11.12.2008

Crowdsourcing "Associations Now"

Have you heard? Associations Now is trying a crowdsourcing experiment for its May issue. Don't often see the kinds of articles you really want? Now's your chance to let them know.

Here's what you need to do:

November 1-30: Brainstorm article ideas! Post yours to the discussion forum on the project site or email them to AN staff at editorial@asaecenter.org.

December 1-31: Vote! In December, readers will be invited to vote for their favorites among the ideas suggested in November. The poll will be posted on the project site, and it will be open all month.

January 1-31: Check out the lineup! In January, we'll get to see the results and we’ll be asked to read over the winning ideas and, where possible, suggest experts and resources we should include when we research the stories.

All ideas are welcome, apparently, which is why I was suprised to observe that the project site's discussion area (where you can post your suggestions) is all separated into silos, e.g. Management; Knowledge Management; Governance and Structure; Programs, Products, and Services, Leadership; Communication... Yawn. Now, I can see how this might help spread out the different ideas, and possibly avoid a whole bunch of submissions in one area, hypothetically, but in practice I find this totally stifles any creativity. So I would suggest you ignore those categories, and start new discussion topics for whatever tickles your fancy and piques your interest. I just put one in called "Thinking Outside the Box" (a stupid phrase, but everyone gets it - and the whole point is that it's about ideas that leapfrog traditional ways of doing things). The AN staff are surely capable enough to put any such uncategorized ideas into little boxes later! So don't let that discourage you from participating.

Start today! I want to see if it can be as good as I think it could be!

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3 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for spreading the word about our "Readers Pick the Stories" issue, Maddie! I'm really glad you like the idea, and I'm excited to see the ideas you (and everyone else) proposes!

    Thanks also for your feedback about the categories. We created those in hopes of inspiring creativity in participants--I've found that staring at a blank page can keep people from having ideas, just because they don't know where to start. We thought the categories could help give people a starting place to think about the kinds of topics we typically cover.

    But I can definitely see your point about the categories creating problems if someone felt there idea wasn't welcome just because it didn't fit a category. Thank you for creating your "outside the box" thread on the project site to help fix that. I've also created a "open thread" for ideas that don't fit any category--hopefully your thread and mine will encourage folks who don't like the categories!
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  2. Thanks Lisa! Here's actually a better idea - ask a few people who have expressed interest in the idea to put in a few topics right off the bat. I agree that staring at a blank page is intimidating, but often it only take a few ideas to spark new ideas. Which is why I see another problem with having to "open" each category to see the ideas - to me, that's a barrier and makes it harder to participate. I think it would be better to have an open and taggable list.
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  3. Topics have been selected...they are:
    - Nondues Revenue
    - Meetings Memories
    - Creating Financial Efficiency
    - Membership Recruitment & Retention
    - Just Because We've Always Done it That Way Doesn't Mean We Should
    - Taking Social Media to the Next Level
    - Are You a 20th-Century Communicator in the 21st Century?
    - Virtual Staffing/Remote Teams
    - Intelligence Department
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