EdwardDomain.com

Okay! I finished my freelance work up from a previous project, and then finished some editing on it. I have contacted the team over at threadless.com, and have an appointment confirmed for May 9th with the two Jakes, Jake & Jacob, proporietors of threadless.

If you are curious about threadless, or about the parent company they formed, skinnycorp, head on over to www.skinnycorp.com or www.threadless.com to see what all the hoopla is about. I would have gotten in to see the guys earlier, but my interview subjects are travelling throughout the month of April so I can't get to them just yet.

Open source design is a great concept, and these guys are really running with it (and making a mint at the same time). Can a company make money, create community with its customers and be all around nice guys? The answer to this question is a resounding YES from the looks of things. The idea of their business is simple: Crowdsource the design of an tiem (tshirt, necktie, etc) and let the crowd choose from all the designs submitted which one makes it to the actual real live product stage.

Then, make a limited run of an item, thereby generating intense desire, and watch them fly out the door. Brilliant.... simply brilliant. And the best part of all is that this company is here in fantastic Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is many things, but it is rarely on the cutting edge of design (with one caveat: architecture), new media, or online companies. We do have Careerbuilder.com (my fulltime employer) headquartered here, but it is exciting to see an online company with so much buzz set up shop in the windy city.

For now things will be a little slow then, as I lurk in skinnycorps forums and study the company from afar as best I can. I'll post updaes here on things I am finding out about the users and the company in general.

Ten minutes ago I finished my last project for the good people at Search Development Center here in Chicago. I was doing some freelance work for them, writing teaching modules they could use to run classes for disabled adults. This is good because I can now turn my attention to getting started and fully committed to Assignment Zero!

I was thrilled when I found AZ here on the 'ole Internets. Pro-Am journalism has the ability to truly involve so many voices from so many different ideas and cultures its staggering. The more I think about the potential reach of crowd-sourcing journalism, the more excited I get.

As I mulled the potential of what we are starting here together, I let my thoughts drift and try to see its direction.... with so many voices representing so many different viewpoints, surely we are soon going to cross troubled waters. I wonder what the first story will be where two vastly differing opinions and/or cultures see the same story from opposite sides of the bridge and both attempt to report on it as best they can. Surely this is going to cause people on both sides of the issue to get riled, get excited, and to debate. Feelings will be hurt, eyes will be opened and passions will flare. In the best of scenarios, we will all walk a virtual mile in someone else's shoes. Within that debate we are going to see the story of humanity play out and see the world through real people's eyes instead of those the main-stream media feeds us. We are going to get underneath the skin of the sotry, to its heart. We are going to see it all, I think, and it will be sooner than later.

I cannot wait.

For now, though, I will be doing my part telling the story of threadless. I am looking forward to it, and will be reporting on my involvement with Assignment Zero here on this blog and at my personal blog I am getting set up at www.EdwardDomain.com Feel free to drop by there, or contact me through here. I am looking forward to being a part of the community, and to working with so many people worldwide that are as excited by the possibilties as I am.