Everything's connected. Because life intersects where you least expect it.

You're probably a searcher of facts, of stories, and opinion. It's the reason you're reading this. You know where to go to extract the bits you want. But aren't you often stymied in your attempt to make wider connections, finding instead cookie-cutter forums, dead ends, and search engines posing as communities?

That's why culturecloud came to be. This neighborhood thrives on the idea that by assembling seemingly random pieces of knowledge and making them available to everyone, we're pushing into uncharted territory. That's because, if you come inside and use the tag clouds (click here to learn more about the Use of Clouds and Tags), you'll see that one notion never travels alone.

Let's say you start by digging into great trails in the California deserts, but on the way come across someone's essay about Joshua Tree. Before you know it, you're over in a discussion on U2 before wending your way back to the original question.

culturecloud connects people and facts the way your brain does: in several layers. For instance, its unique two-level "tagging" system allows you to dig deeper than simply get stuck on the name "desert." In this neighborhood, you plunge past that and into the broader associations - the way a real conversation would. And now, you know about Kivas, about T.E. Lawrence, and how the Sahara creeps up on oases every second.

This may seem random, but it might just be how ideas are meant to travel: freely.

LIFE IS SURPRISING. SO ARE WE.

Your ideas and passions are the foundation for culturecloud. Because ideas exchanged at the right time don't just change minds, they can change governments. culturecloud is where curiosity grows the more you find out. It's simple:

At culturecloud, you don't just view life from on high. You participate in a neighborhood you're helping to build from scratch. Ever wonder what real influence looked like? Well, you got it. Imagine something very much like a friend's kitchen on a late afternoon when two unexpected guests come in just as you're talking about a favorite subject. And, by now, you know how that goes.

START YOU UP? HERE'S HOW:

So how do you start? (click here to learn about Getting Started). By probing, reading, digging around for something you didn't even know you needed to find. That's real, human, intelligence. Try asking a simple search engine to help you with that, and you'll get 1,439 similar answers each time. Come visit often.

YOU DRIVE. WE WON’T.

You - and you alone - regulate what happens in your culturecloud world.

That's because every thought you have makes the site grow. Happy with someone's essay on Seamus Heaney? Talk about it. Disappointed in someone else's photo diary from the old Route 66? Post a better version. culturecloud is yours, no one else's. And it's built it that way for a reason. It's a place to speak your mind, to have your view challenged, to leave judgments behind and learn something.

Start connecting stray thoughts that all have a larger destination. Because once you visit, culturecloud makes only one promise: your ideas won't be lonely for long.

Bring yourself, your experience, your passion. Most of all, don't forget your voice. What you have to say matters, even if others have become cynical. Let culturecloud prove to you that it does.

Come inside.