a Wikipedia for your life

June 13, 2012 3:19 PM

Cowbird.com is a simple tool for telling stories, and a public library of human experience, incorporating text, photos, sound, subtitles, roles, relationships, maps, tags, timelines, dedications, and characters. These are the Sagas so far.
posted by Potomac Avenue (8 comments total)

From the FAQ:

Why do you call it Cowbird?

We chose the name Cowbird to express the combined qualities of a cow and a bird.

Cows are slow, steady, and grounded, while birds are fast, free, and full of joy.

Most of the Internet — including websites like Facebook and Twitter — are all bird and no cow, while more traditional formats like novels and operas are all cow and no bird.

Cowbird combines these two extremes to form a new kind of storytelling medium — mixing the slow, deeply rooted, contemplative idea of a cow with the fast, efficient, playful idea of a bird.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:26 PM on June 13, 2012

Cowbirds are brood parasites, so that's perhaps an unfortunate name choice.
posted by Pyry at 4:32 PM on June 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

15 links to the same site seems a little over the top. It is certainly well put together, like the love child of Myspace and Etsy.
posted by anigbrowl at 4:43 PM on June 13, 2012

Over the top? *turns cap backwards*
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:50 PM on June 13, 2012

But aren't real-life cowbirds lazy and not very nice?
It's true that real-life cowbirds are not the nicest. They are "brood parasitic", meaning they lay their eggs in other birds' nests. However, this lack of commitment to child-rearing also frees them up to travel widely, have lots of sex, and make many babies, so, evolutionarily, they are remarkably effective and not lazy at all! In North America, cowbird populations are exploding.
With this Cowbird, you get to be the cowbird, and we'll be the nest. You lay your eggs (stories) in our nest (website), and we'll do the job of housing and raising your stories. We'll nourish, connect, and preserve them, and we'll help many people see them. Cowbird frees you from having to build a nest (website) for your stories. We'll do that for you, so you can travel more widely, have more sex, and make more babies and stories! :)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:50 PM on June 13, 2012

Thanks! I'll use this as an example for my high school writing students.
posted by kneecapped at 7:55 PM on June 13, 2012

from wikipedia:
The cowbird will watch for when its host lays eggs, and when the nest is left unattended, the female will come in and lay its own eggs. The female cowbird may continue to observe the nest after laying her eggs. If the cowbird egg is removed, the female cowbird may destroy the host's eggs.[1]

so i guess if they delete my stuff on their site, i get to erase all of theirs?
posted by fuzzypantalones at 10:21 PM on June 13, 2012

It's a cool site I'd not seen before, some good stories and I've only just scratched it.

Thanx for posting.
posted by dancestoblue at 10:29 PM on June 13, 2012