Why the Unfocus Group?
From Unfocusgroup.org
I got the idea for an unfocus group when my wife told me of an experience a few years ago at a focus group, where they were told to discuss a cheese-based snack. She was disappointed at the consensus shown within the group, and was made to feel like an outsider for trying to express a different opinion from the rest. I joked that if I ran a focus group, it would actually be an “unfocus group”, whereby people would be rewarded for expressing radical, unpopular opinions. It's often the unpopular opinions that are the most truthful and underlying.
The Unfocus Group is hence a resource for social misfits of all persuasions, who feel that they could run the world better, if only others would ever listen. The launch of the Unfocus Group represents the start of the rise of the misfits!
Why not a forum?
One might think that a forum might serve the purpose better. However, the problem with a forum is that ideas cannot be collated and categorised. With a forum, entries are sorted temporally and generally not edited. There may be a better way of doing forums, and indeed many forums contain a few "sticky" notes at the top for frequently-asked questions etc, but no forum has ever come close to being a catalogue of ideas.
The unfocus group hopes to become some form of debate through editing of pages. One can add ideas or critiques to different parts of the page as appropriate, or split things off into sections. This should be freeform enough to allow novices to enter ideas.
