Schaefs has mentioned MindMixer a time or two before in reference to Fargo. The idea is that the city of Grand Forks could get suggestions and feedback about what is working and what isn’t, take stock of what seems important to people, and adjust things accordingly.
Now Grand Forks has one: Engage the Forks. Will it work? I’m cautiously optimistic. If the site doesn’t become overrun with people who are negative about every single thing in their lives, and if the people who are supposed to be watching the site are, in fact, watching it, it could bring some great ideas forward. I’ll be giving it a whirl.
I should note that this idea is nothing new, and even the MindMixer site design is just a rehash of the standard online message board/forum structure: there are message boards delineating the major topic groups (“categories”), sub-boards (“topics”) and the actual posts (“idea submissions”). Posts are graded according to who agrees and/or comments on them, etc. It’s interesting how different marketing of the features makes people more likely to use the system, and I wonder that if UND becomes more involved in Engage the Forks, will it become what http://talk.campusdakota.com (or even the defunct VoiceUND) was supposed to be?