Ubuntu Brainstorm Launches
Remember how Dell’s IdeaStorm site convinced Dell to preinstall Ubuntu? There’s now a similar website, called Brainstorm, for Ubuntu. Ubuntu Brainstorm provides the same organization as a bug tracker does for bugs, but for features.
Ubuntu users can create an account at Brainstorm to submit and vote up ideas that they would like to see in Ubuntu. Ideas that receive the most votes get attention on the front page. Using Brainstorm, developers can find what issues are most important to Ubuntu users.
The Brainstorm site is fairly simple, ideas can be sorted by most popular, latest, or by using an advanced search. The latest ideas page is currently useless as it is filled with spam.
It’s possible to attach forum threads, bugs, and blueprints to ideas. This allows Brainstorm to integrate with other sites to provide more information.
One interesting feature is the ability to promote ideas using an image that displays the number of votes. Clicking “Help promote it!” on an idea page will offer you HTML code to embed a image that will update to show the current number of votes. Here’s an example:
Have ideas for Ubuntu? Create a Brainstorm account to get started.
[update] Brainstorm has received a significant update. It’s now possible to sort by popularity for today, this week, this month, and all time. Category browsing is available also.
Archived Comments
rrwhite
We’ve built something similar, called UserVoice, that enables any company or community to have a tool like this, but we do a little more to create a market around good ideas rather than just letting everyone vote everything up.
You can check out UserVoice and request your own page (we’re in semi-private beta) at http://example.uservoice.com.
A UserVoice page would also make sense for your “Request a Post” section. Let me know if you’d like me to hook that up.
Asa
There are more images that aren’t on the promotion page.
On the image you posted, if you change the 1 to a 3 you get this image:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/37/image/3/