It’s true that often the blogosphere can seem like an echo chamber. But I kind of think of it like junk mail. When a catalog comes in the mail that I like it’s no longer junk mail, it’s something interesting and valued. So while the discussion on the net may often seem like echoes, when it’s something I care about, it’s an interesting conversation (at least to me).

Here at Jackson Fish Market we’re in existence to create software/web services funded by advertisers. This is an embryonic category which we believe will eventually dominate the landscape. Social Signal is already pioneering in this space, building communities for “public-facing organizations”. We can only hope to follow in their footsteps. Rob from Social Signal posted his reaction to our discussion of their work. When I referred to VanCity in my post, it was really Social Signal putting the site together. I feel like we have a kernel of a movement around advertiser-funded software here on the west coast with Social Signal just up the coast from Seattle in Vancouver, BC. I think it’s safe to say that we can add Social Signal to our list of companies we admire.

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In the meantime, our own tiny test at creating community has had modest success. Check out the latest contributions over at Words of a Man’s Mouth. The coolest contribution by far is on page 18. Essentially, Roger Shi has posted describing one of the people who signed the autograph book. To recap: This book was signed by a student’s frends upon graduating from school around 1940. Sixty-five years later I found the book for sale in a store in Hong Kong. Sixty-seven years later, we posted the book online, and within 3 weeks have already connected with someone who wrote in the book all those years ago. Words of a Man’s Mouth took us a couple of days to put together. There’s no doubt it could bear tons of improvement, but even in this basic form it’s already generating very cool results. I’m hoping that Roger can put us in touch with C.J. Wang who might be able to then connect us with other classmates who wrote in the book or possibly even the book’s original owner. Now that would be cool!