What tools does anthropologist use?

Is there value in a "tools we use" website?

• I cringe a bit asking this community for feedback on an "idea for a social network" but perhaps harsh, indifferent, or constructive feedback will move this to the next step, or to my personal deadpool. I love learning about the tools smart people use to build things. This applies to virtually any pursuit (Science Channel: How It's Made), but in this particular case I'm thinking about the software people use to be productive. Here is a great example: http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2009/10/30/tools/ What I'm imagining for an individual user is a profile page for publishing structured-data, roughly equivalent to the example from Balsamiq The tools you use to be productive, why you use them (features, other) and how you use them (methods). Pretending the chicken-and-egg issues have been solved, and there is a community. Following would add value by mediating the discovery of new solutions through the profiles of friends. Another opportunity to add value would be thru the API of complimentary services like Get Satisfaction (http://getsatisfaction.com/developers) Crowdsourcing lifehacker? Welcome any comments. I'm aware of http://osx.iusethis.com/ which IMO has the parent > child setup: tools > people This new website would test the utility of: people > tools

• Answer:

  I think it will be interesting to have a website where users and/or companies will have profiles with tools they use to get their job done listed. If you have a tools categorized, then you can show the Top/Best Tools per category based on the aggregate of the users responses. You can also add discussion component so that users can discuss pros and cons of the various tools.