43 things

This Salon article discusses a newish social networking website, 43 Things, where people can "post their goals, resolutions and grand designs, and meet others who share the same ambitions," an activity called tagging. (I didn't know you could reappropriate a term that means something else so culturally ubiquitous, but there it is.)

On 43 Things you state a goal, such as "write a novel." That immediately links you to all the other people who have the exact same goal. But you also attach tags to your goal -- essentially key words that you choose -- such as "writing," "novel" and "fiction." Tags are not selected from any pre-codified hierarchy set by the site designers. They simply arise from the grass roots -- you and others like you. Now you're suddenly connected to everyone with similar goals, such as "write a good novel" and "write a book and have it published" and "finish my novel."

Since I have a friend currently looking for mates to join her for a version of National Novel Writing Month, I could see this taking off.