ok this

is pretty good:

domain name

ofbyandfor.us

The idea is that each sub-project is a subdomain, so we have castle.ofbyandfor.us and moonrocket.ofbyandfor.us and manhattanbeachnaturetrail.ofbyandfor.us.

I'll start with basic membership, level progression, tasks, and claiming, and start to layer on more tools, including conflict resolution, project rules, voting, etc., as they become necessary.

The idea is not build a complete stand-alone social network, but rather just the tools that don't exist anywhere else, and that external tools like emails, forums and wikis will carry the brunt of the actual interaction and work, until it becomes clear that a tighter integration is required.

happy 4th

I love it here.

agile issue-specific citizen driven lobbying

I just got an email from democrats.com that goes like this:

Let's Escrow Our Money to Keep Obama Progressive

[...]we are asking you to use your money to ensure that Barack Obama lives up to his promise to deliver "change we can believe in. "

How? By creating a progressive "escrow" fund that you control.

This particular email is focusing on the FISA bill, and is trying to get Obama to put his weight on the telecom immunity issue. The idea is that sure, he's probably going to get our support anyway, but by tying a large amount of money up in escrow to a general behavior or a specific policy, diverse groups of citizens can have a big impact.

This is called lobbying, and it's generally associated with big organizations, trade groups, and corporations. Seeing it spread to the grassroots like this is illuminating, and it makes me hopeful that we're at the start of an era when concerned citizens can compete on an equal battlefield with concerned corporations.

Why not create an escrow fund for your issue, and allow any politician who champions your issue to earn those donations? It's all personal donations, under the cap, totally legal. Want to dismantle the DMCA or 100 year copyright? Start a fund, and the congresscritters who make it happen can claim the support of your grassroots group.

We spend a lot of time wishing politicians would ignore the money and follow their hearts and brains, but money will never leave politics, because getting elected is expensive. Maybe we just need to change the way it flows.

By the way, this is exactly the model of the NRA, and they have been enormously successful. The promise of the internet is that this model can be used instantly, on any issue that people care about, not just long-term cultural issues like guns and abortion.

...In the end, money is speech, and rich people have more access than poor people, but by leveraging superior numbers and distributed organization, poor people can have more of a voice now than they did before.

learning about plants

I keep learning things about growing things in the ground. Step One has been learning how much I don't know, which is practically everything. Basically, the crows eat my tomatoes, and the snails eat my sprouts. I can do better. I've started following this blog by an Angelino couple, which is a good way to get the flavor of insight I'm looking for.

Also, today's DrMcNinja is particularly choice: "You need me to tell you how to hack a Draculabot so that you can ride it safely to earth from the moon."

internet famous

Josh Marshall* cites me in a late update:

Late Update: TPM Readers NA and CS both note, very cleverly and aptly, that this is pretty much the plot line from The Producers.

*My journalism hero. Dude was featured in GQ.

thoughts and progress

Here are the ground rules for a system to build social capital by collectively generating and fulfilling tasks. Imagine that these tools exist in a web app, and are supplemented with comments, forums, news feeds, and customizable email notifications.

MEMBERS

• members have an xp count, which is 100 for new members, and 1000 for community founders
• members have a level
• members have membership information
• members have a history of every xp event
• maybe some stats that relate to the types of tasks claimed
• members have a public message board that they control
• members may have additional 'stats' specific to the community

WHAT ARE TASKS

• tasks have names and descriptions
• tasks can have deadlines(default is none)
• tasks with deadlines can be urgent(default is no)
• tasks have a quantity, and the quantity must be finite (default is 1)
• tasks can be repeatable by a member, or not (default is yes)
• tasks can request verifiable proof, or not (default is no)
• tasks have owners and sponsers
• tasks remember their histories
• tasks may have associated stats
• tasks can have comments

CREATING AND SPONSORING TASKS

• owners create tasks and edit them
• any member with positive xp can create a task. That member becomes the owner of the task
• sponsors invest xp to sponsor a task - invested xp temporarily lowers a players total
• sponsors can alter their sponsorship amount at any time (before a claim)

CLAIMING A TASK

• tasks can be claimed by any member with non-negative xp
• when a task is claimed
  • the reward is granted to the claimant
  • the sponsors are refunded 120%
  • claiming your own task fully refunds the debt, but only grants a percentage of the claim amount, this percent starts at 0 and increases to 20 over time. (the vesting time is longer for larger rewards (constant xp rate per time, up to 20%)
• a task cannot be urgent with no deadline, but can have a deadline without being urgent
• tasks that have a deadline and are urgent start off cheap and increase over time until claimed
  • the sooner it is claimed, the higher the kickback for the sponsors
• a claim can have comments
• a task can be un-claimed within 1 week of claim
  • re-activates it,
  • rescinds the refund to the sponsors (including additional award)
  • rescinds the award to the claimee

CONFLICT
owners can deny claims within 1 week of claim

• rescinds award from claimant
• debits additional 50% of award as well.
• rescinds refund from sponsors
• temporarily destroys 50% of sponsored xp
• task is re-activated
• denial can be 'blessed' by members, each blessing restores sponsored xp to the task relative to the level of the member
• there is a time frame, after which no further blessings may apply
• (denying a claim is much more destructive than getting the claimant to un-claim it)

members can rebuke other members - committing 1 xp to destroy 1 xp

• rebuking can drive a player into negative xp, at which point they are effectively suspended from posting or claiming tasks
• a rebuke can be blessed similar to claim denials
• there is a time frame, after which no further blessings may apply

members can squash tasks by spending 1 xp to destroy 1 xp

• a squash can be blessed similar to claim denials
• there is a time frame, after which no further blessings may apply

GIFTS
members can transfer xp to other members at a cost of 2 xp for every 1 xp granted.

• xp spent in this way cannot be restored by the community

PROGRESSION
as members gain xp, they advance in levels

• level progression requirements grow geometrically (or exponentially?)

stats improve independently as corresponding tasks are claimed

• stats improve along a similar curve to levels.

the community can place stat requirements on level advancement

VOTING ON THE SYSTEM PROPERTIES
members vote with their levels, but have to choose where to commit their votes.

STATS
here is an example of a stats system that a community might implement:

• Strength - physical tasks
• Dexterity - personal development, training, skills, and certification
• Constitution - dirty, boring, or unpleasant tasks
• Intelligence - technical tasks
• Wisdom - artistic tasks
• Charisma - communication tasks

ASSOCIATED TOOLS
there are tools for scheduling many tasks

• such as one task per day for "make dinner"

there are report pages to see interesting activity
there is maybe a web service to allow web tools to auto-claim certain tasks

***

The first thesis is that this set of capabilities can foster a community to build something big, for free.

Positive interactions quickly multiply the communal xp pool (claiming a task creates 120% of the invested amount of xp, for a total of 220%), negative interactions deplete it; the second thesis is that the total xp of the community is a good measure of the social capital of the group, and represents real-world value in itself.

...I still need a good name for this system.

the backyard

I want to clear out the bushes around the eucalyptus tree, and put in a deck and an outdoor kitchen. Maybe do some landscaping also, and maybe plant some blackberries with trellises along the east wall. Paint the shed, add some lighting.

Maybe I should ask the landlord first?

in search of the next code editor

What about hyperlinks?

class Hello
{
  public Hello()
 {
   print("Hello World.");
 }
}

when you've got the ctrl key held down, becomes:

class Hello
{
  public Hello()
 {
   print("Hello World.");
 }
}

When you click the link, keywords and library functions bring up help, symbols navigate to declaration or definition, as appropriate.

Note, this does not replace good tooltips, which are also requisite. The difference is that hyperlinks denote navigation, whereas tooltips bring the help to you, in context. We should have both, and there should be a back button for reversing all navigations. Some editors already have this.

don't open that email!

The New York Times reports today that White House officials simply refused to open an email from the EPA last year because they knew it contained a policy recommendation they didn't like -- part of the Administration's on-going battle with scientists at the EPA over global warming issues. (TPM)

The hallmark of this administration, to me, has always been their willingness to break every rule and ignore every convention, if they felt they could do so without facing consequences. It seems to be a deliberate policy: exercise every avenue of power that you can, to prove that you can, in case you need it later. Establish every precedent you can get away with. You see this time and time again in the scandals over the years: signing statements, war propaganda, politicizing the Department of Justice, politicizing science, and warrantless wiretapping... The administration will ignore laws it does not like, and will defy congress and the courts in an attempt to define its own reality.

Ignoring a policy email is childish and dysfunctional, but if no one will hold them accountable for it, it is ultimately an effective tactic. By taking impeachment off the table, and by refusing to enforce its subpoena power, and by ratifying telecom immunity, the Democratic Congress has shown that it is unable or unwilling to enforce discipline. So apparently we just have to ride it out. My prediction is that Congress will remember its oversight powers as soon as the next president takes office. Sucker.

the meta game of castle construction

There's a site called Chore Wars where everyone in your household can create a character, and their character in game earns experience and goes up level every time the player does some housework in real life. You have to trust the players to self report accurately, but for small households that's not a problem. Not only does it wrap a metagame around the (questionable) game of housework, but it provides a reward and accountability system at the same time. If everyone in the house is level 20-25, except John who is level 5, you know who's been shirking.

I think this idea could be applied to castle design, development, construction, and maintenance. It would require maintaining a database of tasks (quests?), allowing users to create accounts, tracking completion of tasks, assigning XP rewards. Generate a list of obstacles to overcome on the path to awesome communal castledom, and create a reward system for individuals who help the community overcome those obstacles. Designing a room is worth 1000XP, creating architectural drawings is worth double, building a wall is worth a 5000XP, making dinner for the crew is worth 70XP, feeding the fish is worth 20XP, etc.. Every dollar you donate to the general fund is worth 1XP. Community administrators and moderators edit the XP values of all tasks, and tasks that go undone accumulate XP, so that eventually they will be picked up by someone, and the system self-regulates.

Then layer a system of IRL rewards for achieving levels. Castle priveleges are the main reward. Level 50+ contributors can live at the castle for the rest of their lives, level 5 contributors can stay free for a few days, and so on. Even (and especially) the founders are bound by these rules, and the rules are voted on by all contributors with voting rights (level 10+?). The community gets the benefits of crowd collaboration, and evades the tragedy of the commons. There's palpable status, not to mention material rewards for participation. The many kinds of participation all funnel in to a common community reward system that's not primarily monetary, which is key for a system built primarily on love.

Thoughts?

spore

I'll be downloading the trial soon, and I'll probably post some pictures of the results.

media bias: drama

Check this out:

Obama McCain Net

Electoral-Vote.com 304 221 Obama +83
FiveThirtyEight.com 300 238 Obama +62
Real Clear Politics 238 190 Obama +48
Rasmussen Reports 260 240 Obama +20

MSNBC 200 200 Tied
CNN 190 194 McCain +4

The media's bias is in favor of drama, so the race is always tied.

rebels

They got a lot of nerve, ignoring that sign.

rampage, cont'd.

This is our patio, now with lights.

I think it mostly worked out.

The steel cables keep the lights from hanging down and annoying me. The lamp isn't perfect, but it's a kinda fun.

Now it's party time.

hardware

These capacitive switches were hard to find.

our extended identities, and implications

I read an interesting article that goes like this: It really does hurt to sell one of your possessions, independent of how much monetary value you put on it.

I am certainly a frequent victim of this effect; I almost never sell anything, and I find it very difficult to throw things away. Some members of my family* have it even worse than I do. Instead of getting into the neuroscience of this though, I'm going to riff on the broader implications. This result implies that we, as individuals, have a sense of self that extends well beyond our physical bodies, and well into the things around us that make up our daily lives. And, I would argue, also to the people around us, and also to their possessions. This expanded self-identification allows us to empathize well with our friends and families and neighbors, because we literally do feel their pain, or a shadow of it, when something goes wrong or something is lost. If my friend sells his car, I feel sad.

The degree to which my mood tracks the well-being of my car and my computer can be a bit disturbing, frankly, and I think that as we integrate more and more technology into our lives, more of our identities will become digital, and we will identify more with digital 'things.' We already identify strongly with our blogs, our online avatars, our email inboxes, our weighted companion cubes.

Is this effect exploitable? Why yes! Give someone a free gift, where the gift ties them into continuing to pay for your services. If they accept the gift, they will be far more likely to pay monthly fees than to find a cheaper service provider, because parting with the gift will cause them pain. See: cellphones, MMORPGs.

Anyway, I love the idea that our selves are not sharply defined by the borders of our physical bodies, but extend in very real, physiological ways, far out into the world we care about. Overlap in self-identification creates community and shared responsibility. Good times.


*Ahem, K.

lolz

"The problem for the McCain campaign is that he keeps stumbling into clear statements of his actual policy"

McCain Admits He Doesn't Know How To Use A Computer (VIDEO)

Oh, I am looking forward to November.

things

are progressing satisfactorily.

home improvement rampage

I'm on a roll.

• I replaced the showerhead with one a new one that I removed the flow regulator from, so that our shower it has good water pressure now.
  
• I found and installed the bug screens for my bedroom window.
• I replaced a couple light bulbs.
• I replaced the ceiling fan in the bathroom (!)
• I made a little shop space for myself in the garage.
• I reorganized my closet/pantry space in the hallway.
• I finished working on the nightstand.
  

Next up:

• sand and paint the bathroom ceiling?
• replace or refinish the bathroom lights (they're all rusty and gross)
• outdoor lighting, or shade, or decoration for the patio area.
  
• other mysterious projects?

Basically, I decided that I needed to take some ownership of my space. I've been kindof upset at how dingy the house seems, especially the bathroom, but it's hard to know where to start sometimes. It's a lot like that Dido song, Life For Rent... I mean, yes, I am renting here, but nevertheless. If I wait for the landlord to do the upkeep, the place is never really going to be up to my standards, and more importantly, it will never really be my space. Even if I don't own the house, I can still own the space, and that's what this past week has been about.

Replacing the ceiling fan was kindof a big leap for me, in this regard. I had to crawl up into the attic, remove the old fan, wire up the new one, expand the hole in the drywall ceiling, mount the new one, and then clean the whole thing up. Our attic space is cramped and dirty, just fyi. I mean... it's not the worst thing I've ever done in hyperspace (space above or between rooms); I once spent several hours with a hammer drill removing several hundred pounds of concrete from above someone's closet. But it comes back to the ownership question. I've never put that level of commitment into a place that wasn't in some way my responsibility, so that me feel good.