One of the current 31 “What if Des Moines…” questions on whatifdesmoines.com.
What if the Silicon Prairie was home to Twitter?
Is that a crazy question? Quite possibly. Does it spark discussion? Most definitely. And that’s just what Scott Kubie (a.k.a. Scott Rocketship), a senior product designer at BitMethod, set out to do with the website “What if Des Moines…“.
Thanks to our sponsor
“I was halfway through my shower Monday morning when I had an idea for a website,” Kubie said in a personal blog post on Saturday. “I called it ‘What if Des Moines…’ and had a Tumblr site and my first post added not long after.”
As of this afternoon, the site poses 31 questions, and as of Friday it had received nearly 3,000 pageviews.
“The purpose of the site was to create a space where people could get really imaginative about their city,” Kubie said. “I also wanted to create a safe place to ask difficult questions and generate discussion around those ideas.”
While some questions are whimsical, “What if Thunderbird from the X-Men never died … and lived in Windsor Heights?” Others approach more serious questions, “What if Des Moines decriminalized marijuana?” Originally, Kubie supplied the questions, but he’s now posting reader submissions, as well.
The site has received more than 150 comments, with the question about a Mars Cafe in the downtown core attracting the most (13 comments).
In addition to spurring discussion in his own community, Kubie’s project has begun to do the same for other cities. Not more than 24 hours hours after launch, a look-alike site, “What if Cedar Rapids…“, appeared. “I have to admit that upon waking up to discover that site Tuesday morning, I was a little upset,” Kubie said. “That lasted about 30 seconds. I then realized how awesome it was and have been pumped up by it all week.”
A third site, “What Iffers”, has also emerged. The site links to, as you may have guessed, all the city-oriented “What if…” sites.
To learn more about “What if Des Moines …”, see Kubie’s blog post: “Week one: What if Des Moines…“
