Hi, for those of you who don't know I'm the founder of a grassroots nonprofit that's dedicated to creating and maintaining the wiki for all options, for any problem, anywhere. There's a whole FAQ section, videos, and other info available at Needpedia.com but you're always more than welcome to ask me questions here on Steemit too. (there's even a mockup/demo online at Mockup.Lawgen.org from back before we switched the project's name to Needpedia)
Today's update is about a video designed by Bex. I've been talking about the upcoming crowdfunding campaign a lot on Facebook and she's done well enough promotional work herself to know exactly what that's been like for me. Next thing I knew she had a whole story board put together on Google Presentations, it was awesome. A week ago I didn't even know that Google presentations existed!
On to Fiverr.com: I asked if she'd like the honor of picking the artist, and she did, so from there all I had to do was manage details. I'm stingy though so I was hoping to make it happen for around 50 bucks, but it turned out the artist who seemed to really catch her eye wanted 90 for a basic version, or 160 for a premium version. Considering the effect video has on crowdfunding, it's definitely smart to invest a bit on the video. The only thing is I thought I'd already done that on the last video. All the artists claim it'll be 'stunning' or whatever, then you look at it and by the time the revisions are done you have something that, 'passes'. I've dropped about 400 dollars on videos already so it stings to drop 200 more but there's also a chance having a diversity of media will totally pay off. Crowdfunding's been known to raise some pretty serious money. -When the campaign's not a total flop. -Which is most of the time.
We have a white board animation, a more traditional video, a number of testimonials, and with this, a second white board animation. These artists were able to do videos like Kurzgesagt but that woulda been 400 dollars. If they do a really good white board animation I might come back to them for one of those later, (I've always wanted one, but I'd want to plan that video out like it was a TED talk.)
Sooo, that's presently in the works, I'll be sure to post again about it as more developments arise. I've also been in contact with a number of programming volunteers but they haven't figured out how they want to get started yet. I'm considering paying a freelancer to get the ball rolling, I just want to make sure I don't screw that up somehow. I'd ask the programmers in my life but they seem to think I'm naive for working on humanitarian technology because some other website Needpedia reminds them of didn't live up to its expectations.
Well, maybe it's like aviation, and some designs have already been found to work, while others remain 'experimental concepts'. This implies some ideas might be harder than others, but not necessarily impossible. For instance, now that we know Wikipedia is possible, why not Needpedia? I always ask my critics: what bug do you anticipate?
Because then they have to either advance my understanding, admit they have no idea what they're talking about, or, they present their argument and it turns out to be flawed, or something I've literally already designed around.
For instance, the last clown argued Needpedia could never work because "some people are bad". He said this to a grown man, with a degree in psychology, literally posting info-graphics about the info-tech he's invented to create a meritocracy for ideas. His ability to respond to counter-arguments was equally pathetic . I pointed out there are already designs for debate systems, and ratings, (like with Reddit), and even a special 'layer system' that lets experts chime in, but he simply claimed that was all "irrelevant" and moved onto his next claim that "the bad guys will always have better computers". Which was also a null argument, because if we're using a wiki for all solutions, and you're looking up solutions for back pain or something, the "bad guys" won't be able to access any sensitive data, because there won't be any. There's a few ways they could tamper with the site, like producing a program that creates fake accounts that vote things up or down. So, some of the options could have tampered ratings. But in the world of web design, that's nothing more than another, common, design challenge.
Especially when, because you can type in practically anything, Needpedia can also be used to work on Needpedia. Which means it will be in a state of continuous self-refinement.
To me it resembles the scientific process. Humanity had a shared learning experience that was chaotic and ineffective, and one day some people came together with a better process. It wasn't that they had created some great new position that won all the arguments and made people suddenly be able to fly through the air and cure illnesses. A better process, led to incrementally better results. And over time these accumulated and morphed into entirely new abilities. To me that's what it means to finally just list all the problems, then all the ideas are for each problem. -Then incorporate tools that let people discuss things really well, and refine them from there.
Also, any programmer can tell you what a success "Stack Overflow" has been, and in a sense that's just a place for programmers to find solutions to problems. Imagine what a general purpose, supped-up version of that could do.
And if that's not enough to convince you, Google "Needipedia"! I'm including a screenshot (below) in case you're in a country that doesn't show you what Google's showing me. The US Department of Defense created a Wikipedia like website, for solutions to problems, they have, literally killing and manipulating human beings. Discovering that, was probably the single most surreal day of my life.
So when I think about how my programmer friends, and the ones I've contacted so far, aren't even interested in building a citizen's version of Need-pedia, even after I showed them the DoD decided it was a good idea to build one of their own, it honestly makes my blood run cold. I EXPECTED the military to be terrifying, I did NOT expect, the people most able to help me, would be the ones most desperate to find excuses not to.
Steemians, the battle between republican and democrat is getting us nowhere. If you want to vote!, that's fine but we need to remember that scientifically speaking, we are literally in the middle of a mass extinction. As the hippies used to say: "the machine is in motion but no one is in control". I cannot promise Needpedia 'will save the world', but I can tell you I have perfect faith that if we're ever going to someday find ourselves using a different system, that means at some point someone has to actually make it. And unless you want to find out what the corporations have in stock, it means that new system's going to have to come from people like us. It seems clear creating a wiki for all possible solutions, to all known problems in human existence, is a good place to start.
At the end of the day, politicians don't build the roads, or do any real work like that. All we ever actually needed from them, was for them to identify the problems facing us, then identify the best options for how to solve them. These days the lobbyists write the bills so, the politicians basically just vote. -and "make deals" with lobbyists. Nothing about this process is remotely optimal.
The only problem's been that if you make a new system, everyday people go 'ew politics' and immediately run away. This is why Needpedia is different. It's a wiki for all of life. Nomatter who you are, or what you believe in, it's the wiki for seeing your options side by side. That's why I think this project is genuinely, uniquely worthy of attention. @earthtribe : Needpedia would also be a tool for you to crowdsource and innovate, please consider lending your support.
