Evoke Technology Challenge

* UPDATE AND EXPLANATION OF RESPECTEDOPINOINS.COM*
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I've been getting a lot of questions as to what RespectedOpinions.com is, and so I figured I'd try to clarify a bit here:


The basic idea of RespectedOpinions.com is that News travels Virally now, and one of the major ways it spreads virally is through social
networks. I have written a blog about this shift in news delivery here:

http://respectedopinions.ning.com/profiles/blogs/become-a-news-aggr...

Here is a blog on the patterns I've noticed so far since using
RespectedOpinions.com to track my idea spreading

http://respectedopinions.ning.com/profiles/blogs/facebook-amp-twitter

I'm also going to be replacing the front page with more explanation, and
hide the actual "Game" behind the index so people get a chance to
understand what the site is prior to being presented with the game.

So the game part of it will be that there will be contests to see who
can drive the most traffic to the "Promotional URL", and give prizes for
the people that drive the most traffic.

I already have a few Promotional URLs in mind. The 1st is UrgentEvoke,
and then I'm going to do one for Growcology, and I'm talking with Ninmah
about trying to spread the word about her teacher projects. I think you
can see where I'm going with this...there are tons of ideas worth
spreading on Evoke and I figured I'd try improving the visibility of
these great ideas through RespectedOpinions.com!

Please come and help us spread the word about important ideas!
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I have decided to try to show people how we can use Evoke to learn and collect data ourselves, helping to produce value in a new website, while enhancing Evoke at no cost in time or money to them.

Here's my idea:
(To skip right to the experiment click here)

1. I have already created a site very similar to this (evoke) in the past (it was a little simpler, and anonymous for an experimental reason) , and I am going to duplicate my codebase on a server that I will make available to anyone who wants to work on this with me. The platform we will be working on is Linux, with the framework I have so far done in PHP, using a MySQL database.
2. If the past is any indication, we should be able to drum up some traffic from this site and others to get some traction, which is when the fun starts. When something begins running, you can collect all kinds of amazing data. Such as who is loading which pages, when, how often, in what order, etc.
3. I also have a statistics package that I have written for this framework which will produce reports of usage, traffic sources, keywords, etc. We will make this data available to everyone on both sites so that they can see how things like Features, and Top posts make a HUGE difference in the way people use the site. You'll see amazing patterns form, and you can make great conclusions as to why this is happening.
4. I will help anyone willing to learn, how to add onto this site, whether it be new reports, new data to look at, new functions for the site, or anything else you want to explore (as long as it's legal and within my moral comfort zone, which is pretty liberal if you have kept up with my blogs).

Ok, well, I just wanted to get the word out about this, and I will begin posting details tonight. Please leave comments or hit me up privately to find out more!

HACK THE PLANET!!!!
.....But learn while you're doing it and put everything back nicely when you're done ;)


* New Marketing for Recruitment *
Most of you know I like social innovation and trying to work the system,
so here's another angle. I'm most likely going to submit this as an Evokation if I'm still on the site and if I get some interest from other people. With some help, I'm hoping it might be one of the projects picked. So let me know if you're interested in helping!

Updates

URL: http://www.respectedopinions.com/index.php?cid=evokenn

Added Live Stats LeaderBoard Section! - Now you can see how many people you can get to the experiment, and see which viral marketing techniques work the best. Which group of friends do you have that are most likely to be interested in a project like this?

Found a domain to use I had, which I am donating to this project and got the database and domain setup. Check it out, and start playing....I will be adding the framework for posting, commenting, and I haven't decided if we should make it anonymous or registered. I've got a framework for either....what do you all think?

http://www.respectedopinions.com/index.php?cid=evoke_nicholasnagao

Raw Data Report: Check out who's visiting, where they came from, and what campaign sent them there

http://www.respectedopinions.com/view_displays.php

First Statistical/Usage Observation:
When looking at the display data, if you see the referring URL is blank...it's likely that the user typed in the URL instead of clicking on it from a
page...which is our first social anomaly because you would think
everyone came from clicking on a link from Evoke. But some users use
their browsers differently. Even when there is a link on the page, they
prefer to type the URL in themselves....

Features

Live Stats LeaderBoard Section
Now you can see how many people you can get to the experiment, and see which viral marketing techniques work the best. Which group of
friends do you have that are most likely to be interested in a project
like this?

Alias your IP so you can track yourself and friends
Tell us who you are! By entering your name or alias on respectedopinion.com, we can relate visits from people and we can tell when they come back. Now you can see a lot of the hits to the site are from me while I'm developing :) Watch yourself and others. This should tell us who's willing to play this game with us, and it helps us look for patterns even when people don't use an alias because it trains us to look for the patterns. Give it a try! What other features should we add? I have a list of things I'm working on to make it useful, but you tell me what you want to see....

Latest Opinions Ticker
See your opinion at the top of the page now so you can grab people's
attention with your opinon!

Featured Evoke Blogs
I will be adding featured blogs which I will pick based on new things each day/week/month, whatever...feel free to make
suggestion on the method I use to pick or the blog I should pick. Method
recommendations are preferred over individual blog suggestions.

Give an Opinion
Leave a comment for other Evoke members and watch as this just organically
grows!

New Features

Social Networking Tools
Come check out the new Social Networking Tools and new format of the site.

Personal Campaign Tracking
If you've already put got stats from a previous campaing prior to the upgrade, just copy the campaign name into the create/track campaign area to add it to the stat tracking.



Gather Opinions - Now create a poll using this link
http://www.respectedopinions.com/create_poll.php

Then click the Share button under your question to get a link to share with your friends. This way you can make polls that relate to the people you share them with. It helps you connect better with the people involved with giving their opinion. Check out some simple examples I did just using my friend's names, then sending them the link. It got them to try to get their friends to vote for them. Now try it using something that actually matters to your friends :)