Marketing Roadmaps

Askville

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From the folks behind Amazon, a Web community called Askville. Concept:  members pose questions about whatever they want. Other members in the community answer them. In this process, you earn coins which will have value of some sort in the not-too-distant future. There are a number of elements that increase the stickiness of the site – each question is limited to 5 answers, better answers get more points and so on. Read the FAQ if you really want to know. There’s also a blog and a discussion forum. And, oh yeah, you can easily insert product recommendations related to your answer…

So, is this a) the wisdom of crowds. b) the collective mind. c) another way to move product. or d) possibly all of the above?

 I’m going with answer d, and a cautious congratulations to the developers of the site. The idea that everyone is an expert in something is a compelling one.  Askville promises to give people an outlet to share that expertise without having to start a blog of their own or deal with the administrivia of open source endeavors like Wikipedia. And unlike other equally noble collective efforts, they’ve got a head start on getting adoption with the Amazon connection. I was pleased that the product recommendations are not limited to products available on Amazon. In the questions I poked around in, I saw links to all sorts of resources, Google maps, etc., so they definitely dodged a bullet that could have had them DOA.

But… before I give un an unqualified "YEAH," I’d like to know what the rewards will be, which is still unannounced. Given that this IS a commercial venture, the participants will expect real value for expertise, especially since they are being asked to conform to a structure.

My other concern is that the structure does seem a bit complex. When things get complicated like that, I always wonder if they are going to collapse under their own weight. 

That said,  I’m glad to see any recognition by big companies of the value and importance of community. Askville is still in beta and  I imagine my questions, and many others, will be answered in due course.

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  1. Thanks for the heads up on Askville.

    Just to know what kinds of questions people are asking is interesting. To possibly see what kinds of questions they are asking about your industry or specific product/service could be helpful.

    Will certainly be worth following.

    Thanks for pointing out the new – new thing.

    Keep creating,
    Mike