Red Room, Network For Writers And Readers Alike, Goes Live

It’s arrived! And ahead of schedule, we see.

Earlier this week we received a memo sent by the CEO of Red Room, a writer-reader oriented online networking solution. The company head, Ivory Madison, conveyed some happy holiday wishes to the team here, and also mentioned that abovementioned site, which I myself spoke favorably of just a few weeks ago, had gone live.

And it’s as enjoyable as I’d imagined. Like all newly launched Web services, I first ventured to Red Room to get a good look at its graphical outline. Presentation matters, after all, and nothing is a more immediately engaging trigger than an item’s physical – or in this case, virtual – attractiveness. Which, in this writer’s opinion, the Red Room has in spades.

Despite its beta tag, Red Room is well crafted, both in appearance and its intuitive utility. The website gives the impression of professionalism. It’s well dressed. Various pieces are clearly delineated. Everything seems as it should be. All is pretty, all is elegant. Quality and distinction are exemplified through and through. And success in that respect is half the battle.

Furthermore, it’s a very inviting creation for fans of things literary, too. It’s not inflated or groomed to the point of being an exclusive, high-class venue. The proverbial welcome mat is laid. Sure, it’s elaborately woven and seems to be perfectly tended and clean, but the everybodies of the world are nevertheless granted entry. The door’s open, folks. Walk in at will.

Red Room is multifaceted in its design (graphically and structurally); in that it allows one to connected with various members, be they writers of a high and prominent caliber (Salman Rushie, Maya Angelou, Po Bronson, Khaled Hosseini, and Amy Tan are all present) or readers that have ‘til now chosen to maintain their adoration for the written word in anonymity and obscurity. It’s a melding pot, and though the theme is clear, the content and the conversations which encompass that content may be wide- and far-reaching. Limits are few.

I must say, as far as my personal preferences go, online social networks occupy a rather insignificant role. While I do occasionally maintain a LinkedIn account for business purposes, I’ve passed over the option to participate in the experiments of MySpace, Facebook, and the like. Why? Because, in short, they fail to offer much of substance. (A subjective view, for sure.)

Red Room, however, carries with it some measure of meaning. It brings the literary landscape – which, for many, is an arena tapped only as an observer through bookstores and public libraries – a touch closer to the reader; and vice versa. Via Red Room, one can consume a good amount of information, be it in the form of text, audio, or video, without ever creating a personal account.

And that’s exactly as it should be. That is precisely as readers and writers wish to ultimately have it. Because book nuts and the people who make them so are by nature browsers before buyers. In general, anyhow. There are always exceptions to rules that govern convention.

Of course, we all constitute buyers in the end. Which is why I suspect Red Room will make plenty of members out of its inquisitive visitors. Perhaps even devoted members, at that.

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