I think blogs are neat, and I think that wiki’s are cool, but there is something missing from them. Here is a little brainstorm that I wrote up that may be a direction that would be interesting to explore.

Summary Brainstorm

I have stuff. I have stuff that can exist online, and I have stuff that can’t exist online. I have stuff that I want to share, and I have stuff that I don’t want to share. I have stuff that I would like to share with my family, and I have stuff that I would like to only share with a group of friends. I also have stuff that I only want to my wife to see, and I have stuff that I would like to share with the public.

I would also like to see stuff that my friends or family want to share with me. I would also like to see stuff that is published by large websites like slashdot. I would like to see the stuff of people that I know of that have interesting stuff to share.

I would like to simplify my online existance. Which would include the storing and publishing content to different audiences. We need to allow people to easy show off their ideas, their artwork, their photos, their experiences, and their on sensitive personal information online, in one, buzzword free, web place.

How do I do all of this online if I am not a programmer, or have paid lots of money for internet hosting?

Well, I think the answers are already out there, but the pieces have not com together. online calendars, online galleries, web logs, wiki’s, contact management. All that stuff is already out there, but they have not be assembled in the best possible way, in my opinion.

Requirements Brainstorm

• Need to create the building blocks to answer the question instead of building the answer. For example, I would like my stuff to contain my contacts. Instead of building a “contact” stuff modules, I would like to build the parts of the stuff, so people can create their own contacts with their own attributes. My contacts must have a birthdate field that will link into my calendar. Building stuff from parts would be an advanced skill, but it will allow the data types to be shared between people easier. I forsee many templates packaged with the software.
• Stuff must be able to be made of 1 or more parts, but it also should be able to be made of one or more stuff(s). For example, I may want to share one picture with a friend, but I also would like to have a photo album that contains the that photo.
• Sharing is mandatory. Sharing is where this all gets fun. I would like to make extesive use of RSS and/or RDF to Share the content. I hope that this would weave users closer together because I would hope that your friends stuff is just an entry in your stuff, so it can be shared with their friends.
• Sharing should be flexible. For example, I would like to share an address of friend with another friend that I don’t know very well. I would share that data with them for 1 day, and then it would expire.
• Sharing should be possible regardless of hosting location.
• I would like a calendar that is just a reminder. Birthdays from my address book. Events or todo’s that I create as a note for meetings.
• The PIM features are the hub, and not necessarily the focus.
• Safe. Secure. Locked. SSL. (heh)
• A part (subset of stuff) would be a note. It would will use a textile engine in order to provide rich text.
• themable? I don’t care. Not high priority.
• When does the amount of information published get to large? When does it get unmanageable? We will need to be smart about relationships of data. For example, If I am going to upload a new picture, I have to have the option of connectting it to more general stuff like a photo album.
• Non RSS views will look similar to a blog.
• Short View / Full View
• Incorporation of mail…. ????? i.e. (pop -> document / database)

Where to Start Brainstorm

Login Page (heh)

Figure out schema for stuff and parts. How is it going to work without being really slow?

Build Parts:

• Text
• Phone
• Email
• File (Picture)
• Notes/Document
• StartDate
• ExpireDate / EndDate / Interval
• Recurring StartDate
• Title
• Address (street, city, state, zip)
• choice of (radio button group)
• drop down
• RSS Feed
• URL

Build Stuff:

• Contacts
• Calendar Event
• Bookmark
• Notes
• Photos
• Photo Album (enable visual artists)
• Binary File/Doc. (enable you work)
• Music/mp3 (stream) (enable musicians)
• SourceCode release. (enable coders)