Spout Feedback-We Need A Wiki Party-Spout

davisfreeberg
Posts 111

7/16/2006 11:30 AM
posted awhile ago

We Need A Wiki Party

So I was thinking this weekend about my favorite aspects of Spout and I think that I've isolated it to the social networking aspect of the site. I love the design, the movies and everything else, but it's really the people that keep me coming back and interacting with the site. In thinking of how one could take adavantage of the social aspect to the site I came up with two ideas.

First, when it comes to the groups, I would try and highlight those a bit more. Right now, information on the groups is listed under the My People section, but I might encourage you to move that info straight onto the My Page section of the site. This way the groups are highlighted on the first page that someone sees after logging into Spout. I believe that the stronger you can connect an individual to a group that the more sticky the site will be for them and by giving it front page exposure, you can encourage participation. You could either just show the groups that people are already in, but I might try and highlight a group of the week or maybe all recent groups, etc. I'm not sure how you do the details really, but I do think that this is Spout's greatest strength and anyway that you can increase participation in the groups will be a real benefit to the community.

Secondily, I was thinking about how one could use the information on Spout to network with other members and I think it might be cool if we had wikis that we could create for actors, directors, independent studios, etc. My idea would be to have Spout create the tools and then let the community populate the data. You could allow someone to create a page for an actress for example that lists their films, links to fan sites or photos, that automatically picks up any conversation threads where they are mentioned (or perhaps where the wiki is linked to), etc.

The idea would be to allow independent filmakers/actors to showcase the work they've done by highlighting all of their accomplishments. Eventually, I could see you using this information to recruit actors for films or to help the consumer find other films that the indie's are working on. I'm not sure how much work this would be to create and in all honesty, I can't say that I'd personally use this feature a lot, but if after seeing a great film, I could find out more about some little know producer, I think that it could help to enhance the social networking aspect of the site.

Right now you have a list of all movies that someone was involved in, but you can't search by actor or director and it doesn't show any of the conversations that people are having about them. By figuring out an automated way to connect information that Spout members write about an actor or director and then implementing that into their bio, I think that you could really create a powerful tool that could be used to help filmakers and viewers.

billhr
Posts 55

7/18/2006 11:16 AM
posted awhile ago

Re: We Need A Wiki Party

So...what would you serve at a Wiki party? Roasted pig and poi? Or would that be a Tiki party?

Seriously, thanks so much for your continued support and participation in Spout. I gotta tell you, we have had many of the same lightbulbs go off in our heads the past few months.

Groups are definitely where the work gets done on Spout...or at least where most of the participation could occur. We have a strong desire to highlight them and make the value of participation there very clear (especially for those who don't yet get the goals and benefits of social network sites).
As for the Wiki factor...I love the concept. We had brainstormed something similar last year, but it was mostly focused on individual titles and the synopsis. Expanding the scope to include filmmakers and actors (perhaps even events) could make this a really powerful tool, especially when we get those folk to participate on the site. After all, giving filmmakers a voice and connecting them directly to their audience is ultimately what we are all about.

We'll work on developing these ideas a bit (hope we can call on you for feedback throughout the process) and let you know when we have something to show.

Thanks again. Having your advocacy is invaluable.

billhr

rjsprague
Posts 52

8/27/2007 8:27 PM
posted awhile ago

Re: We Need A Wiki Party

Yeah I was wondering whether I could search by director because I really like Watanabe, he does a lot of great anime. It would be awesome to search for movies by director or actor. And the major ones don't even need a wiki, because they either have one on wikipedia, or the imdb has their info. Granted it might be faster to have the information sitting on Spouts servers vs accessing it from another site. But rendundancy is good, mirrors are nice. :)

Disregard my comment concerning searching by director. :0 It would be great to have their names linked up to imdb, or something. :)

davisfreeberg Posts 111	7/16/2006 11:30 AM posted awhile ago We Need A Wiki Party So I was thinking this weekend about my favorite aspects of Spout and I think that I've isolated it to the social networking aspect of the site. I love the design, the movies and everything else, but it's really the people that keep me coming back and interacting with the site. In thinking of how one could take adavantage of the social aspect to the site I came up with two ideas. First, when it comes to the groups, I would try and highlight those a bit more. Right now, information on the groups is listed under the My People section, but I might encourage you to move that info straight onto the My Page section of the site. This way the groups are highlighted on the first page that someone sees after logging into Spout. I believe that the stronger you can connect an individual to a group that the more sticky the site will be for them and by giving it front page exposure, you can encourage participation. You could either just show the groups that people are already in, but I might try and highlight a group of the week or maybe all recent groups, etc. I'm not sure how you do the details really, but I do think that this is Spout's greatest strength and anyway that you can increase participation in the groups will be a real benefit to the community. Secondily, I was thinking about how one could use the information on Spout to network with other members and I think it might be cool if we had wikis that we could create for actors, directors, independent studios, etc. My idea would be to have Spout create the tools and then let the community populate the data. You could allow someone to create a page for an actress for example that lists their films, links to fan sites or photos, that automatically picks up any conversation threads where they are mentioned (or perhaps where the wiki is linked to), etc. The idea would be to allow independent filmakers/actors to showcase the work they've done by highlighting all of their accomplishments. Eventually, I could see you using this information to recruit actors for films or to help the consumer find other films that the indie's are working on. I'm not sure how much work this would be to create and in all honesty, I can't say that I'd personally use this feature a lot, but if after seeing a great film, I could find out more about some little know producer, I think that it could help to enhance the social networking aspect of the site. Right now you have a list of all movies that someone was involved in, but you can't search by actor or director and it doesn't show any of the conversations that people are having about them. By figuring out an automated way to connect information that Spout members write about an actor or director and then implementing that into their bio, I think that you could really create a powerful tool that could be used to help filmakers and viewers.

billhr Posts 55	7/18/2006 11:16 AM posted awhile ago Re: We Need A Wiki Party So...what would you serve at a Wiki party? Roasted pig and poi? Or would that be a Tiki party? Seriously, thanks so much for your continued support and participation in Spout. I gotta tell you, we have had many of the same lightbulbs go off in our heads the past few months. Groups are definitely where the work gets done on Spout...or at least where most of the participation could occur. We have a strong desire to highlight them and make the value of participation there very clear (especially for those who don't yet get the goals and benefits of social network sites). As for the Wiki factor...I love the concept. We had brainstormed something similar last year, but it was mostly focused on individual titles and the synopsis. Expanding the scope to include filmmakers and actors (perhaps even events) could make this a really powerful tool, especially when we get those folk to participate on the site. After all, giving filmmakers a voice and connecting them directly to their audience is ultimately what we are all about. We'll work on developing these ideas a bit (hope we can call on you for feedback throughout the process) and let you know when we have something to show. Thanks again. Having your advocacy is invaluable. billhr

rjsprague Posts 52	8/27/2007 8:27 PM posted awhile ago Re: We Need A Wiki Party Yeah I was wondering whether I could search by director because I really like Watanabe, he does a lot of great anime. It would be awesome to search for movies by director or actor. And the major ones don't even need a wiki, because they either have one on wikipedia, or the imdb has their info. Granted it might be faster to have the information sitting on Spouts servers vs accessing it from another site. But rendundancy is good, mirrors are nice. :) Disregard my comment concerning searching by director. :0 It would be great to have their names linked up to imdb, or something. :)

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