Everybody and everything seems so connected these days. We increasingly use computers, phones, even watches to access an ever-growing array of social media sites. At the same time, there’s a growing feeling that this supposed increased connectivity isn’t really adding anything to life. The Facebook newsfeed feels whitewashed and inorganic, hiding more about our friends’ lives than it reveals and many of the LinkedIn connections we make seem tangential and inauthentic. More and more often, social media feels like a waste of time and energy but there’s a growing movement to transform the social network. We at Simply CSOFT are happy to report that CSOFT International is a part of that movement, and from the looks of it, so is blossary.com.
Blossary.com – so named as a fusion of blog and glossary – is a different kind of social network. “We actually don’t like to call it a social network,” says Edward Ednilao, Product Manager at CSOFT International. “We prefer the term ‘connected knowledge network.’” Originally, Blossary.com was created in 2011 as an easy, efficient way to group and categorize difficult-to-translate terms but over the years it has become a sort of cyberspace hangout. “We were really surprised when we began examining the site’s usage data and saw that users would spend hours viewing others’ Blossaries as well as creating their own. The social aspect of Blossary.com really grew out of the knowledge network.” To cater to users’ desires for a hybrid social/knowledge site, Edward and his team have been developing and gradually implementing enhancements to the site that improve members’ ability to interact.
“If I’m honest,” he says, “Blossary.com was envisioned as a sort of filing cabinet where the world’s linguists, interpreters, and translators could use a cloud-based storage system for all their terminology. Now, though, it’s more than a place for language professionals; it’s a place for language lovers, and really that’s everybody.” Most users have a specialty: one has several blossaries about modern medicine and genetics, another on automotive manufacturing, and one on Tagalog. The Blossaries showcase people’s passions and talents, covering an astounding range of topics. To illustrate, Edward pulled up his browser, which was already open to Blossary.com. It was a page about the different types of clouds—their names, how they form, and what sort of weather they herald. “I get to learn something new every day,” he says. “But for me, the most amazing thing is that it’s the users who have made it this way. It’s such a great community.”
After spending several days exploring Blossary.com, we at Simply CSOFT share Edward’s excitement. You can’t open the site without learning something new. At the same time, its social aspect – getting to share, follow, be followed, and start meaningful conversations – feels like a breath of fresh air compared to other social networks. It feels like there’s finally a meeting place on the Internet that puts substance over selfies.
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