Crowdsourcing the world’s hidden wonders 🌎 Jonathan Carey, Atlas Obscura

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EPISODE AT A GLANCE:

GUEST: Jonathan Carey

COMMUNITY: Atlas Obscura

HOSTS: Bailey Richardson & Kevin Huynh

We really lean all the way in for our community so they can feel that they're working with somebody and not working for us.
- Jonathan Carey

Show Notes

Atlas Obscura is one of the few community-driven travel platforms.

The site focuses on the hard-to-find wonders and oddities of the world, from a church with Frederic Chopin’s heart in Poland to an abandoned Eurostar train covered in graffiti in France, to the Ottoman Bird Palaces (yes, ornate mansions for birds!) hiding in Istanbul. All of the 20,000+ discoveries are sourced by their community and published in partnership with “A.O.” staff editors.

Jonathan Carey is Associate Places Editor and Community Headmaster at Atlas Obscura, editing the places people submit and jumping into the forums to encourage conversation. He has developed an eye for spotting what suits the “A.O.” voice and can guide community submissions to the site so they fit the Atlas Obscura lens.

In this episode we talk with Jonathan about capturing and supercharging contributors enthusiasm by designing around natural instincts and treating contributors like staff members.

While you’re listening, keep an ear out for four insights from Jonathan:

1. Designing around a community’s organic purpose.

You can’t force enthusiasm. Atlas Obscura is successful because people naturally want to talk about their travels. They don’t have to force those conversations, they just create spaces where people can share their discoveries and experiences with like-minded people who can appreciate them.

*Photos from Atlas Obscura’s 2017 Great Forgotten Garden Party.*

2. Treating community members with a high standard of care.

Jonathan and his team treat contributors like they treat staff members–offering feedback on submissions, looping them in when they want to learn more about a place, sometimes even asking them to host events as experts. Team A.O. does this because they know their community members’ contributions are sacred to the site and its success.

*City Hall Station listing in NYC, once a lavished with fine architectural details, including glass tiles and large chandeliers that now lay abandoned.*

3. Stoking the A.O. community’s enthusiasm.

Atlas Obscura has a leaderboard that is constantly updated so community members can know how much they have contributed and feel proud of their efforts.
They also find ways to recognize and celebrate their most enthusiastic members. When the team received an email from a 7th grader who had made an illustration of an A.O. location while stuck at home due to COVID-19, the team supercharged her idea. They developed an interactive art and writing challenge , asking the broader community to draw a place they’d never visited before and submit.