The Synergy Project - Real World Bug-Tracking
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The Synergy Project - Real World Bug-Tracking
***EDIT*** I've received your critique of this post and am thankful for it. For a better explanation, ignore this post and look at my last one.
Hello there. My name is Travis Ladner and I'm here to help garner support for a social community experiment that is geared towards issue recognition and problem solving. I would like to invite you to check out the concept which is being proposed. And if you feel this is something that is worth attention, that you possibly participate or at least pass the message on to those you think may be interested.
This is a citation from the introduction paragraph of the first conceptual draft of the project:
"The goal of the Synergy Project is to create a community environment conductive to collaborative problem solving within user systems of relation. Specifically addressing social concerns on the local scale and up to the global environment. By using tools to visually and elegantly represent the trends of social concern, we can allow basic users the ability to form constructive solutions based on the objective collaboration of other users on specific and related issues. Being able to universally distribute information to any user, we are effectively placing the tools of technical analysis into the creative hands of the users. Issues within their scope of concern can democratically be realized by the amount of people who participate in that realm of concern. For example, issues that relate to sustainability, health, efficiency, cohesion, education, ecology, and economic criteria. As problems become increasingly realized and supported by users within their scope of concern, the scope widens to ask for solutions(participation) from users who are "on the border" of these issues. Realizing that working together on issues in this existence is more conductive to life sustainability than competition. And accepting that combined efforts in an environment conducive to critical thinking, technical analysis, and objective creativity, are some of the best social tools used to solve life's problems. By embracing technology and taking advantage of it as a great social tool, we hope to accelerate society's ability to heal itself. By bringing the world together through our shared problems, and achievements, we can unite the world with logic and creativity."
If this has drawn any of your attention I would ask you continue reading this paper here:
http://www.onesynergy.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2
If you have any major questions I would ask you post on the forums so that I may address them there. If you have any smaller gauge questions I would happy to answer them here. =)
Thank you for your time.
Hello there. My name is Travis Ladner and I'm here to help garner support for a social community experiment that is geared towards issue recognition and problem solving. I would like to invite you to check out the concept which is being proposed. And if you feel this is something that is worth attention, that you possibly participate or at least pass the message on to those you think may be interested.
This is a citation from the introduction paragraph of the first conceptual draft of the project:
"The goal of the Synergy Project is to create a community environment conductive to collaborative problem solving within user systems of relation. Specifically addressing social concerns on the local scale and up to the global environment. By using tools to visually and elegantly represent the trends of social concern, we can allow basic users the ability to form constructive solutions based on the objective collaboration of other users on specific and related issues. Being able to universally distribute information to any user, we are effectively placing the tools of technical analysis into the creative hands of the users. Issues within their scope of concern can democratically be realized by the amount of people who participate in that realm of concern. For example, issues that relate to sustainability, health, efficiency, cohesion, education, ecology, and economic criteria. As problems become increasingly realized and supported by users within their scope of concern, the scope widens to ask for solutions(participation) from users who are "on the border" of these issues. Realizing that working together on issues in this existence is more conductive to life sustainability than competition. And accepting that combined efforts in an environment conducive to critical thinking, technical analysis, and objective creativity, are some of the best social tools used to solve life's problems. By embracing technology and taking advantage of it as a great social tool, we hope to accelerate society's ability to heal itself. By bringing the world together through our shared problems, and achievements, we can unite the world with logic and creativity."
If this has drawn any of your attention I would ask you continue reading this paper here:
http://www.onesynergy.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2
If you have any major questions I would ask you post on the forums so that I may address them there. If you have any smaller gauge questions I would happy to answer them here. =)
Thank you for your time.
Last edited by Xerond on Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:42 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
Please, recruit someone who can write. That is the worst paragraph I've attempted to decipher in quite a while.Xerond wrote:This is a citation from the introduction paragraph of the first conceptual draft of the project:
"The goal of the Synergy Project is to create a community environment conductive to collaborative problem solving within user systems of relation. Specifically addressing social concerns on the local scale and up to the global environment. By using tools to visually and elegantly represent the trends of social concern, we can allow basic users the ability to form constructive solutions based on the objective collaboration of other users on specific and related issues. Being able to universally distribute information to any user, we are effectively placing the tools of technical analysis into the creative hands of the users. Issues within their scope of concern can democratically be realized by the amount of people who participate in that realm of concern. For example, issues that relate to sustainability, health, efficiency, cohesion, education, ecology, and economic criteria. As problems become increasingly realized and supported by users within their scope of concern, the scope widens to ask for solutions(participation) from users who are "on the border" of these issues. Realizing that working together on issues in this existence is more conductive to life sustainability than competition. And accepting that combined efforts in an environment conducive to critical thinking, technical analysis, and objective creativity, are some of the best social tools used to solve life's problems. By embracing technology and taking advantage of it as a great social tool, we hope to accelerate society's ability to heal itself. By bringing the world together through our shared problems, and achievements, we can unite the world with logic and creativity."
What are "user systems of relation"?
"we can allow basic users the ability to form constructive solutions" Can you? How? Why?
"Being able to universally distribute information to any user" How do you do something 'universally' to an individual?
"Issues within their scope of concern can democratically be realized by the amount of people who participate in that realm of concern" WTF?
And so on. Your writing appears to be more concerned with using long words and fragmented sentences than conveying your message in a clear, unambiguous way. You really need to rewrite it.
Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
I agree with what onion2k says. That text is absolutely unreadable.
Hire a good (web!) copywriter and you can reduce that text in size to 1/10th of what it is now. And make it understandable. And hopefully inviting.
Hire a good (web!) copywriter and you can reduce that text in size to 1/10th of what it is now. And make it understandable. And hopefully inviting.
Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
Well thanks for the response. I agree with how compounded that paragraph is. It is pretty much due to me trying to summarize a 4 page paper that I wrote on the concept(which could of arguably been a 6-7 page paper) into one paragraph. I spent a good deal of time trying to trim the fat so that I could put it in some presentable form rather than going around saying,"Hey check out this 7 page paper I wrote about an idea for a open source project!"
That, and I lack the technical vocabulary that would be able to encapsulate the ideas I'm trying to present. I know that there are already a lot platforms out there that will help me to achieve this concept, but I don't know the language. This is something I need help with as I wouldn't call myself a programmer yet (html and some php, thats it). But I'm learning vigorously.
And onion, all the questions that you asked are in the user experience section of the paper I wrote. Or at least the conceptual answers. Catch 22 though, I need help presenting the concept in a technical fashion, but at the same time if its that hard to read by technical people... this is a problem.
Aside from educating myself on web language, etc. (which I'm already doing) Any suggestions on how I can garner help to present this idea more efficiently?
That, and I lack the technical vocabulary that would be able to encapsulate the ideas I'm trying to present. I know that there are already a lot platforms out there that will help me to achieve this concept, but I don't know the language. This is something I need help with as I wouldn't call myself a programmer yet (html and some php, thats it). But I'm learning vigorously.
And onion, all the questions that you asked are in the user experience section of the paper I wrote. Or at least the conceptual answers. Catch 22 though, I need help presenting the concept in a technical fashion, but at the same time if its that hard to read by technical people... this is a problem.
Aside from educating myself on web language, etc. (which I'm already doing) Any suggestions on how I can garner help to present this idea more efficiently?
Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
Hi Xerond, good you're back to respond. I don't think it's a lack of technical vocabulary that makes that text difficult to read.
What is lacking is simplicity. You need to remember that text, especially on the web, needs to be in very simple, plain English. Certainly if your target population is broad. But even if your target population consists of higher-educated managers, it's almost always a bad idea to use dense and complicated text on the web.
Take the first sentences:
What I usually try to do when I need to write something, is to imagine I'm talking to my neighbor or some other "average" person on the street.
What is lacking is simplicity. You need to remember that text, especially on the web, needs to be in very simple, plain English. Certainly if your target population is broad. But even if your target population consists of higher-educated managers, it's almost always a bad idea to use dense and complicated text on the web.
Take the first sentences:
Let me try to show what I mean (and remember this is a quick 2-min attempt):"The goal of the Synergy Project is to create a community environment conductive to collaborative problem solving within user systems of relation. Specifically addressing social concerns on the local scale and up to the global environment. By using tools to visually and elegantly represent the trends of social concern, we can allow basic users the ability to form constructive solutions based on the objective collaboration of other users on specific and related issues."
Hope you see what I mean. The many gaps in the example [xxx] show that I don't know anything about the project myself, yet. But hopefully you can see what I mean with "simple, plain English"."Are you concerned about issues like [xxx] and [xxx]? Do you wish to do something about that yourself? Then you might be interested in the Synergy Project. The Synergy Project is a community project in which people like you work together to do something about those problems. How? By giving you tools [xxx] which you can use to do [yyy] ...
What I usually try to do when I need to write something, is to imagine I'm talking to my neighbor or some other "average" person on the street.
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Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
For what it may, or may not, be worth, I think the very use of the word "Synergy" is a loser. That word has been used in film and prose to mean "Nothing" and has become farcial. It may have actual meaning but has become trite to the point of commonly being used as mockery. When I read the title of the original post I thought it was a prank post.
Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
Yeah, I see what you're saying. I'll definitely keep that in mind as I try to explain this better. I'm going to whip up a video with some visual concepts and walk-throughs. I'll keep the english as average as I possible. If you guys wouldn't mind, could I post the video here when its up? I'm encouraging any critique on the presentation of this idea. =)Hi Xerond, good you're back to respond. I don't think it's a lack of technical vocabulary that makes that text difficult to read.
What is lacking is simplicity. You need to remember that text, especially on the web, needs to be in very simple, plain English. Certainly if your target population is broad. But even if your target population consists of higher-educated managers, it's almost always a bad idea to use dense and complicated text on the web.
Take the first sentences:
Quote:
"The goal of the Synergy Project is to create a community environment conductive to collaborative problem solving within user systems of relation. Specifically addressing social concerns on the local scale and up to the global environment. By using tools to visually and elegantly represent the trends of social concern, we can allow basic users the ability to form constructive solutions based on the objective collaboration of other users on specific and related issues."
Let me try to show what I mean (and remember this is a quick 2-min attempt):
Quote:
"Are you concerned about issues like [xxx] and [xxx]? Do you wish to do something about that yourself? Then you might be interested in the Synergy Project. The Synergy Project is a community project in which people like you work together to do something about those problems. How? By giving you tools [xxx] which you can use to do [yyy] ...
Hope you see what I mean. The many gaps in the example [xxx] show that I don't know anything about the project myself, yet. But hopefully you can see what I mean with "simple, plain English".
What I usually try to do when I need to write something, is to imagine I'm talking to my neighbor or some other "average" person on the street.
Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
Alright so I've set-up some dedicated forums(the free forum service was a complete waste of time, doh) and I'll be setting up a mailing list today.
http://www.onesynergy.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4
In that topic I've posted a video of me walking through some page concepts that I whipped up in photoshop. I'm hoping these videos will explain the idea better than the paper. The only "negative" feedback that I've got so far is exactly what you guys explained. So I'm trying to figure a way to explain this idea better, let me know if these videos help.
An easier way to para-phrase this idea kind of dawned on me. And the core idea is this: To apply the same techniques of bug-tracking to the real world. Allowing users to submit problems to the system to track, discuss, and to submit solutions for these problems. So just think a community bug-tracking project except replace bugs with social problems.
http://www.onesynergy.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4
In that topic I've posted a video of me walking through some page concepts that I whipped up in photoshop. I'm hoping these videos will explain the idea better than the paper. The only "negative" feedback that I've got so far is exactly what you guys explained. So I'm trying to figure a way to explain this idea better, let me know if these videos help.
An easier way to para-phrase this idea kind of dawned on me. And the core idea is this: To apply the same techniques of bug-tracking to the real world. Allowing users to submit problems to the system to track, discuss, and to submit solutions for these problems. So just think a community bug-tracking project except replace bugs with social problems.
Re: The Synergy Project - An Open-Source Social Experiment
Alright, so I've condensed the project into 3 questions. I haven't put this out directly yet... I've been working on refining the explanation as much as I can like you all suggested. So please, any critique would be deeply appreciated.
What?
The Synergy Project aims to create a free, open-source web application used for collaborative problem solving.
Features:
Currently we're in the process of nailing down which platforms to attack. We're considering modifying MediaWiki and using it as an initial platform with which to launch development. Since we hope to integrate some more advanced visualizations compared to a standard wiki page, we're looking to figure out the best way to achieve that.
Why?
In practicality there are already models in place that are proving the proficiency of collaborative organizations. The biggest example being Wikipedia. So why not step it up and test the bounds of this type of organization? Some positive possibilities would be fast and diverse reporting of world events as they happen. Just as we see how fast Wikipedia pages manifest and update, we could see that here. We could witness open discussions that encourages users from diverse geographic areas and different fields of experience. The kind of data that could be received from such diverse input would be publicly available to anyone. And possibly, to translate any positive conclusions found within the system into the real world.
________________
I'm sure my habit of language has snuck in and made it sound overly complex. This why I figure you guys would have the best perspective on how I could make it better. I appreciate your time. =)
http://www.OneSynergy.org
What?
The Synergy Project aims to create a free, open-source web application used for collaborative problem solving.
Features:
- For issues to be submitted within a local context, yet available globally.
- Specifically and generally relating user profiles to problems submitted to the system.
- To render these "issues" to users based on user concern. We would like to use various 3d models to display the population of these issues as they relate to each-other, and the concern factor they hold.
- To attach real world events and source material to these issues as they evolve.
- To show concern trending with each problem to give users an idea what kind of attention it is attracting.
- To create a proposal system for users to submit comprehensive suggestions for fixes. This proposal system would ask the user to address as much source material as possible.
Currently we're in the process of nailing down which platforms to attack. We're considering modifying MediaWiki and using it as an initial platform with which to launch development. Since we hope to integrate some more advanced visualizations compared to a standard wiki page, we're looking to figure out the best way to achieve that.
Why?
In practicality there are already models in place that are proving the proficiency of collaborative organizations. The biggest example being Wikipedia. So why not step it up and test the bounds of this type of organization? Some positive possibilities would be fast and diverse reporting of world events as they happen. Just as we see how fast Wikipedia pages manifest and update, we could see that here. We could witness open discussions that encourages users from diverse geographic areas and different fields of experience. The kind of data that could be received from such diverse input would be publicly available to anyone. And possibly, to translate any positive conclusions found within the system into the real world.
________________
I'm sure my habit of language has snuck in and made it sound overly complex. This why I figure you guys would have the best perspective on how I could make it better. I appreciate your time. =)
http://www.OneSynergy.org
Re: The Synergy Project - Real World Bug-Tracking
That's a good improvement from the first one, much clearer.
What might be the next step to solve, as you say yourself in that text, is what the project will do and how in practice.
Are you following the different information visualization blogs out there? There are new visualization tools popping up every week. A few are mentioned here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... google-ibm
and there are API's you can use, for example
http://code.google.com/apis/visualizati ... eomap.html
What might be the next step to solve, as you say yourself in that text, is what the project will do and how in practice.
Are you following the different information visualization blogs out there? There are new visualization tools popping up every week. A few are mentioned here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... google-ibm
and there are API's you can use, for example
http://code.google.com/apis/visualizati ... eomap.html
Re: The Synergy Project - Real World Bug-Tracking
Yeah I've been searching for visualization examples anywhere I could find. Flowingdata has a ton of cool stuff. There is almost too much stuff out there, I wish I had more time to tackle this. That first link you posted mentions Many Eyes which I've come across already, which is awesome. Another cool group of projects is The Sunlight Foundation. It is a non-profit devoted to helping open-source projects for government transparency. Basically taking public government data and making it usable for average citizens. Like interactive visual apps showing the budget, policy information, legislation, etc.
This blog post has a ton of visualization examples as well:
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06 ... alization/
At the moment we're talking about both of these examples and how we might do something similar. We could project the problems onto the surface of a sphere, and then have them move away from the center of the sphere based on concern. So, if its a big issue it'll poke out. And its not, it pulls in. Maybe we'd see mountains and valleys once issues group together. Stuff like that.
http://vimeo.com/5040840
http://vimeo.com/5073319
This visual stuff is fancy work though that I don't understand as well. At the moment I'm just focused on refining the image of the project so people know what it is. And then learning the languages as well, I'm on a php crash course at the moment so I'm sure you'll all see me posting in the specific forums eventually. I'll keep updating this thread as it progresses... I'm quite pumped. =)
This blog post has a ton of visualization examples as well:
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06 ... alization/
At the moment we're talking about both of these examples and how we might do something similar. We could project the problems onto the surface of a sphere, and then have them move away from the center of the sphere based on concern. So, if its a big issue it'll poke out. And its not, it pulls in. Maybe we'd see mountains and valleys once issues group together. Stuff like that.
http://vimeo.com/5040840
http://vimeo.com/5073319
This visual stuff is fancy work though that I don't understand as well. At the moment I'm just focused on refining the image of the project so people know what it is. And then learning the languages as well, I'm on a php crash course at the moment so I'm sure you'll all see me posting in the specific forums eventually. I'll keep updating this thread as it progresses... I'm quite pumped. =)