Everyone Else Gives T-Shirts; Why Can't I?

It's been about two weeks since I started this blog, and I think it's time to get you readers involved a little. So here goes, the first contest from The Social Creature. Send me an interesting story from your experience with social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. Your story can be funny or strange, as long as it's entertaining. You can post it as a comment here, as I look at all comments before they become public. Within the next two weeks or so, I'll pick my favorite one and post it here for the world to see. The most entertaining story will get the writer 15 minutes of fame and a free Social Creature t-shirt when the design debuts at the beginning of May. As usual, I also welcome other comments, recommendations and suggestions for interesting topics.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of interesting links from other bloggers:

How to Make and Spread Rumors from Dan Zarella, an expert on viral marketing

3 Great Social Networking Tools from The Fog of Eternity

BookLamp - Book Recommendation System from The Sociable Blog

MyMission2: The World's First Aspirational Network

This month, MyMission2 took its BETA version public. The site hopes to use the idea of a "social contract" to connect people trying to achieve a goal with people who can help. The process is relatively straightforward; fill in some information about yourself, post your mission and start working toward the goal, or respond to the missions of others. This startup has a feel distinct from other social networking sites and is trying to maintain that distinction by concentrating on the mission at hand, so to speak. David Ashford, the CEO, calls this "content-to-people, rather than people-to-people," which makes it a refreshing change of pace for network sites.

Users of the site are known as "missioners". Those asking for help by posting a mission become "comissioners". Other users, the "responders", pledge their support by responding to the missions and form a sort of mini-community around each goal. Users enter their own mission descriptions and sort them by category. Each missioner has the ability to upload relevant files and reward the responder he or she feels has been the most helpful. Whenever a new mission is posted, select users are notified about it based on the information they provide in their profile. When I asked about this selection process, CEO David Ashford told me, "We only alert a small number of people... these are the people that are most likely to be able to help fulfil the mission."

These missions range from the ordinary ("I Want To Learn Spanish") to the somewhat more ambitious (one user aspires to "Live Forever"). What is surprising is the amount of support shown to almost any mission falling within this spectrum. Even the guy that wants to live forever receives a myriad responses, including links to articles on slowing the aging process. Admittedly, there are some strange and mangled requests, such as a plea to help "save the cheerlader" without any follow-on explanation. However, these seem to get weeded out quickly. The users on the site "get it" and tend to band together to discourage and report inappropriate and irrelevant inquiries.

The whole idea is a great example of building social capital. You can ask for help, but you will be rewarded for helping others as well. Each is expected to give and to receive based on a points system. For now, the points just add a bit of competition to the site and help distinguish newcomers from people who have been involved since the BETA went public. In the future, though, the site's creators hope to allow users to redeem their points for real-world rewards.

MyMission2 has been well-received by users, garnering over 3,000 members in its first week. One review has been mixed, however, citing lack of seriousness in the missions, as well as complaining about the amount of information the site wants from each user. It seems the first is being addressed by an active user community and a responsive customer service team, both of which insure that most missions appearing on the site are legitimate or at least not offensive. The second, however, is part of the nature of the beast. Due to the way others are notified of missions, the more information you provide the more you'll be able to help others.

Overall, the site has a few steps left till maturity, but it shows great potential and my experience with it has been extremely positive. Not only have I already seen feedback about this blog referred from MyMission2, but I've also made contact with other people trying to do similar things or accomplish goals which interest me. The MyMission2 team is working to improve usability and add functionality every day. New users are urged to take a look at the MyMission2 Blog for upcoming announcements. And of course, come support my mission on the site by providing feedback and ideas for this blog!

Panic Buyers: Just For Fun

Doing a little research for an unrelated article, I stumbled on a site called Panic Buyers. To make this as simple as I can, they want you to go to your local grocery store on May 15th, 2008, and buy carrots. Yep, that's it. The creators of the site say that this is the result of a drunken idea to have everyone go to the store and buy certain items. In their own words, they're "not quite sure what the reason behind this is is, other than the fact that a global shortage of carrots would be quite a laugh."

The site offers links to a Facebook group promoting the cause, where membership has already surpassed 221,000. There is also a link for "buying real carrots online," which remains unverified at this time. The site suggests putting the carrots to good use and asserts that the creators of the project will be using their carrots to make food for the homeless locally.

The concept is reminiscent of the Paint the Moon project a few years ago. That project hoped to combine the power of peoples' laser pointers from all over the world to create a visible spot of light on the moon's surface. The unprecedented attempt was unsuccessful due to the physics involved.