An "easy onramp" to cross-platform decentralised collective intelligence with credible exit.
(You're reading a draft post, published using the permanent versions pattern, where I publish a string of versions as I develop my thoughts in the hope of collecting constructive criticism and ideas along the way. Version control and links to the latest and previous versions are in the footer.)
key points
- integrated, user-friendly platform combining existing, OS tools in the areas of
- local-first web publishing & collaboration
- tools4thought
- ATProtocol, ActivityPub, RSS, & email protocols
- without lock-in:
- the platform acts as an on-ramp—a simple starting point for newcomers
- but with credible exit paths so users can later swap in alternative tools, self-host, innovate, etc
- all OS
- explore & demonstrate viable business models on the ATmosphere:
- For creators: premium newsletters, notes and collaborative spaces, possibly AI-based services (exploratory)
- designers: themes, templates
- developers: tools for thought plugins, site types
- MyHub itself: shared revenue with above
watch the 10min video
This is unlisted, please do not share without copying me in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfX1-T96QXA
Lightly edited transcript
Decentralised collective intelligence on atproto - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfX1-T96QXA
- what I'm trying to do is put together a few OS tools which can integrate personal web publishing with tools for thought and the AT protocol.
- the world is full of open- source tools and only a very small proportion of the world's population are going to download a bunch of different tools, go to GitHub, install servers and and link all this together. So in addition to this I want to create an integrated platform which makes it really easy for new users who don't know what Obsidian is, doesn't know what AT protocol is, makes it easy for them to get started
- it will also demonstrate revenue because this integrated platform will have a premium model and will provide opportunities for a wide range of people to actually create revenue.
- But is going to be an integrated platform with credible exit. Essentially the this platform is going to link together the tools we're going to develop but in such a way that any user at any time can swap out any of these components and use an alternative and provide this as a completely open ecosystem.
- (01:37) my starting point is a website called MyHub.AI... but it's more than just hubs. It's blogs, it's websites, it's newsletters, as I will explain in the next few minutes.
- (01:59) Now, like a lot of people who read a lot and create a lot of content online, I've got a pipeline: a workflow for tackling the firehose of content coming at me.
- Simplified, it's Inboxes, reading queue, private library and public site... the public facing edge of this thinking and writing stack,
- I want to
- connect this to the rest of the atmosphere using proto. (02:52) So the public site, that content would be stored on a PDS, which would mean that anybody following this writing stack would get stuff coming out onto my public site into their inbox.
- But I also want my inbox to follow other people, whether they be publishing on Blue Sky or sending out a newsletter or maybe I can grab an RSS feed.
- (03:18) So I want good content coming into my content pipeline at one end and my content coming out the other end.
- I also want to invite friends into my library to collaborate on content because we have too many blogs and not enough wikis and collective intelligence benefits enormously if people can collaborate on content to say not just this is what I think but this is what we think and this is where we agree and where we disagree.
- (03:47) I've wanted this for a long time... but then along comes the AD protocol. And along comes a technology called groundmist, which is the last piece of the puzzle.
- Groundmist means you can have your files on your hard disk, your local files. (04:06) That's your private space. And you can have a personal sync server to push selected content to your PDS... you can publish it to different app views and you can also push it to via a content management system and publish your personal site, maybe a newsletter.
- So, what I want to have is I want the ability to pull in content from people I follow, whatever the way they publish it, and put it into my into my local files. (04:39) Because once they're in my local files, I can use a tool for thought on them, and I can invite people to collaborate on selected files with me.
- What's key to understand here is that this already exists (05:30) There are plenty of tools for thought which work on local files. So it's not a question of building a lot of new technologies. It's a question of connecting them together. Well, but once again, only a small minority of people are going to because you have to be a bit of a geek
- (05:59) What we actually need to do is create an onramp - a platform to help people into this world. So, let me come back to myhub.AI.
- Right now, myHub AI is my public site and it has a bookmarklet which allows me to curate and publish content onto my public site and that's it.
- I would like that bookmarklet to allow me to just add something straight to my reading queue or to create something but not publish it, put it into my library as a draft.
- (06:26) I want the reading queue and the library to be a basic online notemaking and writing tool. Nothing sophisticated for reasons I'll explain in a second, but something which a newcomer can find easy to pick up.
- I want the public site as I said before to store its content on a PDS and I want the system to allow the user to manage their digital identity or they can use a PDS and the digital identity which they store somewhere else.
- (06:56) I'd like there to be a whole marketplace of site templates - not just hubs but also blogs and newsletters and digital gardens and classic sites etc.
- And for each of these templates, there should be a marketplace of designs. I also want the users to be able to publish content via their public site and distribute it via activity pub and email. (07:25) This whole thing is cross protocol.
- And finally, I'll need some plugins or extensions to help people get their content into their reading queue.
- The critical point here is that this is looking like an integrated platform which usually means people are locked in but this has got credible exit paths.
- Remember it's for newcomers and once a newcomer says you know this basic online notemaking tool is a bit simple I'm going to export everything and I'm going to use Obsidian or some other tool because I know I can install GroundMist and get the content (08:02) onto my PDS
- In terms of hosting, obviously they can move their PDS anywhere else. They can change identity, no problem. That's inherent to the AT protocol.
- And when all of these things are completely independent of the platform, they're just plugins and extensions to sources of content.
- (08:24) So this is the basic idea. It's an on-ramp to a suite of efficient, easy to use collective intelligence tools that doesn't lock people into the platform, but allows them easy exit if they want to use better systems once they've outgrown the basic functionalities provided by the platform.
- Of course, succeeding here would not just create a successful business. (08:55) It would actually demonstrate that there are viable business models on the atmosphere.
- I like to think in particular about hubs on the atmosphere as a substack on steroids. the atmosphere provides the whole discovery and distribution and people can subscribe to a hub to get you know premium newsletters, premium posts, but also they'll get the origin story behind those original pieces of content, everything the creator read while researching and writing with their notes about it.
- (09:26) And maybe they can get a premium service to get access to the creator's private library - a collaboration space.
- I also have some ideas about having AIs owned by the users trained on their content to help them manage their content within their library. That's exploratory though and it turns off a lot of people. So I'm not really emphasizing it.
- (09:48) Designers and developers can develop themes and site templates and thinking tool plugins.
- And for myhub itself obviously it's
- content monetization with the creators on the site
- theme marketplaces and perhaps AI service provision although that's again is very exploratory.
- In essence myhub could generate revenue simply by helping content creators uh do what they need to do uh more productively and by helping some of them actually create revenue for themselves and being a partner with them on that.
- (10:21) These business models have already been proven elsewhere and I believe we can prove them on the atmosphere as well whilst maintaining the atmosphere's emphasis on credible exit and avoiding user locking.
Revision Notes
This is one of this wiki's pages managed with the permanent versions pattern described in Two wiki authors and a blogger walk into a bar…