February 9, 2008 33 Comments

FastCompany Goes SUPER Social

fastcompany FastCompany.com has gone totally social crazy (in the very most beaming and loving of ways). Shel Israel, who snuck over there to hang out with Scoble some more, mentioned it on his blog, and I, being both a faithful Shel reader *and* a FC fiend since the 1990s when I used to stalk Heath Row, went on over to look.

Holy cats!

Stop Me if I’m Wrong

Is this the first major print publication that totally turned over their website to being something much better than a digital clone of the print edition? Because sure you can read some articles from Fast Company on the site, but this thing starts out with mymymymymymy and gets even more yum-my as you go along. Throw in a big fat profile, write a blog post, join some groups, and look around for members. It’s a social network hiding inside Fast Company’s website.

Am I wrong?

The Value in This

Should FastCompany report great success in this project of theirs, it will show publications that they don’t have to recreate their content in digital form and call it a day. The website for FastCompany is no longer a subscription lead generator. It’s a robust network for learning more about the community they’ve fostered, an opportunity to develop other value propositions, and a chance to enhance their community’s numbers and cohesive nature by way of giving them a “home.”

I’m all for it. I hope other magazines follow suit. How sick would a Wired network with all the right bells and whistles be? What other publications would make great social networks? WSJ anyone?

**UPDATE: Saturday morning blues over at FC:

Sorry

Photos uploaded with Skitch

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  • http://www.natashawescoat.com Natasha

    This is freaking awesome! I’m such a F@st Company convert. and now it will be that much more fun to read.

  • http://www.natashawescoat.com Natasha

    This is freaking awesome! I’m such a F@st Company convert. and now it will be that much more fun to read.

  • http://www.natashawescoat.com Natasha

    hrmmm. the site isn’t working right. what’s going on at Fast Company? It won’t let me look at the new world on there..

  • http://www.natashawescoat.com Natasha

    hrmmm. the site isn’t working right. what’s going on at Fast Company? It won’t let me look at the new world on there..

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Looks like they got overrun? Well, now we know 100% that they’re on Drupal.

    Happy Saturday, FC tech team. Good luck.

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Looks like they got overrun? Well, now we know 100% that they’re on Drupal.

    Happy Saturday, FC tech team. Good luck.

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  • http://www.onebyonemedia.com Jim “Genuine” Turner

    Going SUPER social also means going SUPER scaling. LOL

  • http://www.onebyonemedia.com Jim Turner

    Going SUPER social also means going SUPER scaling. LOL

  • http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/02/09/an-initial-analysis-of-the-fast-company-community/ Jeremiah Owyang

    I too noticed some bugs and errors this morning

    I’ve provided Fast Company with some analysis on their site

    http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/02/09/an-initial-analysis-of-the-fast-company-community/

  • http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/02/09/an-initial-analysis-of-the-fast-company-community/ Jeremiah Owyang

    I too noticed some bugs and errors this morning

    I’ve provided Fast Company with some analysis on their site

    http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/02/09/an-initial-analysis-of-the-fast-company-community/

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  • http://www.fastcompany.com Ed Sussman

    Hi Chris and readers, I’m Ed Sussman and was behind the new launch. Thanks for the nice comments about the site. Sorry about the server errors this morning. We were down for a bit because we had to double our server capacity today to accomodate all the new users. Wheee.. All seems OK and snappy now.

    We have a group called Site Advisors and Testers that I’d like to invite you and your readers to join: http://www.fastcompany.com/group/beta-testers

    We are monitoring these suggestins carefully. I asked for two of them to be implemented this morning. We are rolling out new waves of changes and bug fixes about every 48 hours.

    And say, Chris, we are also offering our software as a white label solution for other media sites or big groups — provided they will open up people and group search across our the whole network of sites we’ll be building, and support OpenID to make it wasy for members to jump from network to network without re-registering.

  • http://www.fastcompany.com Ed Sussman

    Hi Chris and readers, I’m Ed Sussman and was behind the new launch. Thanks for the nice comments about the site. Sorry about the server errors this morning. We were down for a bit because we had to double our server capacity today to accomodate all the new users. Wheee.. All seems OK and snappy now.

    We have a group called Site Advisors and Testers that I’d like to invite you and your readers to join: http://www.fastcompany.com/group/beta-testers

    We are monitoring these suggestins carefully. I asked for two of them to be implemented this morning. We are rolling out new waves of changes and bug fixes about every 48 hours.

    And say, Chris, we are also offering our software as a white label solution for other media sites or big groups — provided they will open up people and group search across our the whole network of sites we’ll be building, and support OpenID to make it wasy for members to jump from network to network without re-registering.

  • http://maxkaizen.com Maximillian Kaizen

    :-D I joined a few days ago, as a loooong standing fan of FC. I started up one of the Fast Company Company of Friends groups/cells here in South Africa back when the acceleration started in ’98 I think.
    Genius fellow Heath Row was pioneering some cool social connections way ahead of the curve.

    Thanks for the reminder Chris, going to go plump up the profile >>

  • http://maxkaizen.com Maximillian Kaizen

    :-D I joined a few days ago, as a loooong standing fan of FC. I started up one of the Fast Company Company of Friends groups/cells here in South Africa back when the acceleration started in ’98 I think.
    Genius fellow Heath Row was pioneering some cool social connections way ahead of the curve.

    Thanks for the reminder Chris, going to go plump up the profile >>

  • http://www.conversationagent.com Valeria Maltoni

    Well, I’ve been there all along. Thank you for highlighting this, Chris. I will be posting my take tomorrow.

  • http://www.conversationagent.com Valeria Maltoni

    Well, I’ve been there all along. Thank you for highlighting this, Chris. I will be posting my take tomorrow.

  • http://www.michellelamar.com michelle lamar

    I found the new site by accident this AM trying to email a client the article on Mike Rowe from the print edition. WOW. It’s a social media geek’s dream.

  • http://www.michellelamar.com michelle lamar

    I found the new site by accident this AM trying to email a client the article on Mike Rowe from the print edition. WOW. It’s a social media geek’s dream.

  • http://broadcasting-brain.com Mark Dykeman

    Must go check out; hopefully it is working OK now.

  • http://broadcasting-brain.com Mark Dykeman

    Must go check out; hopefully it is working OK now.

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  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/karaajc Kara C

    I LOVE fast company, i started adding myself to the small community message boards, but that is so old school! very glad to see an innovative magazine is stepping it up!

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/karaajc Kara C

    I LOVE fast company, i started adding myself to the small community message boards, but that is so old school! very glad to see an innovative magazine is stepping it up!

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  • http://mediadiet.net Heath Row

    For the record, Chris didn’t actually stalk me. But he was a relatively member of the Company of Friends, Fast Company’s readers network, and I had the good luck to meet him — and other members of the Boston CoF group — several times while I worked there.

    As the founder of the CoF and a long-time member of the Fast Company Web team, I’m quite pleased with this new iteration of the community tools. When the CoF launched in 1997, we built it with email mailing lists, online discussion forums, and other Web tools — but nothing like the tools we have available today. This stuff is a major improvement.

    Kudos to all involved!

  • http://mediadiet.net Heath Row

    For the record, Chris didn’t actually stalk me. But he was a relatively member of the Company of Friends, Fast Company’s readers network, and I had the good luck to meet him — and other members of the Boston CoF group — several times while I worked there.

    As the founder of the CoF and a long-time member of the Fast Company Web team, I’m quite pleased with this new iteration of the community tools. When the CoF launched in 1997, we built it with email mailing lists, online discussion forums, and other Web tools — but nothing like the tools we have available today. This stuff is a major improvement.

    Kudos to all involved!

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    s this the first major print publication that totally turned over their website to being something much better than a digital clone of the print edition?