Hi Folks,
I just launched a Kickstater project that might be of interest. The short form is "smart documents," running in browsers as webapps, that talk to each other via P2P protocols - as a tool for keeping virtual teams and projects "on the same page." Model is browser-resident pages that communicate via a P2P protocol - so seems relevant to this group.
I encourage you to take a look at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1947703258/smart-notebooks-keeping-on-the-same-page-across-th
and if you're so moved, get on board.
A bit more background:
For about 40 years my "thing" has always been the theory and practice of using the Internet to support virtual organizations. I've scratched this itch by working on everything from C2 systems and distributed simulation, to electronic town meetings, online rulemakings, and webmarkets.
I've continued to find that the simplest tools seem to be the most effective - particularly email lists, and various forms of shared/synchronized documents, both on paper (musical scores, theatrical scripts) and electronic (RFCs, linked spreadsheets, military mission orders distributed by email).
This project represents a distillation of a lot of ideas about how to support virtual projects and teams with "smart documents." It started out as some funded work on "smart op orders" that I'm trying to generalize as an open source tools. I'm nominally calling them "smart notebooks" - and the core idea is "keeping people on the same page, across the net."
Think of a composer, writing some music, then handing out pages to orchestra members, then telling people to mark up their pages - then think about writing in a web browser, distributing by email, and linking the pages so markups propagate automatically. Functionally, I've been thinking of the tool as a cross between a DayRunner on steroids, and HyperCard, retooled for groups, running in a browser. No new tools to install, no fancy groupware running in the cloud - just web apps executing locally, email, and a P2P protocol.
If you can help spread the word - by reposting/retweeting/slashdotting/putting and so forth - that would really be helpful. If you know anybody at Wired or Gizmodo, that would also be helpful (seems like coverage by one of those is a really good vehicle to successful Kickstarter funding).
If you have a project coming up that needs tools for supporting a distributed effort - say a large crowdsourcing project, or organizing a large event - I'm looking for scenarios to support - particuarly if you're funded
And there's a 30-day clock running, so sooner is better!
Thank you very much for any support you might offer,
Miles Fidelman
