Why I built Crowd Bio

by Jamie Perkins
November 22, 2013

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If you follow me on twitter or anywhere else on the social web, you’ve probably already heard the news. I’m in the promotion stage, and yes, I agree that it can be a little obnoxious at times. But, when you don’t have a big name attached to your project, or a big reputation, or big money, you pretty much have to make a grassroots effort.

Crowd Bio started with an idea: let your peers expose the tweeps they follow for who they really are, by tagging them. Tags, coupled with the second dimension of size, for how many times they are used, have a huge range for what they can convey. Everything from an adjective to marking your favorite to describing a twitter behavior, like “pumpAndDump” (following people to gain followers and then unfollowing them later).

But I really want Crowd Bio to be positive overall. I don’t think the site can survive if people are using it as a name-calling venue. I’m betting on Crowd Bio with the presumption that people are more positive than negative, that they will choose to highlight the good things about their peers more than the bad things.

The other big bet being made with this project is that people will tag eachother. They’ll make the effort to go to the site and post a few words about someone when they are struck by that quality of the person. I hope they will. I think everyone else would stand to benefit from it.

Locations
Colorado, USA
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