Top Secret Product: pitch for peace
This is an updated version of a speech I gave on Dec 2, 2009 at Victoria Beaver Toastmasters. The scene is a cocktail party. I’ve started talking with a group of people and then the inevitable question comes up:
“So what do you do Scott?”
I’m an entrepreneur.
“Oh really, well what are you working on?”
It’s an advanced online forum for citizens to engage in political debate and network worldwide. Think of it as a personal soapbox, but with a focus on empowering people.
“Wow, sounds ambitious. But wait, aren’t there a lot of websites out there that offer people a chance to share their thoughts?”
Yes, there are lots of them: news sites, blogs, social networks, private forums, chat rooms, etc, etc. All giving you a chance to share your two cents. Unfortunately, I see a lot of drawbacks to our current media regime.
One of them is over duplication. For example, let’s say that I like to comment on news stories, that really get my goat. I browse to cbc.ca, and find the latest development in the climate change debate and type out my comment: mwuaaah(goat noise) Maybe later I go back and see if the moderator has approved it. I can also find out if anyone gave me the thumbs up, or thumbs down. Next week a similar story comes up, and since I still feel strongly about it, I decide to type out a similar comment: baaah(similar goat noise).
People really do this. What a waste of time and database archives. We all know that in a few short days the story is off the front page and your valuable opinion is deep in a huge archive of obscurity. Other issues with news sites include: the media company owns your opinion; you are forced to be completely public or not post; and because of privacy there is no easy way to connect with other commentators.
Social networks have solved some of these drawbacks. For example they are very good at giving control of your audience to you via privacy controls. The problem created here is they treat data mostly as a one way dump of information. Your status is relevant today and garbage tomorrow, so they keep you coming back to update things. What they suck at is helping people create data that is reusable. I propose to combine the power of the social network with your political positions and blend it all up with a debate publishing tool that works for regular folk.
“Very interesting. So what will make your product stand out?”
The product provides a neutral playground for people to explore and share their opinions in a way that encourages inclusion, and peaceful discourse. When I say neutral I mean a place where it is safe to say anything. You will be responsible for what you say, just as if you were a newspaper. As long as you obey the law you can participate completely anonymously or as publicly as you want. The sky is the limit. The playground is what will most attract people. Life is a game of information. I want to layout a simple game board. Then we can all put out our characters to play and hopefully create some collective understanding of what really divides us.
“What do you hope to accomplish by creating this product and when can we get our hands on it?”
I’m currently aiming for a 2012 Beta launch, but who knows how fast things will progress. I’ll make sure to include you in the invite, so you can help me test it out.
This is a big dream for me, but I think it can become something really cool. I want it to become a hub of opinion and debate. Then we can bash out the toughest issues with words and hopefully leave our weapons in the recycle bin. Eventually, I would like it to be used by people on both sides of a war to help resolve their dispute(s). I can see it becoming a history book of epic proportions. A living archive of what humanity thinks and cares about. I may be a little ambitious in some of my forecasts, but I have this vision of peace in my head and I have to share it with people.
“What do you think is your biggest hurdle?”
Audiences are hard to keep engaged. Not this audience, but you know what I mean. We can see our democracy failing to engage people by looking at the latest voter turnout in our elections. We can see our journalism sites selling us our own fears and frustrations, without solution. A lot of us end up bottled in our individual family bubbles, avoiding risk, avoiding the bad news, and avoiding the problems created by our society. We end up stuck, with all our emotions, in a world that has no place to unload them. When all we really need is a product that really listens to people.
“So what will you do to get, and keep, your users engaged?”
I’m going to make it ridiculously fun and addictive. That’s all I can say for now. I have to leave the other details in the top secret file for a little while longer. I hope you’ll continue to follow progress at my blog: http://g-a-i-a.org
Thanks for reading!
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