Project 1two5 on KickApps – Time to Retool

Image via Wikipedia

We had a little experiment called Project 1two5 going on over at the white-label social network, KickApps. After setting it up and playing with it for a few weeks, the user interface, navigation, blaring ads, and customization options just didn’t meet our needs. Good experiment, but now it’s time to shut ’em down and find a better venue for the important dialogue that needs to be had around New Media, Wedia, Innovation, Semantic Web, Content and Collaboration. This fits right into our goal of failing early and failing cheaply. Now we just need to fail more often.

To be clear, our Project 1two5 still exists, just not on KickApps. Project 1two5 is about discussing and collaborating on how to bring Wedia Innovation to LoMediaCo’s. This can be done in many places, including here at Wedia Up, and over on our Facebook Group. In fact, our friend (and father figure to some), Chuck Peters, launched a blog that is an important part of this discussion over at Local Information Utility. Check it one time.

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Tackling the Deer

Source: ShutterstockI tackled a deer yesterday. Imagine my motorcycle and me as a linebacker, and the yearling deer as a wide-receiver, foolishly jumping into the air over the middle. Slamming on the breaks, the motorcycle crouched low, the deer went high, and blam-o….I stuck my headlights right between the numbers. The deer took about a 5 mph punch to the ribs, skidded across the road, leaped to it’s feet and jumped the nearest fence. Happy to notice that I managed to stay on two wheels, I signaled to an on-looker that all was in the realm of okay.

That was my experience, and now here’s my philosophical leap. Wedia is like a deer, running open and free, jumping fences, and Media tries to avoid it until they literally cross-paths. Wedia is wild, organic, unpredictable, and lives mostly for itself. Media is a static machine, purpose-built to follow the money. Wedia hardly acknowledges that Media exists, but Media agonizes about how Wedia could interrupt it’s path towards the benjamins.

Bringing it back from the brink of over-metaphoring this, think about a local Media company. When something more in the mold of Wedia (like Craigslist) comes into their market, they watch in awe as they jump fences and steal customers. But to follow the model of these new Wedia competitors, Media Co. would have to get off their money-making machine and run off into the wilderness towards an unknown. Most often, Media Co. has a guy watch Wedia from a distance with some binocs. After all, Media Co. knows their money-machine would quickly get mired and stuck if they chased it. So, in the end, Wedia looks at Media with disdain for failing to jump fences and go to new places. And Media is wary of Wedia for failing to follow the path towards ROI.

Us guys over here at e-Me think this is a problem that is worth solving. We’re gonna spend time understanding Wedia and Media. We’re gonna experiment. We’re gonna find Media Co.’s and Wedia Pioneers to become a part of the innovation. We’re gonna fall on our faces a few times. We’re gonna bootstrap and scrape along. We’re gonna share because we care.