In users we Trust

What would the skrbl home page look like if we turn it over to user control? What if we replaced most of the page with a graffiti board for user scribbling?

Think about it - Anonymous strangers crowded into a shared virtual space... it is interesting enough as a social experiment but it is potentially far more. Here are some reasons why I think this is such a big deal.

The fundamental question is - do you trust users? I mean Really trust them. First that they wont be put off by a radical new take on the whole 'home page concept. And second, that they will take to the interactivity and transform the page into a living thing with a mind of its own.

We are going with the idea on skrbl, changing our home page to give pride of place to a graffiti board & squeezing off most of the present content. Our users will write, draw & skrbl creating a dynamic, continually changing home page for all visitors. What you see will depend on when you happen by and how long you stay. And if you dont like what you see, wipe it off and put in your own stuff.

Graffiti Rules. OK!

SKRBL graffiti is a community whiteboard for your community. A place for your users to draw, write, scratch, scribble, create, interact, fight, flame... basically whatever takes their fancy.

The first graffiti we built we put on this blog to check response & get feedback. It proved popular enough that I moved graffit to our home page and its taken off. There's something complelling about a blank space and handy color - perhaps it calls to our muse or maybe it tempts the repressed vandal in all of us.

Putting skrbl graffiti in your site is simple enough, as easy as embedding a YouTube clip. Go to the 'My Graffiti' section of your 'My Skrbls' page, click on 'Create a new Graffiti', that's it, you have a new graffiti board to embed in your page. Copy & paste the embed link to your page and done. Put some graffiti in your site & on your blog... anywhere where you want your users to hang around and have some fun.

Try it out, watch your users have some fun let them doodle, or play with strangers, or get in someone's face, everything goes.

Back in the groove

Whoops! its been a while since my last blog.
Just to catch you up, this is what I've been busy with during this time.

1 New skrbl features - Enhancing the skrbl drawing menu et al...
2 An entirely new online collaboration product (to be launched soon).
3 skrbl mash ups with other applications (under development).
4 Graffiti - the embeddable whiteboard (check out the sample on this blog) AND
5 A business product, still in its early stages but really exciting.

Of course this is in addition to the business of business (a regular paycheck is quite a motivation no? ;)
These are exciting times for us as we prepare to launch new products and skrbl enhancements and try to step up to the next phase.

Hope you find our new products as exciting as we think they are.
As always we are counting on you, wish us luck.