I have been working as a coder and designer for social networking platforms for over 10 years and I have mostly made a point of only working with open source software since, as the famous phrase goes - "sharing is caring" and the less famous phrase goes "close source is a barrier to progress and creativity".
What gets shared more potently than genetics? Steemit genes are valuable indeed!
I'm going to introduce a concept that I would like to see greatly expanded on with regards Steemit's future, but first some related thoughts to set the scene.
Motivated from the heart and intending economic liberation
I am sharing my thoughts and experiences as they relate to the ongoing development of this website because I truly value the ideas that underpin Steemit and I want to see rapid changes to our planet's 'economic' nightmare. I want to see people liberated instead of being stuck in 9-5 (or more likely 9-9) jobs that go nowhere and I think that Steemit is doing more than most have done to make that a reality.
I am well aware though, that ALL monetary systems are inherently corrupt because of the fact that FIAT currency is so totally criminal and since fiat currencies can be traded for STEEM and BITCOINS, the net result is that those who have vampired from our planet for so long (Central bankers and their cronies) can simply attempt to buy up cryptocurrencies too - using their infinite money machines - and that will inherently limit the liberation that can arise from cryptocurrency use.
Some background
It is due to my experience of the banking system (from inside and through external study) and my learning of the way the legal systems are often used against us to exploit and defraud most of us, that I dedicated years of my life to creating an alternative methodology that doesn't involve money at all. My own social network, ureka.org is based on the Elgg framework that is also used by many large groups - from NASA to the Australian government and on to many large universities and numerous other corporations. Ureka is non-commercial and I will continue to evolve it as it has it's own purpose - however, I am also excited to carry on using other sites such as Steemit; to see where the various projects can take us and maybe to be able to take the best bits from all of them - that is how successful evolution works.
I appreciate that stopping using money while most around refuse to do so is a major challenge - I have partially succeeded, but I do still find it very difficult to do certain things without money, so I continue to draw money to me and use it responsibly. For that reason I am considering how to best integrate Steemit or an equivalent into Ureka in the near future.
It's a MindField out there
At some point a few years ago another social networking site appeared called Minds and since they too were using the Elgg framework, I had a conversation with the CEO back then (Bill Ottman) as he was interested in me working with them as a developer. I turned him down then as I was very busy with my own site and I had grown tired of seeing nearly every social platform be designed to exploit people and was being very cautious to do what I could to avoid falling into a trap of working for another corporation that did the same - we definitely don't need another stasibook:
I wasn't clear then whether Bill's project would turn out to be successful or if it would exploit people, plus at that time their project wasn't much bigger or better than my own - But...
Minds exploded
Only a few months after I spoke with Bill Ottman, his company received a mass of exposure through the mainstream media channels around the world - they quickly went from being unknown to receiving coverage from CNN, The Times and many others and drew helpers who wanted out of the Facebook trap and were willing to help create an alternative. Even though at that time, the Minds site was un-evolved and not especially pleasant to use, they captured the minds of many who then chose to help them out. I can see that Steemit has done this too and in an even more direct way - it has been done largely by the promise of cold, hard cash and the possibility of transforming the entire economic model of the planet! It's pretty tough to compete with that kind of paradigm shift!
Part of Minds' success was in their open statement that they would be open source and in that sense truly 'for the people' and not another Facebook-like corporation.
Learning from all this to help Evolve Steemit in a balanced way
I wrote here yesterday of the as yet undeveloped idea of creating a system for STEEMIT to be integrated into Wordpress and other sites. While this was well received, it hasn't yet attracted any serious comments from Steemit developers or any tangibly useful information - which is surprising to me as I thought this community had many coders involved who would at least take a few minutes to share their thoughts on the subject. Maybe it just hasn't been read by the right people yet, it is currently on page 3 of the Steemit trending page, so if you want to get it in front of more eyeballs then go and vote for it. I will wait for you here, it's OK ;)
The Steemit-ochondrial DNA TEMPLATE
Yes, as you might have guessed already - I want to see the underlying DNA mechanics of Steemit propagated and 'bred' into new forms - going as far as providing a way for entire websites to easily be created that use an open source and free Steemit template.
(Note: Mitochondrial DNA exists within cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use - what a nice analogy for the way Steemit turns thought energy into money that the thinkers can then use).
I'm sure this will have been thought of already, but I have not heard or read anyone talking about it yet. It is entirely possible to take Steemit and create something akin to Wordpress, where anyone can install their own version of the entire platform and use it to create their own network.
"The value of STEEM would not only go through the roof, but it would be traveling so fast it might even open up it's own wormhole and find that it returns and comes up through the floor and out the roof again just for good measure!"
This is essentially what the team at Minds.com are claiming to offer, but so far I have not had anything more than the suggestion of the possibility from them and as far as I am aware, they provide zero guidance on actually creating such a website. In fact, I was advised to consider using minds for my own site's foundation by one of their lead developers who then totally ignored me when I asked for more details! I imagine he is just busy, but it certainly didn't help promote their cause. They have, though, just raised more than a million US dollars in crowdfunding from their users so these issues may change shortly.
Essentially, just like minds.com have done - the Steemit DNA template could be downloaded from github (assuming you are not in Britain and the alleged prime minister hasn't blocked access to github for your own safety. lol and not lol).
Once downloaded, you would then be free to create your own flavor of website that uses the Steemit principles and automatically uses a Steemit account to connect you to the blockchain and have you benefit from everything we know and love here, all while using your unique user interface and community group that is tailored to your group's own needs. I suggest that this is possibly as good or better an idea than simply adding 'groups' to steemit.com, though there's no reason not to do both!
From what I can see on the Steemit Github page, the repository there is currently purely focused on the specific version of Steemit that we are using right now here at steemit.com - as opposed to being one that is intended for replication and use on other domains (though I would love to be corrected on that).
Again, I will ask, does anyone know of any plans to do something like this? To truly evolve the web by making an open source Steemit DNA template that new sites can be created from? I would love if you would comment below with any links or info you may have on this.