Silos - ideas for a socially infused aggregate

Hey Forum,

pardon me but i really need to get this idea out there/out of my head so i can sleep

Silos is an idea for a whole new kind of social bookmarking application a natural evolution so to speak being more like a socially infused aggregate; which is only a minor difference in design philosophy and honestly both will have very similar functionality

silos is about;
-simplicity not complexity
-low barrier of entry to get involved (vote submit comment)
-additional compelling incentive to get involved (leaderboards)
-designed to be a fun tool not a trusted or well know source/destination site <- key difference

design thoughts;
-each silo is basically a self contained social bookmarking site under a central concept/theme
-its not an all in one if you will, with all kinds of categories each with front page concepts...
-its more of a vertical ideal hence the name silo and hence the catchphrase social infused aggregate
-aggregates are more vertical in nature where social bookmarking sites like dig are more horizontal
-social data will be used to influence the order in which content is shown, and the kinds of content that is aggregated be it manually via a submission or indirectly via a "like"
-semantic data will be used primary to ensure relevancy in the content being linked or submitted to the silo and not used to fetch related content for the silo itself as aggregates like netvibes do
-an important distinction is that silos are not created they are by nature similar to #hashtags a collection of socially tagged data aggregated under a centralized tittle/concept/theme
-silos will organically be created by the system from just organic user activity of course there will need to be interns who work with devs to flesh out a few manually created silos but for the most part silos will be organically created
-there will be trending silos, new and noteworthy silos and you can search for silos similar to twitter trending topics
-if you do search for a term that shows no results a list of suggestions or relevant silos will appear and if it is unique the backend will just create a silo on the spot for the user to use
-another important distinction is that users should not be not forced to register an account in order to interact with the application a la vote/submit content
-instead i want to use what i call a fractional user identity system which works very similar to blog comments
-if users want to interact with the application (vote/submit) they only need to create a nickname and confirm email both of which will identify them and be used to track their activity
-they can of course choose to use a verified account which is basically claiming a nickname via confirming email and assigning a password to make it verified
-users will also have the option to log in as another already existing identity (fb twitter ect) similar to how disqus does it with blog comments
-aaand thats it... a user does not have to create/manage a whole new profile in order to interact with the application
-obviously user generated data from verified or logged in user accounts will have more "weight" in the algorithm then partially anonymous guest submitted data
-another difference in vertical design is that the power user in each organic niche will be put front and center within each silo via a leaderboard of top contributors and possibly an achievement system

silos will have the following tabs;
-posts (optional): list of popular blog submissions - like a mini dig contained within the silo itself complete with its own comments
-media(optional): relevant youtube vids and podcasts complete with its own comments
-photos (optional): will only show up in the silo if there is a significant amount of photos being submitted manually or aggregated socially in the silo
-leaderboards (default); shows your rating/achievements based against the top contributors, and their achievements
-comments (default); is just an interactive (vote comments up/down) comment thread that aggregates the real time conversation into a single list without replies/sublists just all in one feed similar to twitter and these comments will be a collection of comments entered directly into the silo from any tab, and it may auto fetch discussions from other sources that you are also logged into like twitter/fb/blog comments/ect
-forum (optional); a full featured forum
-share(default); allow you to share the silo across the web easily
-tags (optional); add/rate keywords that are relevant to the topic

optional = feature only shows up in the silos when a significant amount of users begin to use that feature, otherwise its not there. all features are available in every silo but weather or not they are actually usefull in the context of the silo will be determined organically by users who use the features or not

default = will show by default

and thats it for the public side of things

also want to keep the idea of private silos on the table as well with additional features; basically like a self contained facebook group that is more open and flexible in that users dont have to be "locked" into a particular social network or service to use or invite other users

 

hahahaha ts;dr = too stupid didn't read

silos are for grain storage or general storage of mass materials yoo. there's also a well known concept of "information silos"

it doesn't necessarily need to be named "silos" thats just the working title. i do however find the name "silos" to be very fitting for the ideas and concepts outlined in my OP

 

a socially infused aggregate imo means that it is an application in which the users collect and organize content/information. its functionality is similar to an aggregator except the aggregate doesn't fetch content/information with semantic data (tags, keywords ect) it only users semantic data to ensure relevancy of the content being linked, submitted or infused socially/indirectly linked...

the purpose or the ideal of the application is to try to fill the void between social bookmarking sites like digg and aggregators like netvibes/rss/ect

i want it to be mostly a fun tool for discovering and organizing content that interests you

each silo will have;
-a tab with a list of the 10 most popular blog posts relevant to the central theme/concept of the silo (like a mini dig)
-a tab with a list of the most popular media (youtube vids, podcasts, ect)
-a tab showing the leaderboards and highlighting the top contributors
-a tab with a conversation feed that shows all comments in real time just like twitter
-a share/embedded tab (although each silo would have its own url and can easily be shared via copy and pasting or using a hyperlink)

keep in mind silos are like twitter #hashtags on the internet they will not be created like say a group would, they instead are organically created through search (which i detailed in my OP)

in addition to rating content added to the silos you can also rate the silos themselves and have trending silos, most popular silos, related silos ect

for monetization you could have sponsored brand silos....

there is also a "game layer" too with the inclusion of leaderboards and possibly an achievement system to compel users to get involved

and the barrier of entry to get involved is extremely low and simplified

to find a silo you dont need to go to the silo website you simply google something that interests you and with any luck they will gain prominent placement in search results or you can go to the silo website where you can browse popular silos or search for a specific one

*there will also be a mobile application, web apps, desktop apps game console apps ect

when you search lets say you search for "bikes" that term is pretty broad term so anything related to bikes will be in the silo it will be a huge conglomerate of content, but there will be other silos related shown as well like harley, choppers bmx ect

there can also be additional features but the above is a good start for V1

the other features could be;
-a maps tab
-a shop tab
-an events tab
-ect

but remeber all of the apps will be usable in every silo weather or not they are visible and useful will depend on if users actually use them or not. as in if nobody uses say the shop app in a particular silo then it wont show up you will have to go to additional features to activate it for yourself in the silo and if a lot of ppl start using the shop app it will eventually earn a prominent place in the silo and be shown... that goes for every application in the silo

 

not exactly...

its not about personalization but rather socializing

its more or less a simple social web application designed specifically to leverage the facebook likes across the web but of course with some level of manual submissions as well as integration with other social bookmarking apps (digg, delicious, ect)

philosophically its meant to be an open platform for socially tagged saved or rated content

technically its just a group application masquerading as a social bookmarking app with some additional features. however the groups themselves will revolve around sharing rating and discovering content not communication...