We've just had this note in from Mike Dershowitz, which we reproduce in full...

I wanted to announce to you the launch of MonkeysTapping.com – a haiku poetry, collaborative writing, self-expression, writing game experiment.  Our  intent is to spur ordinary people – who might not otherwise be so inclined – to read, write, and share haiku, as a form of social interaction and self-expression. 

Users can enter their first haiku right on the home page.  They’ll be asked to sign up and become Author-Monkeys – a process that takes about 20  seconds, and then their haiku will appear at the top of the Newest Haiku tab.  After signing up, users will notice that all actions taken on the site earn Bananas and by clicking on the Top Monkeys tab, users will see the top 10 Author-Monkeys based on the number of bananas they’ve earned.

One of the unique features we think you'll be most interested in is that users can branch a haiku – in other words, create a new version of the haiku based on the first line (or first two lines) that a previous author wrote.  This feature makes it possible to create a virtually infinite number of haiku based on a single starting line. Just like monkeys tapping at a typewriter, we're harnessing the crowd-sourcing potential of the Internet to generate literature, in the form of a fun, slightly competitive, easy, yet intellectually stimulating game.

And, the community defines quality at MonkeysTapping.com where each haiku can be voted on by guests (Critic-Monkeys) and registered Author-Monkeys alike.  Users can see not only which haiku are getting recent votes, but  also which haiku have the most votes on the site.

So how about it... are you a Critic-Monkey, or an Author-Monkey? What kind of monkey are you? Thank you very much in advance!

Mike Dershowitz
Site-Monkey – for more details visit www.monkeystapping.com