I imagine empeopled one day becoming a platform for charitable causes, grass-roots lobbyist groups and maybe even virtual political parties.
Chicago (PRWEB) October 17, 2013
Chicago-based online media startup empeopled is launching a platform to foster better conversation about more relevant content with people who have similar interests.
The platform hosts a wide range of topical communities users can join, including “Top Laughs,” “Geek Feed,” “Tech World” and “Bitcoin Believers.” After joining a community, users can begin conversing with like-minded people through posts and comments.
empeopled uses crowd-voting to determine the best content from across communities so that when users log in they see a personalized news feed of highlights from across their interests.
Each post has its own conversation that uses the same principle of peer-review to filter the best comments, with branches that allow for orderly side conversations. This solves the typical problems that online conversations often face, including spam, trolling and general chaos.
Uniquely, empeopled also uses crowd-voting to establish a community’s rules and elect leaders that enforce them. This means that the community can administer and govern itself to ensure high-quality, orderly conversation.
Together these elements enable better, more relevant conversation with the right people.
In the long run, this foundation of self-governance can extend beyond conversation to empower groups to coordinate real action and determine their own futures. empeopled’s ultimate ambition is to build a vehicle for the crowd to steer itself.
“I imagine empeopled one day becoming a platform for charitable causes, grass-roots lobbyist groups and maybe even virtual political parties,” said Aris Michalopoulos, empeopled’s co-founder and CEO. “empeopled is a long-term experiment to see what can be achieved when social media merges with self-governance.”
Creating communities that spur quality online conversations and offline action starts by connecting the right people and building a better platform for them to exchange their thoughts and ideas.
“Successful social platforms like Reddit and Klout have shown us that users value content filtration and stratification,” said Michalopoulos. “empeopled takes these ideas a few steps further and stratifies people by interest category and introduces a better weighted filter for content and people.”
empeopled, which launched in beta in April 2013, currently has more than 1,000 users who spend an average of 26 minutes each on the site. To learn more about empeopled or join the conversation, visit http://www.empeopled.com.
About Empeopled
empeopled is a conversation platform that uses peer review to identify the best content from across the Internet and spur conversation around it. On empeopled, communities of like-minded people engage in intelligent, quality conversation on topics ranging from sports to politics to technology. Users earn points by contributing quality content and comments, allowing the platform to identify influencers and users to establish credibility. empeopled then empowers these influencers with more of a voice in the conversation and governance of their communities. By relying on merit, empeopled is a better way to hear and be heard on the Internet. For more information or to join the conversation, visit http://www.empeopled.com.