communication update

[ahdinosaur]

@simontegg and i have explored more of our vision for OpenApp, so we need to publish some docs (such as the README in this repo) to reflect this.

[ahdinosaur]

document in progress. message for edit privileges.

[jdaviescoates]

I'd like edit privileges please josef@uniteddiversity.com

[jdaviescoates]

In the meantime I'll say here that I much prefer the description in the current README to what is so far proposed in that doc! :P

[jdaviescoates]

i.e. I think "a suite of of integrated and open sourced apps which support transparent, democratic and decentralised organising" is much clearer/ better than "a global village networking set - a suite of modular open source tools to seamlessly connect you with your community and other organizations around the world."

"a global village networking set" just wouldn't mean anything to most people imho.

Still, having just skim read the rest of the document (I posted the above comment based only on the first sentence!), it is a useful nice read if only to know better where you are coming from @ahdinosaur :-D (I'm assuming you've penned most of it? or perhaps it was @simontegg ? :) )

[simontegg]

Thanks @jdaviescoates. I'll kill the 'global village networking set'. I'm borrowing that kind of language from Opensource Ecology with whom I'm sure you're familiar.

A key message that we're trying to communicate is that OpenApp puts groups and people at the centre with the Giant Global Graph as the binding glue, rather than platforms. We don't want to come across as just another platform.

Because people are so familiar with platforms and 'platform integration' (i.e. 'Facebook integration' 'twitter integration') this is challenging. Platforms are so pervasive and dominant that its sometimes difficult for people to think of alternative ways that the web could be organised. Words like , 'suite of integrated...' suggest 'platform' to me and that is why I'm messing with what was a clear headline phrase.

[ahdinosaur]

thanks for the feedback @jdaviescoates! i added you as an editor, so feel free to collaborate with us. :)

as @simontegg said, we want some way to communicate our desire for systems centered on protocols over platforms, in particular protocols that focus on our identity (as a person and as members of groups) and our linked data (local and federated). without these inter-app protocols, great social projects become yet more silo'd platforms.

then we have ideas for a modular javascript stack that is simple and composable, with the intention to make it easy to create modules, where the most common functionality is automatic and inter-app-ability is baked in.