So I was looking at Digg, which has become wildly popular… anybody use it? One can “Digg” articles and news stories and blog posts by clicking little widgets and icons on various pages (even here, using the “Share This” llink), and then by reviewing or searching what appears on the Digg website, you can see what’s popular. So I got to thinking…
I’ve used Technorati searches to help turn up interesting bits on missional themes that I might otherwise miss, but the search I just did came back with more than 15,000 results. Back in March, we did a round of Link Love for Emerging/Missional Church Bloggers when we went in search of under-rated bloggers… and found a lot of new people out there, many of whom now appear in my RSS reader.
So I had the idea and then stumbled upon the software to do it (I noticed that EV Does this too). I’m thinking of a Digg-like site with the narrow focus of missional subject matter. Anyone who’s interested or engaged in the missional conversation — whether or not they maintain a blog — would set up an account and flag items of particular interest or importance that relate to missional themes. As a community of us does this, various items rise to the surface and fall back, giving us a picture of what’s going on in the wider conversation which the group deems important. Those of us who maintain blogs could add a little widget to make it easier to flag our posts, and could if they wanted incorporate the results of an RSS feed on their blog to show the top ten posts at the time.
I think that if we had just 100 people, this idea could really fly… but it wouldn’t take that many. I originally was thinking about it just for my own use in keeping track of things as I find them, but I think it would work even better with more eyes and fingers participating so that the sum would include items from places that some of us don’t normally look. I would do all the setup and hosting work, so there’s no commitment needed from anyone, but I’d like to gauge if there would be interest in the idea. Would you use it? And what would you call it? Gotta get one of them Web-2.0-ish names, right?
How ’bout dontmiss.us as the domain name? :-)
Interesting idea. I’d probably at least try it.
So … I’m unclear. Are you talking about using the actual Digg? Or using something that looks like it but is separate and, um, different?
I just checked out Digg and it looks pretty cool. It would be good to have something like that to gauge what’s going on …
I think this would be worth trying out. It cooud provide a useful central point fo reference, but would only carry a buzz if everyone actively contributes, which will be the lifeblood of such a site.
However from an incarnational viewpoint would it not be better to do this within a context where the wider world is (e.g. Digg)? I say this having been involved in more than one project to set up city wide web sites to link Christians together, only to find that most prefer to congregate on places like Facebook. I’ve been challenged to rethink why I would in the end want something ‘separate’, rather than being where people naturally congregate.
Not trying to be awkward (!) – it might also help if there were some incredibly easy way (Firefox add-on/button) to add links to your proposed kind of site (as can be done with Delicious and others) as making the point of engaging simple would maybe help tip the balance of someone choosing to add links when they find them.
Tim,
I guess I was busy composing my comment when you posted. I’m actually with you there… I was critical of GodTube because I couldn’t get past “Uh, why?” In this case (see prior comment) I think that the existing social sites (1) don’t address the subject well, and (b) aren’t actually being used by this particular community. Facebook is being used, but doesn’t do what I’m proposing here… and you have to be a member to derive any benefit. Digg is a lot of tech stuff, I think — at least, that’s where I run into it most.
A toolbar widget would be most helpful in actually seeing it used.
I’m game and sounds like a good idea. I’m sure I can recruit others to participate.
Well, I’ve done it. The new site will be located at missio.nalvie.ws — I figured if del.icio.us didn’t throw people too badly, then this would qualify as a distinct Web-2.0-ish kind of name. That’d be “Missional Views” if you’re still staring at the nonsensical mashing and splitting of the words. Hey, you can always bookmark it.
The domain should propagate over the next couple of days; I should be able to set up the software in that time and we’ll see about a beta-testing phase starting as early as next week. Any designer-types handy with Photoshop and other creative arts-and-crafts matters, it’ll need a Web-2.0 compliant logo in two versions, one sporting the word “Beta” in superscript after the name. I’ll be playing with software configuration in the meantime.
ps. If the whole idea tanks or the conversation gets too bad, I’ll just redirect it all to ba.nalvie.ws ;^)