The best answer I've heard so far to Question #1 is here said by katakowsj: "Hubski is an online pub with creative and thoughtful people belly-up at the bar of reason and sanity." But that's not really descriptive. I had a little trouble understanding what hitention was and how it is used. My guess is that like hubski or linkedin, you have to go there, to your page/feed to see new trends. "h!tention is the Social Trend Board Service to collect the trend to share that you have found on the Web page." - following that model, one could say that "Hubski is an aggregation of articles and discussion posted by a thoughtful community. It has also been called and online pub ... etc."
Nah. I didn't mean anything morbid about it. "Belly-up" being more of a colloquialism for an individual pulled up to a bar. I suppose I was intending to convey Hubski as a location for intelligent, rational social discourse. As I see it from my perspective, Hubski, due to following other users, offers a social accountability in idea sharing that I've never before experienced online. We are all free to make asinine and hurtful replies to one another as long as were willing to accept the resulting changes in our followers or shares. On Hubski, users are tied together via positive interaction. There are no other social obligations. Hubski offers habitat for creative ideas to roam and grow as they become self-supporting.