Crowdfunding the creation of the next version of LFGSS

And I'll update people as and when I start receiving dividends on putting football in it's propper place.

the burning question i guess is will it have tags?

Google Campus is not a nice place.

There are some great people in there actually doing stuff, mostly on the TechHub floor.

But mostly what I've seen whenever I've been there are non-technical people walking around saying "I've got an idea for ... and just need a technical co-founder, can we do coffee or revert later?"... where the killer idea is "I want to play squash and my squash buddy is out of town and so I think if we made an iPhone app that allowed you to push a button, it would pair up people who want to play squash. And it will make millions, are you in?".

That is... Google Campus is heated by the hot air of a lot of it's inhabitants (TechHub floor excepted), and if you want to go into an environment in which you are constantly distracted, then it's a winner.

I really want to get stuff done, so I stay away from it unless I have to. Preferring instead to have the office in Waterloo as few people visit us and we can get on with stuff.

never been there but this is exactly why I never go to talks and why I generally loathe the whole startup "scene". Loathe briefs from google for the same reason.

Exactly what problem is this solving?

Exactly what problem is this solving?

The product Microcosm?

Or were you responding to some specific post in this thread?

Has this been resolved?

Are you going to licence out the engine when it's done?

I'm for it, probably as a patron!

Intrigued by this as you clearly have some chutzpah and good ideas.

But I have to play devil's advocate...

What's different about Microcosm from existing open-source social networking platforms like BuddyPress (http://BuddyPress.org) which already do all of the things you mention in your list for free?

I'd hazard a guess you could get your wireframes built as working HTML using BuddyPress in less than a month and for less than $1000.

Have you read The Learn Startup methodology by Eric Reiss.... http://theleanstartup.com/, lots of smart ideas for iterating/pivoting ideas fast.

Would happily get involved with strategy and IA/UI decisions if you need any input :)

What's different about Microcosm from existing open-source social networking platforms like BuddyPress (http://BuddyPress.org) which already do all of the things you mention in your list for free?

Fundamentally forums are not social networks.

I've had an epiphany on this whilst struggling to understand why social networks (Google+ with their circles functionality for example) simply do not create the same kind of really strong communities that forums do.

And the first part of the epiphany went:

Social networks organise everything around you, your identity, your ego. Whereas forums organise everything around the shared interest.

Which is fine, simple so far... but why do some people click with social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and others find these really hard to use and prefer to use forums. Why do some not engage their ego, and simply choose to be part-anonymous in a mass but engaging in their interest?

The second part of the epiphany went:

Social networks are for extroverts. Whereas forums are for introverts.

Which isn't to say that extroverts aren't on forums, and introverts aren't on social networks. But after a while struggling with the question 'Why?' I stumbled upon a correlation between two questions.

Question 1: You go to a party for about 30 of your friends, it's a long night and there are lots of conversations and milling around which you partake in for the whole time. Do you come away feeling more energised, or more drained than when you arrived?

That is a question that encapsulates a reasonably standard definition of an introvert (who comes away drained and can only do these occasionally) and an extrovert (who comes away rejuvenated and wants to do it again soon).

Question 2: Which do you use most, out of your own preference, social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, etc, or forums such as LFGSS, [insert others depending on person being asked]?

Given that introverts and extroverts split 50/50 in the population (or as near, that it's irrelevant), you'd expect that the people who answered the second question for social networks would split 50/50 and the same for forums.

What happens though is some vast majority (let's say 80/20 for the hell of it) of those who use social networks out of preference, come out as extroverts.

And likewise, those who engage in forums... the majority come out as introverts.

I've watched forums collectively do Briggs-Meyers tests before, and have always been curious why the majority start with the letter 'I' for introvert. Especially on US forums, as the USA is considered to be the most extroverted nation on Earth with some 60% identifying themselves as extroverts (source: Susan Cain's book on introverts... Finland is the most introverted btw... and only 43% of those online engage in social networks, one of the lowest rates in Europe).

And this basically led me to understand one really strong social thing about why social networks haven't killed forums: Forums are the most resilient thing on the internet because the people who use them are not being catered to elsewhere... introverts are not catered for in a modern age in which you are expected to sell and market yourself online.

So to go back and answer your question: What's different about Microcosm given that social networking platforms (open-source or not) already offer some of the functionality I've described?

The very simple answer is: Microcosm isn't a social network.

Microcosm is aimed at introverts, those who use forums to engage with their interests. Those who don't want to put themselves at the epicentre, but instead want to put their hobby or interest first and for them just to be able to contribute in some very small part-anonymous way so that they get a lot back from only a little social investment.

Social networks do provide the raw functionality, but that they are a social network is why they cannot provide it in a way that eradicates forums.

An essence of what Microcosm is, is the functionality that social networks provided, in the form of a forum.

I should say, when spending a lot of time speaking to people, reading and investigating those questions... which I feel are fundamental... I also for a while paused on individualism vs collectivism, but it never really answered it and felt more of a political answer that couldn't be generalised. Whereas the extrovert vs introvert answer holds up quite well.

Have you read The Lean Startup methodology by Eric Reiss.... http://theleanstartup.com/, lots of smart ideas for iterating/pivoting ideas fast.

Would happily get involved with strategy and IA/UI decisions if you need any input :)

Yes, I've got the book in front of me. I've been using it this summer to shift the idea. Cheaper to do that in conversation and drafts on paper than to actually build anything.

Now we're at the point that the description of what it is hasn't changed for a while... it seems to have evolved as much as it could and has settled. So now it's worth building it (a lot of work), whilst still asking "Quit, pivot or persevere?" frequently.

^ Super interesting. First time I had someone explain to me why I spend hours on here and can't be bothered with facebook, twitter etc.

Just did a briggs meyers test as well, turns out i'm more of an extrovert than introvert, but not by a big margin.

i turn up as an extreme ENTP on meyers briggs, but enjoy sharing common interests on the interweb

^that's just rule 34 at play

i find hatbeard interesting

I can't remember my meyers briggs label, is that because it begins with I ?
. . . . .
What about http://www.microcosm.com/aboutus.php
have you come across them? or vice versa?

ENTJ. Wooo!

Briggs-Meyers tangent >>>>>>>>>>>>

I did see microcosm.com but as we operate in entirely different spaces "DRM vs discussion boards" do not foresee a problem with the name that would lead to confusion.

There is also an open source project using the name, an operating system I understood it to be.

It's a standard word so cannot be copyrighted, but trademarks could exist... but then they only exist for a specific mark and in a specific space.

I'm not sure at all if Seedrs would expose to me the details of who invested. In fact, I think it likely they wouldn't.

Yes they would.

Well there you go :) I figured I'd only see one investor, that being Seedrs.

Where we are this morning... the Seedrs application looks complete. Pending review and spell check it will be submitted for pre-approval this morning.

This is not the final submission... that still needs a video to be made and other very dull stuff. But the first submission that will happen later today is the first round of fact and evidence checking before we can actually submit the Seedrs proposal.

I will email people later today anyway, as soon as I do press that button. At this point interested investors should be registering on Seedrs if they have not yet done so. You still have a day or two to complete this though.

Right, that sounds like it's time to stuff a tenner over there to check how money getting there works...

I've just sent some cash over to see how it works.

It's a bit of an odd process which involves sending a bank transfer to their SC / AN and then waiting for them to confirm and deposit...

We'll see if my money makes it over :-s

Do we have to do that before we can invest for microcosm.app?

Yes.

I see they have to do their due diligence on us first. Fair enough.

Ticked the patron box, this is done by paypal right. Would like to invest as it sounds like a great idea, like the bit where you said there's no reason you can't run 20% of the worlds forums, but having just moved overseas and being gainfully funemployed at the moment, not in a position. Good luck with it though, looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

tl;dr

How/When do I shower Our Glorious Leader with cash monies?