Wikis are always a great way to promote and organize the information about a specific topic with a collaborative team. Wikis allow users to edit the content or add more information, even if they are anonymous. However, you almost always can restrict permissions on your wikis.
Wetpaint is maybe the most easy way to build a wiki page and also to promote it or share it with friends. Besides that, Wetpaint is free.
Although there are many alternatives to build a wiki, the advantage of this system is its simplicity. There you don’t need to be a geek or programmer to build a decent and nice wiki page. It is built by using a set of tools and the process is like writing a document in Word.
In this system, the pages are not only wikis. Actually, the pages have enough tools to be a combination of blogs, forums and wikis: “Wetpaint is different. With Wetpaint, anyone with a passion can create an entirely new website and invite others to help them build it. And it’s easy — adding to a Wetpaint site is as simple as click and type. And when you put thousands of heads together to solve a problem, the results can be astonishing. And we really believe that”.
The pages can be configured with a subdomain (xxxx.wetpaint.com) or you can use your own domain, which is great. Recently Wetpaint added social networking functionality to its wiki offering. This increases the value of the system and it is certainly a good step forward. Very appropriate in these “Web 2.0″ times.
Take a look at Wetpaint.
PlayCafe is a website, currently in beta, where users can watch a live daily game show, call there and win prizes ranging from iTunes songs to Nintendo Wiis and $1,000 in cash. The game show is streamed live Monday-Friday at 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST during almost 2 hours but they are planning to expand to four hours starting next week.
It is an interesting concept. You don’t need any complex program to watch the show. You only need Adobe Flash version 8.0+ and a browser like Mozilla Firefox 2.0+ (recommended) or Internet Explorer 7.0+ (For Mac OS you can use Safari 1.2+).
Currently, the prizes also include Amazon gift certificates, ringtones and magazine subscriptions. To play, you must sign-up, be logged in when the show begins, listen to the host (who will tell you about the rules / questions) and answer those questions in a window, which appears in the page during the show.
According to some news reports, currently the website has an average of 250 to 300 players per night. They have three types of games: Mix and Match (about matching things in categories), Predict the Poll (with questions like: “What percentage of Americans…?”) and Media Mash-Up (they present a media clip and you have to answer some questions about it).
More info: click here
JuicyCampus is a crazy site. If you are a student in a campus, you can write whatever you want there anonymously. The original idea was that the site would be a gossip site for college students where people could write hilarious material, or thought provoking posts.
But human nature can be very aggressive when people is protected by the anonymity. JuicyCampus is having a big issue with defamatory posts against some people. Those include insults where a person’s full name is published and accusations about “child molesters” with no evidences. Some parents think the site is not funny.
The situation has become so stressful for the site owner (Matt Ivester) and even he has published a letter in the official site blog and made a plea for decorum and decency in their posts.
Honestly, a simple letter from the founder doesn’t seem enough to control human nature. This site is simply a way to concentrate lots of hate, wickedness and heavy jokes from students.
Take a look, click here.
The KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is very powerful when it is applied to a website. And Hot or Not is a great example. Hotornot.com was originally a site where people could rate the registered users by using a scale of 1 to 10. The scores were published to both the user and the public. This simple idea and smart work from the founders were enough to make this site really popular.
HotorNot.com was founded by James Hong and Jim Young in October 2000. Initially, they had no real plans for the service to be anything other than a fun site for a few friends. One day, they launched the site and emailed 40 friends. But they were able to get 40,000 visitors that day.
Now, almost eight years later, Hotornot.com is not only a rating site, but also an online dating site. It has a service called “Meet People”. It is very similar to the basic rating service, but you can know more details about the users. You must click ‘YES’ on the people that you would like to meet. If somebody also clicks ‘YES’ to you, he or she will appear in your double-match list.
HotorNot.com has become a profitable business by establishing three revenue sources: advertising (including Adsense), virtual flowers and a Premium service that allows users to connect with other users with no restrictions. In the last days, Hotornot.com was acquired by Avid Life Media. The buyers paid around $20 million for the site. Not bad at all for a website run out of the living room by two guys.
Take a look, click here.
Facebook was initially known as an online college network. Actually, Facebook became popular because a lot of college students signed up there to share photos, opinions, jokes, etc. But now Facebook is a global network, not only for students but also for anyone who want to stay in touch with friends an other people around the world. However, people in college are being courted by startups and projects that could be capturing this niche after Facebook has been opened up to the masses outside of the college students.
Lymabean is an example of this. It’s a website that is planned to be launched shortly at Arizona State and University of Arizona (USA).
As usual, Lymabean will have all the features present in a social network: profiles, friends, photos, videos, instant messaging and a Flash-based interface which will be very attractive, though it could have disadvantages for some people. Other features include professor ratings and class notes.
So far, the Lymabean guys have published a blog, pictures about people “that’s down with the Bean” (the Bean will be the symbol and logo for this website) and funny videos of its promotion strategy.
If you are a college student, you can sign up as an insider (and order your free bean shirt).
