Intersect PTP, Inc.

In response to some great feedback from you — our beta users — Intersect has rolled out a new feature: autoposting on Twitter!

You can now set up your Intersect account so that, when you publish a new public story, a link to the story automatically appears in your Twitter stream. (The autoposting feature won’t affect your old public stories.) You can also integrate your Intersect account with Flickr, so that you can import your Flickr photos directly into your stories.

To connect your Intersect account to Flickr or Twitter, click the Account link in the upper right corner of the Intersect site. At the Account page, click edit to the right of “CONNECTIONS”; then click Connect and follow the onscreen instructions.

(Note: You can revoke Intersect’s access to Flickr or Twitter at any time by clicking “Disconnect.”)

We hope you enjoy the new Twitter connection!

– David H and the Intersect team

Will you be at Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall this Saturday? If so, Intersect and The Washington Post want to help you share your rally stories with the world.

Intersect stories that happen at the time-and-place intersection of the Rally for Sanity will appear in a live, monitored feed on the Washington Post website. Want to share your story? Read on to learn how.

How can I start an Intersect account?

Intersect is still in beta, so you’ll need an invitation code to start an account. For a limited time, you can go to our home page and use the invitation code washingtonpost to join. Just enter the code under the words “Want to join our beta?” and press the green Sign Up button. Then follow the instructions.

I started an Intersect account. Now what?

Intersect stories are more interesting and credible if readers know a little bit about you, so you’ll probably want to add a profile photo and a tagline. Telling a story or two about interesting moments in your life will give readers an even better sense of who you are when they browse your life storyline. If you’d like to learn more about using Intersect, you can go to our help site.

So how do I write a good Intersect story?

Intersect stories can be long or short, serious or funny, public or personal. Most good Intersect stories have photos or video attached. We’re guessing there will probably be a lot of great visuals to post from the rally. At our help site, you can learn more about creating a story.

I’m going to the rally. How do I participate?

You don’t have to wait until the rally to get involved. You can start sharing stories on Intersect right away. We’d love to see stories about your rally preparations, your travel plans, your memories of other rallies, or whatever else is on your mind. Stories that are set outside the time-and-place intersection of the rally will appear on Intersect, but not on The Washington Post.

If you attend the Rally to Restore Sanity and want to share a story about it, be sure to enter the time when the story happened, and the place where it happened — the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Also, you’ll need to publish the story publicly. The Washington Post will display rally stories through 7 p.m. EST Monday.

Are there guidelines concerning the content that I publish?

At Intersect, we value responsible, respectful stories that represent diverse viewpoints. We encourage you to share your thoughts and experiences with the community. We will, though, adhere to the Washington Post’s user discussion guidelines when monitoring stories. We’ll take down any stories that violate these guidelines.

What if I’m not at the National Mall, but I’d still like to write about the rally?

We’d love to hear your take on the rally, even if you can’t attend. Maybe you went to one of the affiliate rallies around the country, or you followed the event from home. Whatever your perspective, feel free to share your stories!

Just be sure to include the actual time and place of your story (and be careful not to post a home address; a neighborhood or home city is just fine). We can’t accept stories tagged as having taken place at the National Mall if they didn’t actually happen there.

Stories published beyond the intersection of the Washington D.C. Rally for Sanity will appear on Intersect, but not on the Washington Post site.

Happy storytelling!

– David H and the Intersect team

Today The Washington Post announced that it will display content from Intersect users as part of its coverage of the Rally to Restore Sanity taking place this Saturday on the Washington Mall. We love The Washington Post’s commitment to world-class journalism and civic engagement, and we’re thrilled to be working with them on this project.

Our goal with Intersect is to provide a place where people can share stories and perspectives that inform, inspire, or entertain and that become part of a larger connected fabric of people’s shared experiences. This is possible because Intersect stories are placed at easily discoverable intersections of time and place, and because they also appear on storylines that can be browsed chronologically.

Katharine Zaleski, Executive Producer and Head of Digital News Products at The Washington Post, said of our collaboration, “At The Post we’re committed to finding new and innovative ways to present content, get readers to engage with and participate in storytelling. We’re excited to be among the first to work with Intersect to offer a new way to interact with our coverage and experiment in the next phase of how stories are told.”

So if you’re attending the rally on the mall, we hope you’ll join Intersect (it’s free) and participate by sharing your own photos, videos and stories. For the rally coverage, The Post will be pulling Intersect content that has been contributed to the intersection of time and place (Saturday at the Washington Mall) where the event is happening.

The stories you contribute will appear on your Intersect storyline, which is chronological. This will let people see who you are, and what else you’ve written.

Because Intersect is still in invitation-only beta, you’ll need an invitation code to participate.  You can either contact us at betarequest@intersect.com or, for this week only, a limited number of people can use the code “washingtonpost” to join. Once you’ve joined, you’re in—and can tell stories for as long as you want, about any time and place.

Because we want to make this a positive experience for everyone, the guidelines we’ll be using to decide whether a story should go into the Washington Post feed this weekend are the same ones that The Washington Post uses for other reader-generated content.

All of us here on the Intersect team are excited about the contributions Intersect users can make to this project. Over the longer term, we’re also excited about the many ways Intersect stories and posts can help the communities and places we all care about. So participate, have fun, respect each other, and start Intersecting!

Peter Rinearson
Founder and CEO, Intersect

(Photo by ginnerobot on Flickr)

Believe it or not, Teddy Roosevelt, Donatella Versace, Little Miss Sunshine and an Oompa Loompa all have something in common.

At one point or another, Tassoula has dressed as them for Halloween.

Tassoula, one of Intersect’s most active beta users, has been posting photos on her storyline of the Halloween costumes she’s donned over the years, and we have to say — we’re impressed (especially with the diaper astronaut outfit. How did you even think of that?!).

In addition to being a crafty costume designer, Tassoula is a trend setter. Beta user Madeline Moy posted a couple of her own Halloween highlights after seeing Tassoula’s costume collection (that’s some serious Hulk, Mrs. Moy!), and pretty soon, a bunch of us Intersect staffers got into it. Now we know Nadja was a wind-up doll, Jason was the devil, and Bob? Our capable program manager once dressed as a bottle of Homer’s favorite Duff beer.

Now it’s your turn

With Halloween just around the corner, we figured we’d toast Tassoula’s trend and commemorate our collective Halloween histories with a storyline — Halloween Costume Favorites.

Got some good costume pics to share? Post them on your Intersect life storyline at the time and place you wore them and we’ll add them to Halloween Costume Favorites (feel free to tag the storyline as a participant to give us a heads-up).

Dress to impress! The costume story that gets the most “thanks” from Intersect users will get a special shout-out just in time for Halloween.

But beware the costumed canines! Maddie the pea pod is barking up some stiff competition

– Moni

On Friday, the Intersect team welcomed a new member to the team, our new COO Cherrie Tripp.   Cherrie Tripp, a lawyer by training, was previously Director of a key Finance and Strategy team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and before that held senior posts at NCR and on the worldwide licensing team at Microsoft.

I got to know Cherrie when I was at the  Gates Foundation and we worked together on issues surrounding the implementation of Warren Buffett’s historic gift.  (It turns out it’s not that easy to absorb and implement a gift of that magnitude:-)

I love Cherrie’s generous spirit and her expertise in finding creative solutions to tough problems.  I also love that she knows well the worlds of software and philanthropy, and is keenly interested in helping to make Intersect a vibrant, entertaining site where we can learn from one another and engage in ways that help foster community.

Welcome Cherrie!

- Monica