Obvious Corp has just unlocked Medium.com, revealing that its a publishing platform that collects submitted text and images into themed collections so you don't need a following to be heard. Anyone can read and give feedback on Medium entries starting today, with publishing access to roll out from friends and family to more people soon.
Backed by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone plus the rest of the Obvious crew, Medium could democratize distribution. The way Twitter's retweets gave anyone with 140 characters of brilliance a way to spread across the web, Medium could do the same for longer thoughts.
To truly understand the ethos behind Medium, you should read Williams' full introduction, but here's the gist of how it works.
Posting on Medium (not yet open to everyone) is elegant and easy, and you can do so without the burden of becoming a blogger or worrying about developing an audience. All posts are organized into "collections," which are defined by a theme and a template. (For example, this post is in the About Medium collection with a simple article template.)
Collections give people context and structure to publish their own stories, photos, and ideas. By default, the highest-rated posts show up at the top, helping people get the most out of their time in this world of infinite information.
To start there are four collections:
Been There. Loved That. - Beautiful and absurd photos, sometimes with short captions
Look What I Made - Image and descriptions of homegrown creations from cool hairstyles to colored snow men
The Writer's Room - "Tools And Strategies For A Writing Life"
The Obvious Collection - Briefs on some projects Obvious is backing.
Medium could be a huge help to young or fledgling thought-leaders who haven't amassed enormous Twitter follower counts or gained spots writing for popular blogs. Instead of putting the emphasis on who the writer is, the spotlight shines on the content. Something great will bubble up within a collection and be seen based on its own merit. And that's kind of what the Internet is supposed to be about.
This story originally appeared in TechCrunch.
