I posted this the other day and by and large people responded with predictable lack of imagination. I will add additional explicit requirements for the prototype stage.
I want to create a prototype of a different type of social media - call it "pro social" media. It would be owned by the users and those that run it - the people who create it at best would get a salary and there would be no stockholders to enrich. The innovation would be on legal structure and its social goal - we would make decisions that others would not because it would not maximize profits - but would do it because we would feel it would make our users and society better off. For instance - all social media wants to maximize the time you spend on it. That is anti social media.
The initial requirements for a prototype would be this:
A webpage that can take a log in, password, and keep user info. The users would be able to post, make friends, and upvote/downvote things. No images initially.
Thats it! I know thats easy because I've done some of those things before. My full time job is in data science and my contribution would be the first data mining for ads and other things. I also have an LLC that has a simple game coming out, and another one soon after. In short, I am not some idiot that has never done an IT project - my simple game is actually a 4X TBS game engine and its 220k lines of C code. That is my main side project and why I cannot take this on right now.
I would fund the prototype - and make it simple - simple as heck. Then I would get to work with a lawyer setting up the legal framework for a social media non profit that would be turned over to its users once key things are met (no point if there are only 100 users).
Its a proof of concept - NOT a plan to go "hey lets take on FB." I got a PhD in Economics and people told me I would fail before I set out to do that. Yet here I am with a PhD.
To make a planet, it starts with some dust colliding.
I am looking for people that are in.
Here are some example rules that I might implement that other for profit ones would never (because it cuts profit). A lot of these would not apply initially at all. None of this would matter without any users.
- Users are verified by license number/some other form of ID and the initial prototype would only apply to US. No minors at all.
- A timer that shows you how much of it you have used today, and as it gets higher and higher the clock goes red. I don't want you to waste your life on social media and you shouldn't want that either.
- A ban of all political speech outside of Saturday and Sunday. Monday - Friday we must work together as citizens.
- Use data mining to give people a "civil" rating. The more you use incomplete words, swear words, etc, it goes down. Ad hominem attacks can't be prevented, but I think some data mining techniques could find some consistencies amongst ad hominem attacks.
- Promotion of strikes and boycotts to promote worker solidarity.
- Long run, turn over ownership to users and mods that manage and create the content. Creator at best get a salary but thats it. No equity stake.
- No showing of death videos without expressed written consent of a relative involved. Default is no.
I was inspired by Mark Zuck's stupid vision that we should all put on VR glasses and escape reality. That would make you less happy in life if he got what he wanted.
Also, Reddit has tons of death videos of people in poor countries whom I know can't sue. I find it selective outrage that Reddit mods went nuts against Covid misinformation on the site but are apparently completely OK with some random stranger in China's family having to live with the fact that their mutilation is generating ad revenue.
Social media affects us all and by maximizing profits, they have drastically increased anti social behavior in a country I care deeply about. You can no longer have a conversation with someone. Now you are having a conversation with the physical embodiment of someone's online persona.
Its not how it should be. Id love to have a social media platform that is actively trying to get you off of social media and into actual social situations.
All of that, again, is a long run stretch goal. All I want right now is a log in, a MySQL db, a tracking thing, a website to post... and someone to help me figure out how to get that running on a website. I will pay for it. If I don't pay enough, cut scope. I can add on later.
The primary innovation will be legal structure, not technical details.