As we prepare for our site relaunch in March, we at Wired are starting to beta-test technology we'll be using to try out some of the transparency tactics I wrote about here. One of the first is using public voting and reader submission tools to help with our planning process (all for you, Josh!).
We've launched one such experiment this afternoon using our Reddit technology, which is turning out to be a great tool for this sort of thing. (Gawker Media is also using it for T-shirt slogan contests on Jalopnik and Gawker itself).
On the site, I explained it like this:
Every year we publish the Wired 40, the list of the 40 companies that best embody the ascendant business/technology trends of the moment. Last year we, the Wired editors, ran an internal brainstorming process that resulted in a list of the six big themes of 2006, which helped us choose the 40 companies that won.
We were so persuaded by our own arguments about peer production and open everything that this year we've decided to actually follow our own advice. (Finally getting our own website back makes that a lot easier). So this time we'd like to include you (yes, that You) in the process from the start.
We've come up with our own list of 25 trends that we think are going to be big (or bigger) this year. They're here, marked with the little "W"s. Some you'll agree with, some you won't - and there will be plenty of important trends that we've missed entirely. You can help shape this year's Wired 40 by voting these trends up or down, or suggesting your own that others can vote on.
We'll then take the winners (probably just the top five, but we might extend the list if we're blown away by some others) and commission essays on each. We'll use those trends to guide our selection of the companies to include in the Wired 40 2007. So your up or down votes and trend submissions will decide the shape of the April, 2007 Wired magazine. Voting is Power!
Go vote here!
Nice work.... cool trends
Just Vote !
Posted by: leafar | January 11, 2007 at 04:22 AM
Radical transparency is a terrific pursuit. Kudos to you and your team.
We are doing the same thing. In addition to using everything open source as much as possible, we're taking our own credo for authenticity and transparency to the point of publishing our own (usually secret) Rude FAQs for journalists.
Rude FAQ: http://fairtradesports.com/?p=44
Best of luck. I look forward to voting...
-Scott James
Fair Trade Sports
www.fairtradesports.com
Posted by: Scott James | January 16, 2007 at 04:54 PM