals. They are testing some of the most cutting edge concepts on the web.
Also, I had a chance to see it take off. The CEO, Josh Petersen, lives about 2 houses away and I saw the idea long before it was "43 Things". I go to bat for those guys because I believe in what they are doing and want people to see past the conspiracy theories.
The folks at the Robot Co-op have added some cool new features to 43 Things.
The site has a new "Cities" resource that enables you to see more localized goals. For instance, the most popular goal in Austin Texas is "Go Kayaking".
"Cheers" are a way for people to "...support people and their goals by cheering them on." This means you click a link associated with a goal on a person's profile page. This is interesting to me. I would have thought that cheers might be entry-specific instead of goal-specific.
Let's say I had a goal on the site and someone came along and contributed something useful to the goal, I'd want to be able to recognize them with a cheer. This way, the system gives people an incentive for contributing useful info to a goal.
As peoples' contributions get "cheers" the cheers could be like a reputation that goes with them across the site, setting up a way to see the "Most Cheered" people. Further, it enables me to see the entries in a goal with the most cheers- giving me some idea of the useful entries among many.
As it is now, I'm not sure what the incentive is to give cheers to goals, but I've only been looking at it for a bit.
A new feature I think is really useful is...
I Want To Help Others Do This! Select the “help others�? option when completing a goal and you’ll become a resource for those in need. Stuck on the progress of a goal or just looking for a little advice? You can now submit a plea for help that gets sent directly to the people who are interested in helping.
It's great to see this system being successful. Have you ever noticed the frequency of new entries? It's consistently an entry every few minutes. If anything can be taken from pure volume, it's awesome.
A while back I heard about a new idea for a social networking site from Josh Petersen, who happens to live in my neighborhood. He described a site called “43 Things�? where a person can find other people based on common goals or “things�?.
Soon after, he quit his job at Microsoft, assembled a great team called The Robot Co-op and today, 43 Things went live with an invitation-only beta.
I see 43 Things as a big step forward for social networking sites because it builds a productive foundation for networking. At the core it's about finding and working with people who share your specific goals. Plus, people who have accomplished goals become resources for those who haven't. I’ve described it previously as a marketplace for accomplishing goals.
When you see a goal listed on the site, you have 2 ways to join that goal: “I want to do this�? or “I’ve done this�?. This information then becomes part of your identity on the site- you are a collection of the things you’ve done and things you want to do (including your progress). Of course, you can create a new goal at any time.
I could probably list 43 things I think are cool about the site, but I’ll stick with these features for now:
- User-assigned “tags�? like Flickr
- Zeitgeist view of goals, like Flickr's tags
- Post to my blog from 43 things
- Use of Trackback to associate a blog post with a 43things goal
- Use of blog entries for providing updates for each goal, and cool threaded format for commenting
- Ability for “teams�? to form around goals
- RSS feeds for everything
- Useful email notifications, with real content
- “People doing this are also doing these things:�?
More than that, it's using elements of weblogs and message boards without being either. That's fascinating to me.
If you want to give it a try, leave a comment here with a valid email address and I’ll invite you… Right now 139 people are doing 411 things. I’ll be interested to see how it scales.
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