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Raindrop Vision

By iamronen | Published: November 21, 2009

Assumptions

The Internet will be a dominant infrastructure through which most personal messaging and communication will take place.
Personal communication and computation devices will be constantly connected to the Internet.
Personal communications and messaging will originate from both personal and public devices.
Personal communications may be dependent on 3rd party services and mediums.
Communication and messaging leads to the creating, transportation and storage of data which outlives the communication event itself.
Personal and shared information will be stored on-line in a private and secured location.
Individuals will be able to access all of their information at all times.

Raindrop is On-line

The core of Raindrop is a personal application that lives on the Internet. It will require dedicated computing resources that are constantly on-line – a personal hosting service.

Client applications will be made available for diverse communication/computation devices. They will be able to interact with the core on-line application and some may be able to operate independently of it for a limited time (after which automatic synchronization will take place).

Raindrop will aspire to provide inherent privacy and security to all communications channeled through it.

Raindrop Development

The core Raindrop functionality includes:

Aggregation of messaging and communication information from numerous resources.
Independent centralized storage of all data originating from messaging and communications (including payloads).
Core contextual meta-data extraction, processing and storage services.
Core user interaction monitoring, processing and storage services for creating adaptive software behaviors.
API for adding sending/receiving communications interface extensions for prominent/dominant communication protocols.
API for adding extensions for 3rd party/commercial communication and messaging services.
API for client application development (including data access, meta-data and usability services).

(to be added – extended information on each core functionality)

Community Development

Create a robust and reliable core – including seamless installation procedures for both the core and extensions.
Provide seamless installation packages.
Create wiki-based documentation of the API’s.

WordPress Integration

WordPress can be an excellent platform for initial development/testing phases:

WordPress is a popular and leading open-source platform.
WordPress has a good (proven) plugin architecture (easy to install and upgrade)
WordPress has a large and diverse install base.
WordPress has a vibrant community of developers, designers, testers and early adapters.
WordPress is a dominant expression of online-personal presence. Raindrop will benefit from a well established context.

WordPress is of course an example. Raindrop can be bundled with other platforms, open-source solutions. Some initiatives may come from the core team, others may come from other open-source projects. Raindrop should be made “easy-to-embrace”.

In some ways Raindrop is initially targeting developers more then it is users.

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Raindrop Manifesto – Draft

By iamronen | Published: November 21, 2009

Adapted from the principles of the Mozilla Manifesto

Messaging through the Internet is an integral part of modern life.
Messaging through the Internet should inherit the qualities of previous communication technologies such as telephony, and of direct person-to-person communication. The nature of communication should be determined by the individual/s who are partaking in it.
Messaging through the Internet should enrich the lives of individual human beings.
Individuals’ messaging security on the Internet is fundamental and cannot be treated as optional.
Individuals must have the ability to shape their own messaging experiences on the Internet.
The effectiveness of Internet messaging as an inter-personal resources depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.
Free and open source software promotes the development of messaging over the Internet as an inter-personal space.
Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability, and trust which are essential to achieving a respect for privacy of individuals in the open space that is the Internet.
Commercial involvement in the development of the Internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial goals and public benefit is critical.
Magnifying the potential benefits of personal participation on the Internet is an important goal worthy of time, attention and commitment.

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Raindrop, Email, Mine

By iamronen | Published: November 21, 2009

There have been numerous speculations about the prevalence of email, given all the other communications protocols/solutions available. The way I see it is that the Email Inbox is, for many people, the only completely private and controlled online presence. I would even suggest that many people (especially non-technical consumers) know this instinctually/subconsciously. The only other such space that I know (and have) is my self-hosted WordPress blog.

I can’t think of any commercial solution (including WordPress.com – the hosting service built around WordPress) which qualifies as a truly private and controlled space. 37 Signals come to mind as a potential example – because (a) they charge money for their service and (b) I’ve never seen them mention or capitalize on their access to the overview they potentially have by accessing all of their customer’s information.

I think it’s important to recognize this when approaching the overall design of Raindrop, because the challenge that Raindrop is facing it rooted in an opposing force. Many of the sources of email communications that Raindrop is trying to consolidate and sort out are services that compromise privacy. They recognize an unanswered need among users and address that need with a software solution. They offer that solution for “free” – as in no financial fee, but in return they claim a chunk out of what was once private communication (their objectives may vary, but 99 out of 100 times – they are looking to capitalize on that chunk of privacy – after all they are commercial organizations).

Still there is something very powerful about a private and controlled space – which, I believe, is why so much does return to the email inbox. Raindrop is operating in field where these forces meet and dance together. I support & advocate privacy and ownership. Communication is ultimately about connecting with others – giving and receiving – and that is and will always be a private and intimate thing.

Raindrop is playing for the “private” team. It is centered around one person and one person only. As such I believe it has a potential to create a new ball-game. It needs to aim beyond trying to pick up the pieces that are strewn on the current playing field. Of course, it should be able to play within the current rules, but if it is to have a life of it’s own – it needs to look beyond them.

I believe there is no need, space or justification for another email client. There is a need for a communication technology that will tip the scales away from intrusion and fragmentation and towards privacy, ownership and self-moderated… these words immediately sent me back to the principles in the Mozilla Manifesto

… for the time being, until I get around to putting together a description of Mozilla that resonates with these thoughts – let me be clear – I believe that Raindrop is one piece of a larger puzzle that should weaken the position and effects of many of the popular and dominant forces that shape the internet as we know it – this includes Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and others.

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On Contacts: Proximity & Intensity

By iamronen | Published: November 19, 2009

I gave some thought to the idea of how to approach organization of contacts in a way that can be useful both in it’s own and in other contexts. Most of the existing solutions I can think of either use common approaches such as alphabetical arrangement, some are more sensitized by incorporating recently/frequently used, or they use some inherent qualifiers that are unique to the system on which they operate.

I tried to take a step back and consider how I relate to people outside of the computerized world and I came up with two concepts which seem to work together in an interesting way: proximity and intensity.

Proximity is a quality that can be described as a range between two extremes such as Intimate & Distant. When I receive an email from an unknown source – that source is at a “distant” proximity. When I receive an email from a colleague – that might fall somewhere in the middle of the distance range. When I receive an email from a family member or very close friend – that would be somewhere in the “intimate” proximity. This is a personal scale – it cannot be deducted/guessed: a family member can “distant” and a stranger can suddenly become “intimate”.

Intensity is a measurable quality that describes, for example, the frequency of incoming messages. This is a measurable value and the range is relative.

Proximity and intensity are two independent qualities and scales. I wonder what my consolidated incoming communications would look like viewed in this way:

It would be great if a system could identify & point out to me a communication from an “intimate” contact who doesn’t write much and I haven’t heard from in a long time. Personally – those are messages I want to stand out from all the rest!
If would be great if a system could aggregate for me communications from a “middle” proximity person who sends many low-urgency messages and display them to me as a consolidated daily “magazine”.
How would this behavior affect a filtered (through other parameters) set of messages – for example on a work-project? where the scales would have a different range?

I think Raindrop is in a position to “organize contacts” in a much more personalized and adaptive form then any other web-service or social network. It needs to start with me and the way I see things as an individual person. It would be interested to hear how Proximity and Intensity would resonate with other people’s perception of relationships.

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GoDaddy SmartSpace

By iamronen | Published: November 13, 2009

GoDaddy have launched something interesting in SmartSpace.

It looks like a well thought out solution – but it does not speak to me because it’s not open-source. It’s another lock-in solution. Now we need to create something like this that is pure open-source and owned by me & you. It would be great if GoDaddy & Wordoffered a hosting service based on such an open-source solution. Let’s go WordPress!

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Raindrop Contexts

By iamronen | Published: November 11, 2009

Folders, I believe, are an outdated and tech-oriented mechanism for creating order. They take up time and attention (they need to be created, organized…). Folders represent contexts – and contexts change over time. Effective folders require some kind of strategy – most people don’t have a strategy or know how to go about getting one – it is usually a process of discovery rather then planning. Folders are too simplistic – it is just a matter of time before an object is discovered that could easily fit into more then one folder.

Instead it would be great to have a highly automated and adaptive system of contexts:

Contexts are created using one or more tags.
A message can be tagged with any number of tags.
Each tag is inherently a context.
Numerous tags can be combined to create explicit contexts when a need arises.

Automation can be achieved by:

Automatically processing every incoming message and filtering/processing it for contextual information – and then automatically tagging it.
Using accumulated contextual information. For example – if a message is received from a known contact , and that contact is explicitly assigned to a context (for example: a specific project) – then incoming messages can be automatically assigned to the known context. Another example: when certain keywords (for example: a project/context name) appear in an incoming message, then that message can be automatically assigned to the context.
Given a plugin architecture/infrastructure – there could be diverse methods for filtering/processing/tagging/user input tracking on incoming messages – to achieve degrees of automation.

User interaction should be, where possible, streamlined into the flow of core application interaction. Here are some sample screenshots.

The left side contains groups of contexts (some can be preset, others defined by the user). The primary workspace contains a tag-cloud representation of … everything (or everything that is recent/relevant). Plugins can be used to create different clouds/affects – including diverse options for graphic icons (avatars, mediums, flags, statuses, etc.)

When one of the existing contexts is selected (in this case “incoming”) – the view is split. The top area contains a filtered cloud relevant for the selected context. The bottom area contains items that are associated with the selected context – in this case – all incoming messages.

The remaining tag-cloud can be used to further filter the remaining incoming messages. When an additional tag is selected – an inline interface is presented indicating that the current context has been changed/elaborated – including controls for modifying the current context or creating a new one.

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Twitter/Google/Microsoft

By iamronen | Published: October 24, 2009

Dave Winer wrote about the happenings around Twitter. It just feels all so wrong to me…. I’d like to pull the rug out from under businesses that are feeding off the work of others, then regurgitating it for their selfish purpose of making money.

The rug trick is simple. Pull the information and technologies back into my online space, cut out mediators… there is no need and not justification for having them around. I’d love to see businesses thrive by making this available and accessible to everyone.

We should all own our own platforms.

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Wordpress RSS Reader

By iamronen | Published: October 9, 2009

I’d love to have an RSS reader plugin for my Wordpress administration. The Admin area is my online point of origin – and I can think of no better place to have an RSS reader (which is also why I don’t have one). Wordpress plugins are usually created with the front-end of the blog in mind – so this may be somewhat of an odd request – but this is what I would like to have – an RSS reader plugin in the admin – just for me.

With an RSS Reader inside Wordpress – there are interesting options to explore, like:

Adding/Subscribing to RSS feeds to my RSS reader using my Wordpress Toolbar
Publishing a blogroll using a widget that lists the blogs in my RSS reader.
Publishing a post on my blog with a reference to an interesting article I encounter in my RSS reader.
Creating and publishing a collection of favorite posts (in a post/page, as a recurring periodical post, etc.).
Subscribing to comment threads on other Wordpress posts directly from within the RSS reader.
Commenting on other Wordpress posts directly from within the RSS reader.

Post update April 3rd, 2010:

I recently came across an RSS aggregator called Lilina which I now use to aggregate my feeds into one centralized feed (which I access through thunderbird).

Here are a few mockup screens to demonstrate what I have in mind:

Reading feeds can be a view similar to a list of posts – but contains an aggregatedresult set – much like a feed reader. For each item a user can view an excerpt, go to the article itself, add to a list of favorites or start a new post with a link to the item.

Sources can be added and optionally grouped into channels.

Channels can be used to aggregate numerous feed sources into a coherent groups (that can later be published as content channels using theme functions or widgets).

Finally an optional settings screen provides some customization options – though not configuration is required – defaults are provided and enough for a fully functioning plugin.

Raindrop Vision

Raindrop Manifesto – Draft

Raindrop, Email, Mine

On Contacts: Proximity & Intensity

GoDaddy SmartSpace

Raindrop Contexts

Twitter/Google/Microsoft

Wordpress RSS Reader

My web site is my space

Topics

Plugins

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