While sitting here in one of Santa Fe’s interesting eateries, I began thinking back to the early days of Hi.co, two years ago to be exact. From the beginning, lots of people (though not millions or even thousands) were regularly involved, some with serious writerly ambitions, others more on the photographic end of the spectrum. I have particularly enjoyed those members who focused on a theme, like architecture, or movies, or friendship, or travel, or even blogish entries on today’s office, today’s coffee, today’s walk, or today’s sunrise.

Craig Mod’s recent “The Beerman Sleeps” (topic: café views) is a model for this sort of sketch: focusing on a favourite café while also touching on his own intellectual work, the vagaries of human nature and human behaviour, the weather, and so on. The mood is light, though perhaps not light-hearted, and the author is not afraid of an interesting turn of phrase.

I am a little worried that Hi.co seems a little too various in its daily offerings without really providing us with any structured way to access topics that we might like to pursue further. New opportunites to explore our collective oeuvre would be welcome. Also, I would like for members to be given a little more control in designing their own ‘home pages’ in a way that allows, or even encourages, connected sketches and ongoing projects or series. And I wouldn’t mind if members had the ability to share interesting comments that other members have made on their sketches.

Anyone else who has ideas for improved functionality might utilize the Hi.co topic to air new possibilites.