414.org - Want to Help Shape It?

[miltownkid]

A buddy of mine owns this domain and wants to do something with it now. We were thinking about making it into some kind of directory of "hotness" for Milwaukee because as far as I know one doesn't exist (perhaps that OnMilwaukee.com but I still haven't been able to figure that thing out... :P)

Anyhow we're not marketing folk. We're nerds that know how to put the thing together. We're bouncing around ideas about what kind of thing we should turn it into and I thought I would open it up to you all. It WILL be made into something and YOU could be a part of shaping it. :)

There's nothing at that site right now. Just a broken CMS.

[Steve]

An excerpt from Seth Godin's blog today:

Google is amazing partly because it goes so far in helping with the haystack problem. Want a part for your 1957 drill press? You can find it on Google.

But Google doesn't help with finding experts when the problem is hard to define, or when interactivity is required. And just about any solution you can dream up has a friction problem: once the system is in place, it will get used too much, by too many questioners, and suddenly it won't be interesting enough for the masses to listen. For example, Craigslist suffers from a decreasing signal to noise ratio (it's a lot less fun to browse than it used to be).

Let's say, for example, I was an executive recruiter. Surely, I would benefit from interrupting every person on the planet to advertise a great new job. But I couldn't do it every day or every hour...

Part of the success of Facebook is that for your group of friends, you do get that ability (at least until they stop being your friends). But the laws of information make it clear that it doesn't scale.

No, there isn't an obvious answer. But yes, it's a universal problem. Worth a think when you get a chance.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

[miltownkid]

The site is up and we're looking for people to test it out. Let us know what you think!

[414.org (click here)]

[Dan Knauss]

Hey, on the local craigslist idea, the problem is that craig's list is already intensely local. Given it's consistently horrid design, its rampant success has to be prime evidence that the online-or-email reply-thread interface is the most accessible. There are a TON of local yahoo and google groups. Milwaukee Freecycle has been a serious shark tank of free and resale exchange.in the metro area for years. These are quick and dirty systems, and tehy have their drama, but I suspect part of their success is that they are substantially anonymous and NOT social networky in the web2.0 way. E.g., you're not going to get that laser printer for $25 if the guy selling it looks at your photos/politics/friends...