Jeni & Denise

This week I witnessed an impressive - and very pleasing - example of how an individual can ignite interest in something.

Jeni
After an initial burst of blog and press coverage a few months ago, my personal side-project I Feel (NYC, London, Toronto) had dried up.

It dried up because although people seem to really love the idea, it's clearly not a great experience at the moment. The site itself only allows you to browse content. All editing must be done from Google Maps. I'm working on a rich version of the concept but more about that later.

I had all but shelved the concept myself, but then a blogger called Jeni found it. Interestingly she found it on Neil's blog - and Neil was the very first blogger to cover it. So we've come full circle.
Jeni's post was seen by Tina (Swiss Miss) and so the snowball started rolling again.
After going a couple of months with no activity I now have dozens more requests to get invited to the maps.

Denise
Coverage is one thing. But due to the clunky experience of the site, lots of people add few or no entries before tiring of it. I learned this the hard way with I Feel Toronto, which despite getting national press coverage in Canada a few months ago, still had no entries until this week.

Step up Denise, a landscape architect from Toronto. She's been on a one-woman mission to fill the maps and she's doing a blinding job.

Not only this, but she's been getting her friends involved. Suddenly I Feel Toronto is alive with activity.



The site's limitations won't go away and the second lull will happen. But thank you Jeni and Denise for showing what affect an individual can make to tip something over into being valuable again.

In fact, I'm so pleased, here's the first public sneak peek at the new site, which will be live... god knows. Not for a while!