"The Interoperability Map": an ongoing ad-hoc collaborative space for conversations, drawing & more

Topic

The Interoperability Map (draft)

Description

There will be representatives from a lot of projects at DWeb focused on different parts of a possible next web, all aiming to build together and integrate with other efforts, all with varied ideological underpinnings— some compatible, some not.

Sifting through all these APIs, jargon and politics in order to understand what to build towards next (let alone who to build with) is an enormous task. A lot can be accomplished in person that would take weeks online, but how best to maximize that? How to keep conversations on track? How to ground things in reality? How to keep political & ideological battles from derailing our efforts?

The humble "giant piece of paper" might assist us with some of these explorations.

Hopes & dreams

To use the "giant piece of paper" well, we can set out some simple ground rules:

  • The paper is there to keep things on track. We follow the discussion visually as it emerges, and change colours every time there is a tangent in the conversation. In this way, we ensure there are breadcrumbs to follow and that we can loop back to unfinished discussions whilst retaining the context in which they emerged.
  • To ground the discussion, we place "land" on one edge of the paper. All things come back to land, whether they be silicon chips or CPU cycles or theoretical models. By anchoring the discussion onto land we can avoid dialogue becoming too abstract whilst exploring the physical and material impacts that our technology choices have.
  • We set a rule that the paper can only be added to. Nothing may be erased or crossed out. This helps to ensure that all ideas are given consideration and not dismissed without discussion.

Ideally, we can do this in a space that encourages other kinds of engagement and thinking as well. Some folks might like to dance around on the paper or act out certain things. Others might play music or tell stories or gesture wildly in the air. Having dedicated visual artists present to depict these contributions helps to keep a record whilst freeing up non-visual participants to interact in ways they're more comfortable with.

For bonus points we could record the conversations, film the collaborative mindmap as it is being updated or even attempt to use video footage to reconstruct an animated version of the pen-on-paper conversation as it unfolds (if Hyperlapse exists, surely there must be an algorithm for that).

Core facilitators

  • pospi
  • ??? (seeking co-hosts)

Main contact (email)

pospi@spadgos.com

Space Requirements

  • large sheets of paper
  • tape for joining the paper together into a larger canvas
  • a rainbow of coloured pens, markers & highlighters
    • other mixed visual media (if possible)
  • protection from possible rain

Time Requirements

  • Multiple sessions across 2 days
  • Ideally a half-dozen folks to hold space for ad-hoc conversations

(It might be good to do a larger opening session with a few specific projects; then explore with whoever wants to stop in over the duration of the camp; then close with a synthesis of what's been discussed and depicted.)

Who should participate

  • coders
  • protocol designers
  • linguists
  • sociologists
  • visual artists
  • Anyone and everyone

What will participants take away?

  • seeding new collaborative efforts and integrations between various projects and ecosystems
  • increased comprehension from experts and novices alike as to how the DWeb space fits together and what it all means in tangible terms

Keywords

interoperability, protocols, mindmapping, codesign, exploration

Session rundown (tell us a rough outline of your plan)

Aside from the above, there's not much to say. For this to work well, it feels as though we should make it a persistent feature of the camp that can be compatible with everybody's schedules. With a half-dozen co-hosts or so we should be able to maintain a space such that people can drop in and chat with us when they have time. Hosts can handover to each other by giving an update of what was discussed during their shift, mini-synthesis which in themselves might be interesting to onlookers.

There might be core themes that emerge among a naturally cohering group of hosts for something like this. If that is the case we should talk about pre-filling the canvas with some of those topics or having a more facilitated opening discussion that sets the tone for subsequent conversations.

I do want to gather more input for ways in which we might improve this proposal, so please feel free to comment below if you have ideas.

Relevant Experience -- share why you'll be great!

pospi is a full-stack engineer & protocol architect with varied experience across traditional web, database, blockchain, Holochain and Scuttlebutt tech stacks. They think this probably gives them enough of a foundation to help in fleshing out such a map to the level of detail necessary to explore protocol compatibility and API interoperability between most of the projects attending DWeb Camp.

But, one person can't do this alone! If you'd like to help co-host these conversations please get in touch :)