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I woke up with the word "thoughtstream" in my head, and the idea that we have ideas that are not long, well formed articles. We have thoughts that we would like to share, that we'd like to bounce around with others-- in reaction to news, to comments by TV or radio or net or newspaper people. Where do we put them?
Well, how about a thoughtstream-- a place where we can post a terse observation or comment, not on an article or diary, just... into the "thoughtstream."
Life today is hyperfast and short. Good ideas and observations flicker in and out of our consciousness so fast that we forget some of our best stuff. This approach would empower you to get the ideas out and down, so they'll be archived in your member page. And you'll be able to get feedback on them from your friends and fans (we're adding relationships to the site this summer.)
Now, I'm certainly not claiming to have invented the word. There are 83,000 "results" when you search Google for the word. But I think of the "newstream" or news sphere when I think of the news universe. And there's the blogosphere.
The goal of the "thoughtstream" would be to enable members to quickly and easily post "thoughts" to the site's thoughtstream. Quickly and easily is key. I'm thinking that we'll start with the OpEdNews bookmark that you can see instructions for adding to your browser tool bar when you log in.
That lets you click on any web page and add a link to that page, with the page's article title already added. It is currently used by members to add quicklinks to the site (go ahead, give it a try.) A thoughtstream version would have a few additional check boxes, so you just click on the button to add something to the site that was not tied to any page, but so you could post to the OEN site, even if you were not on the site.
I think it will allow you to create a title, but not even require a title, just take the first 50 or 60 characters for the title. That'll make it faster. You WILL have to select some tags, so we can help people who want in on the conversation, find thoughtstream postings that interest them.
We'll probably have two categories of display of the thoughtstream on the front page-- most recent and most popular. And we're working on how to gauge and rank most popular. See my other diary posted today to get a bigger picture on the HOW of popularity.
Then, we'll also have a thoughtstream page strictly dedicated to thoughtstream entries. And we'll also have a thoughtstream section for each inside page-- tags, directory levels, locales...
Here are some of the ways I see the thoughtstream working:
You see something on TV and make thoughtstream entry about it. (I expect that it won't be long before we'll be able to watch TV through our computer so we can click on a time/channel and be able to link to that "sample" of TV. We'll be ready, when that technology becomes readily available, so thoughtstream entries will link directly to the TV (or radio) content. )
You see an article on a site and want to comment on it. CLick on your OEN bookmark, make it a quicklink AND add your comment to it while also posting it into the thoughtstream. If you select the article and someone else has already grabbed the link for a quicklink, then your thoughtstream comment will be added to the quicklink in addition to being posted as a thoughtstream entry.
You wake up in the middle of the night and want to get your idea out there and get reactions to it. Post it to the thoughtstream!
If the idea takes off, we'll set it up so members can subscribe to either the full thoughtstream or thoughts from specific members who they are fans or friends of, so the ideas will be sent to their email or blackberries.
BTW, I have about 130+ projects for OEN, all written up, with about 30 of them finished. Currently we're working on a rating system for content and plans for a new friendlier design layout for the front page and inside pages.
Then, we'll be working on building a system so members can create petitions, then, we're adding quotations as a new content category. And then, we have about 100 more upgrades on the drawing board.
If you think we're doing good stuff, not just shining light on news and views you don't find elsewhere, empowering partiicipation from the bottom up, please make a contribution to support us.
and please comment on this idea. Do you like it, hate it? will you use it?
