Note: Part II and two podcasts by Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti will be coming later this week.
Jane Jacobs, the great lesson of hip-hop for writers, and the hilarious Don Ameche Code–those were among the topics of hit posts on Gather today.
Ignore the so-so Alexa stats and traffic comparisons with other communities. No other virtual gathering place has the certain je ne sais quoi of this relative newcomer, founded in June 2004 and funded the next December. Gather’s sunny and welcoming fresh-squeezed orange colored website is as vibrant and youthful as the CEO, Tom Gerace, who sat down with me for an one-on-one to discuss Gather in general and its e-book potential in particular. Part II of this two part series will cover e-book possibilities.
Indirect public radio tie
Yes, the Boston-based site is for smart people everywhere of a certain age who read books and listen to public radio. Among Gerace’s first round of backers, in fact, was none other than American Public Media Group, the parent organization of such gems as Minnesota Public Radio, home to Garrison Keillor. Another investor is Andrew Tobias, the money-guide guy who’s also treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, although this could be just coincidental for the most part. Gerace, his family and various members of the team have also sunk in their own money. Perhaps this is why the site hasn’t splurged on marketing dollars but instead has been slowly, er, gathering steam.
More than 500 user-created groups exist, from the Haiku Group to Electronic Voting Experiences and gardening groups galore. Gather is truly a place for intellectual idea-swapping and exchange and even critique if so desired. In Lake Wobegon terms, at least most of the participants are above average.
With so much to keep track of, the company has simplified navigation with the less technically savvy of the 10,000+ members in mind. It pays close attention to tags and good organization of the site, which benefits from the masterful design of Tom Churchill. I love orange look, reminding me in some ways of the telecom company Orange.fr. At the same time the the simple layout and clarity allow Gather members to focus on their writing and the subject at hand, rather than fretting over navigation.
Troll control
Needless to say, Gather cares about the quality of the posts, not just quantity. “I love the caliber of the discussion that occurs on the Website nine times out of ten,” Gerace says. Nine times out of ten, he is right; the discussion does tend to be rather high-end. People can anonymously rank articles by a number of given stars. This seems fair enough, but leaves too much room almost for subjectivity and lack of editorial experience. It almost encourages trolls to go about artificially lowering people’s ratings, not to mention flame wars. As the site grows, sadly, so will trolling. But Gather is already thinking ahead and may replace the present system with a thumbs-up or -down approach. “A huge amount of time is spent talking about ratings,” Gerace says–either within and with the Gather community, or within the company.
Later via email, I ask him about another troll-related issue, the fact that comments on members’ posts are turning up in Google—opening the way for preservation of privacy-invading comments. It doesn’t help that the comments are tied into the posters’ accounts.
Gerace replies: “Members have total control over the visibility of their content, profile, and username. Comments on an article appear anywhere that the article itself appears. Today, Gather members can decide whether to publish an article for the general public or limit that article to just friends, family, colleagues, and/or groups they belong to. If a member publishes an article for everyone to view, comments on that article will be widely available as well. Search engines (like Google) may pick-up public articles (and associated comments) from time to time.”
In other words, you’re at the mercy of trolls in this respect if your posts go public. Smears may soon vanish from Gather itself, but search engines may take time to honor requests for deletion of slanderous comments from caches.
A start-up not for sale
Regardless, we have a first-class community here. But how durable is it? Will Gather go belly sideways or poof suddenly, or be sold? Unlikely. Instead Gerace is credibly talking about just the opposite—expansion, such as bringing people together in actual physical space for such activities as author workshops. You have to admit, it would be weird to suddenly smash the company to bits after such a statement. To be more direct, Gerace says: “Gather is not for sale.
“We are focused on building a large, thriving community that will drive a successful company here. Our management team has a long history of building companies that are successful stand-alone organizations for many, many years. That said, our greatest asset is our community. The talented people that come together every day are what make Gather a special place.”
Whatever the case, Gerace says that “Gather will, no doubt, build different types of strategic relationships with many different organizations over time. In each case, the primary driver for these relationships, whether large or small, will be providing better services to Gather members.” And more options? Could a relationship with public radio be in the works? There’s no trace of public radio on the Gather site that I could see except for a promo advertisement for Marketplace commentator Robert Reich‘s podcast, and maybe the profit and nonprofits sides won’t ever come together. Still, I wonder what else could be in store in the future–especially given the site’s ad for “director of political outreach” (so could Tobias’s DNC ties matter a bit after all?). This is a company to watch for sure.
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Moderator’s note: Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti, a Gather member with a top rating, joined to research this article. The rating came quickly and naturally. Vindicates our judgment in having her as a TeleBlog regular.
