Last week I got into my #1 competitor’s beta: Quora. This application is amazing and their name is way better than mine. I love that they share the same central idea in their product: No duplication of questions.  There are some great strengths and obvious weaknesses to me, but I’ll save that post for later.  Today I redo my go to market strategy for my non-existent prototype, which I can’t seem to start by myself.  I keep saying I’m more of a fixer than a build-from-scratch guy, but maybe I should just get on with it.  I’m definitely way behind these guys technically.  I hope my story will catch their eye and we’ll talk about teaming up.  Either way I’m sure we’ll talk eventually.

My initial target market:
Brands trying to market on twitter and facebook that aren’t satisfied with the effectiveness of their campaigns.  As well as, other social companies and organizations, that want to capitalize on their value conscious way of operating in the world.

Positioning statement for economic buyer$:
For socially aware organizations who need to engage with online audiences in a meaningful fashion, the QuestionCollector is a value centric debate community, where we can all share our big picture values.  Unlike twitter and facebook we offer a rich cultural experience for brands to grow their online social identity.

Positioning statement for user buyers (free):
For rebels, jesters, believers, and thinkers the QuestionCollector is a debate hosting website for people who care about our collective future.  Unlike Yahoo!Answers, StackExchange, and Quora we create a deep cultural experience to organize us around our questions and values, while empowering people to participate in a story of freedom.

Value proposition for organizations:
We believe that organizations with social capital should be able to increase effective engagement with their people by achieving a greater reputation in the marketplace, through our ability to organize people around their deeply held beliefs and values, as a result of our unique multicultural experience.

Value proposition for users:
We believe that honest, caring, thoughtful people should be able to increase their freedom by participating in their own unique way, through our ability to provide an organized, cultural debate site, as a result of our unique ranking and privacy systems.

Just by doing these exercises repeatedly I’m finding great value in the process.  The sentences quite often end up absurdly too long, but they are excellent at squeezing out the answer, of what our product will be, and what we know it will do for our subscribers and our users.  <~ I think it’s training me to make my sentences too absurX… nevermind. It has also helped me see my business model more clearly, along with helpful advice I’ve been getting.  I look forward to getting a whole bunch more.  If you have any questions about what these mean,  I want to understand your perspective.  Please bang out a quick comment or tweet me and I’ll be sure to respond.

Thanks for reading!  I can’t do it without you.

Positions & Props: the Play with no Prototype by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Are you a rebel?
Definition #2 To resist or defy an authority or a generally accepted convention.
Rebels want freedom.  They want control over their destiny and choices.  They want freedom from authority, rules, and restrictions.  We love freedom and think our democracies would be much better served if we promoted and valued our rebels more.  Marc Emery is a rebel who is currently locked up for selling seeds (a heinous crime indeed).  What rule or authority are you railing against?

Are you a jester?
Definition #3 a professional clown employed by a king or nobleman, esp at courts during the Middle Ages.
We do not want to suggest that you are a pro clown from the year 711 AD.  We do want you to be a person who pokes fun at serious stuff.  Society has modern jesters.  They host shows like The Daily Show or This Hour Has 22 Minutes.  They just don’t get their paycheck from the magistrate anymore (though technically the Queen does dole out the cash to the CBC).  If you like ripping on stuff in a way that is comedic, you are a jester in my books.  No, we cannot pay you, but if you are that funny we’re sure someone will help you go pro! :-p

Are you a believer?
Definition: #6 A person who has confidence in the truth or value of something.
This is our broadest category.  Most people believe stuff, but what we are looking for are people who believe very strongly in something.  If you have a cause, a religion, a conspiracy theory, or an opinion that you want to advance, we need you.  We need you to share that belief, so you can find others who agree, as well as, find where our values diverge.  Our belief is that questions hold the keys to peace.  What do you believe?

Are you a thinker?
Definition: #1 One who devotes much time to thought or meditation.
Philosophers, futurists, academics, and voracious readers.  You like broadening your minds and probably have thought this at least once about yourself: “I think too much”.  We definitely think too much, but meditation has helped. We need thinkers to examine and sift through the values we hold and ask the questions that will drive humanity to resolve our differences.  Without you, we get nowhere.

ACTION STEP:
1) Choose your faction
2) If you use Twitter get listed by us. Mention me and which list you want to be on.
“I am a rebel! @wizard_71 ”
“I am a jester! @wizard_71 ”
“I am a believer! @wizard_71 ”
“I am a thinker! @wizard_71 ”
3) Comment! Share your thoughts. critical feedback is what will make us great.
4) Consider following us on twitter, becoming a fan, or subscribing to the blog.

Why are we sending out the call?  We need a community of passionate, sarcastic, unreasonable, and reasonable people to test the prototype with, in the coming months.

Thanks for reading and especially for taking action!

rebels, jesters, believers, and thinkers by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Sweet fire rays dominate the dark,
Pushing it around into shadows.
Never quite caught; always slipping away,
Chasing one another endlessly.

The air embraces both;
Heated in light’s free flow,
And cooling in dark’s sweet stillness.
To choose between is not its bit.

The Earth baked from both sides;
Darkly trapped in the depths,
Magnetically molten  pressures burn hot.
The rays beat on the muddy surface,
Loving heat through an invisible void.

The Air, becomes focused,
At calming the Water.
It has been frothy,
With churn and boil.

Lost in the day,
Air neglected the night.
Dark Water smoothly raised,
A subconscious hurricane.

The storm quietly catches,
The unwilling Air.
Swallowed in a prison,
Of bubbly oceanic depths.
Leaving it submerged,
Unbalanced, and forgotten.

Meanwhile the Earth moves below,
Dark and rich with pleasure and hurt.

Before the storm Fire and Air,
Wove a magic, like no other,
To heal the crusty continents,
And cleanse polluted Water.

Now both trapped lay trapped.
The spell is dashed and sundered.
Until a time when both may wander,
To the dainty sky floor again.

Upon return from this thirsty mistake,
When escape is made from time and space.
Who knows what winds will blow
Or what magic will ride the Air again.

We trust of four elements.
We love of four elements.
We lust of four elements.
Free and flowing, forever elemental.

Free and flowing, forever elemental by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Peace is a word that many say they want.  Do you want peace?  I do.

Remember John Lennon and his song Imagine?  When you sing along with Imagine, can you see the vision, can you feel the passion for peace, does it send shivers up your spine to think of such a wonderful idea coming true?  I may not be as beautiful as any of the Miss Universe contestants who have wished for it, but I want it, and I mean to do something about it.

Yoko Ono, a talented artist, is a champion of the industry and keeps John’s campaign alive via her peace products and social media presence.  Her continued devotion to advancing the cause of peace is one I look up to.  My vision of peace has led me to design a place for us to fight with words, so we can see what we really value.  I’m working on the prototype with a friend and am looking to find seed investment for my plans soon, but I’m not talking about business today.  Today I share some of my passion for preventing violence and increasing freedom, two topics that I think will help make peace much more achievable.

Have you noticed that the war industry is thriving these days?  We need something to compete with it.  We make war against an impervious enemy called terror, which is caused by our misuse of force.  Is it billions spent to fight fear or billions spent to maintain fear?  I can’t tell, it seems self reinforcing to me.  We also have a war against drugs, which is actually a war against our freedom to consume whatever poison we choose.   We allow the poisons we know, alcohol and tobacco, which are equally, if not more destructive to those who lack balance, and then prohibit these others for no solid factual reason.  There is no doubt that drugs cause harm, but the only reason to prohibit one over another is unfair discrimination.  People think drugs poison our society, but they poison individuals.  The wars are what poison us all.  We are killing people with our ridiculous rules more than any other weapon.  This leads to guilt.  Because we misunderstand how to deal with a problem of balance.  Our society has become inhumane.  No wonder our suicide rates are increasing, who wants to be part of a society that hates and fears it’s own.  We can plaster over our problems with our successes, but it doesn’t change the rotten core.  We think rules and suppression are the way to protect people from danger, but it’s the opposite.  We need to stop fighting with ourselves and accept we have a problem and nurture our society back to health.  A prison nurtures criminals and we keep building more, rather than unmaking the ridiculous laws that put them there.

Here are some policy ideas for discussion.  My goal with these ideas is to increase security and prosperity while creating as much freedom as you can handle.  I’d love to hear why it wouldn’t work, or why you think it’ll never happen, as well as any suggestions or comments.

First, prohibit deadly ammunition. You can keep your guns.  We support blanks, rubber bullets for target shooters, and specific exemptions for animal control specialists.  If you have to kill an animal for sport we recommend hunting with a bow and arrow or maybe a crossbow.  Hunting should be a sport without bullets.  Institute a gun and ammunition buyback program which would stimulate a segment of the economy while making us all safer.  Then police will begin clamping down on any remaining dealers, producers, or importers of ammunition.  Once that is estimated 75% complete (hard to measure, but we have to start somewhere), the army will be in charge of the ammunition recycling program.  I want to state clearly that I have nothing against the military or the police, they have a very important and honorable job to do and they deserve the best non-lethal tools we can get them.  We’ve just asked them to do the wrong thing, it’s not their fault that their job is ridiculous now, it’s ours.  If we can admit we were wrong about where force needed to be applied, I don’t think they would mind changing tactics.  Who’s ready for the worlds first weaponless MMA police force?  I am.  I think the world would take us more seriously, if we stood with brave and true hearts on the line, not hiding behind a distinct technological killing advantage.  Guns and bombs are for cowards!

If you think democracy requires an armed populace to maintain itself against tyranny, I think you have been misled.  Tyranny needs weapons to maintain itself, democracy is an idea that needs no weapon sharper than a word.  If the people are behind you, because of the gun you carry you are a shield for the weak, not a leader of free people.  If the people who follow you would throw themselves in front of you to stop a bullet because of your words, then you are a leader of democracy.

Second, legalize and tax all destructive consumable substances.  If you want to protect your children, I suggest you take the business man’s gun away, and force them to check their customers id first.  It just works!  We could get solid research done on the real effects of these substances, find ways to treat and assist people who get out of balance.  Plus this black market funds drug dealers, and we know they are laughing all the way to the bank, without paying a cent in taxes.  It’s madness.  In fact when it comes to taxes I think we are punishing the wrong people.  Good, honest people are paying tax for doing the work of progressing society, does anyone else think this is backwards?  It’s no wonder the government is so hated.  It literally is looting us.  I realize the government gives service to all citizens, but right now they are serving drug dealers for free; including free room and board when they get caught!  I think there is potential to stop taxing income and make all government revenue come from taxing “wasted” income.  If we taxed all products according to how addictive or destructive they are to humans or the environment, it might go a long way to creating sustainable behaviors.  Plus there is potential for being proud of a government that is working to heal rather than kill or imprison a problem.  Obviously this would be a major shift from taxing everything under the sun, but taxes are a much better way to direct behavior than any other, because it leaves the choice in the hands of the consumer. Prohibition has never succeeded and is an embarrassment for policy makers.  We must not let their embarrassment keep us on the road to more wasted effort, trying to stop the unstoppable.  Even the police, who want their honor back, are speaking out against these ridiculous policies.

Those are my first two policy planks for peace.  I have more, but I can’t cogently add any more to this post.  Let’s stop fighting losing battles and start healing and educating our people, so they can be as safe as they choose to be.  Freedom needs to increase, if we are to have any chance of success.  So let’s start a war against ammunition and treat businessmen like businessmen, with higher taxes for more destructive products and less taxes for good honest working folk.

I’ll ask again: Do you want peace?  Are you willing to risk change to get it?  What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

peace, war, and freedom by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

What is GAIA?

GAIA is an acronym for the name of my company: Golden Age Information Architects.  It is my personal brand.  I have a logo in the works and our first product, brand pending, is in design dock.  It is waiting for me to recruit the correct group of assistance.  Then I will begin full scale development.  I’ve begun to publicize my vision and am currently enjoying the hard work of drafting my business model, estimating initial costs, and learning how to write succinctly.  I should probably get someone to do more of this stuff for me.  Then I could spend more time building my designs.  I can not wait to sit down with my first team of developers, in our first office.

What’s your current investment status?

I’m at the friends and family stage of investment.  Check here for up to date info.

What can you tell us about the project?

I recently gave a speech about my project and posted it here.  I’ve been working on combining all the pieces in my mind for over three years.  I started documenting my design in May 2009 and have developed a feature list, implementation plan, and database schema.  Since I became self-employed in September, it has been the focus of most of my attention.

How do you handle the pressure of being self-employed?

Since I devoted myself full-time to this project, it has become clear to me that I’ve found my passion for life.  I enjoy working from dawn to dusk and I still have energy to burn.  When I was working my old nine to fiver, I could barely do ten minutes of work an hour, unless the pressure was on.  It was quite pathetic.  Now that I’m working towards something I fully believe in, I feel so much more motivated than ever before.  I’ve always thrive under pressure, but until now, I never figured out how to apply pressure to myself.  It makes me feel unstoppable.

What help do you have already?

Nina, my partner, is amazing.  She’s my #1 adviser and is helping me think out decisions.  I also have an artist friend helping me with my first logo.  Last I have a former colleague, who is prepared to work on the prototype.  Unfortunately he’s very busy working his current jorb, so I need some cash to hire him full time.

I also met a very helpful individual at the Reger Group.  He gave me some very straight forward business talk, which really inspired me.

What do you need?

• I need advice on who to include on my teams (executive, development, & marketing).

• I need guidance on how to approach investors.

• I need experienced start-up people that can verify my estimations aren’t out of touch.

• I need someone I can trust with my plans and call on for advice a few hours a week.
• I need an intellectual property lawyer to advise me on how to protect my investment.

If you feel you can fill any of my needs and are passionate about helping me succeed, I’d love to hear from you.

For more info on current positions and hiring policies, see my careers page.

Thanks for reading!

GAIA Seeks Advisers by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.