What do I FIND in Gemzies.com?

Gemzies pages provide a structured overview of the best sites, videos, pictures, news and books on a single topic. The entries on Gemzies-pages are added by you, our users. And based on your votes and reviews, the entries on each page, and within each category, are "ranked" up or down.

Gemzies.com provides tools to easily search, browse, fine tune, and expand starting-pages. In future, we plan to add additional content types like podcasts or documents and we plan for tools to promote your Gemzies pages to others.

To quickly judge the "quality" of a Gemzies page, it will be ranked with an overall quality indicator, ranging from 1 to 5 Gemzies. These Gemzies are earned based on e.g. the number of active contributors, the average rate of entries by fellow experts, etc.

Since contribution to Gemzie pages is voluntarily, we expect pages on topics that people share a passion for to be published first, e.g. music artists, sports clubs, expertise areas, etc.

Gemzies will most probably not help you to find a nearby pizza-restaurant. Keep using Google for that type of searches. And since we are a serious initiative, we do remove abusive, offensive, or clearly commercial content.

How can I CONTRIBUTE to a Gemzies-page?

There are a couple of ways you can contribute to a Gemzies-page:

• You can rate every entry on any particular Gemzies-page by clicking on a "score" of 1 to 5 Gemzies for that particular entry. Every visitor can rate entries.
• You can add your personal reviews to any entry on a particular Gemzies-page.
• You can add your personal tags to an entry.
• You can comment on the reviews (or tags) of others.
• You can add new entries to a Gemzies-page. These entries can cover sites, videos, photos, news, and books.
• You could even start a new Gemzies-page.

You need to have an account in order to add your reviews, comment on the reviews (or tags) of others, add new entries, or create new Gemzies-pages.

Gemzies uses your contribution not only to expand existing Gemzies-pages, but also to improve the structure of a page, e.g. by improved tagging of an entry, based on your comments on tags of other contributors.

How I can START a new Gemzies-page?

Check the search option on our homepage first; "your" page might have been started already by someone else!

Use the button on gemzies.com. At first, you will have to enter a title to your new page, e.g. newyorkyankees.gemzies.com. Gemzies will automatically check if any pages exist with similar (or nearly similar) titles.

Adding initial content to your page is a simple process: we provide you with an easy to use wizard to create a new Gemzies-page. Based on the title of your page, the wizard will guide you through a stepwise process. In this process, the wizard will hand you with suggestions for a first list of 10 sites, videos, photos, RSS feeds and books on "your" topic (powered by Google). Of course, you could skip these suggestions and add your own specific entries manually. This is exactly the point where your expertise starts coming in!

Once you have completed these first entries, your page is ready to be published! Remember that, in order to get some traction to your page, it is essential to notify your fellow fans or experts on your new page. We provide you with a simple "notify" function to do so, the rest is up to you!

From Beta stage onwards, you can even start a new Gemzie page, on any topic. If you like to get involved in our planned private Beta release, please send us a short email containing name, planned topic(s) for a Gemzie page, and short motivation to feedback@gemzies.com.

How can I INTERACT with my fellow experts?

Gemzies provides several ways to interact with your fellow experts:

• Every expert can provide public and private contact details upon signing up to Gemzies. If you want to interact with fellow experts, you could use the "public" contact details to start conversations via e.g. MSN, Skype, etc.
• You can discuss and comment on the reviews of your fellow experts. The comments will be displayed on the Gemzies-page, and in the personal "my activity" section of every expert
• You can also easily start tracking new entries or reviews entered by specific experts. You can do so via the "profile" page of the specific expert. So if you do note an interesting expert out there, just click the "track" option on his/her profile.
• Similarly, others can track your contributions if they use the "track" option on your profile.

We have planned for additional features in the near future, to further support the online community of Gemzies experts, e.g. personalized RSS, discussion forums, etc. We are keen to understand your ideas on most useful features in a next release, please send them to feedback@gemzies.com.

WHAT'S in it for me?

Gemzies does not have a revenue share program either, unlike many other Web 2.0 initiatives that rely on the quality of the input of their user community.

We strongly believe, however, that our experts can "profit" from a high ranking in the list of most valuable experts on a specific Gemzies-page. How you could profit is entirely up to you, but is always indirect. You could e.g. start a Skype-premium service on "your" expert-topic and provide online consult. Or you could refer to your Gemzies-ranking when you negotiate your consulting rate...be creative!

You end up higher in our lists of favorite experts & fans on any topic, if:

• you create new Gemzies-pages that become popular among a large group of fellow experts
• you send in lots of high quality entries for any Gemzies-page
• you add reviews -or improved tags- to entries previously added by others
• these entries receive a high average "rate" (1-5 Gemzies) from your fellow experts

How do I SIGN UP for Gemzies?

Well, that is simple: use the "sign up" button on the left side, or sign up via our homepage www.gemzies.com.

We are looking forward to your contributions to Gemzies. If you do have any questions, please send them to feedback@gemzies.com. If you want to share your ideas on future features, or if you want to report abuse, please send your note to feedback@gemzies.com.