When a truly free, censorship-proof, universally accessible, sustainable SAFE Network is up and running I want to see a wiki-type website and community which comprises all the fantastic features of the MediaWiki software, but which isn’t hampered by its shortcomings, including its tendency to form lobby-esque consensus communities that manage to foist their special interests onto the whole community and project.
In addition I want this website to be open to expansion and recombination in any direction: add all media ever published (even private communications and binary files for those who would wish to do that, for whatever reason) and organize it, make it searchable, index it.
I want this website to feature deep levels of customization, even to the extent that using one module instead of a different one for the same general purpose, might make it partially incompatible with other existing modules.
I want rfc-like standards that will have to compete with each other, perhaps carrying the quality of backward and upward compatibility, perhaps adhering to some existing standards, or not.
I want different models for user identity integrity to be tried, different models for conferring/earning trust. Models for giving out merit points based on activity and popularity and perceived authority.
I want to see competition between module-clusters with convenient translation tools for users wanting to jump from one to another or to gain full or partial access to another in addition to where they already have a membership. Of course, any module-cluster community may set up that no member may connect to module-cluster “Z”, even if that module-cluster provides all the tools for practically doing so. And indeed module-cluster “Z” may even devise a “secret” work-around making it, at least on the outset, possible to stealthily join them and at a later time transfer their full “basic user” identity (if such does exist). Perhaps people may have identities at different levels where those who choose one universal user identity, across all applications will receive the credits and trust becoming to such openness and transparency.
I’d love to see a framework ready for individuals to begin chronicling their local municipalities, local politics, the parties, the individual politicians, which again would trigger and encourage citizen journalism. And the same for companies, not just those which Wikipedia would deem “notable” and to any minuscule level of detail. And products, documenting individual products ,their quality, their market share, customer comments, media coverage, comparisons with competing products. And books and all other sorts of literature…
This would be a catalyst for so much human-to-human activity and community involvement!
Please people, make this happen!
[I originally posted this as My vision for a universal community and database website]