blog+edgy graphics!=web2.0

*sigh*
Project Redstripe seems to be a sorry attempt at getting in on what the kids are calling Web2.0 these days. The Economist, a magazine I read religiously every week, and have held in high regard (although this may be slipping on this move) seems to want to get in on the whole participatory content community thing. So they took six staff, holed them up somewhere in London, and told them to come up with inventive interactive ideas. The one idea the interns came up with? start a blog and ask for ideas. Genius!

I can tell the editors at what is probably the smartest weekly available are getting antsy about this. Their recent feature article focuses on the 800-pound gorilla of mass participation: The Wikipedia itself.

A corporate blog does not make you web2.0, it just means that the suits are going to tolerate one of the better writers in the office spewing out random thoughts on– from what I can see from most corporate blogs, how cool it is to spew out random thoughts on a blog and get paid for it.

Community interactivity, real participatory involvement with the course of a site, requires much more. It requires a trick, a hook, a passion that brings people in, let’s them alter or enhance or goof over some digital property in the commons, and then get a pat on the head for their contribution. On one hand we have the wikipedia building the Encyclopedia Vulgaris Populi, on the other hand we have farkers building a library of photoshop cliches that are still funny after 6 years.

I am proud to say I have contributed to both. I am also proud to tell those clowns at project restripe that they had better come up with a better idea. I don’t get the feeling that The Economist tolerates lay-abouts very long.