Intellitrest: An Online Haven for Social Intellectuals
Intellitrest is a new form of closed social network which is hoping to provide a place on the net where the worlds intellectuals can come and discuss their various interests (such as archealogy, classic music, economics, mythology, etc).
Interestingly for a new social start-up, the Intellitrest site has not attempted to recreate the base Facebook or Twitter style functionality that so many other companies have chosen to imitate. Instead using the site feels more like browsing through a wiki or a forum rather than a new media social networking platform.
Users homepages are set up based on what intellectual interests they have subscribed to, these in turn provide the subject areas which will make up the majority of an individuals ‘news’ feed (which Intellitrest calls interest activity lists). Members are encouraged to write articles on subject matters they are passionate about (based on their chosen interests), these articles are then sent out via the feed to all members of the site who have subscribed to the relevant area of interest.
When users generate content on the site they are rewarded with Intellitrest badges on their profiles which anyone can see, these help quickly identify how active a particular member is in regards to participating on the site and as Foursquare has shown they are a great way to promote a bit of playful competition amongst users.
Members build their own communities of like minded people by following people who have contributed content that they’ve found interesting to the public areas of the site. Once personal communities have been created, Intellitrest is aiming to provides tools that allows for the creation of Oxford style debates amongst friends, personalized book clubs and specialized academic quizzes. Unfortunately the site is still in its beta stages and not all of this functionality has currently been implemented, but it will be interested to see what it’s like once it has.
As is to be expected from any well prepared web based venture, there has been full integration with Facebook, with the ability to promote feeds from within Intellitrest to Buzz, Twitter and all the various bookmarking sites.
At the moment Intellectuals is only accepting members who attended one of the the top 10 universities in the UK or the US. The site will most likely open up to other universities around the world at a later time, but currently they are working on establishing the credibility of the site as a haven for intellectuals and so are trying to make sure they don’t expand too fast.
Personally I think this project shows a great deal of promise, as Intellitrest could become a big hit amongst academics and researchers across the world if it manages to take off amongst the universities it has chosen to target. Definitely an interesting idea and one I will be keeping a close eye on to see how it develops.
I was excited at the prospect of an intellectually focused social media space. How disappointing to find out only a very few universities’ students are invited! Hopefully there is a space coming for those who need the same venue without the school specific affiliation.