SOMEWHAT FRANK

Crowdsourcing Discussed With GeniusRocket

I got a chance to talk with Peter LaMotte of Washington, DC based startup GeniusRocket this past March right after the much debated "Is Spec Work Is Evil?" panel session at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas. We discussed GeniusRocket's mission and take on crowdsourcing. GeniusRocket also has an interesting crowdsourcing story about the creative video that SXSW used this year which Peter will also share.

This video interview with Peter LaMotte got lost in the SOMEWHAT FRANK video queue but I just found it and wanted to share the video as episode 76 on SOMEWHAT FRANK. I hope you enjoy our pre-coffee talk at the Crepery in Austin, Texas about crowdsourcing.

What Is Next For The Web?

What's next? This is a question that many may be asking. At the 2007 Next Web conference (June 1, 2007 in Amsterdam) they are hoping to find some answers. In the meantime, check out this video (above) which was posted here. It was recorded via iChat Video as Tim O'Reilly from O'Reilly Media, Steve Rubel from Edelman and Micro Persuasion, Matt Mullenweg the founder of WordPress, Marten Mickos the CEO of MySQL, Eric A. Meyer (CSS and HTML guru) and Jay Adelson, CTO and co-founder of Digg.com share their insights on this exciting subject by tackling 5 basic questions in almost 20 minutes.

ConvinceMe.net Is Brewing Up Debate

Is the glass half empty or half full? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Which is the king of the universe, Star Wars or Star Trek? Now you can place these questions online and debate them with ConvinceMe.net. ConvinceMe.net launched public beta a little over a week ago and already has over 2,000 users who have created over 600 debates online.

Similar to Riffs, ConvinceMe.net offers users the ability to pick a side and vote on just about anything. However, ConvinceMe.net is a more complex debate site than Riffs as it offers three debate types which include Open, Competitive, and King of the Hill. An Open Debate offers users the opportunity to simply create debates and argue and vote on them. A Competitive Debate is a more complex debate where members create challenges and set the number of points/votes needed to win the debate. A King of the Hill Debate asks users to leave an argument, with a view point, and the best argument rises to the top – it doesn't necessarily have to be a two sided debate.

Aside from the debate types to determine ‘iPod or Zune,’ ‘Boxers or Briefs’ and ‘Mac or PC,’ ConvinceMe.net just rolled out a new feature that allows users to submit links or articles in a similar fashion as Digg or Netscape. It will be interesting to see if the feature takes off like it has on other sites or if it will be just another “me too” feature.

Bottom-line: ConvinceMe.net offers users the ability to settle any dispute online with a debate.