View source for Convivial Internet

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Under this heading are grouped various projects concerning convivial tools and the Internet.

==Convivial Internet Tools==
:''Main Article:'' [[Convivial Internet Tools]]
The [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org/article.php3?id_article=2 characteristics] that make a physical tool "convivial" can also be sought after in the design of software. This means designing software to make it easy for the average user to penetrate as deeply as they desire into the program, in order to understand how it works, and to modify or configure it without disastrous consequences. Such a design implies use of convivial principles such as reparability, simplicity, robustness, open access and modularity. The "convivial software program" is the opposite of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box black box]. Thus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software open source software] is by nature far more convivial than closed source programs.

Internet software in general, including open source software for use on the Internet, remains far from the ideals of conviviality. However, rather than actually trying to modify software design, which would be beyond my personal capabilities, I have instead begun working on an [http://iuserguide.com/index.php?title=Main_Page Internet User Guide] website. This site is "under construction," meaning it is practically empty, but it aims to become a general [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_help help site] (see the next section) for basic Internet use, as a first step towards making Internet software easier to use.

==Convivial Help Sites==
:''Main Article:'' [[Convivial Help Sites]]
The word "tool" in its broadest sense includes objects designed to help us learn, such as books or websites designed to help the user. There exist a great many sites that provide all sorts of help in virtually any field of activity, such [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_help online help], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review_site review sites] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_sites rating sites], question-and-answer sites, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_forum online forums] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wikis]. However, many help websites are far from being "convivial tools" since their [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability usability] is generally low. Anyone who has searched for answers in online [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_forum forum]s knows that this experience can resemble searching for a needle in a haystack. Another problem with most help websites is that the information presented is often untrustworthy.

A Convivial Help Site thus needs strong [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editing editing], in order to limit the bias and to provide the users with answers that are verified to be correct. The current fashion for content that is collaborative and crowd-sourced makes us forget the added value that editorial control brings to content. Such editorial control would enhance both the help website's contents and its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability usability], thereby making it more of a convivial tool.

==Cooperative Social Network==
:''Main Article:'' [[Cooperative Social Network]]
Most of my websites are hosted on [http://www.ouvaton.coop Ouvaton], which is a French web-hosting cooperative. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative Cooperatives] are a viable economic alternative to less democratic forms of enterprise. While the Internet abounds in examples of cooperative endeavors, from wikis to open source software, economic cooperatives are rarely found in the field of high-tech - but how often have they actually been tried?

A [[Cooperative Social Network]], similar to social networks such as Facebook or Friendfeed but structured as a coop, could be developed on two levels:
*A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative worker cooperative] for the team that develops and runs the website
*A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers%27_cooperative consumer's cooperative] for the users (which could be limited to the paying premium memberships)

This social network could be based on the same business model as existing social networks: free accounts for the majority of users, paying accounts for premium users, and operating revenues from advertising and data mining.

==Convivial Internet Laboratory==
:''Main Article:'' [[Convivial Internet Laboratory]]

To be written.

==Permahosting==
:''Main Article:'' [[Permahosting]]

To be written.

==The Alterweb==
:''Main Article:'' [[The Alterweb]]
To be written - in the meantime see [http://www.cyberpotato.net/?p=158 this post]

==See also==
*[[Convivial Tools]]
*[[Michael's Projects]]

[[Category:Projects]]