Hello again it’s Troy the publisher of the email you would have received to arrive hear and hopefully after you have visited the about page. Its exciting that you have made it this far and that I have peaked your interest in Collabsake. Taken you would have red my email you should have a basic run down of the “Idea Competition”. If you haven’t here’s a linc………………A little bit of creative thinking is required by you the reader in this instance remembering this is all conceptual at this stage and this blog is a direction rather than a map. Everything about Collabsake will be built by and for the community. Essentially this website is nothing more than the very solid founding idea and some excellent building blocks to work with, from there it’s in the ability for all to see the vision.
The “Idea Competition” the jewel in Collabsakes crown. Remembering what we learnt about the competition lets unpack it a little bit. $1MILLION PRIZE, simple explanation= Big carrot for attracting participants. Obviously attracting participants is the key feature of said carrot but it’s what they do when they arrive and the impact it can have on auditing and enhancing society. The competition is veil for a community information platform or social media site, an alternative to the current formats. Current social media don’t need carrots they have dopamine algorithms that attract and maintain their audience. This is the unfortunate reality of social media to date, our titillated urges used to feed a beast that shows little regard for results of its feasting nature. It dose teach us though, attracting and harnessing attention requires reward for little effort. Our aim in providing a not for profit social media site hopes to negate the profit driven algorithm pitfalls and create a platform that functions in favor of community outcomes. I do believe with social media saturation there still remains a niche for a positive model with an ideas and cooperation ethos.
At this point I’d like to remind everyone I’m not an expert but the very actions I’m taking, in out lining this idea is the very format that Collabsake hoping to emulate. So it’s this example that we can use to imagine and indeed trial run Collabsake. Using me as the example, Troy Stewart has an idea. He’s aware that it’s unlikely to ever come to fruition. He lacks the resources and expertise to pull it off, so is discouraged from ever attempting what he thinks is a great idea. For the idea to work it can’t be profit based so lacks the motivation of the $$$. He is aware of a $1mil competition for community ideas. He enters said idea to the Idea Competition. The idea is now in the public domain giving it a potential life. If he has lodged it first, it is his idea exclusively with regards to the competition. The competition allows others to build upon his idea to improve his chance of winning and in that collaboration in accordance to the competition guide lines a share in the idea is negotiated if it were to win. The competition being annual he continues to try to build out his idea with the help of the public, he also contributes to other ideas and gets involved in discussions around ideas, putting in his two bob adding to the community consensus around ideas, for good or bad. Troy had no idea there was such community spirit and potential for community cooperation, he is buoyed by what he sees. Troy doesn’t win the competition but his idea came to fruition through its own impetus, the community is a better place for it and Troy is happy. awwh.
Through the crude explanation above what we want to have shown is, the world we live in doesn’t allow for the average citizen to venture out of their lane. There is little avenue for people to contribute to society if they don’t have the realistic means to inn-act an idea or thoughts with real world impact. There is a vast untapped resource of knowledge and insight that is begging to be utilized.
We want to visit the early potential of what social media posed in delivering an individual within a community the platform to address their core needs of certainty, variety, support, growth, contribution and connection through an information delivery system. Understanding how that early potential was hijacked by profit driven realities diverging from idealism down the path of entertainment. When it became evident we could be biologically manipulated by content to maintain and increase usage, social medias fate was sealed by the sheer power it could wield for profits and influence. It dose however still leave a niche to be filled of social media as an empowerment tool based in idealism through the lessons we’ve learnt. By steering away from dopamine based algorithms with profit motives, a new and effective way of content delivery must be devised.
With the aim of creating a social media site by the people for the people, Collabesakes intention is to partner with Victoria’s tertiary education system (VTES) in developing an avenue for societal collaboration. Through this partnership using the tools and means available through different VTES organizations and fields within their curriculum to do what is required to build out a social media site and any exigencies, that is based in idealism towards societal health as opposed to entertainment.
As a starting point the site would function similar to a forum format. Users could start a topic or follow topic stems. Where it would differ from the usual forum is user navigation. Existing navigational tools would be used like filtering, similar to what is used in real estate and car sales sites, by clicking what you are looking to filter for from the outset. Not limited to that other existing navigation tools similar to music and entertainment streaming sites would potentially will play a role too. There could be trending and top ten topics, both could be useful in allowing the user to dictate where they wish to browse or what they are trying to achieve. Alternatively there could be the option of algorithm based predictions for users based on previous searchers but as an opt in tool.
It is though the real estate/car sales style of filtering we wish to focus heavily on. It illustrates the practicality required to deviate away from being fed content that social media utilizes now, for more purpose driven browsing. The key feature for that browsing in setting us apart from other social media and information delivery sites is badges assigned to content. When a user uploads an idea or contributes to an existing idea they would attach badges to their content that would identify the purpose of the content. The aim of the badging system would give users a way of identifying the content they are looking for with out actually reading the content first. For example if if a user makes a contribution to an idea and attaches a “Grants ” badge then the content uploaded would include information or links pertaining to the original idea in relation to grants that may be relevant. Another example may be a “Philosophical” badge that indicates a philosophical view on content one has posted too. There would be badges for topics/field, environment, location and so on, anything to best identify the content at a glance. Having an extensive badging system provides targeted usage for a user. We would hope to provide a system that through filtering or at a glance, a user can identify with efficiency where they concentrate their time by being initially well informed to the purpose and information contained in the content. Using this badging system existing motivations and interests can be targeted.
Users would have profiles but not content based. Instead their profiles would show the sum of reactions to their contributions. What this means is when a user makes a contribution to the site there would be a series of reaction buttons for other users to click in response to the contribution. This would take form in something like the usual “like” and “dislike” features but there also might be, “love”, “genius”, “warning”,”progress” or “make happen” buttons to name a few, any thing to garner the character of the users contributions as a whole or on particular topics. This feature would act as mild censorship with users hopefully trying to protect the character and legitimacy of their profile. It would also tie into the filter system so users can peruse for example the most liked contributions on a topic. This would create a brain network system, that like our own brains, strengthens pathways allowing users to follow positive stems through the forum structure and increase efficiency in producing positive results.
The better the badging coupled with reaction buttons serves to increase the chances a user can navigate and contribute meaningfully with minimal effort. The goal being to provide a pre-content overview attached with the democratic sentiment towards it’s value. Not placing a limit on the amount of badges and allowing reactions to the badging and content, creators would create a true picture of the nature of content, thus improving the efficiency to quality of content and prevailing community sentiment.
One way of also understanding the concept of the Ideas Competition is as information advertising. The site would stand as a problem solving notice board. Where society as a hole if not to win the competition can sound out solutions out side of their field of expertise. Innovative solutions to problems aren’t always found in the barrage of information available. This platform would allow for business, government, students and think tanks to actively seek to problem solve. The example of government we envision that at some point that ideas put forward could be the ground work government policy. Ideas thrashed out in a democratic forum garnering real world feed back that politicians can use as backing. Politicians will tell you the best way to get reelected is to do nothing until they have too. An advanced society is proactive not reactive, so this is a game changer for momentum and would be a prime example of what the Community Entity is. A government cannot effectively have focus on everything at once, anytime the community can do the ground work in expectations and needs that lead to efficiency in development can only create greater governing. Imagine ideas from community/government/business that over years of community input detailing the pros, cons, road blocks, financing, law and interest creating momentum and vision in a way that is just not politically possible in four year terms. Same too with businesses and the like, if they used the site and offer the service that the public are speculating around, they have a direct link. We don’t just see the site as creating ideas but also in improving the collective community network. The Ideas Competition should be the first port of call in raising community issues to seek solutions and as an audit on community sentiment. It would also be a way of seeking information in general. If content is democratically verified AI can be programed around the consensus of the content as to it’s value.
We know from sites like Wikipedia and Reddit that there is an appetite for people to freely add content and help one another for the sake of it, this site is the next evolution. The true nature of what we’re trying to achieve here is providing as much information about content as possible. A Google search provides algorithm based results on the information in content and works well when searching the world wide web. We want to provide a secondary layer of a world wide web within a world wide web where information is browsed through auditing of information. If some one posts an idea fully badged it will be assess by other users and accordingly badged on a second level. If the idea is built upon the process will continue along a thread. Ideas could also be linked and evaluated to join threads of ideas. This also means a web site would not be uploaded to the ideas competition, if a content provider wishes to navigate a user to a web site they would provide a link in their badged content then the content(the link) would be scrutinized and evaluated in time as to the merit of the badging and content. This would be the system to which ideas are developed through badging and information content algorithms providing an efficient way of it being explored and existing solutions provided. We also imagine AI could be implemented for the purpose of asking is the a solution to something to indicate any or the best threads of ideas and links available as mentioned earlier providing the secondary layer world wide web.
We can’t emphasis enough just how powerful a tool this could be for community, with nothing in existence with the comparable scope for collaboration and potential in bringing about an advanced society. We want to dream big and see a small competition grow and imagine just what kind of amazing impact it could have on community if it reached anywhere near the influence the social media giants we all know have on society today.
Algorithms are genius in providing focused personalized content, this model we hope to create gives back the control of content that allows for freedom from pigeon holed titillated browsing. Viewing content based on leading information as to the quality of content, forces the cream to rise to the top. This is the formula for productive social media as apposed to entertainment, minimizing distraction and optimizing constructive cooperation.
The site will be based on a competition for an annual prize of $1m. for positive community ideas. A lot of water must go under the bridge but the combination of a cash incentive coupled with optimistic action paradigm gives a true path to an advanced society in the current climate. Some ideas may be perfectly pointed when presented but we imagine the vast majority will be collaborative works, so the usability and functioning of the site is paramount in allowing all ideas to be found and reach their full potential.
As I mentioned I’m no expert but I’m happy to be schooled, showing my naivety in why things are the way they are. What I know is the $1mil has to come from somewhere. I certainly haven’t written an algorithm but I’m confident the site could run on very similar systems as to what is already in existence like filtering, trending, up/down likes top ten searches and so on, we see in other platforms, but like other platforms we’d turn to adds for revenue. Targeting adds usually means mining data but I think in this instance key words would suffice when people are specifying their ideas, slightly more moral and less complicated. I would like to think this would be adequate to build, maintain and run the site and competition.
Ideas are generally attempts on solving problems, so Collabsake in running a community ideas competition would have a library of potential solutions to problems and evidence of road blocks in which to act upon. With a fine tuned ear for the pulse of the community Collabsake will have a means to fulfill our desired purpose of building an advanced community for the future.
Well think I’ve outlined just enough to create a vague business model. Love to have your input comment below or join the forum.