These days, thanks to the web, public figures are becoming even more accessible. Blogs, Facebook pages, websites and more recently Twitter are giving adoring fans the instant and sometimes very personal access that they crave. Taking advantage of the new Twitter revolution is Kommons, a new online Q&A platform.
Q&A platforms have been becoming more popular with sites like Quora used by a wide variety of audiences even on the enterprise level and including legal firms. Recently, Facebook is getting in on the act with Facebook questions but this space is not without pitfalls (anyone remember Ask Jeeves?). However Kommons has a bit of a unique take to online Q&A and is focused on getting responses from public figures using Twitter.
This new platform is overlaid on Twitter as you sing in using the Twitter Oauth system. You can choose to ask or follow questions which are tweeted out and tracked through the site. The twist is that Kommons tries to create enough public pressure to get the subject in question to answer. Recent answers have come from Clay Shirky, Jay Rosen and even Jeff Jarvis but no twitter big hitters as of yet (think @Stephenfry or @ladygaga).
Some say it’s a bit of a bully tactic but you could look at it as another crowd sourcing tool. How anyone makes money out of this is yet to be finalised but as with most web 2.0 startups – success comes with a critical mass of users and that can take a while to get going
