Thought Incubator
Jun 2, 2010 Yesterday on twitter I was thinking out loud and mentioned that I have a need for something more than blog drafts to help me get out my blog posts. I tend to get stuck halfway through dozens of ideas, follow one rabbit hole and post a very few of my thoughts and so many others languish in wait until I have time/inclination or get a “spark”. On the other hand I REALLY enjoy the collaboration on thoughts/ideas I get when I interact with the community at conferences, on skype or on twitter to help refine my thought process and always get a “spark” out of those conversations.
So why not combine those ideas into a thought incubator a place to put ideas so that can grow!
Think of it as conversation using bits and pieces of blog posts as the kindling and the community’s collective wisdom as the oxygen to feed the fire. This entire post is an example of how it could work - This idea was further corroborated by Paul Melson and Ben Tomhave and others on twitter.
(extract of the twitter lead-in follows in reverse time order)
Ben (@falconsview) suggested SBN as a place to host the “incubator”. I haven’t talked to Alan Shimel (@ashimmy) yet but I don’t disagree with that idea at all. As long as it is a community resource and I can be invloved I’m open to it. But before we get there I thought it prudent to at least start the requirements part of the discussion and see where it goes before we jump into a solution.
When I mentioned this topic yesterday @Grecs suggested some great resources to consider - a wiki, google docs solution or using the blog drafts feature - all three ideas have merit and they do have pieces of what I’m looking for but none of them is really perfect for what I’m looking for. I spent yesterday looking at potential solutions, but I think it makes sense to talk about how and why I would use something like this and then we can all figure out what tools might make it work.
Requirement 1: Passionate Community
Twitter is the perfect starting place. A passionate community of professionals, the beginnings of conversations (sometimes even using #hashtags to help identify the conversation thread).
Twitter isn’t perfect as an delivery mechanism because of text limitations and inability to thread and easily sort/find. I certainly think Twitter is a key element of the overall solution though, in fact I can’t see this project moving forward at all without figuring out the right way to use twitter!
Requirement 2: Collaborative Environment
The entire concept is predicated on active participation. People must be willing to share “ugly baby” ideas, ask questions and share their knowledge in a positive but honest environment. A certain amount of ownership and moderation would have to apply given the world we live in, but that might be mitigated by registration/invitation for a while. It has to be perfectly acceptable to have incomplete ideas posted and differing opinions. We’re all learning and growing. There are some that won’t see the benefit of reading half-baked ideas and that’s fine no one is forcing participating at gunpoint.
As for a tool to help fill these needs something like Google Wave or a wiki helps thread the conversations and encourage feedback both “live” and perpetual.
Requirement 3: Attribution/Sourcing/Mentoring
So many people influence my thought process on a daily basis I’d love to be able to sort and give them all credit for the pieces that are floating around in my head. It may not always be a new new idea, it may simply add more confidence in a certain area, but usually it is a refinement or new perspective that fills out the picture. I’d like to have a way to “tag” people to “thoughts” and show my appreciation for their contribution. At another level if the conversation expands via the tool in the text, video, voice (we shouldn’t limit it to text) attached to the object then I think everyone involved in that discussion should have partial ownership of the ideas and be allowed to move the conversation to their blog/podcast outlet and reference the origins of the thought.
The opportunities to help incubate ideas or refine thought on a continuous basis has at least some of its roots in watching the Great PCI Debate move from conference to conference. Such great perspectives and many have gained tolerance and understanding over time. This has the potential to do the same for hundreds of ideas across so many more participants.
Requirement 4: Data Extract.
We all using different blogging platforms and I would hope that one of the goals of the incubator is one or more blog posts by everyone involved in “raising the baby”. That means the data (with or without formatting) should be easily exportable.
Requirement 5: Ease of Use
We’re asking for yet another way to interact and share ideas which means we need to leverage the tools they are already using (as input and/or output). Tools Jive or any of the products that Vendors / Conferences use to interact with their user communities are good examples of the overall framework I’d like to see long term, but are way to expensive and cumbersome to set up/manage at first. But a wiki or forum is too far isn’t enough to kick it off either.
This post is intentionally pre-mature - I need your help to incubate this baby. How would you add to requirements and use-cases?
Reader Comments (7)
you should check out Clay Shirky's book if you aren't familiar with it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Comes_Everybody)
I recommend keeping it simple via a separate informal blog and encourage blog posting and feedback via twitter or anywhere else. if you up the cost to communicate by using a new/unique/odd tool then you'll lower participation.
Definitely ping Alan Shimel (@ashimmy) - he's looking for new ways to improve the overall value of SBN, and this could be an excellent resource.
Rocky, this is exactly the kind of think I think we can do with Grogger. It is something I am playing with for the SBN now. ping me off line and I will hook you up with them. would like your input on this. Will try to see what we can do
thanks
alan
Call me old fashion but what about a discussion board where people can choose to receive email alerts containing new posts and then respond in the email itself with the board parsing and updating the thread? Obviously folks could just go to the board itself in addition to or in place of email updates.
the old fashion way i think is to have a large spreadsheet kinda like a mIRC with a social media website platform, like facebook or twitter. Where act as a thought incubator, small ideas that will save and nurtured through this incubator.
How to write effectively an email press release?
How about using one of the online mind mapping collaboration tools (i.e. http://www.xmind.net/share/konstantins/on-global-power-shifts/)? The original idea would be retained yet able to grow. New ideas/thoughts could branch off of the original or start fresh. I like where you are going with this idea though.
Mike