Are you a random nobody whose mediocre bio has no business rubbing elbows with the bios of the big wigs on Wikipedia? If so, shove your obscure self on over to Biographicon -- a brand new, non-discriminatory biography site for all of us little people.
In an interview yesterday with Internet Evolution, Biographicon's founder, Ethan Herdrick, described the site as a cross between Wikipedia and LinkedIn (with a much more attractive design), allowing people to create profiles of themselves, while also drawing connections with the other nobodies on the site. As on Wikipedia, site users can go back and edit an entry -- but don't call this site a wiki: "It's not a wiki because wiki is a wonky term," says Herdrick who more accurately calls the site a social network with traditional wiki capabilities and editing tools.
Herdrick says the motivation for the site was the idea that only notable people (a.k.a. those who've actually made something of their lives) can be covered on Wikipedia, and there are many people who would like to be able to post their bios. "We're doing the work of the people," he says.
But the idea of promoting a biography site for the common person also doubles as a huge challenge, as it presupposes that everyone has a story that is worth reading. According to Herdrick, many people do have interesting stories to tell -- but the success of the site will rely more on this collective desire to be heard.
"A lot of it has to do with people wanting to
have their stories out there," he says, "sort of self-promotion."
That idea pretty much sums up the entire Internet in its present state, when you take into account how much of the content across various social networks, blogs, microblogs, AIM away messages, message boards, content discovery sites, etc., is created for self-promotional purposes -- to shout out loud about our latest business ventures, publications, random thoughts, new hair cuts, and colonoscopy photos -- regardless of who's listening and who cares.
In its next phase, Biographicon intends to integrate with other sites to incorporate video and photo galleries, giving it a cooler edge over LinkedIn and Wikipedia. Barring its early success as a platform for people to talk about themselves at length, Biographicon could possibly crop up as the next big thing for the self-absorbed, tech-savvy masses.
I was reading this post,kept thinking,why whould somebody wants to do that?We have blogs now- a great opportunity to write the history of our lifes and share our everyday stuff with the people( who are interested in it)
I am afraid that Biographicon will become a huge Vanity Fair.
It is the genuine question behind most others in the universe. A Dale Carnegie course might allude to the radio call letters WIIFM (What's in it for me?)
I don't think it is a bad idea to have a site like this. I hope it succeeds greatly. But who really wants to read my take on who I am?
It may be interesting from the standpoint of finding someone with similar interests or background and strike up a conversation to find out if the posting was actually genuine but it sparks an interesting side debate about how authentic the bio actually is.
Hello InternetEvolution people, Biographicon co-founder here Ethan Herdrick here. Thank you for the interesting commentary. You guys are an impressively brainy community. I wanted to say to 'hounhosp' that his dog is welcome on the Biographicon. They are a big part of a happy life, so having room to show the pets that a person knows and has known is important. And thanks for reminding me; there are a couple of good dogs I've been meaning to add and connect to.
'experiences': I had to wipe the bio of your favorite smartphone. No hard feelings I hope.
Nicole: we'll be here when you're ready. And thanks for the write-up.
Emiddio, I'm glad you like the quote. Confucius was a very wise man. By the way, Biographicon actually has his bio.
If looking from another perspective, no one is really a nobody. We all are somebodies, and that is more true now than ever before in this present era of Web 2.0 (or 3.0). You may still remember, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is YOU...thanks mainly to MySpace, Youtube and Wikipedia. And the truth of the matter is we all want to be somebody and to have our voices heard. Oprah Winfrey said and I quote "we all are just regular people seeking the same thing... we all just want to know that we matter". I guess the point is with the new era brings new possibilies for anyone to have a shot at becoming somebody. Nonetheless, I agree, to be truely worthy of being somebody important, one needs to earn it.
Hope I'm not getting too far off the topic and not too philosophical. I think a non-discriminatory biography site for 'all' animals is a fairly creative idea. I wonder what a profile of a chicken would look like (maybe sth like: born (hatched) Jan. 13, 08; unknown parents; was served as a Subway chicken teriyaki sandwish)..
I'm glad you used it before me since it saved me ALOT of time in trying to find the right words to state this seemingly, simple saying.
Surfing through Biographicon, I found it hard to detect any differences while comparing it to any other websites of that same nature where self-promotion and self-idealization is the most common characteristic. Why not try to become better, more important and "worth knowing" when you can simply add your biography on-line and feel better, more important and "worth knowing"?
The only difference I may have detected is, and excuse my sarcasm (for anyone who actually went and added his/hers biography), that this website is a poor excuse to conclude yourself among famous but not necessarily significant people. (we all know famous people don't need to create profiles on-line like we mortals do.)
I can see how this might be useful occasionally in the far, far future where an overlooked, solitary artist/thinker/pioneer would have added his biography and this website would function as a resource. I can't deny it's narcissistic nor it's highly biasing nature though.
The idea of "fame" (acknowledgment) or even, the falsified necessity to leave your traces in history without necessarily earning that price is what's promoted in pop-culture and many times what strives us through our lives. We have enough means already to embrace these misconceptions, please don't create more.
I should have thought about it. Our beloved animals are already taking care of. But something that could be dedicated to all animals ( not separately and not dogs and cats only ) will also be great.
The unique differentiator for this site is simply that, unlike Wikipedia, it doesn't disallow common people. Otherwise, apart from the social network it has going on, it's very similar. However, also unlike Wikipedia, there are really no trusted sources backing up the information posted on the site about the no namers. A problem.
With regard to defamatory postings, the founder told me that -- for now -- they plan to delete anything that's negative. Since these bios are about random regular people and, as I just mentioned, there are generally no published sources to back up information on them, they're going to assume that all negative postings are slanderous and delete them. I told him that they then run the risk of creating a fluffy site where everyone is wonderful and everything is positive, and he said that's one of the many hurdles they have to overcome.
It's not making any money right now, and they're hoping to get some private financing. We shall see.
Re: My bio... to answer both you and viboons... No, I haven't created one yet -- I'm still debating it. I see you've resisted the temptation to create one for me. Thank God...
The site definitely faces a lot of challenges, which the founder seems to be aware of, but I think the unrecognizable masses will be glad to have yet another platform for their self-promotional yammerings.
The future will tell if the site will survive and if they will make money or not. But I think that the incorporation of videos (as they are planning) will make the difference. Also peolpe will be likely to post their resume and I think it will be a resource that recruiters could exploit as well. I'm not that skeptical as you are and I think that the site will evolve to something more attractive.
Contrary to the PR, most of / many of the bios on the site are actually about famous people. And they look really similar to the same bios you can find on wikipedia. Strike one for its unique differantiator.
There also doesn't seem to be anything to stop people posting fake/scurrilous/defamatory images/verbiage about other people (Nicole: you didn't create a bio for yourself so I was tempted to create one for you....)
I don't see how this thing will make money, either, but maybe nobody cares.
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