Mediaite’s First Offspring, Geekosystem, To Launch Monday, Jan. 25th

It’s hard to pinpoint the moment that the term “geek” stopped describing a carnival performer whose act featured biting the head off a live chicken and started describing an intellectual who is overly obsessed with things that, well, intellectuals overly obsess about. But recently, “geek culture” started to connote something even more — something cool, curious, and perhaps most importantly, something that can be really difficult to explain to those who don’t “get it.”

It is from this world that Mediaite founder Dan Abrams will be launching a new site covering geek culture on January 25th, aptly titled “Geekosystem.”

According to Abrams, “when it comes to Internet culture, readers already know where they can go for in-depth technology coverage or cool photos. Our goal is to create a broader interest site that will celebrate and cover everything from technology and science fiction to video games and comics.”

Geekosystem will delve into geek culture with reports and analysis on the myriad aspects of geekdom: from gadgets and video games to comic books and science fiction. The site will merge the content aggregation of popular web culture destinations with the editorial voice of the post-Web 2.0 generation of geek luminaries. The site will be top edited by Robert Quigley, who has proved to be a real standout among the ranks of Mediaite’s stable of contributors.

“Robert has been a star at Mediaite. Not only did he write the story that remains our most viewed post ever, but he is also one of the smartest people about the web that I have ever met,” says Abrams. “Oh, and he is a nationally ranked Scrabble player too, so he knows his words. . . even if they’re short ones.”

The site will be loosely modeled on Mediaite’s content structure — balancing aggregation, reporting and a power grid ranking, though the Geekosystem version will focus less on media types or personalities and more on geek heroes, concepts, and titles. Abrams: “If everyone can rank celebrities or businesspeople, why not do the same for Jules Verne? Or the guy who invented HTML?”

Mediaite is thrilled to have a new descendant, though we’re probably more eager to tease him and pull good-natured pranks. In fact – what’s that on your shirt GeekO? Got you! Welcome to the family!

Mediaite’s two other announced siblings, Styleite and Sports Grid, are expected to launch in late February or early March.

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