Press Release Summary: Challenging the dictionary by redefining what words can mean, The Big Word Project - www.thebigwordproject.com - has captured the imagination of bloggers all over the world. The project has attracted thousands of visitors and sold over 5,500 words so far.
Press Release Body: Challenging the dictionary by redefining what words can mean, The Big Word Project - www.thebigwordproject.com - has captured the imagination of bloggers all over the world.
Only three days after it launched, the collaboration by two Masters students studying at the University of Ulster, Belfast, grew exponentially after popular blog, daringfireball.net, featured the project. Paddy Donnelly and Lee Munroe both graduated with first class honours in Interactive Multimedia Design in 2007 and have used this project to pay off their student debts and showcase both their talents.
Paddy says, \"We had to sit up all night answering emails when it first appeared on Daring Fireball. We were getting so many suggestions for words to add to the website that we just couldn\'t keep up with it\".
Lee says, \"It\'s essentially a dictionary which has been given a clean slate. The definitions have been removed and they are up for grabs to whoever wants to redefine them. Our dictionary does not have traditional definitions, the words are defined by people\'s websites. Say you have a site about eggs, then you could buy the word \'egg\' and point it towards your egg site. Your site will then be the new definition on The Big Word Project and when people click on your word they will be taken to your site.\" The project has proven extremely successful since its launch on February 25th and with almost 6,000 words sold at $1 per letter, the two students have been able to pay off their student debts.
People have been choosing words that mean something special to them and linking them to photographs on Flickr, whilst companies like Lego, BBC, Channel 4 and MGM have been snapping up words related to their businesses. Paddy: \"Some of the more interesting words are Raccoon, which links to a website dedicated solely to Raccoons and Idiot, which links to George Bush\'s page on Wikipedia.\" Lee: \"We\'ve been really surprised by how successful it has been. We knew it was a good idea and we worked really hard on the concept but we never thought it would take off the way it did.\"
Paddy, a web designer, is currently researching Viral Marketing, looking at how information is spread through word of mouth particularly on the internet and how certain things can become phenomena overnight. Lee has been freelancing in web design and development for several years and is now concentrating his studies on web usability and web applications.
\"We wanted a project that would explore our new skills that we have developed on our Masters course - combining viral marketing with web applications. One day we thought \'Why don\'t we just sell the words of the dictionary?\'\" says Lee. \"The site was built with Ruby on Rails, which made it easier to rapidly develop and deploy the application as opposed to conventional languages like PHP. And we wanted a fresh, clean, user friendly site, which is reflected in the minimalistic design\". Paddy says \"The project is aimed at website owners who wish to have a specific word associated with them, but you can also link to your Bebo, Myspace or Facebook page if you do not have a website.\" It has become quite popular recently to buy the words as gifts for other people, linking to their website, Bebo page or a Flickr photograph. The students continually update their blog at blog.thebigwordproject.com which follows all the most interesting words and websites bought, any press the project gets and other news. The Big Word Project also has a Twitter feed following all its progress: www.twitter.com/bigwordproject.
In it\'s first week the project sold over 2,000 words and continues to be featured on hundreds of blogs all over the Internet. Paddy and Lee have recently been interviewed for WIRED magazine about the highly successful project. Why not visit www.thebigwordproject.com and search for a word that means something to you. The words are going pretty fast so get your word soon! Take your word for it.
2025
