The Listserve: What Happens When One Person Speaks To The World At A Time

If you could say something to a million people, what would you say? You probably already do speak to many people daily, if you're lucky enough to have hundreds or maybe just dozens of followers on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and just as many friends on Facebook. And I'm sure you always have a lot to say.

No offense, but is everyone really listening to you?

While you may think the most important thing for the world to know right now is that you made a mean apple pie (pictures included), your followers and online friends may have a different set of priorities, and as such, your apple pie photos get lost among the chaos that is the Internet.

But a group of students at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) graduate program are playing and experimenting with something pretty cool. They call it The Listserve.

So here's what happens. You subscribe on their website, just like any other listserv (there's a cute video on the homepage that you can distract yourself with before you subscribe). Each day, one person out of the vast list of subscribers is chosen to send an email to the entire listserv. Talk about pressure, right? Especially considering that the 11,000+ subscribers include people from all over the world, from Lithuania to Vietnam. No more does that apple pie you were dying to show everyone seem so great.

On the other hand, if you do happen to make a mean apple pie, feel free to let me know. I'm a sucker for a good apple pie recipe.

But what's the idea behind this online social experiment? According to co-creator Alvin Chang, a second year graduate student at ITP, the creators wanted to see how people could interact differently with an old medium - in this case, the "old medium" is email (isn't that weird to hear?).

There's something intimate about an email inbox, no? In an increasingly non-intimate world, an email seems like a personal letter to you, and only you, complete with scented stationary and your name handwritten on the front of the envelope. Of course, we all go through the daily ritual of cleaning and scrubbing out spam and junk messages. But giving someone your email address, as opposed to your Facebook ID or your Twitter handle, is like saying "Hey, I'm really interested to hear what you want to tell me. Let's talk in private."

So imagine sending an email just like that, except to a million people. Really, what would you say? All these people have signed up, wanting to hear you. Suddenly, you're in the spotlight, and the world is literally your stage.

Fortunately, the emails have already started coming in, and I love getting them. One of the first emails was from Emil Stenström, an interface developer from Stockholm who decided to use his bit of fame to preach the idea of "Everyday Action", and the power of making the little things in life exciting, rather than sitting and waiting for the next big adventure. Pretty powerful stuff, and a great way to start this potentially viral experiment. Writers also have the chance to include their contact information if they want to continue the conversation with the people they've reached, and according to Stenström, he's gotten over 90 replies in his inbox already.

Something weird is happening. After receiving that first message from Stenström, I looked him up (naturally), and found that a variety of other Listserve enthusiasts, blogs, and online news websites were talking about that first message they received as well - the same one, of course. All of a sudden, I imagine the entire world  at one moment in time, thinking of the same person, and their message. Obviously, The Listserve is only at 11,000+ subscribers. But imagine if it did really go up to 1 million? And beyond? These ITP students have found a way to get people to stop and listen, through the simple power of the inbox.

The Internet is vast, and the world is even more vast. But your email inbox is not.