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What: Harnassing the power of the collective: Web 2.0 and collaborative content

Zimbio is a network of public portalsdesigned to help people quickly get downthe learning curve on any topic of interestby seeing what other people are reading,saying, and recommending about thetopic. People use public portals to:

• Get informed on a particular topicof interest by using the organizationand recommendations of others whohave already spent time and energygetting informed on the same topic
• Stay up to speed by getting aquick snapshot of what and who hasbeen happening in the news, in theblogs, and in the Zimbio community
• Share knowledge, ask questions,get answers, and connect with like-minded people

I took on Zimbio as a client because Ibelieve in the power of the collectiveconscious and the democracy of content.The new economy and flattening of theworld has come about as a result of"everyman" being able to contribute toglobal ideas. To me, the guys at Zimbio hasa great idea, and I wanted to help bring itto life.

The Challenge:  Using the newest in Web2.0 technologies, the goal of the projectwas to design easy-to-use tools for users tocollaborate on topics of interest. Becausemany of these new capabilities are new tomany users, the interface had to be self-explanatory and aid people in learningnew usability concepts such as groupblogs, wikis, drag-and-drop interface,collective link aggregation and userratings. Additionally, the success of thenetwork would be dependent on userengagement, so encouragingparticipation was a must.

My Role: I was hired by Zimbio to architectand design version 1.0 of the network.From concept to feature roadmapping toarchitecture and user interface designand architecture, I was responsible forcreating a unique experience for usersand drive them to participate in adding toand creating new portals. Plus I got to flyout to the Bay Area from Boston to work onsite… which of course made me happy.

The Results: Zimbio went live in May of2006. With over 600 active portals, Zimbiois fast becoming the "go to" place forspecialized information about a topic.Think of it as About.com-meets-Wikipediaon steroids. You should definitely check it out at www.zimbio.com.