AboutUs.org

July 29, 2007 at 3:24 pm | In the Commons, technology, open space, organizing |

A few days ago, I wrote: finally, a use for spam! where I talked about wanting to work and live in a do-ocracy. Today I started reading Naked Conversations, about business blogging, and it occured to me that I haven’t written about my work at AboutUs.  AboutUs is a small company based in Portland, OR, that’s attempting to do it’s work as a do-ocracy, and teach the world that the world wide web is a two-way medium, and even more than that, is a place for collaboration.

Until today, when I had an idea about a way for AboutUs to get better, I’d make a wiki page about it, or talk about it in the company IRC channel, or I’d attempt to make the change myself.  It occurs to me that company employees (I’m a part-time contractor) could be communicating with each other and the public by blog as well.

AboutUs already does a fantastic job and communicating openly with it’s users, fans and critics (see ConcernsPage, for example), and yet the potential is there for much more.

Some things I’d like to see AboutUs doing:

  • Publish a feed of some sort about technical changes to the site.  I’m pretty sure page names are no case-insensitive as of last week, but haven’t seen an official (or unofficial) announcement.  Maybe this could be a blog or wikipage with an RSS feed?
  • For projects (see OurWork for a list of projects) that can stand to move slower, even just a little bit slower, put less staff resources into them on a weekly basis.  This slower pace, along with a clear list of tasks that staff thinks need to be accomplished on the project, allows visitors to the site to get involved and help.
  • Encourage employees to blog, even just once a week or less, about what’s currently exciting them at work, or anything they like.
  • I’ll write more when I think of more.

I really love the work that we’re doing and am excited to be working in this kind of an open organization, with such a great culture, and I am excited to see that culture evolve and get even better.

3 Comments

  1. Consider the term ‘About Us’. Who is Us in ‘About Us’? It is We who are aware of a world around Us, and who aware that We are aware.

    The human forms through which we are aware are a part of what we are aware of, and are therefore a part of the world around the vantage points through which we are aware.

    This is an important distinction, between Us, who are aware, on one side, and our human forms and the world on the other side of the distinction.

    We are what is aware.

    Our human forms and the rest of the world around us, are what we are aware of.

    Consider a year two hundred years from now, the year 2207. We, who are aware then, will be able to read this discussion. On the other hand, the forms and the world that we are aware of in 2007, will not be available for us to be aware of.

    In a nutshell, what is being said here is said on behalf of our common awareness, which is what/who we are. When read two hundred or four hundred years hence, it will be our common awareness that will make sense of these words then.

    All conversations are between nodes of our common awareness, spread out not only across space, but across time as well. We are awareness. We are Ourself.

    Comment by Arapurakal — August 2, 2007 #

  2. Thank you for your comment, Ravi.

    Comment by ted — August 5, 2007 #

  3. I’m reminded of The Fixx: http://byrneweb.com/Fixx/Lyrics/are_we_ourselves.html

    Comment by Michael Maranda — August 5, 2007 #

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