Building bridges -- connecting tech stacks for humane UX

[pdaoust]

Idea

Problem

Many people don't understand or care about the things we're working on. Or if they do, their friends aren't there. Barriers to adoption are both technical and social. We have many beautiful systems -- SSB, Matrix, Cabal, etc -- whose UX are good (better in some ways) but exist in their own islands.

Inquiry

How could interoperability improve the UX of our emerging un-platforms, especially as we grow beyond social networks and static content into open app ecosystems? What does it even mean to interoperate, from both technical and UX perspectives? When does it make sense to build bridges vs defer to other projects' strengths? How do we handle impedance mismatches between technologies? And most importantly, can we all get together over a cup of tea and chat about it?

Session rundown

A group conversation (or two or five) among people who are either involved in a DWeb project or are strong advocates for humane application of technology. This format would serve two goals:

• To build warm relationships that keep growing after our short time together
• I am totally green at this calibre of event and this feels like a low-key way of contributing something valuable to a topic I care about.

I will be happy to kick off and facilitate discussions and share my own perspectives (disclaimer: I'm part of the Holochain project), but my intent is to "surround myself with people more intelligent than I" and see what happens 😅

Hopes and dreams

• Communication lines between projects are opened up
• We begin to understand the biggest interoperability hurdles and opportunities
• We build relationships that continue to grow past DWeb Camp, and identify ways to continue working together

Core facilitator

@pdaoust

Participation

This should be relevant to people with UX skills, psychology, marketing, human-centred design, compassion, modest knowledge of at least one DWeb technology

Why participate

You want to see the DWeb make inroads into the lives of 'ordinary' people (excuse the prejudice embedded into that word; language is tricky).

You recognise the gaps between where we are and where we could be, and want to have a hand in closing those gaps.

You know that every project has a unique perspective to contribute, and that we're much stronger as allies (and our users are better off too). You want to help forge those alliances.

Material requirements

A big pad of paper with an easel, pens.

Keywords

Interoperability, humane technology, UX, UI, user-centred design, social networking, appropriate technology

Contact

No Matrix handle yet; contact me here on GitHub for now.

[pdaoust]

Tagging @pospi @luandro @mixmix @pfrazee @jbenet @ara4n @noffle @karissa @marylychee @autonome @emalinus @jeanmrussell @connoropolous -- most of you don't know me from Adam, but I'm thinking you may have some input on what would make this valuable for your project, or could connect me with someone who does. Thanks in advance for pardoning my audacity! 😉

[mixmix]

Hard problem. I think we should start very simple and check eg what style crypto keys everyone is using, how people feel about uris, what the state of partial replication is in different projects. By comparing these and the current state of art I think we'll learn a lot and maybe even discover bridges

On Sat, 6 Jul 2019, 16:55 pdaoust, notifications@github.com wrote:

Tagging @pospi https://github.com/pospi @mixmix https://github.com/mixmix @juanbenet @emalinus https://github.com/emalinus @JeanMRussell https://github.com/JeanMRussell @Connoropolous https://github.com/Connoropolous for input or expression of interest -- please tag others whom you think would also be interested

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/dweb-camp-2019/projects/issues/31?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAUK3HWIN7ISS3TYFQ2N7DLP6AQT7A5CNFSM4H6SSAO2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGODZKSO2Y#issuecomment-508897131, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAUK3HQ4VVT6A5P3AMCWV3DP6AQT7ANCNFSM4H6SSAOQ .

[hackergrrl]

Sounds like an interesting conversation. Happy to participate from the cabal side :wave:

[pospi]

Definitely up for this, has a lot of overlap with a session I've already pitched... would be more than happy to fold that discussion into this one if it feels better that way. I was hoping to focus on "narrowing the digital divide", or to put it differently- "what does empowering & accessible technology look like?"

The format I had proposed was to solicit input on the above question from a group to begin with; then run through the architecture I'm building out and rationale in doing so, reflecting on others' perspectives and soliciting queries / commentary / concerns in the process. Which was much more specialised than this in that it would end up being a "what does a Holochain app look like and why should I care about this style of building things?" type of conversation. But I think they're all related conversations and maybe such a narrow focus isn't ideal for a session given the limited time we all have together.

[pdaoust]

@mixmix hard problems indeed. I can assure you I'll be showing up with more questions than answers.

@pospi I think that your thing should stand on its own. I already feel like my idea is suffering from scope creep; I just wanted to make sure that the problem of UX was presenced in some way. Happy to let your thing be about the digital divide l and mine can tackle the Interop problem and how it influences UX.

[whanamura]

This is a great proposal @pdaoust and very needed! Can we ask you to put it into this form: https://dwebcamp.org/proposals/ That way we will post it to the https://Dwebcamp.org/projects and also to the new Sched.com online schedule.

[whanamura]

@Pdaoust you inspired me to post our 5 Camp Pillars: https://twitter.com/GETDWeb/status/1147540708376510466

[pdaoust]

@whanamura thanks for the encouragement; I'm pushing myself way far out of my comfort zone here, so your words are welcome. I realise the format is a bit of a mess; I intend to clean it up once I get back to a computer in about six days. Want me to use the Google form to submit it?

[whanamura]

I think it reads just fine! If you send us your photo, title, short bio to ravi@archive.org we can skip the Google form and just post it directly! Hate to wait 6 days when things will get super busy.

[whanamura]

Or send it to wendy@archive.org and I can post today and you can edit it in Sched.

[pdaoust]

@whanamura aw crap, I'm really sorry -- I'm going out of WiFi range in about half an hour and will be spending most of that time packing kids and camping gear into the van. I get back to my computer on Friday, I might have a chance to try to put something together on my phone on Wednesday night though! Apologies for any complications this might cause.

[pdaoust]

The event is up on Sched now: https://dwebcamp2019.sched.com/event/S4vH hope to see you all there!

[bhaugen]

@pdaoust will it be possible to contribute to this discussion remotely? Either by posting something beforehand that is aimed at this convo, or communing from afar during the session?

[mixmix]

Hi Bob! I recommend posting beforehand - from experience at events patchy video connections are a bit of a killer. You can always chance it, but having a sure fallback would be sweet

On Jul 17 2019, at 8:22 am, Bob Haugen notifications@github.com wrote:

@pdaoust (https://github.com/pdaoust) will it be possible to contribute to this discussion remotely? Either by posting something beforehand that is aimed at this convo, or communing from afar during the session?

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub (https://github.com/dweb-camp-2019/projects/issues/31?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAUK3HXW4ZJGEDDU4VODE7LP7YUYXA5CNFSM4H6SSAO2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOD2CA45Q#issuecomment-511970934), or mute the thread (https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAUK3HRVTDRFNQG6YPP6WW3P7YUYXANCNFSM4H6SSAOQ).

[bhaugen]

We'll write up an idea by tomorrow latest and post a link here.

[bhaugen]

That was the idea. First reference was incomplete, but @fosterlynn added a data model. People can comment there or here.

[pdaoust]

Thanks @bhaugen -- sorry I didn't bring you into this convo; guess I was thinking about the fact that you weren't coming to DWeb Camp.

[bhaugen]

How did the session go, gang?

[csageland]

I'd love to know too! I was there, but missed this session.