Independent community project

Medium Talk

A conversation app I built for a public picnic I hosted through Meetup in a Baltimore park, helping strangers get to know one another.

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Three Medium Talk screens in an overlapping fan: a yellow picnic prompt on the left, the Medium Talk home screen centered in front, and a blue city prompt on the right. — A fan of three Medium Talk screens: the picnic arrival prompt, the central home screen, and a city conversation prompt.

The problem

Strangers meeting at a public picnic need a starting point for conversation. I hosted the event through Meetup in a Baltimore park and built an app to support getting to know one another.

My role

I organized the picnic and built Medium Talk to support conversation at the event.

Decisions and their purpose

An app built around conversation: Give people meeting for the first time a shared starting point.
A tool connected to an in-person event: Support the social setting I was organizing.

What was delivered

A conversation app, available at mediumtalk.org, built for the public picnic I hosted.

A closer look

Yellow Medium Talk prompt asking, What are you giving yourself permission not to do today? — A prompt designed to help picnic guests arrive, get grounded, and begin a real conversation.

Blue Medium Talk prompt asking, What is a way someone has loved or supported you that meant everything? — A city-specific prompt that gives strangers a generous, low-pressure opening question. I generated city-specific color schemes from colors commonly associated with each city, for 12 U.S. cities and 43 cities in total.

Have a similar project?

Have an idea that brings people together? Tell me about the setting and how software could help.

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