kickstarter project I've just launched

[Miles Fidelman]

Hi Folks,

So far, my contributions to this list have primarily been comments on discussions and other people's projects - I've been pretty close mouthed about what I've been working on (partially because it was military sponsored work, partially because I don't like to talk about things that are still half baked).

Anyway, I'm going public on a project that's grown out of some funded work on military mission planning.  I just launched a Kickstarter project to generalize some of this work and release as open source tools.  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.

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:

Some of you know that my "thing" has always been the theory and practice of using the Internet to support virtual organizations.  For about 40 years 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

-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra

[Michiel de Jong]

Hi Miles,

Your crowd-funding proposal states that "Military operations are some
of the most complicated activities on the planet". I'm trying very
hard to keep an open mind here, but i'm not seeing some friction
between crowd-funding your project as a charity while at the same time
applying it to warfare. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Cheers,
Michiel

[Miles Fidelman]

Hi Michiel,

Sure!

The project isn't about applying technology to warfighting. It's about
applying military sponsored technology to other things. The Internet
started as a military sponsored network.

Just like space and undersea operations are particularly stressful
environments, and thus lead to pushing the envelope on technology; so
are military operations. If you want to organize a distributed team,
organization, movement, campaign, what have you, the organizational
models, tools and practices developed for mission planning and
coordination are incredibly powerful starting points.

And...Kickstarter really isn't a "charity" - it's barnraising.

Miles

[Michiel de Jong]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 5:38 PM, Miles Fidelman
<mfid...@meetinghouse.net> wrote:
> The project isn't about applying technology to warfighting.

ok, that's good to hear. in that case, good luck with the campaign!