Want to see good ideas get developed and built upon rather than archived?

[BNW]

How many times have you seen a slew of good ideas get lost in the flow of forum activity as a thread makes its way toward the archives? How many times have you wished that good ideas could be pulled together, built on, and turned into something?

www.rootstalk.org is a new website that uses shared, member-editable webpages for product-oriented collaboration on think tank projects.

The site has Advocacy Projects on an array of issues, including a "pilot project" on Election and Campaign Finance Reform.

The site has a project are for Developing A Critical Understanding of Conservativism.

The site also has a http://www.rootstalk.org/wiki/PetitionCenter">Petition Center where people can collaborate to write a petition.

If you want to collaborate on developing good ideas, contribute your ideas at www.rootstalk.org.

[The Doctor.]

1. I look forward to frequenting your site.

But you do realize that this thread, along with so many others on an eve of contiguous Schiavo threads, will pass as quickly as you have suggested to archives.

Seeing that you have posted a few times here, I can surmise that your goal is publicity.

Perhaps you will stick around and feed ideas from you site back to the sites you have chosen to use for promotion.

As well... It might not hurt to suggest a 'great ideas' or 'thinktank' group to the moderators which would recieve some small attention on the homepage.

Feel free to PM me if you agree.

And good luck... I've just registered.

[BNW]

2. Yes, Schiavo threads are piling up

I will be more than happy to give regular updates on developing projects to the communities where some of our members are coming from--once the ball gets rolling.

What do you have in mind when you say "a 'great ideas' or 'thinktank' group to the moderators which would recieve some small attention on the homepage"?

[The Doctor.]

5. I can't imagine it would hurt to suggest a 'best ideas of the week'

link on the DU homepage. Something that might play off the way the 'Top Ten Conservative Idiots' does.

[BNW]

6. This sounds like a good idea

I'll make a suggestion to the DU admin/moderators. I'll try to come up with some good ideas for how to structure the thing. Perhaps something where people can vote, like the "Greatest Threads." The tough part will be guidelines for submissions. Any ideas?

[The Doctor.]

7. Well, DU'ers are constantly coming up with ideas...

And I've watched good ones simply slip away that someone might have been able to take action on if it had stuck around long enough to be seen.

The obvious advantage of such an active site yeilding a plethora of ideas is generally cancelled by that very level of activity.

I think that a showcase of 'Best Ideas' would give some ideas a chance to fly if the right people are exposed to them.

I know this has happened here before where an Idea took flight - but only because the right people saw it and did everything they could to get it some attention.

DU is in a unique position to act more broadly as a potent think tank with little disruption to the community here - indeed such could enhance the community.

I am not a webmaster/codewriter/site administrator, but I imagine it might not be too difficult to take the same idea used to create the 'greatest page' and set up a similar system where a post/thread is nominated for an 'ideas page' where the post's ranking is a function of the number of nominations... the higher the number of nominations, say... in a 24hr period - the higher the rating of the post.

Then perhaps at some point in the week, DU could feature a 'Top Ten Ideas' segment... much like the 'Top Ten Conservative Idiots'.

Because of the 'TTCI' format, the 'Hate Mailbag' format, articles, comics and the like in 'The Usual Suspects' column on the homepage - I find myself very often revisiting old and archived Top Ten lists, reading old hatemail, and perusing Plaid Adder's and Auntie Pinko's writings.
It is one of DU's very attractive features - a highly accessible and very entertaining showcase of good material.

I believe a 'top ten ideas' 'idea' might not only be entertaining, but function as a catalyst for many new improvements in life, finances, and, above all, government.

Where other online 'think tanks' have failed is in not being able to build a community of contributors due to the usually 'dry' format those ventures tend to use.

The DU community is a vast resource of bright, resourceful, and engaging individuals who really want to help make the world a better place.

I can't think it would hurt to try and get some of the great ideas I've seen here a better chance at becoming real-world solutions through thoughtful exposure.

What do you think?

{OE}- As far as submissions go, I imagine that anyone should be able to post an idea in any forum and the nomination process would be a simple function of the number of 'great idea' nominations in a given period of time.
True - that would be just one more job for the moderators to handle, but I imagine a 'cache' could be set up for the review of these posts... I'm not a programmer, so I'm not sure how to go about it or how much work or memory it would take.

[BNW]

8. To make a "Great Ideas" project appealing to site admins

I think there would need to be something that clearly distinguishes "Great Ideas" (in terms of purpose) from "Greatest Page." This would also be helpful in order to let users know what it is they're voting on.

That is, should "great ideas" just be whatever users vote for? Or should there be guidelines like: nominate ideas for goals to be achieved, ideas for responding to conservatives, and/or ideas for taking action, etc.?

[The Doctor.]

9. Hmmm...

I understand that classifying and categorizing different ideas would help facilitate any type of action that may be take on any given idea, but I imagine that, when weighed against the simpler approach of using a general ranking system, may enhance visibility.

Sorry - I know that's off your point, but we might consider that guidelines could narrow the perception of what qualifies as a candidate to an 'actionable', or 'executable' idea.

Although any idea that could not be 'acted' upon would certainly be rare - I can imagine that at some point or another a notion may come along that could have an effect on people without needing to be 'actively implemented'.

But you are right, of course. There should be some criteria so people could have more tangible reasons for nominating an idea.

Therefore I might suggest using the 'guidelines' you have made mention of while also including the phrase "or any idea that personally inspires you." (or something of the like) at the end of the sentence.

Therefore we might achieve the tangibility you have pointed out as important without suggesting that any non-executable idea does not qualify.


The only problem I for see right now (I'm sure there will be more), is how a 'Top Ten' or other ranking will be achieved.

As threads fly by fast and furiously during different hours, days, and weeks, and are subject to the tides of current events, I can think of only a couple of ways to ensure 'fair exposure'.
One is to simply divide the number of nominations an idea-thread receives by the number of hours it has been posted for during the week.
This encounters the problem of good ideas being subject to the ebb and flow of traffic.
My second notion is to set up a dedicated forum where any 'Great Idea' nominated thread will be sent where it can be further nominated or posted to, but wherein no one could create a post. Then the above formula could be applied.
This presents the issue of burdening the site administrators however. While I do not know what kind of work such a thing would entail, I know that they would have to believe this could be worth it.

The next logical step would be to run this notion by them.
Have you done this yet?
Or shall I?

I would of course be happy to answer any questions or address logistical issues - I believe we could make something like this very successful.

[paineinthearse]

3. thanks for the reminder

I joined rootstalk way back and strayed away due to lack of participation. The very problem you express is all to frequent here.

What a coincidence - look what just arrived in my email:


Subject: Rootstalk Update
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 23:10:28 -0500


Dear Rootstalk Member,

Depending on when you last visited the Rootstalk site it may have changed a little or a lot. Based on feedback and suggestions from members and visitors we have made numerous improvements.

We have streamlined the layout of the think tank projects, and have created a new pilot project on Election and Campaign Finance Reform in order to provide an initial focus and encourage participation. We are also implementing collaborative workgroup space where members can work together on select projects. Please stop by and share your ideas.

We wish to thank those who have provided us with feedback and take this opportunity to invite additional feedback and suggestions. We value your input and hope you will share your ideas at the Site Talk forum.

Many thanks,

Rootstalk Administrative Team

[BNW]

4. Yes, we've made some changes

And we're trying to generate some participation and interactions to get folks working together. We're trying to create a membership at the same time as getting the projects going, so it's a challenge.

This is part of why we created a "pilot project" on Election and Campaign Finance Reform. We wanted to focus some extra attention on one project and try to get some folks working together.

If you have any suggestions, please share.