Wis.dm: A social network of ideas
Wis.dm is a new social network. Or is it a social bookmarking site? Whatever you call it, it looks like a great site for connecting people and ideas.
At the MIT Enterprise Forum event last week, I talked to the founders of Wis.dm, a new site that's a blend of social bookmarking and social networking. I'd call it a social network for ideas. I like it a lot.
On Wis.dm, as on other social neworks, you can define who your friends are (they're "contacts" on Wis.dm). But Wis.dm is primarily a social bookmarking site: You collect Web sites, videos, and photos, add them to your "portfolio," and tag them as you wish. Then people can discuss your items.
The way Wis.dm is built, it's easy to see what your contacts are talking about and join their discussions. It's also easy, via these threads, to track down what people new to you are talking about. A future version of Wis.dm will have a reputation system so the best comments bubble up to the top of a discussion thread.
Adding items to Wis.dm is easy using the system's bookmarklet. Finding the hot topics on the site is also easy, via Wis.dm's tag cloud.
Nothing I've said so far is radical or new. See also Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Slashdot, Wink, Furl, and so on. But Wis.dm is more than the sum of its features. It's a cleanly designed site that delivers on its promise of connected people and ideas, without (so far) being overrun the way Digg is. It's a young site, and it needs more traffic, but I hope it succeeds. It's simple, straightforward, and the design encourages dialogue and then gets out of your way. As I will now. Try this site and let this community know, in comments below, what you think of it.