the3six5’s posterous

Thanks to Joseph Jaffe for mentioning us in the latest edition of JaffeJuice. He mentions us in the beginning:

On another note, Sachin Agarwal, the founder of Posterous, will be contributing to the3six5. Glad to have you on board, Sachin!

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We had the pleasure of speaking with Maria at BrainPickings.org. Below is a quick recap, but please take some time to check out our full interview about the3six5 here: http://bit.ly/1F7Qv6

We know from psychology that two people may undergo the exact same experience yet walk away with drastically different interpretations of and sentiments about it. Curating the lineup of contributors will thus be critical to the project’s final product. So, in a way, you’re outsourcing the content but shaping the course of it yourselves — how do you feel about that?

Len: Regardless of a person’s digital or offline footprint, we ultimately have no idea what kind of content is going to be produced over the 365 days of 2010.

No one can predict what will be taking place in the world that day and no one can predict what factors will be affecting the lives of our 365 authors in the future. All we can try to do is find people who we believe are creative, quality writers, and have a unique life experience to date.

Daniel: I feel great about that. With any big crowdsourced project (e.g. Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton’s Age of Conversation projects) there must be a theme. There must be guidance. We want to give our contributors an idea of what they could and should be writing, as far as format, types of content, etc., but we want to give as much flexibility as possible as to the actual content itself. Think of the3six5 is a collaborative diary for the year 2010.

We’re big believers in eclecticism and the cross-pollination of ideas. Are you making an effort to ensure a diverse lineup from a wide spectrum of disciplines, or are you focusing more on social media personalities? What’s your selection process for the authors?

Len: The easiest route here would obviously be to leverage our social media channels to find authors, but Daniel and I knew that the variety of perspectives would suffer. We’re using social media as a starting point for exploration and discovery.

Through both of our usage of Twitter we’ve been able to bridge relationships with people offline and in industries that are polar opposite from our own.

Sure, some of our authors may have a social media presence, but we’re looking for people who are well-versed across different types of subject matter. Having variety is critical to this project, otherwise it will just sound like a diary written by one person which is the exact opposite of what we’re trying to achieve.

Daniel: Successful social media efforts happen both online and offline, therefore, we didn’t want to limit this project to people we know online. We hope this project brings people together. We hope this project introduces folks to others they never would have met otherwise. That’s what will make the3six5 so much fun.

“Lifestreaming” has evolved from musings on one’s immediate cirumstances in personal blogs to broader reflections on the chancing social, technological and cultural landscape – just look at some of the big-name blogs, from TechCruch to BoingBoing. How do you see the idea of content curation fitting in with lifestreaming?

Daniel: For A Day in the Sun, the Austin American-Statesman’s crowdsourced news project, editors and reporters received content from Austinites first, and then posted it to the web. For an open brandstream — aggregated or published — it’s easy to flood the stream with all sorts of content the brand may not want.

Therefore, for brands and news organizations to take advantage of lifestreaming platforms, the actual content, if crowdsourced, has to be verified and of an agreed upon standard.

This is not to say content in an individual’s lifestream isn’t curated. By reading an article and posting a link or other content, users are curating their own content in real time, whether they know it or not.

The purpose of a lifestream is to publish one’s digital activities for others’ benefit. Not everything you’ll read or do can — or should — be shared for others. Therefore, not ALL content should go in a lifestream.

My take is that for crowdsourced lifestream projects to be successful, editors must establish clear guidelines.

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We wrote a couple of weeks ago about the overwhelming response we've received for the3six5 project.We have about 50 slots taken so far, and we're working to fill more every day.

So far, we have:

• One television personality and political blogger (Baratunde Thurston)

• Two former TED speakers (Rebecca Saxe and Evan Grant)

• One major web editor (Andrew Nystrom)

• Two authors (Ken Wheaton and John Winsor)

• One online artist...who was also a TED speaker. (Ze Frank)

• One Musician, lead singer of IFD (Brian M.)

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Thus far the response to the3six5 has been incredible. We simply aren't able to keep up with the emails that are coming our way. That being said, we WILL get back to you and we DO have room left for more people. As a reminder, please read our guidelines to make sure that this project is 1) something you want to be a part of and 2) something you are able to do. A huge thanks to those who are already signed up.

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Len and I have come up with this list of guidelines to help shape the end result of this project as well as protect all parties involved. We tried to make it as simple as possible, but please read this before submitting your request.

Guidelines

Chronology:

The goal of the3six5 project is to document each day in 2010, so it’s important that each author focuses on and includes information from the events of their assigned day.

Although we want you to write about the events of the day, try to dedicate a significant portion of your post to how the events relate to you. After all, this isn’t a news report, it’s a journal.

For instance, if your day is July 4, 2010, you can talk about:

• What you’re doing that day

• What Independence Day means to you

Brevity:

Everyone has a great story to tell, but as much as we’d like to give you a large venue to share it, this isn’t what the3six5 is all about. the3six5 is one story, composed of 365 pieces, rather than a collection of 365 stories.

Please keep this in mind when writing your post. 250 words are enough to fill a page of a book, but it will seem like much less, especially once you start writing about yourself. Try not to focus on any one aspect of your story too much because you’ll need to create a well-rounded post in a very small number of words.

Multimedia:

Stage One of this project will live online at the3six5.com, so please feel free to include a photo, video, drawing or other piece of artwork to your post. We’ll be happy to include it on the site on the day of your post going live.

That being said, remember that the 250-word piece should be your primary focus. We may not be able to include visual media when creating an actual book from these posts so make sure that your writing can stand on its own.

If you have any questions about media you want to include, please feel free to e-mail us.

Please refrain from using:

• Links: Although this will be posted online, eventually your content may be migrated to an analog media that cannot redirect readers. Again, try not to think of this as a Web site, but rather a journal you’re writing in.

• Names: You may not want to include names of friends, family or others that don’t – or wouldn’t – want to be mentioned. Of course, since this is the age of the Internet and everyone can write about anything. But if you plan on writing about someone you know – not a public figure – and think there might be a chance they might not want to be talked about in public, please use a descriptor rather than their real name. (e.g. Mom, Friend, “John,” etc.)

• Hate: If you want to be edgy, curse, say things that will inspire debate, that’s fine. If your post would grossly offend the average person, we’re probably not going to publish it.

Terms

These are your posts and they belong to you. However the3six5 is allowed to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, distribute and promote your posts both online and offline. The nature of the3six5 project is to share stories with as many as possible.

If you have any questions about these terms, please feel free to e-mail us.

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Took a shot of the journal from the 29th floor with a Nikon D80. Simple Mac program called Skitch was used to create the badge. Photoshopping skills are still very much in "rookie mode." Badge links back to: http://constructivegrumpiness.squarespace.com/home/2009/9/4/the3six5com-project.html

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Everyday for 365 days, a different person will write an entry about their experience that day. It doesn't have to be about a specific topic, the key is that it somehow relates to what is happening in the world that day and how it relates to them. By doing so, starting from January 1 to December 31 of 2010, we will have a snapshot of the entire year, told from the perspective of 365 individual voices.

365 days will be made available and volunteers from across the country will be able to pick a date of their choice (see  below). There is no guarantee that any day will be better than others, because no one can predict the future. Regardless if the selected day in 2010 brings something newsworthy, everyone has a short story to tell that will help create the experience of living through a year in this country.

Each author will write a 250 word reflection which will be posted to "lifestreaming" site Posterous. Posterous.com was selected over a typical blog or website because of its simplicity and its ability to distribute content across all the major social networks. You can access this page by simply going to www.the3six5.com. If all goes well, my dream would be to publish the posterous stream as a book. I suppose you could call it a crowdsourced journal of 2010.

If you are interested in being one of the authors, please email the3six5@gmail.com. Please include some information on what unique perspective you could bring to this compilation. 

Additionally, to help fund this project (printing, graphic design) I have set up a kickstarter.com page. If all things go as planned. Authors will all get a free copy of the book. That being said, this project does NOT require money. Rather a collective effort from the group volunteering as well as the donation of my sanity to help organize and manage timing.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/LenKendall/the3six5-blog-book-and-beyond

Running list of authors and dates.

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