One of the posts I came across during Blaugust was this one by David Somers aka Omz13 about Nownownow. It piqued my interest but less for the discussion of Nownownow and more for the concept that leads to: the /now page. I will endeavour here to explain what I understand about both.
The /now page
Pretty much every blog has some kind of /about page: in the case of my site, it is an “about-me” page that provides a little blurb about myself. This is a great page to have as it tells the user of your site a little bit about what to expect from the blog or the primary author of it.
A /now page is a similar concept popularized by Derek Sivers. The premise is to provide a view into the current activities and interests of the blog owner: like an About page, but more timely. You might mention projects you are involved in, current books you are reading, your plans and focus areas. In short, the sorts of things you might tell a friend about yourself if you haven’t seen them in a while.
A /now page isn’t supposed to be filled with moment by moment thoughts or updates. The meal you ate last night, the politician who said something upsetting yesterday, or the vacation photo you just took- that’s for a social media feed, /now is more about the bigger picture of what is going on month by month instead of day by day
Quoting the nownownow about page:
If I wonder how someone is doing these days, it doesn’t help me to see that they went on vacation last week, are upset about something in the news, or even got a new job. That’s not the big picture.
A /now page shares what you’d tell a friend you hadn’t seen in a year.
To me, /now sounds like it has a lot of grey areas to it versus /about and social media. A big vacation that changed my life feels like the kind of thing I’d tell a friend I hadn’t seen in a year. Likewise a new job seems like it holds that sort of significance: yet both things seem to be excluded by the definition. Maybe I need to see more examples: the ones I looked at seemed to violate the guidelines so… I guess /now is what you make of it?
I would expect a /now page to be more frequently updated than an /about page. The act of keeping it current might become rather tiresome especially given that you already have a perfectly good blog that can be referenced for current news. But I can also see that it might become part of a good set of mental housekeeping habits like keeping a journal. I’m a bit skeptical about my own ability to keep a /now page active, but I can definitely see the appeal.
What is Nownownow?
Nownownow is a database of /now pages in a searchable format. Basically, create a /now page on your blog then submit a request with Derek Sivers at Nownownow as per their about page. There is a questionnaire involved and what seems like a somewhat manual process. When you are done your /now page will be added to their database.
As the about page says
Browsing nownownow.com is only interesting because you get a glimpse into people’s lives and how they focus.
It isn’t about businesses or advertising, just finding other people’s /now pages. So sort of like the old school internet services before all the money flooded in. I like this aspect of it, and the simple UI takes me back to those older, simpler times as well. I’d like to complete the questionnaire and get a sense how enrolment works, but for now my examination is purely theoretical as I don’t have my own /now page to register yet.