Web poll controls student
VICTORIA (CUP) -- Jeremy David Peters doesn't have to agonize over how to cut his hair. His readers decide for him.
Peters, a 21-year-old fourth-year business student at the University of Victoria, runs a personal blog at JeremyDavid.com, with the title Jeremy David Choose Your Own, errr, My Adventure!
Peters's blog uses web polls and surveys to collect the opinions of his readers on matters as weighty as his Halloween costume (a dragon), his haircut (a faux-hawk), and what kind of hat to wear to his fake birthday party (a pirate hat). Then he acts on them, following up with a detailed account and photographs of his adventure.
Peters's adventure options have been getting gradually more relevant to his life, including where to go on weekend bicycle rides (a hillbilly bar), what to do on a trip to Ottawa (dig soil for an hour with hand tools and sing karaoke), and where to go on a trip to Europe (Ireland). Peters had this trip in mind when he started putting the website together.
“You know there are all those travel blogs and stuff but no one would really want to read them unless you knew the person,” Peters said. “I thought it also ties in that if people were actually able to influence where I go . . . so I could be at a train station and say, ‘Should I go to France or Germany now?' It might actually attract people to the site.”
Peters could do this by updating his site at Internet cafes or if, as he hopes, he gets access to technology that allows him to update the site while staying mobile.
“I think it would be unbelievable if . . . I could actually post something on the Internet and then have people make decisions in real time, so have a question and then an hour or two hours later actually act on it,” Peters said.
Peters took his inspiration from other enterprising sites such as One Red Paperclip and The Million Dollar Homepage, both of which received worldwide media coverage.
“I thought it might be cool to put that into the real world, so people can collaborate and put Internet stuff into real life,” said Peters, who took his lead from Web 2.0, an Internet movement working towards the co-operation of users through collaborative sites such as Wikipedia and social networking sites. “I thought it'd be funny to see what sort of things people would do if they lived their lives vicariously through mine.”
The blog isn't the only thing on the site. He also has posted correspondence between an anonymous landlord and some harebrained tenants, and a series of Peters-penned humorous snail-mail letters to Oprah, Jack Nicholson and the Nicola Valley honey company.
The main challenge for Peters is posting content that's interesting to people other than his immediate family and friends. His “first unique idea” has already struck a chord beyond his group of friends, but Peters is always on the lookout for different features to add to his site.
“I've had the domain name for four or five years and I've just never really had anything on it before,” said Peters. “It's good to be able to finally put something there that's worth visiting instead of just having my name on a white background.”
Peters, a 21-year-old fourth-year business student at the University of Victoria, runs a personal blog at JeremyDavid.com, with the title Jeremy David Choose Your Own, errr, My Adventure!
Peters's blog uses web polls and surveys to collect the opinions of his readers on matters as weighty as his Halloween costume (a dragon), his haircut (a faux-hawk), and what kind of hat to wear to his fake birthday party (a pirate hat). Then he acts on them, following up with a detailed account and photographs of his adventure.
Peters's adventure options have been getting gradually more relevant to his life, including where to go on weekend bicycle rides (a hillbilly bar), what to do on a trip to Ottawa (dig soil for an hour with hand tools and sing karaoke), and where to go on a trip to Europe (Ireland). Peters had this trip in mind when he started putting the website together.
“You know there are all those travel blogs and stuff but no one would really want to read them unless you knew the person,” Peters said. “I thought it also ties in that if people were actually able to influence where I go . . . so I could be at a train station and say, ‘Should I go to France or Germany now?' It might actually attract people to the site.”
Peters could do this by updating his site at Internet cafes or if, as he hopes, he gets access to technology that allows him to update the site while staying mobile.
“I think it would be unbelievable if . . . I could actually post something on the Internet and then have people make decisions in real time, so have a question and then an hour or two hours later actually act on it,” Peters said.
Peters took his inspiration from other enterprising sites such as One Red Paperclip and The Million Dollar Homepage, both of which received worldwide media coverage.
“I thought it might be cool to put that into the real world, so people can collaborate and put Internet stuff into real life,” said Peters, who took his lead from Web 2.0, an Internet movement working towards the co-operation of users through collaborative sites such as Wikipedia and social networking sites. “I thought it'd be funny to see what sort of things people would do if they lived their lives vicariously through mine.”
The blog isn't the only thing on the site. He also has posted correspondence between an anonymous landlord and some harebrained tenants, and a series of Peters-penned humorous snail-mail letters to Oprah, Jack Nicholson and the Nicola Valley honey company.
The main challenge for Peters is posting content that's interesting to people other than his immediate family and friends. His “first unique idea” has already struck a chord beyond his group of friends, but Peters is always on the lookout for different features to add to his site.
“I've had the domain name for four or five years and I've just never really had anything on it before,” said Peters. “It's good to be able to finally put something there that's worth visiting instead of just having my name on a white background.”
