Back in the summer when we were shaping our new site, we talked a lot about openness and collaboration. Agencies tend to be fairly private about the work they want to do and the things they think are interesting. To a point, this makes sense, but it can also be a bit of a curse: by keeping discussion in house, you miss out on hearing what other people think and learning from their experiences.
So we figured... why not use the new site as an opportunity to turn this old model around?
Signals are streams of content and analysis around the things that fascinate us. Each is a forum to talk about – and learn about – different aspects of technology and culture. The name refers to what we’re trying to do: cut through the noise and tease out insights that will shape the future of our industry and our community.
Signals are about sharing ideas, thoughts and news that will affect the way things currently work. We’re curating content from around the web and talking about what makes it useful and interesting.
Each signal consists of notes and reports. Notes are links and images from around the web, with a little snippet from us on why we think this content is relevant. Reports are summaries of our findings and will usually take the form of slideshows and PDFs. The aim is to make reports as shareable as possible: we’re hoping any discussion they inspire will eventually filter back to us and help us learn a little more about that particular signal.
Each signal won’t transmit forever: the issues that matter the most today may not be as urgent in several months’ time. As new issues arise, we’ll wrap up past signals and archive them in order to turn our attention to more pressing challenges. For now, though, we’ve got three signals in transmission mode: The Lean Start-up, The Future of News and Breaking out of the Box.
If you have a minute, please take a look at each and tell us what you think. Are we off the mark? Do these issues matter to you? The whole point of this exercise is to spark some meaningful discussion around issues that affect us all, so if you’ve got feedback, we want to hear it.
Image credit: Danagraves on Flickr via Creative Commons.
