PicoCool: Cool Content from Real People

Sep 10, 2007

After spending the last two years as eHub, obsessively profiling and trying out almost every web application that’s come out, I’ve decided to try something different from a new perspective.

I just launched PicoCool, a site that’s dedicated to bringing you tiny and obscure content from the world of peer media, social networks and subcultures.

picocool-helloworld

It’s a shift away from focusing on the technology and the people behind these technologies to focusing on the content and news created by people. PicoCool is the first site to focus on the content being created by people through participatory media and niche communities. It’s not about who’s popular or who has the most points, it’s about the things we create, the ideas we have, and the creative or daily minutiae that makes us human.

On a personal level, I think this site will be a lot of fun. These are the things I notice while browsing through peer content and the things I bookmark. It combines my lifelong interests: underground trends, subcultures, innovations, art, human experiences, products, technology, communication, philosophies, digital living, the obscure and the tiny.

Somewhere in the undiscovered and the mundane lives real brilliance. PicoCool is about uncovering these microscopic moments when things first begin.

Here’s a photo of the notes in my sketchbook from Friday.

090707picocool

In it, I wrote: “It’s not about the business, the technology or the next feature (or scandal). it’s about the people who use these social networks. Who are they? What’s their life like? It’s about the content and trends being created by real people…The social graph editorialized.”

I hope you’ll join me over at PicoCool. You can become a member, subscribe by email, subscribe by RSS, or just stop on by.

Filed Under: Creating, Writing
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16 comments on this article...

  1. Feb 12, 2007 Christophe says:

    Been reading PicoCool for a while now, love the work.

  2. Sep 10, 2007 Dan York says:

    Emily, Sounds like a great idea, given the great number of stories out there. I like “The social graph editorialized” – great phrase. Congrats on the launch! Dan

  3. Sep 10, 2007 Jim Long says:

    This sounds very cool!  Will you set up a PicoCool Twitter feed?  Looking forward to seeing and participating in PicoCool.

  4. Sep 11, 2007 Andy says:

    Very neat idea Emily, will be watching this with interest. Some great finds on there already.

  5. Sep 12, 2007 Denny says:

    Good idea.

    But why are there no photos included in the feedburner newsfeed?

  6. Sep 12, 2007 pico says:

    a beautiful release… away from tech thus humanize…

    love the site.

    I thought it was about me being cool (j/k)

  7. Sep 12, 2007 Emily Chang says:

    Hi everyone. Thanks for the comments and interest.

    @Denny, there are photos included in the feed now. One encoding line was missing from the RSS template.

    @pico, haha, you must be cool if your name is pico :)

  8. Sep 12, 2007 Emily Chang says:

    @Jim Long, yes indeedy. You can follow PicoCool on Twitter now to get auto-updates.  Look forward to seeing you at PicoCool.

  9. Sep 13, 2007 Andrew Mager says:

    Emily,

    I love PicoCool. I pitched it to some of the engineers at CNET, and they thought it sounded cool. I hope we can meet sometime and talk about the everchanging, but forever exciting social web.

    -Andrew

  10. Sep 20, 2007 Sin Jin says:

    i like the whole subculture theme…best of luck with your venture!

  11. Oct 5, 2007 Angela says:

    Emily,I think PicoCool is a really cool site. I will visit it more often to see what interesting things you have added.

  12. Oct 11, 2007 Richard says:

    Emily, first time on your site. I’m very impressed! Definitely one of the nicest blogs I’ve seen.

  13. Oct 14, 2007 Jennifer Fader says:

    Perfect, timely idea. Congratulations!

  14. Mar 9, 2008 Article Writer says:

    PicoCool is great, thanks for sharing!

  15. Apr 27, 2008 John L Satterfield says:

    Nice! I’ve bookmarked it. :D

  16. May 1, 2008 Eric J Brown says:

    Hey! Thanks for a nice post, I like your style:D I’ve bookmarked this page, so if others are interested here is the location of bookmark http://www.propeller.com/submit/checkstory

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